On Monday, Occidental College professor Dale Wright was on campus as part of the Big Picture lecture series to talk about Buddhism, Buddhist wisdom and creativity.
The most 
entertaining part of the talk, however, was the story of the Zen Master who came looking for the Wild West—and how he found it.
Wright met the Zen Master at a conference in New Mexico. The Master had traveled from Japan in large part because of his love for all things Western—especially Western movies. The first night of the conference, the Master talked Wright into walking into town in search of a “saloon.”
Wright tried to talk him out of it, explaining that things had changed, and that today’s cowboys rode pick-up trucks instead of horses. Not to mention, he doubted that there was a saloon in the small town, anyway.
The Master was not deterred, so he and Wright set out for town on foot—the Zen Master in his robe, wooden sandals and shaved head.
Wright is the David and Mary Gamble Professor of Religious Studies and Asian Studies at Occidental College. His areas of expertise are Buddhist thought, particularly Chinese and Japanese, and modern continental European philosophy. Among his publications are