Okay, not really Zen, but Tibetan Buddhism. I had met H.E. Garchen Rinpoche at his center in Dayton, Ohio a good...3 or 4 years ago? I was very involved for awhile in Tibetan Buddhism, but had kind of drifted away. I came out of a diner in Flagstaff, Arizona, during my desert roadtripping, trying to decide where to go next. I had been traveling a couple of weeks, and was starting to get concerned I would run out of money before the next travel nurse assignment came in, and was debating on whether to try to head east to visit my sister in New Jersey, or hang around the southwest and keep working on landscapes.
It's a weird thing to sit in a parking lot with no real home (my belongings are in storage) and no real plans or destination. I decided to head west and maybe check out LA, so I started along 40W, when I realized I would be going by Hwy 89S, which leads to Chino Valley, which is where Rinpoche has his main center. I had visited once before on a winter Sunday, hoping to drop in on White Tara practice, and found no one there. So in a weird move of spontanteity, I headed south and drove along the dirt roads and up the mountain to the Garchen Buddhist Institute. I knew they had cheap housing and a few days peace and quiet off the road were in order.
Turns out one of my main teachers from Ohio was there and giving a teaching that upcoming weekend. Coincidence? Karma? You decide.