Harry Potter could never explain it. Not to his parents, not to Sirius, not to any of his friends.
When he tried, his mother would always tell him the same dry parable. "The untrained mind is that of a infant: demanding, seeking attention, clingy." She would always pause here with a smile, and Harry would always sigh loudly and roll his eyes. "But to grow up we must practice zencraft without sticking to anything-not even itself, for we can seek the Way only by not seeking the Way."
Harry guessed it made sense, but then again his father kept reminding him that sense was the muggle way of thinking about things. Witches and wizards had, centuries ago, transcended mere sense to realize the metasense, the inner peace that comes with finding the Way.
But now, Harry thought, was different. He blinked and saw that the bushy-haired girl with shiny silver braces and an armful of books was still talking.
"My parents were concerned, of course, they thought I'd be much better off going to medical school, maybe even becoming an engineer, but I finally talked them into it. They are scientists, after all, and you never get a better chance to explore a completely new side of reality, to enhance our current understanding of the world, than by going to a School of Zencraft and Wizardry. To think of our science, how much it still has to learn; how much we could improve society with magic-hey, where are you going?"
The muggleborn girl's heretical speech had driven away everyone else in the compartment except for Harry, to whom the girl now turned to face.
"What just happened?"
"Read one of those books. You broke every rule in each of them."
"I have read every single one of those books, and everything I said was completely according to the Way."
Both minds paused.
"Screw those books. No one else gets it." He caught himself for a split second, churning over the words in his mind. They didn't really make any sense-but that was good, wasn't it? "Don't you ever feel like you were destined for something bigger? That some grand fate awaits you? That you were here not to exist, but to do something? That-"
"Have you read the books?"
"Yeah, of course."
"The one who seeks true zen does not seek true zen."
And Harry Potter understood.