Dharma World Buddhist magazine

Where Are You Staying?

by Notto R. Thelle

People in the East have a unique awareness of religion as a path. Christianity, however, is the doctrine, not the "Way" of Christ. But perhaps we have transformed Christianity into an exceptionally complicated doctrine.

One of the shortest conversations in the New Testament took place in the desolate desert tracts east of the Jordan. Two of John the Baptist's disciples were walking behind Jesus in order to find out more about his message. Turning around, Jesus asked them:

"What do you want?"
They said, "Rabbi, where are you staying?"
"Come," he replied, "and you will see."

They went with him and remained with him that day. It was about the tenth hour (Jn 1:35-39). In the East, daily exchanges like this can widen out to embrace the great existential questions; those who are attuned to what these simple phrases can mean, who know that the words used by Jesus and the disciples are full of meaning. Some of the classic encounters between Buddhist masters and the pilgrims who visit them begin with the perfectly ordinary question, "Where do you come from?" The pilgrim often replies by saying which temple he comes from, or which master he has visited. But the real question is: Where have your wanderings led you? How far have you come along the Way?

When they met Jesus and asked him where he lived, the two disciples were looking for the great truth. They followed him to his home and remained with him. This was the beginning of a long wandering, for Jesus did not "stay" anywhere: "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head" (Mt 8:20). Jesus' "home" was a path that led him from place to place. He called himself "the Way." And the first Christians were described as "those who belonged to the Way" (Acts 9:2).

People in the East have a unique awareness of religion as a path; one of the commonest words for religion is Tao, which means the Way, the law of the universe, the innermost meaning in existence. Buddhism is indeed the teaching of the Buddha, but it is just as much the "Way of the Buddha." Taoism is the religion of the Way. "Shinto" means the "Way of the Gods." But Christianity is called the doctrine of Christ, never the "Way of Christ."

Japanese often assert that Christianity is difficult. What they have in mind is the Christian doctrine and preaching, which all seems so complicated, indeed virtually incomprehensible! I have often felt compelled to ask myself whether we have turned things upside-down. Jesus talked about the narrow path and gateway. He preached a simple message about a difficult path, knowing full well that few would be willing to take it. We have transformed Christianity into an exceptionally complicated doctrine about a way that is so easy that we are tempted to rest on our laurels, thinking that we have already reached our goal.

How often have I heard Christians say that the Buddha took the path and pointed to the path, but left it up to other individuals to take this path themselves! The problem is that when we affirm that Christ himself was the path and that he took this path for us, becoming our "Way," we assume that there is no path that we ourselves need to take! In other words, we lose our awareness of what "traveling" means.

It is indeed true that Christ took the path for us, but we can pervert this truth into a huge lie, if we forget that when he spoke of the "path"--the path that led to his own suffering and death--he was calling others to follow him. When he spoke of the cross, he was not summoning others to sit down at the foot of his cross! He was challenging us to take up our own cross and follow him.

In other words, for Christians, Christ as the "Way" is a path that one takes, not a place where one "stays."

Notto R. Thelle, D.Th., is a professor in the Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo, Norway. After studying Buddhism at Otani University in Kyoto, he acted as associate director of the NCC (National Christian Council) Center for the Study of Japanese Religions in Kyoto 1974-85, where he was a visiting scholar 1999-2000. He is a widely published author. This essay was translated from one of his books, published in Norwegian.

This article was originally published in the July-September 2006 issue of Dharma World.

back to this issue's table of contents