Our oldest and deepest affiliations with others may lie in our religious traditions. When we become a follower of a religion, and we can follow only one, we find ourselves in a community which shares beliefs and spiritual practices. We look at the world from the vantage of our own faith, and gaze out upon a world peopled by believers in all the religious traditions apart from ours. We are on the inside of our faith, looking out.
Just how much of another faith tradition can we really understand? Beliefs are not just propositions to be memorized and studied in a classroom. Rituals and spiritual disciplines are not just physical practices to be rehearsed like exercises at the gym. Is the border between beliefs a perpetual barrier to understanding one another? Are we forever on the outside of other religions, looking in?
Years ago I made a new acquaintance. Kerry was outdoorsy and adventurous and had traveled much of the world, especially the Far East. During his journeys to Australia and southeast Asia he had become a follower of Buddhism.
When it came to my new friend’s religion, I was definitely an outsider. I had no strong convictions on religious matters. I had been raised a Christian, but no longer practiced and barely believed in my faith of origin. Buddhism, along with the rest of the world’s major religions, was for me an object of curiosity and mild interest, but no more.
But for Kerry Buddhism was a matter of commitment. I soon learned how deeply his conviction ran in one of our conversations, when I found myself holding forth, in a friendly manner, on what I saw as the peculiarities of Buddhism. After hearing me out for a minute or so, Kerry smiled and said, “Well, you’re certainly looking at Buddhism from the outside.”
My new friend had found a polite way to let me know that, at least when it came to his religion, I didn’t know what I was talking about.
Now I had a rank amateur’s knowledge of Buddhism. My curiosity had led me to read a book or two on Zen Buddhism, but otherwise I had studiously avoided any serious learning on the subject. However, if I had been a proper student, there were plenty of resources that I could’ve turned to.
The internet barely existed at this time, so my best option would have been the religious studies program at the local university where courses on Buddhism were offered. These were classes about Buddhism, not courses on how to be a Buddhist. The goal was to describe the religion, not win converts.
The student in a class on Buddhism may learn of the Four Noble Truths and the Cycle of Rebirth. They may read some of the sutras, the collection of written discourses by the Buddha and his disciples. And they will find that traditional texts are chanted, offerings are made, and pilgrimages undertaken as part of Buddhist practice.
A student more intrigued by Christianity might take a course on the theology of the trinity, or perhaps medieval mysticism. They might study several of the epistles of the Apostle Paul, or dip into the Hebrew Bible to examine the religion of the ancient Jews out of which Christianity emerged.
This kind of knowledge can teach us much about any religion, about its beliefs, rituals, and practices. And this knowledge can give us some degree of understanding. But all this information about a particular faith still leaves us outside, gazing at something that remains alien to us.
It wasn’t until I embraced Christianity again many years later, that I understood the full meaning of my friend Kerry’s words. Looking from the outside in is no way to understand religious belief.
Stepping into the world of a particular religion, so that we are no longer on the outside looking in, radically changes our life. Looking back, it seems that we have stepped from mere existence into the heart of life itself. The religion – be it Buddhist or Christian or whatever – is no longer something abstract and alien. Instead it springs to life around us, fills our heart, and guides our thoughts so that the world and life itself are transformed.
The ecumenical spirit that has helped religions to better understand one another and to work together on common concerns has certainly brought different traditions closer together. But to actually penetrate to the heart of another faith may require a fresh commitment, a willingness to shed some of our own convictions and to embrace what have until now been alien beliefs.
