The Tale of a Modern Pilgrim
by Notto R. Thelle
The search for treasure led him back
to what he had left behind.
Once upon a time, there lived a Jew in Krakow: Eisik, son of Jekel. He was told in a dream to search for a treasure under the bridge that led to the royal palace in Prague. Eisik left home and went all the way to Prague, but he did not dare to dig, for fear of the watchman on the bridge. But he stayed faithfully by the bridge day by day, until the captain of the guard noticed him and asked what he was looking for.
Eisik told him about the dream that had led him the long way from a distant country. The captain laughed at the naive Jew who had set out on his travels for the sake of a dream. He himself had once had a similar dream, he said: he was to search for a treasure under the oven in the house of a Jew in Krakow, called Eisik, son of Jekel.
"I can just see myself tearing down all the houses in a city where half of the Jews are called Eisik, and the other half Jekel!" said the captain, and laughed again.
Eisik bowed his farewell, returned to his home, excavated the treasure, and built a house of prayer called the School of Reb Eisik Reb Jekel.
Eisik's dream led him to a far distant country in search of a treasure. There he heard the dream of another person and discovered the treasure that lay hidden in his own living room. Perhaps most people bear a dream within themselves, and some actually leave home to find the treasure they have seen in their dreams. Hundreds of thousands of modern Westerners have searched for treasures in foreign religions. Many have set out on their travels to India, Nepal, Southeast Asia, or Japan to find a faith superior to the humdrum Christianity they knew from their childhood home. Some found treasures in the course of their journey and never returned home; some perished; others came back even poorer than when they had left. But some returned and found the treasure in their own living room.
I met Eisik in Kyoto---an American who had bidden farewell to his childhood home and all of its works and all of its ways. He had refused military service in Vietnam and had rejected violence and the consumer society. This necessarily entailed rejection of the religion that was consumed as part of the American way of life. The clich市 and cheap explanations he was offered undermined what was left of his Christian faith. He had to get away, if he was to save his soul.
His dream took him to Japan. He sensed that there were hidden treasures in Zen Buddhism, and he hoped to find the great enlightenment in meditation, a boundary-breaking experience of reality. Here he met a master who was willing to guide him. Morning and evening, he took part in zazen, meditation in a sitting posture. He sat through periods of meditation that lasted from early morning to late at night, interrupted only by small pauses and simple meals. The discipline was unyielding, and his body ached. But he was willing to sacrifice everything, if only he could find the treasure.
One day, as he sat in deep concentration in the meditation hall, he had the greatest shock of his life. Suddenly he knew with a certainty that vibrated in every fiber of his being: "I am a Christian!" The treasure for which he was looking lay hidden in the living room he had left behind. The Christianity that he had rejected became a new reality, something tremendously close to him. The treasure had been there all along, but he had had to go to a foreign country to discover it.
Eisik excavated the treasure and built a house of prayer. My friend, too, became a man of prayer, one who brought light to others. This was probably a reflection of the treasure he had found, but the journey itself had also given him light. His dreams and travels lived on in his life. The room to which he returned was not the closed world of his childhood home. His journey had left its mark on him, and he now lived in an open universe. His faith had been deepened by what he had seen. He continued to meditate, and he still listened to the wisdom of the Zen master. The more he penetrated Zen, the more clearly did he see the treasures of the Christian faith.
Like a true Christian, he discovered that "in Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Cor. 2:3).
Notto R. Thelle, D.Th., is a professor in the Faculty of Theology at the University of Oslo, Norway. Having studied 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 from 1974 to 1985. He was also a visiting scholar at the center in 1999 and 2000. This essay is a translation from the author's 1991 book (in Norwegian) whose title translates as "Who Can Stop the Wind? Travels in the Borderland between East and West."
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