"Come and see." — John 1:46
ehipassiko, "come and see" — an old description of the Buddha's teaching
You'll notice I end almost everything with the same two words. Come and see. It's the name I chose and it's at the close of most of what I write. It sounds good, for sure, but there's more to it.
The name does double duty. It comes from both traditions we lean on — Christian and Zen — and it means something different in each. That's not an accident or a flaw. It's close to the whole idea.
Start with the Gospels. Twice, early on, people come toward Jesus, curious but unsure. The first time, a couple of them ask where he's staying. He doesn't hand them a doctrine or a pitch. He says, "Come and see." So they go, and they stay the day. The second time, a man named Philip is so taken with Jesus that he runs to tell his friend Nathanael. Nathanael is a skeptic — "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" — Nazareth being a nowhere town, the wrong side of the tracks. Philip doesn't argue with him. He doesn't try to win. He just says, "Come and see."
Come look for yourself, and decide.
On the other side, the Buddha's teaching carries an old description: ehipassiko. It's Pali for "come and see." The point is that you weren't meant to take it on his say-so — not because it was old, not because it was written down, not because a teacher told you to.
You were meant to test it against your own life. Try it. If it makes you freer and kinder, keep it. If it doesn't, set it down.
Two different houses. Two similar ways of inviting us to see, to learn for ourselves. One invites us to meet a person, the other to start the practice.
As I'll note again and again, these are not the same road, and they don't end in the same place. Walk far enough and, if you take the traditions at their word, the paths part sharply.
But at the door, they say the same thing, and they say it for the same reason. Neither one believes you can be argued into a good life. Neither one is selling. Both of them, right at the start, don't manipulate or convince. They point, and they say: don't take my word for it — come and look.
That's exactly the spirit we're after.
This isn't about pitching, converting, selling, convincing. No proselytizing. You don't have to believe anything to walk in the door. Trying to convince anyone of anything doesn't do any good anyway: I can't hand you a good life in a book or an argument. You're responsible for where you go.
So, the name is a plain instruction — not come and agree, not come and believe, just
Come and see.