Review:The baptism of the Holy Spirit
(Grace)
Paul (BC ? - AD 65?) preached that 'The
baptism of the Holy Spirit' was God's grace or mercy for
sinners in 'The Epistle to the Ephesians' and 'The
Epistle to the Romans.' Because this concept of 'grace'
was interpreted in various ways and developed into a
theological debate, it became not only one of causes to
split Christianity into Catholic and Protestant, but
also influenced modern Western philosophies and economic
and political theories.
(After writing this
article, I read it again and realize that it is very
difficult to read through it. That's how I feel, so
getting the attention of SEAnews readers must be
difficult. However, though 'Baptism of the Holy Spirit'
is a concept related to the foundation of faith not only
for Christians but also for 3.6 billion Abrahamic
religions believers, the differences in interpretation
of it have led to religious disputes and philosophical,
political and economic theoretical controversies over
the past hundreds years. I would appreciate it if you
could read it through.)
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
《Ephesians
1:13-14》
And you also were included in Christ
when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your
salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him
with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit
guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of
those who are God's possession — to the praise of his
glory.
《Ephesians
2:8-9》
For it is by grace you have been saved, through
faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift
of God — not by works, so that no one can boast.
《Romans
3:23-26》
For everyone has sinned; we all fall
short of God's glorious standard. Yet God, with
undeserved grace, declares
that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus
when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God
presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are
made right with God when they believe that Jesus
sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice
shows that God was being fair when he held back and did
not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was
looking ahead and including them in what he would do in
this present time. God did this to demonstrate his
righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he
declares sinners to be right in his sight when they
believe in Jesus.
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
Tertullianus' "Divine Gift"
The patriarch Tertullianus (AD
150/160-220?) described the grace as 'a power' or 'a
gift' that humans can be given from heaven to overcome
man's sinfulness. Inspired by Greek philosophy, he seems
to have regarded the grace as a material with energy as
an entity.
Tertullianus was born about 150 AD to a
certain centurion in the service of the Roman governor
in Carthage. He was a converted Berber, but under the
Christian veneer, retained all the passion, all the
intransigence, all the indiscipline of the Berber. It
was Tertullianus who coined the word 'Trinity' to
describe the nature of God, and it is estimated that he
invented a total of some 982 new words altogether. (This
Holy Seed By Robin Daniel)
Tertullian's teaching that the soul is
material, that it is a body occupying the same space as
the physical body to which it belongs and with which it
is intimately united, led to the idea that there is a
quasi-physical identity of all souls with Adam, for
every soul is, as it were, a twig cut from the
parent-stem of Adam and planted out as an independent
tree. (The patristics concept of the deification of man
examined in the light of contemporary notions of the
transcendence of man)
It is said that this gift of grace is
given through baptism, and by using that gift, believers
can live without sin and eventually reach
salvation.
Since Tertullianus, the grace was
regarded as a gift distributed through sacraments. And
the role of this gift was to overcome the fallen
humanity.
Pelagius' "Inherent Blessing"
The British monk Pelagius (AD 360?-418?)
argued that mankind's reason and freewill given by the
grace of the Creator could not be destroyed by the Fall.
He thought that when human beings were newly created and
came out into the world, the potential of the grace was
already held inside of each person. Therefore, salvation
depends on how much he or she strives and how much
accomplishes to meet this 'Inherent Blessing.'
God's creation, said Pelagius, is
perfect. Man is not born wicked and deserving of
condemnation; he is born innocent and in need of
encouragement. The sin of Adam has by no means injured
his descendants: each of us starts his earthly career
with the same powers and the same capacity for good
which Adam himself enjoyed in Eden.
God has purposed to bless the world, not
to condemn it: God's will, indeed, is for each of us to
walk with him, to become perfect in love and holiness.
We can certainly do his will if we desire to do it, for
just as his commandments were given to all men, so all
men are able to obey them. "No one knows the extent of
our strength better than he who gave us that strength...
He has not willed to command anything impossible, for he
is righteous, and he will not condemn a man for what he
could not help, for he is holy."
Pelagius said, God has given man freedom
to believe or to disbelieve, to obey or disobey, and
God's judgment is a response to the personal choice a
man has made.
Augustine's "Anti-Inherent-Blessing
Theory"
Augustinus (354-430) objected to
Pelagius and argued that the grace of the God of
creation had been lost by the effects of the Fall and
the human reason had been darkened, the will had been
distorted and the state had extended to all mankind who
had been the descendants of Adam. And that men, after
all, had been a fallen being, a sinner by nature, and a
rebel deserving God's condemnation.
The medieval scholastic philosophy
influenced by both Pelagius and Augustine divided human
existence into the lower layer consisting of 'reason,'
'intelligence' and 'will' and the upper layer consisting
of 'faith,' 'hope' and 'love' given by the 'grace' based
on Plato's idea of theory and Aristotle's hylomorphism.
They argued that the human being of this world had
fallen into a state where the spiritual upper layer had
been lost due to the original sin committed by Adam.
Therefore, they said, "In order for human beings to be
saved, it is necessary to regain the upper layers lost
by the Fall. And it is the 'grace' to realize this
object." They also preached that the 'grace' was given
as a reward for the efforts and the achievements of
men.
Thomas Aquinas' "Gratia
Infusa"
In response, Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274),
who is known as an Italian Dominican friar, who tried to
integrate Aristotle's philosophy and Christian
principles, argued that the spiritual aspects of the
upper layer of human existence, such as 'faith,' 'hope'
and 'love' could not be recovered through human efforts
and preached that the grace of God had to be injected
from outside, that is, so called 'gratia infusa.'
According to him, this injection creates
a new disposition inside humans, which he called
habitus. He said when one lived according to the
habitus, more grace was added and his or her efforts and
achievements accrued in his or her life, and eternal
salvation as rewards of these achievements was finally
obtained.
Luther's "Justification by one's
faith"
Martin Luther (1483-1546), who was
devoted to Paul's Romans, claimed that salvation was
simply received only as the free gift of God's grace
through the believer's faith in Jesus Christ as redeemer
from sin.
He opposed combining 'God's grace' with
'good deeds' in the medieval theology but combined
'God's grace' with 'the faith.'
Luther preached that 'the essence of the
gospel' is not human efforts to build up good deeds and
to approach God, but the fact that God approaches human
through Christ.
The most important for Luther was the
doctrine of justification — God's act of declaring a
sinner righteous — by faith alone through God's grace.
He began to teach that salvation or redemption is a gift
of God's grace, attainable only through faith in Jesus
as the Messiah.
Descartes' "Vortex Theory"
Rene Descartes (1596-1650), who
developed a critique of Scholastic philosophy based on
Scholastic methodology, arrived at only a single first
principle: "I think, therefore I am" based on his clear
and distinct conception and then offered an ontological
proof of a benevolent God through both the ontological
argument and trademark argument.
Moreover Descartes, who also found
primitive the law of inertia and the momentum
conservation law, advocated a vortex theory that was
described as the vortex motion of particles which had
led to create the universe.
However, Blaise Pascal criticized in his
book Pensee, "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and
the God of Jacob are not the God of philosophers and
scientists."
Rousseau's "Social Contract"
When the Industrial Revolution
progressed, industrial capitalists emerged, and absolute
monarchy and feudalism were shaken in Europe,
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), a Genevan
watchmaker's son, criticized social inequality that had
bound human freedom. Rousseau insisted that humans have
both the particular wills of egoistic individuals and
the general will which serves to designate the common
interest, and proposed that people should abandon one's
particular will and fully submit to the authority of the
general will through the social contract in order to
restore the original freedom of human beings.
According to him, the "sovereign" is the
rule of law, ideally decided on by direct democracy in
an assembly. The government is composed of magistrates,
charged with implementing and enforcing the general
will. As the result, individuals can both preserve
themselves and remain free. This is because submission
to the authority of the general will of the people as a
whole guarantees individuals against being subordinated
to the wills of others, and also ensures that they obey
themselves because they are, collectively, the authors
of the law.
Rousseau, who had converted to Roman
Catholicism early in life and returned to the austere
Calvinism of his native Geneva, wrote Emile and
expounded his strong endorsement of religious toleration
which was interpreted as advocating indifferentism, a
heresy, and led to the condemnation of the book in both
Calvinist Geneva and Catholic Paris.
Adam Smith's "Laissez-faire"
Scottish Enlightenment thinker Adam
Smith (1723-1790), on the other hand, advocated
'laissez-faire economy' saying, "A human has both a
selfishness in which one inherently tries to make
personal interests and a sympathy in which one wants to
care for others, and these moral feelings become'an
impartial spectator' within each person. Thus, the
economic activity of each person in the free market is
guided by the market mechanism, that is, so called 'the
invisible hand of God' and then the best interest of
society, as a whole, are fulfilled."
Both Rousseau's 'Social Contract Theory'
and Smith's 'Laissez-faire Economy' based on 'the
invisible hand of God,' seem to have been assumed to be
embodied the kingdom being established by the second
coming Jesus that Paul had preached in 'Letter to the
Romans.'
Speaking of 'Social Contract Theory,' it
may be possible or feasible as a small community of
enthusiastic Paul supporters. 'Puritan Spirit,' that
people abandon one's particular will and fully obey to
the authority of the general will, deserves praise.
However, the representative of the community is a living
person, but not Jesus of the Second Coming that is said
to have appeared in Paul's vision. Nevertheless, such
'Puritan Spirit,' which implies that people fully
transfer their freedom and rights to the community, has
been more or less inherited as an organizational
philosophy not only by the United States but also by the
communist governments as well as Islamic states.
Kant's "Kingdom of Ends"
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), who served as
a professor of philosophy at the University of
Konigsberg, thought that "the best purpose of life was
not happiness, but the completion of a personality
worthy of happiness" and called the society where all
humans respected each other's personality as the purpose
"the Kingdom of Ends (German: Reich der Zwecke)."
Kant, who wrote three Critiques, that
is, "the Critique of Pure Reason," "the Critique of
Practical Reason" and "the Critique of Judgment" and
explained as follows; Human's recognition accepts
external things through each sensory organ (such as eye,
ear, nose and tongue) and its form (such as color,
voice, fragrance and taste) and depending on human
reason's ability of understanding captures them as
"phenomena," but "thing-in-itself" is unknown. Thus, the
phenomenon occurs after recognition, and does not exist
as thing-in-itself before recognition. This theory of
Kant is said to have brought about the Copernican
revolution in philosophy.
Kant categorized reason into
'theoretical reason' and 'practical reason' each of
which targets scientific objects and ethical objects
respectively and raised the contradictory issue that if
human beings are free, inevitability does not hold, and
if humans are controlled by inevitability, there is no
freedom of will. Then he said, "This is a pseudo-problem
that arises as a result of equating 'thing-in-itself'
and 'phenomenon.' Human's will has freedom as a
'phenomenon' and can pursue the necessity as an
'thing-in-itself.' Therefore, science in 'theoretical
reason' and ethics in 'practical reason' are compatible
within the each boundary."
Hegel's "Absolute Spirit"
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
(1770-1831), who called God's work as an absolute before
the separation of spirit and material was 'absolute
spirit,' preached, "History is the process of 'absolute
spirit,' which is invisible, being externalized as a
visible material by self-denying. The one, who has come
to realize that the essence of the world is a free and
reasonable spirit, is a 'human spirit. 'Human spirit'
appears as an 'ethnic spirit,' a 'era spirit' and as a
subjective 'individual spirit'."
Hegel, who had studied Kantian
philosophy and the history of Christianity at the
Tübinger Stif, a Protestant seminary attached to the
University of Tübingen, thought, "Human freedom cannot
be unrelated to the society or the history, it is beyond
the personality of the individual, and unless the
history reaches a certain stage, his or her freedom
cannot be realized through individual will and
desire."
Hegel was putting the finishing touches
to his book 'The Phenomenology of Spirit' in Jena, as
Napoleon engaged Prussian troops on 14 October 1806 on a
plateau outside the city. Hegel witnessed Napoleon in
the city and wrote to his friend Friedrich Immanuel
Niethammer; "I saw the Emperor – this world-soul –
riding out of the city on reconnaissance. It is indeed a
wonderful sensation to see such an individual, who,
concentrated here at a single point, astride a horse,
reaches out over the world and masters it."
Marx's "Materialistic View of
History"
Karl Marx (1818-1883), who had grown up
in a Jewish rabbi family, inherited Hegel's Dialectical
Philosophy which focussed on the historical
developmental stage of society. He tried to prove that
the economic system of Feudalism is shifted to the
economic system of Capitalism through bourgeois
revolution and eventually shifted to the economic system
of Communism through Proletarian revolution based on his
materialistic view of history, which holds that material
production activities are the essence of human
beings.
Marx's 'Proletarian Revolution' theory
seems to have been influenced by 'Armageddon,' that is,
the final war of the world written in 'The Revelation'
and the faith of Jesus' second coming. By a curious
coincidence, Marx, who was 25 at the time, expressed the
same conclusion as Paul on the fate of the Jews in the
first issue of the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher
(German-French Annals) published in Paris in 1844,
saying, "The Jews is no longer religious and racial
classification, but a pure economic class that they have
been forced into a money-lending or other similar
profession by the treatment they have suffered from
their neighbors. So they will be released only after
other classes are released." Incidentally, the magazine
was soon closed and only that one issue was
published.
The Russian Revolution occurred in 1917,
34 years after Marx's death, and the world's first
socialist state,'The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist
Republic' was born. There after, socialist regimes were
established one after another in Eastern Europe, Asia,
Latin America and Africa. Then, the world was divided
into the Eastern Bloc led by the Soviet Union and the
Western Bloc led by the US and entered the cold war era.
However, a communist state, in which all
the people would be liberated from the class system and
be protected their freedom and equality, as Marx
prophesied, did not finally come true. The transitional
socialist regime faced many contradictions and they
attempted to introduce market mechanism in part. In the
capitalist states too, their governments intervened in
the market mechanism and attempted to avoid the cyclical
economic depression. Therefore, both pure capitalist
states and pure socialist states disappeared, and only
pseudo capitalist states and pseudo socialist states
exist now.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union in
1991, the Cold War structure between eastern and western
blocs also disappeared, but various conflicts still
remain. In any case, today, as the whole world is
shifting to a managed market economy, the sources for
conflicts in the economic structure seem to have
declined significantly. The main contradiction facing
the pseudo-capitalist and pseudo-socialist states is the
delay in the superstructure reforms commensurate with
the managed market economy. For example, the one-party
dictatorship of the Communist Party is a transitional
political system under a socialist system that aims to
realize communism, and now it can no longer claim its
legitimacy after the transition to the managed market
economy.
The way to secure and stabilize the
country
During the three countries period (三国時代)
of China, Liubei Xuande (劉備玄徳:161-223), a scion of the
Han dynasty (漢朝), called at the farmstead of Zhuge Liang
Kongming (諸葛亮孔明:181-234) with a nickname of Sleeping
Dragon (臥龍) in order to recruit Kongming as his
strategist.
The Han dynasty, which could be compare
to the Roman Empire at the western end of the Silk Road
and had boasted 400 years of prosperity in China at the
eastern end, now began to decline after occurrence of
the Yellow Turban Rebellion (黄巾之乱). Liubei Xuande, who
had been humiliated to make and sell straw mat in spite
of a royal pedigree like Jesus, took a pledge of
brotherhood with Guan Yu (関羽:?-219) and Zhang Fei
(張飛:?-221), two of the greatest warriors alive in China
at that time, and uprose.
At that time, Kongming was still young
but famous as the most accomplished strategist and was
compared to Guan Zhong (管仲:725-645 BC), the chancellor
of the state of Qi (齊) which had become the first
powerful state of the Spring and Autumn period
(春秋時代:771-476 BC) and Yue Yi (楽毅:?-?), the general of
the state of Yan (燕) of the Warring States period
(戦国時代:475–221 BC). Liu Bei, who had finally won
Kongming's services as the Chief of the General Staff
and the Prime Minister after paying three personal
visits and had been presented with the latter's
Longzhong Plan (隆中対), a general long-term plan outlining
the takeover of Shu Han (蜀漢) Province and dividing China
into three parts to counter the northern Wei (魏) and the
southern Wu (呉), could successfully carve out his own
realm, which at its peak spanned present-day Sichuan
(四川), Chongqing (重慶), Guizhou (貴州), Hunan (湖南), and
parts of Hubei (湖北) and Gansu (甘粛). Then China went into
the Three Kingdoms era (三国時代), when the three countries,
Wei (魏), Wu (呉) and Shu (蜀), confronted each
other.
When Liu Bei Xuande first visited
Kongming's farmstead, he happened to meet Kongming's
friend Cui Zhouping (崔州平) on the way and asked him the
way to rule the turbulence.
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Xuande: Could you be Sleeping Dragon
(臥龍), Master?
Zhouping: I'm not Kongming (孔明), but a
friend of his, Cui Zhouping (崔州平) of Boling (博陵).
Xuande: Your name has long been known to
me. This is really a meeting arranged by fortune. I
would like to benefit from your instruction if you could
find the time.
The two men sat on some rocks in the
woods, Guan Yu (関羽) and Zhang Fei (張飛) stood to either
side.
Zhouping: For what reason, General, do
you want to see Kongming?
Xuande: There is such disorder in the
Empire. I would seek of Kongming the strategy to secure
and stabilize the government and the country.
Zhouping: It is a great will for you to
calm down this world. But you seem not to understand the
reason for this world to move from order to disorder or
the other way round.
Xuande: It might be so. Could you let me
know the reason for order and disorder in this
world?
Zhouping responded with a smile: A
mountain rustic like me is hardly fit to discuss the
affairs of empire. However, if you don't get angry, let
me say a word. Since ancient times periods, disorder and
civic order have come and gone unpredictably. This is
the law of the development of history. It is said:
adapted to heaven and enjoy ease; oppose it and toil in
vain. You cannot change the trend of the history. When
the Supreme Ancestor (高祖) of the Dynasty slew the white
serpent and embarked on the rising that destroyed the
despotic Qin (秦), that interval, which led to the
founding of the Han (漢), was a time of transition from
discord to civil order. Two hundred years of peace and
prosperity followed. Then, in the time of the Emperors
Ai (哀) and Ping (平), Wang Mang (王莽) usurped the throne
and brought the again from order to disorder. But Guang
Wu (光武) revived the dynasty and brought us out of
discord and back to civil order. Now after anothe two
hundred years, during which the population has enjoyed
peace and contentment, we find sword and shield around
us.
Xuande: That's right. It's been more
than 20 years since the turbulence started.
Zhouping: For the perspective of a
person's life, twenty years may seem long, but for a
permanent history, it is only a moment. It's just a
breeze before the typhoon.
Xuande: There is great insight in your
words. But I am the scion of the Han. It's my duty to
maintain the dynasty's rule. So I cannot leave the task
to fate. So looking for a sage, and trying to prevent
the disaster of the people, or to make it the smallest
and the shortest, I believe, is my mission.
Zhouping: How benevolent your intentions
are. However, It is said, 'Adapt to Heaven and enjoy
ease; oppose it and toil in vain.' It is also said,
'None can deduct from the reckoning, or force what is
fated.' If you want Kongming to turn the universe or to
repair the heaven and earth, it is not easy to eliminate
the war from this world. Moreover Kongming is only an
ordinary person with limited life.
Xuande, who had reverently listened to
the end of what Zhouping talked, thanked him deeply
after finishing his words, saying "I really appreciate
your brilliant teaching." (Romance of the Three
Kingdoms)
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Yixing Revolution Theory and Hegel's
"Era Spirit"
Though Shu (蜀) became powerful by
Kongmingi's 'Longzhong Plan,' all of the Three Kingdoms,
that is, Wei (魏), Wu (呉) and Shu (蜀), were eventually
destroyed, and Cui Zhouping's theory, that is, for this
world to move from order to disorder or the other way
round, came true. Although the grandson of Sima Yi
Zhongda (司馬懿仲達:179-251), Wei (魏)'s general and
strategist, established the Xijin (西晋) Dynasty and
united the whole China, its unified nation did not last
long and was replaced by the Sui (隋) and Tang (唐)
Dynasties. Since then, the rise and fall of different
dynasties has continued until today. It seems that
'Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三国志演義)' written in the
Ming (明) Dynasty (1368-1644) of China is permeated with
the theory of 'Yixing Revolution (易姓革命)' — the theory
that Era change due to the change of dynasty's surname
according to The Heaven's Will (天命) causes the rise and
fall of different dynasties. This theory is also very
similar to Hegel's so-called 'Era Spirit.'
It is written in 'Bai Hu Tongyi (白虎通義)'
composed by Ban Gu (班固) in the era of Eastern Han (東漢)
Dynasty that a king who is heavenly appointed and
changes the surname of dynasty must go up to Mount
Taishan (泰山) and perform a ritual of Feng (封) to thank
the heaven. And in Shiji (史記), the history book compiled
by Sima Qian (司馬遷) in the Western Han (西漢) Dynasty era,
it is also witten that the ancient emperors such as the
first emperor of Qin Dynasty and Emperor Wu (武帝) of Han
Dynasty performed rituals of Feng (封) to thank the
Heaven and Chan (禅) to thank the Earth at Taishan. It is
said that the ritual of FengChan (封禅) has been performed
since the myth of Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors
(三皇五帝) era.
Confucianism and Kant's moral
theory
Incidentally it is written that "What
Heaven has conferred (天命) is called the Nature (性:xing);
an accordance with this nature is called the Path (道) of
duty; the regulation of this path is called Instruction
(教)." in the book 'Zhongyong (中庸: Doctrine of the
Mean),' which is considered to be the work of
Zisi(子思:483 - 402 BC), the grandson of Confucius (孔子:
552-479BC), a philosopher in the Spring and Autumn Era
(春秋時代) of China. As it means that Heaven's Will (天命) is
inherent in each human's personality and the
Confucianism is a teaching letting us find and fulfill
this Heaven's Will in his or her personality as one's
own mission.
In addition, at the beginning of Daxue
(大学: The Great Learning), which is said to be the work
of Zeng Shen (曾参: 505 - 434 BC), a Confucius' disciple,
it is explained as follows;
"The ancients who wished to illustrate
illustrious virtue (明明徳: ming mingde) throughout the
world (天下), first ordered well their own states (国).
Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated
their families (家). Wishing to regulate their families,
they first cultivated their persons (身). Wishing to
cultivate their persons, they first rectified their
hearts (心). Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first
sought to be sincere in their thoughts (意). Wishing to
be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the
utmost their knowledge (知). Such extension of knowledge
lay in the investigation of things (物). Things being
investigated, knowledge became complete. Their knowledge
being complete, their thoughts were sincere. Their
thoughts being sincere, their hearts were then
rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their persons
were cultivated. Their persons being cultivated, their
families were regulated. Their families being regulated,
their states were rightly governed. Their states being
rightly governed, the whole world was made tranquil and
happy."
'Mingde (明徳)' is synonymous with 'Xing
(性),' which was described in 'Zhongyong' as "What Heaven
has conferred (天命) is called the Nature (性: xing)," that
is, a virtue conferred by Heaven which is already held
inside of each person when he or she is born. It means
that the ultimate goal of personality formation is
realization of world peace and this goal can be reach
through illustrating illustrious virtue at each level of
individual, home, nation and global respectively. This
ethical theory of Confucianism, that perfectly integrate
national governance with personality formation, is
reminiscent of Kant's 'Kingdom of Ends' and the
educational theory described in Rousseau's
'Emile.'
Buddha is trouble, trouble is
Buddha
Zhaozhou Congshen (趙州従諗778-897), one of
the great Chan (Zen:禅) masters during the later period
of the Tang Dynasty (唐朝) in China, served as the abbot
of a temple called Guanyin-yuan (観音院), located in a
small town of Hubei (河北省), one day said from the podium,
"I have a magic crystal ball (明珠) in my palm. When a
barbarian comes, the barbarian will appear on it and
when a Chinese comes, a Chinese will appear on it before
the visitor goes through the gate. So I can use a grass
as a body of 6 feet Golden Buddha and can use a body of
6 feet Golden Buddha as a grass. Because Buddha is
trouble, trouble is Buddha."
At that time, a monk asked him, "I don't
know whose trouble Buddha is?"
Zhaozhou replied "He troubles whole
humanity."
"How can we get rid of it?" he asked
again.
Zhaozhou said, "Why should you get rid
of it?" (Wudeng Huì yuan Third Volume:五灯会元第三巻)
Incidentally, Ikkyu Sojun
(一休宗純:1394-1481), a distinguished Zen priest who lived
in the late Muromachi (室町) period of Japan and is said
to have been the illegitimate child of Emperor Gokomatsu
(後小松天皇), composed a comic tanka poem, saying, "釈迦といふ
いたづらものが世にいでて おほくの人をまよはすかな(The Buddha is mischievous,
come to this world to lead many people astray)," "南無釈迦じゃ
娑婆じゃ地獄じゃ 苦じゃ楽じゃ どうじゃこうじゃと いうが愚かじゃ(Amen Sakyamuni Buddha!
Oh corrupt this world! Hell! Pain! Happy! It was dumb of
you to say this or that)." <To be continued>
[Reference]
《Wudeng Huì yuan (五灯会元)》Third
Volume
One day, Zhaozhou said from the podium,
"I have a magic crystal ball in my palm. When a
barbarian comes, the barbarian will appear on it. When a
Chinese comes, a Chinese will appear on it. So I can use
a grass as a body of 6 feet Golden Buddha and can use a
body of 6 feet Golden Buddha as a grass. Because Buddha
is trouble, trouble is Buddha."
At that time, a monk asked him, "I don't
know whose trouble Buddha is?"
Zhaozhou replied "He troubles
everyone."
"How can we get rid of it?" he asked
again.
Zhaozhou said, "Why should you get rid
of it?"
What is "Baptism with The Holy
Spirit"?
According to the dialectic of the Gospel
of John,
【Thesis】"A man can possess eternal life
through accepting testimony of the Son of man and being
baptized by him." (John 5:24)
【Anti-thesis】But "The one who comes from
the earth cannot accept the testimony by one from
heaven." (John 3:32)
How then can a man possess eternal
life?
【Synthesis】"If you want to be baptized
with the Holy Spirit, you can just go back to the word
which was with God in the beginning (John 1:1) and
certify that God is truthful. (John 3:33)"
When he said, "You are Huichao," Zen
Master Fayan thrusted vivid Self in Huichao in front of
his eyes.
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