Review：The baptism of the Holy Spirit
(Parable of vineyard)
The Abrahamic religions, which is
believed by 3.6 billion people, that is, 54% of the
world's population, is said to be based on the covenant
of Abraham, who is recognized as a major biblical figure
of the Old Testament by Jews, Christians, Muslims and
others, and God.
The followers of Judaism, which was born
as the religion of the unity of the twelve tribes, each
of whom is a descendant of Jacob, whose alias is Israel,
consider that their spiritual identity is derived from
Abraham as the first of the three "fathers" or biblical
Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Most Christians, as gentiles, consider
themselves as grafted into the family tree under the New
Covenant and affirm Abraham as their spiritual ancestral
origin.
Muslims see their Arabian founder
Muhammad as a direct descendant of Abraham's eldest son
Ishmael (Isaac's half-brother).
Although there are significant
differences among their doctrines of Abrahamic
religions, they all put the Old Testament account at the
heart of their faith. However, recent archaeological
discoveries revealed that many descriptions of the Old
Testament originated from the ancient Sumerian mythology
of Mesopotamia.
Babylonian flood legend
British archaeologist Austen Henry
Layard unearthed the ruins of Nimrud, which had been
built by King Ashurnasirpal II of Assyria in the 9th
century BC, and collected 20,000 and several thousand
cuneiform clay plates from the ruin of the King
Ashurbanipal's Library in 1845.
27 years later in 1872, the British
Museum's cuneiform researcher George Smith discovered a
description of the Babylonian flood legend from one of
clay plates of the King Ashurbanipal's Library. This
flood legend, which closely resembles Noah's flood in
the Old Testament, was later found to be a part of the
Epic of Gilgamesh known as the 5th King of the 1st
Dynasty of Uruk, the ancient Sumerian city-state.
Uruk dynasty, the oldest Sumerian
dynasty, was established around 3500 BC after the
disappearance of the Ubaid culture, which had flourished
around 5500 BC-3800 BC based on irrigated agriculture,
and of which name is originated from the Ubaid ruins
located 6 km west of Ur. Since then until 2000 BC,
Sumerian city states, such as Uruk, Eridu, Ur, Lagash,
Shuruppak and Nippur, flourished.
Theocratic contract society and
Amazing food production
In the center of each city had a brick
tower called Ziggurat with a temple on top of it. The
highest monk called Lugal served as its monarch who
collected a tenth of the harvest as a tax and issued a
receipt on each time. They also traded grain in the
temples, created cuneiform letters to record these
economic activities and adopted decimal and 60-decimal
systems.
Sumerians developed advanced irrigated
agriculture, raised livestock and brewed as many as 30
brands of beer. The yield of barley, their staple food,
reached 70 to 80 times seed, thanks to the stripe
seeding method and the invention of the necessary
equipment. Incidentally, the harvest in Europe was about
10 times seed in the 18th century.
In Temenos, the center of Ur, there were
the temple, the palace, government offices, textile
factories and warehouses. In the textile factory, 95
women were working in a two-part system. Its account
book contains the names of supervisors, skilled workers
and unskilled workers, and the distribution amount of
oil and fish to each of them. In addition, there was a
protection system in place for the sick, widows and
orphans. King Ur Nammu, the founder of the Third Ur
dynasty, which reached its heyday in 2100 BC to 2000 BC,
compiled "the Code of Ur - Nammu." Around this time,
cylinder seals were used, and there was a perfect
contract society and the Priesthood politics, that is,
the unity of religion and politics, was manifest.
The prototype of the Garden of
Eden
It seems that the island of Dilmun,
which looks like today's Bahrain Island in the Persian
Gulf, was the prototype of the Garden of Eden. According
to the description recorded on the clay boards with
cuneiform characters by the unidentified ethnic who
called themselves 'black head people (uŋ saŋ giga),' in
Dilmun, lions did not kill people, wolves also did not
attack the lambs and no one said herself or himself an
old woman or an old man.
Dilmun, which was refered by King Sargon
of Akkad and his descendants as the lands conquered by
them and encompassed Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the
eastern portion regions of Saudi Arabia, seems to have
been the commercial center at that time and the core of
Sumerian mythology.
The captivity of Babylon and the
establishment of the Old Testament
The Old Testament is thought to have
inherited not only the legends of 'Garden of Eden' and
'Noah's flood' but also 'the Priesthood politics' and
'the contract social system' from Sumerian culture.
However, Abraham and his father Terra, and even Moses,
who is said to be the author of the Law Books in the Old
Testament, seem impossible to have been familiar with
the details of Sumerian culture.
When the kingdom of Judah was destroyed
by Neo-Babylonia in 586 BC, the aristocratic class of
the kingdom of Judah was taken to Babylon, the capital
city of Babylonia, several times as captives. The number
of captives reached as many as 10,000, including the
prophets Daniel and Ezekiel.
When the Assyrians conquered the
Northern Kingdom of Israel, they deported the Israelis,
moved other conquered people from various countries into
Samaria and mixed them. Thus, the ten tribes of Northern
Israel virtually disappeared. In contrast, the
Neo-Babylonian Empire moved only the upper class people
of the Kingdom of Judah to Babylonia and allowed Jews to
maintain their own religious life.
For this reason, Jews who migrated to
Babylonia had the opportunity to learn many things from
the Sumerian documents stored in the King Ashurbanipal's
Library, and when they were allowed to return home by
Achaemenid Persia, these knowledges seem to have been
taken to Jerusalem. In other words, the main parts of
the Old Testament mythology and the Mosaic Law,
including the Garden of Eden and the Flood of Noah, may
have been established after the captivity of
Babylon.
"Parable of vineyard"
When the chief priests and the elders of
the people asked Jesus, who had marched into Jerusalem
as the King of Israel riding a donkey colt and leading
the masses and had expelled merchants in the temple, "By
what authority are you doing these things? And who gave
you this authority?" Jesus did not reply but asked,
"John's baptism--where did it come from? Was it from
heaven, or from men?" They answered, "We don't know."
Then Jesus said, "Neither will I tell you by what
authority I am doing these things." Jesus declined to
answer but began to speak to them in parables:
"A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall
around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a
watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers
and went away on a journey. At harvest time he sent a
servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the
fruit of the vineyard. But they seized him, beat him and
sent him away empty-handed. Then he sent another servant
to them; they struck this man on the head and treated
him shamefully. He sent still another, and that one they
killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat,
others they killed. He had one left to send, a son, whom
he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, 'They will
respect my son.' But the tenants said to one another,
'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, and the
inheritance will be ours.' So they took him and killed
him, and threw him out of the vineyard. What then will
the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill
those tenants and give the vineyard to others. Haven't
you read this scripture: 'The stone the builders
rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done
this, and it is marvelous in our eyes'?"
Then they looked for a way to arrest him
because they knew he had spoken the parable against
them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left
him and went away. (Mark 12:1-12)
Absentee landlord and peasants
When the nomads led by Abraham converted
from polytheism to indigenous monotheism on the
condition that they circumcised themselves to avoid
mixed races with local residents, a symbiotic
relationship was established in which the nomads were
enslaved to the indigenous farmers. But when Moses'
successor Joshua, who had ultimately suppressed all
Canaan, cast lots for the twelve tribes of Israel and
divided the land to them according to their divisions, a
reversal of position occurred in which the indigenous
farmers were enslaved to the nomads. The Jews, who
became the ruling class, seem to have kept nomadic life
and moved frequently and have become absentee landlords,
while the indigenous farmers seem to have continued to
farm as before, paying taxes and peasant fees to the
ruling class. It seems that such relationship between
the absentee landlord and the peasants was maintained
even in the days of Jesus. It seems that the such
relationship between the nomads and the indigenous
farmers is reflected to "Parable of vineyard" of which
parallel articles are in Gospels of Matthew (21: 33-42),
Luke (20: 9-17) and Thomas (65-66).
Gnostic meaning of "Parable of
vineyard"
According to Mr. Sasagu Arai, author of
the Japanese version of The Gospel of Thomas, the
following Gospel of Thomas' version of "Parable of
vineyard" is quite different from the synoptic gospels'
versions in their details.
<65> He
said, "A [...] person owned a vineyard and rented it to
some farmers, so they could work it and he could collect
its crop from them. He sent his slave so the farmers
would give him the vineyard's crop. They grabbed him,
beat him, and almost killed him, and the slave returned
and told his master. His master said, 'Perhaps he didn't
know them.' He sent another slave, and the farmers beat
that one as well. Then the master sent his son and said,
'Perhaps they'll show my son some respect.' Because the
farmers knew that he was the heir to the vineyard, they
grabbed him and killed him. Anyone here with two ears
had better listen!" <66> Jesus said, "Show me the
stone that the builders rejected: that is the keystone."
According to Mr. Sasagu Arai, 'a good
person (A [...] person)' means 'Propate (the highest and
ultimate entity),' 'Vineyard' is 'prepared soil,'
'collect its crop' is 'original self,' and 'Farmers'
means 'unoriginal self.' The farmers persecuted his
slaves because of 'ignorance' of 'the person who was
sent.' 'The heir' sent by the owner is 'Jesus.'
Because the farmers knew that he was the
heir to the vineyard, they killed him. It seems to
contradict 'ignorance' as a motive for persecution.
However, 'the farmers knew that he was an heir' was a
superficial thing, and essentially they did not know
it.
The meaning of 'Jesus' suffering and
death' in the Gospel of Thomas is, like the other
Gnostic Gospels, a hardship to obtain 'harvest (the
original self)' and he who was killed was not Jesus'
substitution. Still, the Gospel of Thomas does not
accept "Jesus' resurrection from the dead." All of the
Gospel of Mark, Matthew, and Luke quote the Greek
version of Psalm 21:23 as it is, saying "'The stone the
builders rejected has become the capstone," and suggest
the resurrection of Jesus who was killed. While the
Gospel of Thomas says, "Show me the stone that the
builders rejected: that is the keystone," and reconfirms
that 'the true living person' will not die even if he is
physically killed,' as the Gospel says in its verse 11.
In other words, 'Jesus is living God from the beginning'
and there is no death for Jesus. The Gospel of Philip
describes this point as follows; Those who say that the
Lord died first and (then) rose up are in error, for he
rose up first and (then) died. If one does not first
attain the resurrection, he will not die. As God lives,
he would [...]. (Philip 21)
Detachment From Words
These interpretation of the Gnostic
Gospels are in some ways consistent with Zen Buddhism,
which regards the spiritual rebirth (再活現成) as one of its
fundamental tenets. During the later part of the five
dynasties and ten kingdoms period (五代十国907-960) in
China, Zen master FengXue YanZhao (風穴延沼), who was a
chief priest of FengXueShan Temple (風穴寺) in Ruzhou
District (汝州Current Henan Province河南省), giving
instruction, said, "If one raises a speck of dust, a
nation prosper. If one does not raise a speck of dust, a
nation perish." Thus, for Jesus, who has attained
spiritual rebirth, found the original Self and testified
"Holy am I alone throughout heaven and earth. Grass,
trees and the domains of all living things, all attain
Christhood," Judea and Rome are just two specks of dust
and their rise and fall is like cutting off his
nails.
Today, Zen Buddhism in Japan is
generally divided into two groups: Rinzai Buddhism
(臨済宗), which favors the discipline of koan (公案) training
called 'Kanwa (看話: meditation of word)' and Soto
Buddhism (曹洞宗), which uses 'Mokusho (黙照: Silent
Illumination)' as the fundamental approach to
enlightenment. One day, a monk asked Zen Master FengXue,
"Speech or silence is just a half of reality, how can I
capture the whole thing?" Then Fengxue sang a passage of
great poet DuFu(杜甫) saying, "I always remember Jiangnan
(江南) in the third month, partridges calling amidst all
the flowers so fragrant." (Wumenguan CASE 24)
Wumen Huikai (無門慧開1182-1260), who wrote
"Wumenguan (無門関Gateless Barrier)", an analects of Koan
during the Southern Song Dynasty (南宋1127-1279),
commented this koan (Wumenguan Case 24) saying,
"FengXue's spirit is like lightening. It catches the
target and runs straight away. But why does he rest upon
the tip of ancient one's tongue (DuFu's poem) and not
cut it off? If you realize this deeply, a way (of
spiritual rebirth) will be found naturally. Just leave
all words behind and say one phrase." He also gave us
another advice in his following verse;
FengXue does not speak in his usual
style;
Before he says anything,
the secret, which the thousand sages
have not transmitted, is already manifested.
If you go chattering glibly,
You should be ashamed of yourself. ＜To
be continued＞
[Reference]
《The Blue Cliff Record》CASE 61:
FengXue's a speck of dust
【Pointer】
To set up the Banner of the Teaching and
establish its fundamental message is a matter for a
genuine master of the school. To judge dragons and
snakes, distinguish the initiate from the naive, one
must be an accomplished teacher. As for discussing
killing and giving life on the edge of a sword,
discerning what is appropriate for the moment with a
staff, this I leave aside for the moment; just tell me
in one phrase how you will assess the matter of
occupying the heartland singlehandedly. To test, I cite
this:
【Case】
FengXue, giving instruction, said, "If
one raises a speck of dust, the house and the nation
prosper. If one does not raise a speck of dust, they
perish." XueDou (雪竇) held up his staff and said, "Is
there anyone who lives and dies with this?"
【Verse】
The old peasant may not unfurrow his
brows, but hopes to establish a sturdy foundation for
the nation. Crafty ministers, valiant generals, where
are they now? Ten thousand miles' pure wind, only I
know.
《The Gateless Barrier》CASE 24:
Detachment From Words
【Case】
A monk asked FengXue in all earnestness,
"Both speech and silence are concerned with ri (離) and
mi (微). How can we transcend them?" FengXue said, "I
constantly think of Konan (江南) in March, where
partridges are chirping among hundreds of fragrant
blossoms."
【Note】
Ri (離) is to detach from phenomena and
keep silence, that is, the body of dharmata (the true
nature of reality法性).
Mi (微) means "subtle and incredible,"
that is, the use of dharmata.
【Commentary】
FengXue's activity of mind is like
lightening. When he gains the road, he immediately dash
to the target. But why does he rest upon the tip of
ancient one's tongue and not cut it off? If you realize
this deeply, a way (of spiritual rebirth) will be found
naturally. Just leave all words behind and say one
phrase.
【Verse】
FengXue does not speak in his usual
style;
Before he says anything, it is already
manifested.
If you go chattering glibly,
You should be ashamed of yourself.
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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