SEAnews 2016-08-31 ArtNo.45856

　Paul, who had completed his initial purpose to evangelize in the province of Asia under his third missionary journey, planned to return to Jerusalem from Corinth by sea after revisiting the cities of Macedonia and Greek. However, because he perceived a plot made by the Jews against him, returned to Macedonia to discuss the countermeasure with Luke and decided to go to Jerusalem together with a big cheering squad consisting of representatives from churches around the Mediterranean region.
　When Paul, who had told the elders of Asia his tragic resolution as if he went into the jaws of death in Miletus, arrived in Caesarea together with his companions, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea and urged him not to go to Jerusalem by telling him that both the high priest and the Jerusalem Church would have to treat the situation in the same manner taken by them for the incident of Stephen's martyrdom, if the clash of the Hellenists and the Hebraists relapsed and the church would have not to take remedial action for Paul and remain on the sidelines just as they had done so when Stephen had been martyred.
　Thus, his companions and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. However, Paul did not change his decision, saying, "I am ready to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." Then they had to give up to dissuade him and said, "The Lord's will be done." (Acts 21:10-14)

○Those trying to kill Paul were in the Jerusalem Church itself

　The next day of arriving in Jerusalem, Paul and his companions went to see James, and all the elders were present. Then they said to Paul: "You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law. They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs. What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come." (Acts 21:20-22)
　Thousands of Jews appear to have joined the Jerusalem Church which had been established at the adjacent to the residence of the High Priest Caiaphas, barely one and half month after the Crucifixion. Many of them seem to have adored James the Less, who had been the legitimate lineage of the High Priest representing both the Davidic royal family as well as a priestly Aaronic Lineage, performed all the practices enjoined by that rule of life with rigorous exactness and had won the high honor of the Righteous among the clergy, and joined the church. But because they had been informed that Paul taught all the Jews who lived among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children, they were incensed and might harm Paul. So the elders asked Paul, "What shall we do?"
　From this, we can see that not only the members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen, but also the Hebraists of the Jerusalem Church were trying to harm Paul. The members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen and the Hebraists of the Jerusalem Church seem to have had a close relationship and the majority of those who were trying to harm Paul appear to have been in the Jerusalem Church itself.

○Let Paul to serve as a witness of "The Nazarite Vow"

　Then the elders told Paul, "So do what we tell you. There are four men with us who have made a vow. Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everybody will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law." (Acts 21:23-24)
　To put it in a nutshell, they asked Paul to serve as a witness of "The Nazarite Vow" and to pay the cost of the ceremony on behalf of the petitioners. According to the manners of "The Nazarite Vow" defined in the Section 1-21 of Chapter 6 of "The Book of Numbers," the fourth book of the Old Testament, when the period of petitioners' dedication is over, they are to be brought to the entrance to the tent of meeting (the Temple in Jerusalem), to dedicate a year-old male lamb, a year-old ewe lamb and an adult ram together with their grain offerings and drink offerings, and a basket of bread made with the finest flour and without yeast—thick loaves with olive oil mixed in, and thin loaves brushed with olive oil and to shave off their hairs and put them in the fire under the presidency of a priest.
　Therefore, the elders of the Jerusalem Church appear to have had pre-meetings with the priests of the temple regarding letting Paul to serve as a witness of "The Nazarite Vow" and to have had an acknowledgment of the High Priest.
　And the elders added, "As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality." (Acts 21:25)
　It means that Paul could preach gentiles in the province of Asia and anywhere else but should not tell the Jews not to circumcise their children. They thought that if the Jews did not circumcise their children, it was tantamount to abdicate their identities as Jews and it was no longer Judaism and was to become another religion.

○Valediction

　At this point, it became clear that the way chosen by the Jerusalem Church and the way chosen by Paul were completely different. Paul even after accepting their proposal and serving as the witness of "The Nazarite Vow," he continued to preach the way of Jesus which makes one right with God through faith but not by Mosaic law (Roma 3:28) not only to Gentiles but also to the Jews. He declares in "The Epistle to the Galatians"; Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. (Galatians 5:2-4) He also warns in "The Epistle to the Philippians"; Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh. (Philippians 3:2-3)
　As a result, while Paul was arrested and executed in Rome, the Jerusalem Church was gradually forgotten after the Jewish war and finally extinguished. The most of Hebraists of the Jerusalem Church, who had escaped from the city before being surrounded by the Roman army, might have returned to the synagogue which they had originally belonged to, the Galileans, such as John and leaders of the Antioch Church, such as Barnabas and Mark seem to have joined the Hellenist group led by Luke and others.

○Motion and Rest

　Jesus told his disciples during the Last Supper, "When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning (of the world)." (John 15:26-27) Jesus has said further on this subject, "If they say to you, 'Where have you come from?' say to them, 'We have come from the light, from the place where the light came into being by itself, established itself, and appeared in their image.' If they say to you, 'Is it you?' say, 'We are its children, and we are the chosen of the living Father.' If they ask you, 'What is the evidence of your Father in you?' say to them, 'It is motion and rest.'" (Thomas 50)

○When one is absorbed by all, one penetrates into all.

　According to Mr. Chung-yuan Chang (1907-1988), Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the philosophers of Hua-yen (Avatamsaka), the apostles of the Mahayana Buddhist movement which had occurred in North India around that time, thought that the harmonious interplay between particularities and also between each particularity and universality creates a luminous universe, and called this "world of luminosity," which is absolutely free from spatial and temporal limitations, "Dharmadhatu."
　After a few hundred years later, Fa-zang (法蔵643-720) explained the basic principle of "unimpeded perfect mutual solution between particularity and universality or one and many" with the illustration of the mutual reflections of ten mirrors. He put ten mirrors above and below, and around-all facing one another. In the center stood an illuminated figure of Buddha. The reflection of the image was cast into each mirror. Each mirror reflected the image of every other mirror, each multiplying each other's images endlessly. The one mirror is taken into the nine other mirrors, all nine others are at the same time taken into the one. In other words, one is in all and all is in one.
　GuiFeng ZongMi (圭峰宗密:780-841) in his "Commentary on Contemplation on Dharmadhatu (注華厳法界観門)" formulated this theory in the following manner.
　1. When one is absorbed by all, one penetrates into all. (一摂一切、一入一切)
　2. When all is absorbed by one, all penetrates into one. (一切摂一、一切入一)
　3. When one is absorbed by one, one penetrates into one. (一摂一、一入一)
　4. When all is absorbed by all, all penetrates into all. (一切摂一切、一切入一切)

○Five Relations between Particularity and Universality

　Now, we can understand that this world is generated, developed and disappearing through an infinite interplay of all forces and all units as drawn in above formula. Fa-zang (法蔵643-720) said, "As soon as one understands this, one's mind is simply and abruptly enlightened." And Jesus, too, said, "If you hold to my teaching, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:31-32) However, even though one can reach top of the pole one hundred feet long through the intellectual process, he still needs the further leap, if he wants to have the full measure of Jesus' joy (John 17:13) or to attain the state of Buddha who testified, "Holy am I alone throughout heaven and earth. Grass, trees and the domains of all living things, all attain buddhahood."
　Therefore the Zen master Dong-shan Liao-jie (洞山了价:807-869) made a step further and developed what is called Wu Wei Pian Zheng (五位偏正), or Five Relations between Particularity and Universality through simplifying the four phrases' concept of "unimpeded perfect mutual solution between particularity and universality" described by ZongMi into the first two phrases of his new concept and adding another three phrases which represent three processes to leap from metaphysical understanding into spiritual enlightenment as follows;
　　1. Zheng zhong pian (正中偏) or particularity in universality
　　2. Pian zhong zheng (偏中正) or universality in particularity
　　3. Zheng zhong lai (正中来) or enlightenment emerging from universality
　　4. Pian zhong zhi (偏中至) or enlightenment arriving from particularity
　　5. Jian zhong dao (兼中到) or enlightenment achieved between universality and particularity.

○Another theory called "the Achievements of the Five Levels"

Thus, we can roughly understand processes to leap from metaphysical understanding of the philosophy of Hua-yen, regarding that "Li (理: universality)," reality or truth which is absolutely free from spatial and temporal limitations, is ever manifested in "Shi (事: particularity)," appearance which is under spatial and temporal limitations, into spiritual enlightenment attained by Jesus or Buddha. However, this theory, too, still remains at intellectual understanding level and all Christians or all Buddhists may not always to experience the spiritual enlightenment or receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit and have the full measure of Jesus' joy (John 17:13) or attain the state of Buddha who testified, "Holy am I alone throughout heaven and earth. Grass, trees and the domains of all living things, all attain buddhahood," even though they understand this theory. Therefore, Dong-shan Liao-jie further developed Wu Wei Gong Xun 五位功勲, or The Achievements of the Five Levels, which is closely related to the Wu Wei Pian Zheng and is another application of the Four Dharmadhatu maintained by the Hua-yen School.
　　1. Xiang (向) or subjectivity
　　2. Feng (奉) or objectivity
　　3. Gong (功) or Non-action (where action arises)
　　4. Gong gong (共功) or the Interfusion between Action and Non-action
　　5. Gong gong (功功) or the Absolute Freedom from both Action and Non-action
　According to Professor Chung-yuan Chang, the first two levels are identified as universality in particularity and particularity in universality and both belong to the Hua-yen world of Shi (事).
　The third level Gong (功) is explained by Dong-shan himself as "that which is symbolized by dropping one's hoe." And he says, "One stops to work in order to sit quietly and has his leisure in the depth of white clouds." So, this apparently indicates non-action.
　The fourth level Gong gong (共功) was interpreted by Master Da-hui Zong-gao (大慧宗杲1089-1163): "Non-action identifies with action; and action identifies with non-action." It is the same as the world of interfusion between Li (理) and Shi (事).
　The fifth level Gong gong (功功) indicates perfect freedom from subjectivity and objectivity, as Master Jia-shan Shan-hui (夾山善会805-881) once said: "In myself there is no Jia-shan (subjectivity); in front of me there is no monk (objectivity)." This is the world of perfect mutual solution between Shi (事) and Shi (事) according to Da-hui Zong-gao and others.

○Blessings on the lion that the human will eat and cursed is the human that the lion will eat

　When Fa-zang expounded the philosophy of Hua-yen to the Royal Court, he used the golden lion (金獅) in the palace to illustrate the unimpeded mutual solution between Li (理) and Shi (事), or reality and appearance. The lion symbolizes Shi or appearance, which has no reality without the gold. On the other hand, gold cannot exist without the form of the lion as its appearance. The existence of both are mutually dependent upon each other. When by mutual solution gold is lion and lion is gold, the dichotomy of reality and appearance disappears.
　On the other hand, Jesus said, "Blessings on the lion that the human will eat, so that the lion becomes human. And cursed is the human that the lion will eat, and the human will become lion." (Thomas 7)
　The "lion" indicates the creator deity (the prince of this world), the "human" indicates a spiritual man who can attain the highest (aeon) or an eternal Self and "eat" means "overcome" in Gnosticism. Therefore, if a man overcomes God, God also can attain the highest, but if God rules a man, the man will remain at the level of creator deity. In other words, a man should rule God but not the other way around. Say Paul overcame the law of Moses, Jesus seems to have tried to overcome God (the creator deity of the Old Testament) and to build a human-centered religion. He also said, "Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself. (John 12:31-32) I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)"＜To be continued＞

○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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