Jesus' "Baptism with the Holy Spirit" aims to realize a world where humans are one with God through spiritual rebirth, but Bodhidharma introduced to China the "mind seal" that points to the human heart and immediately awakens the Buddha nature without using means such as letters or scriptures (Directly point to one's mind, let him see into his true nature and attain Buddhahood). This time, let's take a look at Jesus' "baptism of the Holy Spirit" and Bodhidharma's "mind seal."

Bodhidharma, who is considered the founder of Zen Buddhism, left Kanchi-puram (香至国) of South India to travel to China during the era of King YiJian (异见王the nephew of Bodhidharma) and arrived in Guangzhou (広州), China in 527 AD, met Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty(梁武帝) on the 1st of October of the year. Bodhidharma was 150 years old and Emperor Wu was 64 years at that time.(Jingde Records of the Transmission of the Lamp景德传灯录)

When Emperor Wu asked, "I have built many temples and propagated Buddhism, but what merit do I gain from it?" Bodhidharma replied coldly, "No merit."

So, Emperor Wu asked, “What is the first principle of the Sacred Teaching(聖諦第一義)?”Bodhidharma replied curtly, "It is empty and without a trace of holiness(廓然無聖)," and quickly crossed the Yangtze River and set off north.

After that, Bodhidharma secluded himself in a cave attached to the Shaolin Temple on Mount Song in Henan Province (Dengfeng, Zhengzhou City), where he faced a wall for nine years, transmitted the Mind Seal to Huike (慧可), DaoYu (道育), ZongChi (总持nun), DaoFu (道副) and other disciples and passed away at his about 160 years old. He is said to have been caught up in a coup d'etat of Northern Wei (the mass executions at Heyin 河阴的大屠杀) and also said to have been poisoned.

In any case, it is almost impossible to believe that a man, who was 150 years old, not only crossed seas all the way from South India and arrived in Guangzhou of Southern China but also traveled further more than 1,200 km to Mount Song in the outskirts of Luoyang located in the central plains of China.

Because recently, Buddhist scriptures which have a lot in common with "The Two Entrances and Four Practices《二入四行论》," a text traditionally attributed to Bodhidharma, were discovered from the ruins of Dunhuang (敦煌), the theory argued that Bodhidharma came to China through land route rather than sea route is considered to be more likely.

Perhaps Zen Buddhism was brought into China through both land and sea routes during the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties period by multiple evangelists. Then Northern Gradualism Sect which emphasized "practice" advocating the doctrine of "Zen and scriptures are one" and Southern Subitism Sect which advocated "freedom of scriptures" and "no establishment of words and letters" flourished in the central plains of China under the rule of Northern Dynasties and Southern China ruled by Southern Dynasties respectively. And later, Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty, who is known as the most enthusiastic royal patronage of Buddhism among the southern dynasties, and Bodhidharma's confrontation seems to have been arranged as a spectacle to adorn the first page of Zen Buddhism history in China.

However, if Buddhism has no merit and is empty and unholy, the question arises as to why Bodhidharma traveled thousands of kilometers across the ocean to China.

For this reason, in Zen collections of sayings, the koan "The Patriarch's Intention to Come to the West(祖師西来意)", which asks what Bodhidharma's purpose in coming to China, along with the koan "Clear and void, no holiness(廓然無聖)", from the first section of "The Blue Cliff Record(碧巌録)", are the most frequently taken up topics of discussion between teachers and scholars.

A monk asked Zen Master LinJi YiXuan, the founder of the Rinzai sect, "How is it that the grand master (Bodhidharma) came from India to China?"

Master answered, "If he had some intent, he cannot save himself."

The monk said, "If he had no intent, how could the second grand master get the mind-seal?"

Master gave an unclear explanation, "What he got was nothing."

The Monk said, "If what he got was nothing, what does 'getting nothing' mean?"

Master said, "Because you run all the way round and cannot rest, Grand master said 'you foolish man why do you shake your head and seek your head?' You should turn the light inwards, illuminate the Self immediately and do not seek anything else. If you then find yourself similar to Buddha and unharmed, you have already got it."

As mentioned above, in the Records of Linji, Zen Master Yixuan provides carefully and politely detailed explanations, which is unusual for a Zen monk, but there is a reason for this.

Each Zen student is called into the teacher's private room and presents their views on the given koan; this is called Nisshitu-sanzenn(入室参禅：entering the room to practice Zen). When LinJi YiXuan first entered his teacher, Master Huangbo Xiyun (黄檗希運？-855)'s private room, he asked the same question, that is, "What was the founder (Dharma)'s intention to come from India to China?," but Master Huangbo simply struck him with his cane. YiXuan Nisshitu-sanzenn three times, but was treated similarly each time, and finally fled Huangbo Temple. After being explaned by Master DaYu(大愚) about Master Huangbo's grandmother-like excessive kindness, LinJi YiXuan boasted, "Buddhism is not really that great," and upon returning to Mount Huangbo, he repaid his teacher's kindness by beating Master Huangbo. (Jingde Chuandeng-lu景徳伝灯録)

Zhaozhou Congshen (778-897), one of the great Chan (Zen) masters during the later period of the Tang Dynasty in China, served as the abbot of a temple called Guanyin-yuan, located in a small town of Hubei. One day a monk asked Zhaozhou, "With what intention did Bodhidharma come to China?" Zhaozhou answered, "The oak tree in the front garden." The monk was not satisfied with Zhaozhou's this answer and said, "Don't use an object to teach me!" "I'm not using an object to teach you," Zhaozhou replied. Then the monk asked, "What is the meaning of the Ancestor coming from the west?" Zhaozhou said, "The oak tree in the front garden."

Jesus' "Baptism with the Holy Spirit" aims to realize a world where humans are one with God through spiritual rebirth. Immediately after Jesus went up to Jerusalem for the Passover feast and drove away the merchants of the temple (John 2:12-17), he told Nicodemus, a Pharisee member of the Sanhedrin, "Whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."(John 3:21) Then Jesus went out into the Judean countryside and started to baptize with The Holy Spirit. (John 3:22)

Wumen Huikai(1182-1260), who wrote "Wumenguan (Gateless Barrier)", an analects of Koan during the Sung Dynasty in China, commented, "If you grasp Zhaozhou's spirit, the full meaning of Zhaozhou's answer, you will understand that, there is no Shakyamuni Buddha before you and no Maitreya Buddha after you."

From the state of Enlightenment of Buddha who attained spiritual awakening under the Bodhi tree and testified, "Holy am I alone throughout heaven and earth," there is no longer difference of subject and object. Therefore trees and the domains of all living things, all attain buddhahood and the oak tree in the garden, the cockroaches on the desk, and even dry pieces of shit(乾屎橛) or the toilet paper are all the Patriarch's Intention to Come to the West.

Kodo Sawaki, who was a Japanese Soto Zen teacher being active in the early Showa (the era of the Showa Emperor in Japan) period, taught us as follows: Zen can change the transmigration, the endless circle of birth and death, into Buddhahood, It is the way for a single leap's entry to Buddhahood. Zen is not Dharma (law and order) of the three realms of existence (past, present and future existences = this world) but of Buddhahood. The Buddha Dharma is only entrusted from Buddha to Buddha, but not to ordinary man. Because it was realized by Shakyamuni all by Himself, He said that each Buddha on His own, together with all Buddhas, has been directly able to fully realize It. Therefore when Buddha and Buddha sit straight and interact each other, then it is realized. It was good for nothing by twirling koans without turning the light inwards, illuminating the Self, saying, "Do not be stupid to search around where fart comes from wearing a shit on the tip of your nose."

According to the dialectic of the Gospel of John,

How then can a man possess eternal life?

When he said, "You are Huichao," Zen Master Fayan thrusted vivid Self in Huichao in front of his eyes.