When Su Dongpo(1037-1101), a famous Chinese man of letters, and politician, in Song Dynasty(960-1279), was relegated to Hangzhou in Zhejiang province as a viceroy, he visited Chan Master Biancai, who was living in the Longjing Temple.
Biancai apologised for his rudeness of not visiting the newly appointed viceroy earlier to greet him. He said, "There is a rule, 'not to go out to receive and to send visitors' in this temple. I have not changed it and just followed it. Please understand it."
One who sinks into the sea of bitterness knows mercy
Dongpo roared with laughter and said, "I visit you not to be received and to be sent by you but I would like to witness your practice and enlightenment. By the way, I heared that you diligently practice rules and laws. Which rules and laws do you practice?"
Biancai frowned and said, "What should be ruled is the self and what should be governed also the self. Is there anything else?"
Dongpo immediately said "The nature of one's heart is vivid. How do you rule and govern it? If you dare to rule and govern it with a rope which transcends space and time, you will only strangle it."
Biancai bowed his head and said,"Only a man who die once may get resurrection and transcend falsity and attain complete nirvana and freeness."
Indeed what could be happier than keeping one's heart free and vivid? However if he does not have mercy, he may fall into self-satisfaction. Only one who sinks into the sea of bitterness in this world and manage to clamber out of the water, can get enlightenment with both mercy and wisdom. Biancai may have told Dongpo this truth.
A Canaanite woman
Leaving Gennesaret, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession." Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."
The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said. He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." "Yes, Lord", she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour. (Matthew15:21-28)
Jesus has transformed Jehovah, who was a guardian of the Jews but had a lack of compassion for other individuals especialy the non-Jews, into a daemon of salvation or consolation.He might not have thought that such a strong patriotic God could be the idol of worship for non-Jews. Therefore he preached only to Jews while he was alive and instructed his disciples "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces. (Matthew7:6) Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. (Matthew10:5)"
However his preaching was not accepted by the Jews, but was quickly spread into the Roman Empire boundary and periphery by his disciples. Jesus himself may not have expected this.
Paul's conversion
We can almost understand why such things happened by reading Acts of the Apostles. Paul, who was proud to be a Roman citizen and a Pharisee throughout his entire life time, seems to hold the key to this secrecy. Although we have heard of the so called event, "Paul's conversion", he himself did not state that he had ceased to be a Pharisee and to be converted into a Christian.
Anyway with Paul joining the evangelism, christianity was spread quickly, especially among the overseas Jew societies. However he was hated by the orthodox Jewish believers because he abolished certain laws and commandments which non-Jews couldn't accept, such as circumcision and Jewish eating habits. He was executed in Rom because of their allegation.
Paul, who had been convoyed to the governor's house by Roman soldiers after the sparring match with Pharisees and Sadducees in Sanhedrin, said to the proconsul, Porcius Festus, that he wanted to appeal to Caesar as a Roman citizen. When King Agrippa, who was the seventh and last king of the family of Herod the Great, was asked by Festus how to deal with Paul, said to Festus, "This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar." Seemingly Paul by himself chose Rom as the place for him to die.
If only Jesus, a son of the Nazarene carpenter, was executed in Israel by a proconsul for one of remote region of Roman Empire, christianity may have lapsed in a few years or a few decades. However christianity, which had been only a sect of Jew, transformed World religion when Paul, who was a leader of Pharisees, was martyred in Rom after pleading before Caesar.
The ideological meltdown is pains of child-birth for the resurrection
There occured ideological meltdown in Israel under the Roman occupation just as it is happening in Japan under the occupation of America. However such great religionists, Jesus and Paul were born in such chaos. The meltdown may be pains of child-birth for the resurrection.
The religion evolves and also degenerates. Whether it evolves or degenerates, it rests with believer himself. It can say that Moses who made the rescue of the Jews from Egypt his supreme mission, John the Baptist who tought that selected people Jew also had to be baptized and repent as the first step to heaven and placed an individual faith in the center of the religion, Jesus who fulfilled John's prophecy that Messiah would crucify in order to compensate all sins of the world and Paul who transformed christianity from a sect of Jew into World religion, all are witnesses to testify this point.
Just as Buddhism had changed during the descent from India through China, Korea and other countries to Japan, it is belived that christianity has been evolving during bequeathing from Moses, John the Baptist, Jesus, Paul and all present Christians in the world.
Jesus said to the Jews, "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me." (John5:39) He may have told them, "The Scriptures testify yourself (your intrinsic nature) and tell you what you must do now(Divine Mandate from Heaven). You should read the Scriptures in this way so that you may have eternal life."(Eko-an Hensho-koji 2008/04/27)
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Not to go out to receive and to send visitors
Don't be the corpse of fames; don't be the shed of plans; don't be the servant of tasks; don't be the lord of wisdom. The self flies and flows wherever it pleases, but there is nowhere any trace of its presence. It fulfils all that it has received from Heaven, but there is no evidence that it has done anything. It is empty. A perfect man uses his mind just as a mirror. He doesn't send and receive by himself. He just responds to what is before him but does not retain it. Thus he is able to deal with all things, and injures none.(Zhuangzi Book VII: Part I, Section VII Ying Diwang)