Friday, October 16, 2015

"He that heareth you heareth me" - Move the Mountain!

Mt. Fuji, Japan


Move the Mountain!


Soseki Natsume (1867-1916) is the most respected author in the modern era of Japan.

One of his novels, titled Ko-jin (meaning one in a spiritual training), depicts a man with modern intelligence and a higher educational background in the Meiji era of Japan (when Japan started its modernization and Westernization).  But the protagonist suffers from his lack of emotional ability to understand his wife.  The modern Japanese intelligentsia must have looked so biased to the eyes of Soseki.

In this book, he referred to one tale of Islam:
One day Muhammad said to his followers and fellowmen, "I will move the mountain."  Then he faced a mountain far and prayed.  Everybody was watching Muhammad and the mountain.  But, nothing happened.  Finally, Muhammad said, "Well, I will walk to the mountain!"  And everybody followed him.

This tale was introduced in a scene where the suffering intellectual man was talking with his friend who wanted to know the man's state of the mind, thus referring to religion.

Religion cannot be judged with the worldly sense, and a religious man cannot be measured according to worldly criteria.  No matter how absurd a deed or an act of a saint looks, believers can find any sacred meaning in it.

When a saint says, "I will move the mountain," it is a right thing to say so.  When the mountain does not move, it is also a right thing.  And, when a saint starts to walk to the mountain, it is also a very right thing.
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However, Christ Jesus said, "If you have any small faith, you can move a mountain."  So, you have to admit that your faith is still too small to move a mountain.

Otherwise, decades later after the death on the cross of Christ Jesus, the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed by Roman troops and Judaists started to wander in the world.  Their religious center moved from the Temple to the holy books.

In Japanese, the head temple is called Hon-zan, which literally means the original or root mountain.



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Luk 10:16 He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.
Luk 10:17 And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.