"against the Lord, and against his Christ" - Ten Commandments and the Likes

Around Tokyo

Ten Commandments and the Likes

Every Judaist and every Christian know what the Ten Commandments are:

I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other God before me. 

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing in heaven above, or things which are in the earth beneath. 

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 

Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. 

Thou shalt not kill. 

Thou shalt not commit adultery. 

Thou shalt not steal. 

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. 

Thou shalt not covet.

But there are similar Buddhist teachings that are called the Five Precepts.  As they are universal and absolute ethics, they are inevitably akin to the Ten Commandments of Moses.

"Do not kill." (Unintentional killing is considered less offensive) 

"Do not steal." (Including misappropriating someone's property) 

"Do not engage in improper sexual conduct." (e.g. sexual contact not sanctioned by secular laws, the Buddhist monastic code, or by one's parents and guardians) 

"Do not make false statements." (Also includes pretending to know something one doesn't) 

"Do not drink alcohol."

Accordingly, Buddhists had been well civilized or cultivated in Asia before Christian missionaries came to Asia following Vasco da Gama's adventure to reach India passing Cape of Good Hope of South Africa in 1498.

On the other hand, Confucius did not present universal and absolute ethics. He took individual situations to apply his theory and teach ethics to his followers. One of the most interesting teaching by Confucius is as follows:

"Only a person of ren （perfect virtue with benignity to others） can be truly rejoiced by others so as to love them and can be truly upset by others so as to hate them."

So, Confucianism does not have universal ethics to apply to all the people equally.  Evil men and the scum of the world are from the beginning precluded from teaching by Confucius.

Therefore, to build a decent society or nation, Confucianism might be sufficient.  To build a decent empire governing various tribes, Buddhist might be sufficient.  However, to save all the mankind we have to refer to Christianity as the extension of the Ten Commandments.





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Act 4:26 The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
Act 4:27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
Act 4:28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

"For he that hath, to him shall be given" - Confucianism and Christianity

Tokyo

Confucianism and Christianity

There are some common teachings in Christianity and Confucianism.

Among them, the most noteworthy ones are the teaching about Ren for Confucianism and that about love to neighbors for Christianity.

Ren (仁) is the Confucian virtue denoting the good feeling a virtuous human experiences when being altruistic. 仁 is exemplified by a normal adult's protective feelings for children. It is considered the outward expression of Confucian ideals.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren_(Confucianism)

Concerning Ren (Jin in Japanese), Confucius said to love others, not to do to others what you want others not to do for you, and to make others take higher positions if you want to take a higher position than others.

The worldly love  imposes restraints on others to satisfy the mind of one who pursues this love.  But Confucius meant that a man of virtue must have higher love above the worldly love.  Ren means such higher love.  This love emerges or is generated in one's mind targeting another, but it works to make the another person happy rather than to make oneself happy.    

In other word, Christ Jesus said that people needed to practice Ren to enter the kingdom of God or Heaven.

But why is it important for religion which concerns life and death or God and human beings?

It is because God is true love and true love can be realized through practice of Ren.

Ren means also to promote good as is meant in the teaching of Christ Jesus.   The kingdom of God and Heaven are filled with good without any bit of evil.  Again, it is because God is true love and true love is felt to be good by one being loved.

So, there are some common teachings between Christianity and Confucianism.  But Confucius did not aim at reaching the kingdom of God.  He wanted to revive a legendary moralistic kingdom of ancient China Zhou (Chou).  Specifically Confucius respected the Duke of Zhou, a member of the Zhou Dynasty who played a major role in consolidating the kingdom established by his elder brother King Wu.

Duke of Zhou 

Personal name Dan, he was the fourth son of King Wen of Zhou and Queen Tai Si. His eldest brother Bo Yikao predeceased their father (supposedly a victim of cannibalism); the second-eldest defeated the Shang Dynasty at the Battle of Muye around 1046 BC, ascending the throne as King Wu. 

Only two years after assuming power, King Wu died and left the kingdom to his young son King Cheng.[2][3]:52 The Duke of Zhou successfully attained the regency and administered the kingdom himself,[3]:54 leading to revolts not only from disgruntled Shang partisans but also from his own relatives, particularly his older brother Guan Shu.[4] Within five years, the Duke of Zhou had managed to defeat the Three Guards and other rebellions[2] and his armies pushed east, bringing more land under Zhou control. 

The Duke of Zhou was credited with elaborating the doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven, which countered Shang propaganda that as descendants of the god Shangdi they should be restored to power. According to this doctrine, Shang injustice and decadence had so grossly offended Heaven that Heaven had removed their authority and commanded the reluctant Zhou to replace the Shang and restore order. 

On a more practical level, the Duke of Zhou expanded and codified his brother's feudal system,[2] granting titles to loyal Shang clansmen and even establishing a new "holy" city at Chengzhou around 1038 BC. 

Duke of Zhou is also known as the "God of Dreams". The Analects record Confucius saying, "How I have gone downhill! It has been such a long time since I dreamt of the Duke of Zhou."[10] This was meant as a lamentation of how the governmental ideals of the Duke of Zhou had faded, but was later taken literally.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_of_Zhou#cite_note-10

Map of the geographical extension of the Zhou Dynasty 1000 BC 
http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/Chinese_dynasties/Zhou_dynasty_map.htm


So, Confucius was not a son of God.  He had to find an example of realization of of his ideal in the past history or among his ancestors.  "Once the society was good and ideal.  We have to return to the old wonderful state."  This was the core of the philosophy of Confucius.  In this context, Confucius was akin to the Buddha; they both did not recognize the sole creator of the universe, the God Almighty.

But Christ Jesus taught that people must advance to the kingdom of God and eventually to Heaven.  Those who have learnt the philosophy of Confucius can of course easily change their direction to the kingdom of God from the ancient kingdom Zhou Confucius so idealized.  




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Mar 4:25 For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.

"No prophet is accepted in his own country" - Japanese vs. Chinese Characteristics

Tokyo

Japanese vs. Chinese Characteristics

Japanese like the nature and everything in its natural form including material of buildings and dishes.

However, Chinese usually think that environment and materials without application of human work have less value.  Chinese dishes never include raw ingredients, while Japanese sushi uses raw seafood.

So, Japanese art is directed to simplicity for its completion while Chinese like to fill the space fully with artificial decoration or manipulation.

Chinese Taoism, a religion for the general public, comprises various elements originated in the philosophy of Lao-Tze, other ancient philosophies aspiring to immorality, part of Confucianism, part of Buddhism, and so on.  It is so complicated, but Chinese practice Taoism as their spiritual support and a religious means to link their souls with those of ancestors.  Especially, one of applications of Taoism Feng shui is sometimes practiced as a philosophical system to harmonize their human existence with the surrounding environment. (The term feng shui literally translates as "wind-water" in English.)  It seems that Taoism has become complicated and versatile enough to be relied on reliably by Chinese people.

The Japanese shinto religion is featured by its elegant simplicity.  By precluding misplaced materials and distracting elements in addition to unnecessary artificial components as much as possible, Japanese people like to pray to their ancestors in serene silence surrounded by pleasant environmental nature.

This difference in their attitudes toward the spiritual domain has however a grave influence on behaviors of Japanese and Chinese in the domain of politics.

As easily imagined, Chinese are good at conspiracy but Japanese are not.  Diplomatic art and intrigue have been more effectively used by Chinese than Japanese.  It looks as if when Chinese politicians adopted 10 tricks, Japanese politicians used only one though aiming at using the most effective one.

The Chinese Government now claims that it is a developing country with a huge number of poor people while requesting the US to treat China as its partner for G2 to rule the world.  China occupies unlawfully Tibet and the Uighur region, oppressing ethnic people there, while blaming Japan for its colonialism policy backed by military force before WWII.  China accuses Japan of its militarism during WWII while the Chinese Government has been making full efforts to become a military superpower in these decades.

It is as if China was using every means to exert its strategy based on Machiavellianism to gain the hegemony and exploit resources of other countries.

In response to such audacious behaviors of China, Japan might take a decisive stance it thinks to be the most effective and the simplest.

In WWII, it was military expedition into the Chinese continent to defeat the then Chinese Government and Chinese military power.  In the Japanese-Chinese War in WWII, the Empire of Japan solely to address the dangerous relationship with China through a military campaign against China.  But, Chinese leaders at the time worked on the US and the Soviet Union to get support in the war against Japan.  China achieved successful results more than Imperial Japanese politicians thought.  Before the Pearl Harbor Attack in 1941, the US had already become a defacto ally to China.  And in the summer of 1945, the Soviet Union suddenly aboｌished the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact to attack Japanese troops in Manchuria, leading to the surrender of the Empire of Japan in WWII.

So finally, Japanese are essentially not good at war against a foreign nation.  Japanese are not good at international intrigue and espionage.   But Chinese seem to love to test every trick in international relationships.

You had better trust Japan but not China unless their religious belief and practices change.



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Luk 4:24 And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.

"preaching the gospel of the kingdom" - Root of Chinese Corruption

Tokyo

Root of Chinese Corruption

According to a Chinese myth, once there was a great emperor.  To emphasize excellence of his governance, it introduced an old farmer in the kingdom.  The old man said, "I wake up every morning and work in the field by myself.  I am living in comfort with nothing lacked,  So, for me, a man called the emperor is nothing."

This episode tells what Chinese essentially respected.  The great Chinese emperor was also said to live in a very humble palace without any princely buildings and luxury gardens.  Ancient Chinese hated extravagance.  A natural and simple life style was ideal for them, including emperors.

But, as time went by, wealth took a central part of their value system.  Even Confucius could not stop this moral corruption.  While people and kings were pursuing wealth, Confucius (551 - 479 B.C.) tried to establish moralism in the ancient Chinese world where many kingdoms were competing for hegemony after the fall of an ancient unified kingdom called Chou where, Confucius thought, morality and decorums had been abundant in its society and politics.

There is one interesting legend about Confucius.  Once asked who the greatest king was at the time, Confucius named a certain king.  But people who asked the question was puzzled, since the king was not an upright person.  He had many doubtful relatives and kept intimate relationships with dubious women.  So, they asked Confucius why he named the king.  Confucius answered that as they asked who the greatest king was but not the most righteous king was he named the most able king in his governance.  The king hired many talented subjects and  vassals to appoint them to important positions in his court.

Even today, especially in business, people like to have an able and efficient leader regardless of his private life and a moral level of his personality.  In politics, voters tend to vote in favor of a candidate who is smart in his handling of political matters than others of good will without excellent administrative skills.

But as we see in the Chinese history, a state governed by the most able king at the time who was supported by the most efficient pundits and generals at the era conquered whole China after the Period of Warring States (BC 453-BC 221), while the king was not a righteous man at all.  The first Qin Emperor built a splendid and gorgeous palace, collecting riches and treasure from all over China.  Since then, every subsequent Chinese dynasty never had an emperor who was as humble as that ancient legendary emperor.

Maybe even Confucius made a mistake in naming a certain king as the greatest one, once.  But it also means that there has been some fatal defect in the Chinese history, since Chinese dynasties built after the era of Confucius never realized political idealism Confucius had pursued in his life-long moral campaign.  

So, the Chinese Communist Party that started as a humble political and military group based on Marxism now has become a party of members who all pursue riches and treasure so boldly.  Only their memory about the war against the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945 might remind them of their humble state of minds they had originally.





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Mat 4:23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

"nothing hid, which shall not be manifested" - Chosen People

Tokyo

Chosen People

Once, or some 50 years ago, a Japanese woman married an American Judaist in New York.

Then she met family members of her husband.  The Japanese woman was astonished to hear their saying that they were chosen people; they were excellent, accordingly.

However Judaists have not been the only contributors to crucial development of technology of the human world, while technology is direct tools to produce wealth based on science.

The Four Great Inventions are inventions from ancient China that are celebrated in Chinese culture for their historical significance and as symbols of ancient China's advanced science and technology. 

The Four Great Inventions are:
Compass
Gunpowder
Papermaking
Printing 

These four discoveries had a large impact on the development of civilization throughout the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Great_Inventions

Of course, there are more familiar great inventions that don't seem, however, to have been invented by Judaists.

Greatest Inventors of all Time

Who is the Greatest inventor of all time?

It is hard to pick out a winner of the greatest inventor of all time. Also for some inventions we don't know the first person to invent it was. For example, fire, the wheel, a boat. All these are marvellous and essential inventions that could have been invented by anyone. 

Also, sometimes inventions don't come all at once but are more gradual evolutions. For example, Baron Von Drais is credited with inventing the bicycle. But, others made significant contributions to its development.

These are some of the greatest inventors. who do you think was the greatest inventor of all time?

Thomas Edison - the light bulb and many more. One of the most prolific inventors of all time 

The Wright Brothers - for making the powered aircraft flight. 

John Deer - inventing the plough 

Henry Ford - for inventing the assembly line and the first low cost automobile cars 

Benjamin Franklin - discovered electricity and invented the Franklin stove 

Charles Babbage - created first mechanical computer 

John Boyd Dunlop for inventing and producing the rubber pneumatic tyre. 

Marie Curie - discovered Radium and help make use of radiation and X Rays. 

Alexander Bell - Inventing the telephone 

Leonardo Da Vinci - one of the greatest ever minds, invented models that proved workable 3-500 years later. 

Galileo - the telescope and revolutionary theories about the nature of the world. 

Tim Berners Lee the http:// protocol for the internet. 

Archimedes - amongst other things worked out pi and developed the archimedes screw for lifting up water from mines or wells. 

James Watt - inventor of the steam engine in the industrial revolution. 

Nikola Tesla - fluorescent lighting, the Tesla coil, the induction motor, and 3-phase electricity and AC electricity. 

John Logie Baird - TV
http://blog.biographyonline.net/2009/02/greatest-inventors-of-all-time.html 

But of course, some Judaists have devised world-class inventions.

List of jewish inventions..?

Polaroid Camera -- Edward Land
Adding Machine -- Abraham Stern
Traffic Light -- Charles Adler
Scale-Model Train -- Joshua Lionel Cowan
Blue Jeans -- Levi Strauss
Valium -- Leo Sternbach
Microphone -- Emile Berliner
Teddy Bear -- Morris Michtom
Stainless Steel -- Benno Strauss
Disc Records -- Emile Berliner
Sound movies -- Isador Kitsee
Telephone -- Jacob Reis
Kodachrome -- Leopold Mannes & Leopold Godowsky
Hot dog bun -- Abraham Levis
Flexi-straws -- Joe Friedman
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=A0SO8x8IhFZTrEQAHfNXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEzaWxkM3M5BHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDNQRjb2xvA2dxMQR2dGlkA1FCQUNLMV8x?qid=20090307134121AAxsdG0 

But even Japanese have developed many great products:

Top 10 Japanese Inventions 

Japanese tech companies are better known for improving upon foreign inventions, but there have been plenty of significant technologies to come out of Japan in the last 50 years. Here are ten of the best. 

10. The Flat-Panel Display

9. The Floppy Disk

8. The Digital SLR Camera

7. The Video Cassette

6. The Camcorder

5. The Pocket Calculator

4. The Portable Music Player

3. The Quartz Wristwatch

2. The High-Speed Passenger Train

1. The Compact Disc
http://www.japaninc.net/top-10-japanese-inventions/

So, God chose Hebrews, but it was not to make them create wealth in the world as the greatest contributor.

God chose Jews not for material reasons but for spiritual reasons, which Judaiats today do not seem to fully recognize.



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Mar 4:22 For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad.

"This day is this scripture fulfilled" - Unique Marxist in Pre-WWII Japan

Tokyo

Unique Marxist in Pre-WWII Japan

Before WWII, the communist party was outlawed in Japan.  But there were many leftists activists,
though mots of them were arrested by the police and socialist movements were totally suppressed in the then Japanese society having been put under rule of military eventually.

One of unique supporters of the communist movement was Hajime Kawakami.

Hajime Kawakami (1879 – 1946) was a Japanese Marxist economist of the Taishō and early Shōwa periods.

Born in Yamaguchi, he graduated from Tokyo Imperial University. After writing for Yomiuri shimbun, he earned an economics professorship at Kyoto Imperial University. Increasingly inclined toward Marxism, he participated in the March 15 incident of 1928, and was expelled from the university as a subversive. The following year, he joined the formation of a political party Shinrōtō. Kawakami went on to publish a Marxist-oriented economics journal, Studies of Social Problems. After joining the then-outlawed Communist Party of Japan, he was arrested in 1933 and sent to prison. Following his release in 1937, he translated Das Kapital from German into Japanese. Kawakami spent the remainder of his life writing essays, novels, poetry, and the autobiography Jijoden. Jijoden was written secretly between 1943 and 1945 and serialized in 1946. It became a best-seller and was "extravagantly praised as being unprecedented in Japanese letters." (Embracing Defeat, John W. Dower, p 191)

Kawakami was notable for his writing about poverty based on his observation of social conditions of the UK and other industrialized counties.

A sojourn in Europe from 1913 to 1915 on a Ministry of Education scholarship only strengthened Kawakami's attachment to Japanese customs. But this period also sowed the seeds for his conversion to Marxism just a few years later. Seeing first-hand the widespread poverty in advanced capitalist nations exposed the fundamental contradictions of capitalism. Whereas many had believed that poverty in Japan was an outcome of underdevelopment, Kawakami could see that the development of capitalism can actually aggravate the poverty of workers.

In 1917, Kawakami began a series of articles in the Osaka Asahi newspaper that explored the question of poverty. The articles created a sensation at the time, due in part to Kawakami's accomplished writing style, and were later published in a book entitled Tale of Poverty (Bimbō monogatari). In addressing the question of poverty, however, his view remained a moralistic one. He suggested that poverty stems from "economic individualism" and that this could be overcome through the rich abstaining from the consumption of luxury goods, along with the government playing a more interventionist role through nationalization of industry and wealth redistribution.

Kawakami's Tale of Poverty was criticized by intellectuals who were coming under the influence of Marx, particularly his own former pupil, the economist Tamizō Kushida (1885-1934). For Kushida, the source of poverty should be located in the exploitation of workers rather than the consumption of luxury items by the bourgeoisie. Instead of appealing to the morality of the ruling class, as Kawakami suggested, Kushida emphasized the need to raise workers' class consciousness.
http://www.marxists.org/subject/japan/kawakami/biography.htm

Kawakami was highly impressed by Christianity as much as by Marxism.  When he was a student of the Imperial University of Tokyo, he happened to attend a meeting of those who supported victims of a large-scale environmental pollution caused by a mining company.  Then young Kawakami, so moved by a plight of the victims, donated not only money in his pocket but also his jacket and other belongings at the site of the meeting.  When he returned to his rooming house, he further sent almost all his clothes by mail service to the anti-pollution group.  Though he did not give his name, anti-pollution campaign leaders later found the young man who too generously donated so much was a student of credit but not a mad man.

He also experienced a drastic spiritual experience that opened his religious eyes.  One night when he was writing a paper about economics with his friend, he suddenly felt a shock in his brain.  Then he felt a spirit of the universe flowed into his brain while all the creatures were sinking below.  He understood what complete happiness was.  Though this spiritual experience did not change his career and behaviors, he thought that this incident taught him the essence of the universe.

After this experience, however, Kawakami was employed by The Yomiuri Shimbun Newspaper, and subsequently he became a lector and a professor of the Imperial Kyoto University in 1915.  But he resigned the post in the University in 1928 to avoid friction with the authorities, since his study was focused on Marxism.  

Kawakami was so compassionate with poor people that he supported leftist and socialist movements by donating money to activists.  As he became popular, even some swindlers came to his home to receive donation.  But finally, top leaders of the outlawed Japanese Communist Party came to him, receiving money and talking about matters of concern or just killing time.  But among them, there was a spy of the police.  This spy trapped communists into a bold bank robbery to take money for funds of their underground activities.  Eventually, most of active Japanese Communist Party members, total hundreds or more, were arrested.  As this spy also sometimes visited Kawakami's house, Kawakami was subsequently arrested in Tokyo in 1933.  He was judged and put into a prison.

This incident was so tragic for Kawakami.  The Empire of Japan was at the time gradually put under control of militarists.  The Imperial Government regarded the Soviet Union as one of the most dangerous enemies.  So, there was no way for an economist, such as Kawakami, who supported Marxism, to live and act freely in the then Japanese society.  To avoid a heavy sentence, Kawakami promised prosecutors and judges that he would never be involved in leftist movements but would continue his study on economics privately.  He could be finally released from a prison four years later in 1937 when the Imperial military got into all-out combat against China.

In 1945, the Empire of Japan fell with its militarism as it lost the war against the U.S.  Freedom of speech came to prevail in Japan as the Japanese people accepted the American-style democracy.  But Hajime Kawakami died in 1946.

It is unknown whether he should have become a leader of leftist movements or Christian movements if he had lived longer after WWII.




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Luk 4:20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
Luk 4:21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

"the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power" - Observation of Radiation

Around Ueno, Tokyo

Observation of Radiation

Japanese photographer Masamichi Kagaya succeeded in taking pictures of radiation contaminated objects to indicate how they are contaminated.

http://moribin.blog114.fc2.com/blog-date-20140315.html

Mr. Kagaya developed this technique with a help from Mr. Satoshi Mori, an emeritus professor of the University of Tokyo.  An object under radio-active contamination was put on a special plate coated with material photosensitive to doses.  Part where radioactive materials are adhered looks dark.

A gamma camera was also developed by Japanese makers and is now used for recovery work in Fukushima Daiichi.  This camera can show in real time locations contaminated and their intensity of contamination.

http://www.hitachi-aloka.co.jp/products/data/radiation-013-gamma_camera

Inside the Fukushima Daiichi Plant (by Tokyo Electric Power Co.)
 

Inside the Fukushima Daiichi Plant (by Tokyo Electric Power Co.)
http://www.imart.co.jp/houshasen-level-jyouhou-old7.21.html

However, if you are exposed to or come near to the location colored red or yellow, you will receive a fatal dose in minutes or an hour or so.




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1Co 4:20 For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.
1Co 4:21 What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meekness?