Pabbajja (pravrajana) in Christianity キリスト教における出家 - Reflection of the Scripture Reading on the 13th Sunday Ordinary Time Year C

Following the Gospel reading of the 12^th Sunday (Luke 9:18-24), the 13^th Sunday’s Gospel reading (Luke 9:57-62) is about the serious cost of the Christian discipleship. When God, through Jesus, calls us to become disciples of Christ and to follow Jesus’ path, we must make a total commitment, without any reservation that could pull us back to our past.  God in Jesus want us our perfect dedication to His mission. In a way, the level of commitment God want from us mirrors that of commitment, which both a husband and a wife make to each other in their Sacrament of Matrimony. Luke 9:59-62 may invoke Genesis 2:24, in this regard.

As a marriage between a man and a woman is a manifestation of God’s desire (Genesis 2:18) - it is in God’s desire to have a husband and a wife make each other’s total commitment to one another,  it is, indeed, God’s desire for us to totally commit ourselves to His will and mission. Our full commitment to God reflects God’s commandment to love God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength and with all our mind (Deuteronomy 6:5; Luke 10:27).  

The 13^th Sunday’s Gospel reading describes how Jesus wants us to incorporate Luke 10:27 into our discipleship. It is also his invitation for us to the perfect freedom and peace. The freedom and peace is like Nirvana in Buddhism concept, the psychospritual state completely fee from what Buddhists call klelshas (煩悩) – worldly and carnal desires, anxiety, insecurity, doubts and bewilderment. 

Psychologically, kleshas indicates insecure heart, brittle ego. The psychospiritual state of ultimate freedom and peace  offers a taste of the Kingdom of God, as it is what salvation attains. Such a psychospiritual state is also what Buddhists strive to attain, Nirvana. 

On his path toward glorification, Jesus suffered tremendously and had to overcome all of his sufferings, while Shakamuni (historical Buddha) had to overcome his sufferings in order to attain enlightenment and awakening before entering into Nirvana. In a way, the sufferings of Jesus can be understood though a possibility of him having kleshas (i.e. Luke 22:39-46, Mark 15:34), even though he was a spiritually and psychologically strong man (i.e. Luke 4:1-13), while it is possible to see that Jesus entered into Nirvana with his last seven words, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit”(Luke 23:46). Now, Jesus is calling us and inviting us to attain this perfect freedom – the Kingdom of God, or Nirvana to put it in the Buddhist context, the psychospiritual state perfectly free from suffering. 

Whether we are Christian or Buddhist, as humans, we all want to be free from suffering, which is believed to be caused by kleshas .  Both Christian teaching and Buddhist teaching guide us to purify our souls from kleshas so that we may overcome suffering and attain Nirvana.  For Christians, the teaching of Jesus offers practical steps to overcome kleshas as he demonstrates these steps himself all the way to the Cross. For Buddhists, Shakamuni, upon becoming Buddha, attaining awakening to the Dharma, taught the way to dissolve kleshas, based on his own struggles toward attaining the awakening, upon overcoming series of temptations. That is why Christians seek Jesus’ teaching, Gospels, while Buddhists pursue Shakamuni’s teaching, the Dharma.

The genuinely peaceful state, which is the Kingdom of God in Christianity, and Nirvana in Buddhism, free from anxiety and suffering, is what everyone desires. But, not everyone can necessarily attain this perfect freedom and peace, because the path to reach it is challenging enough to disillusion our naïve assumption and fantasy of attaining this perfect state. The Jesus’ words in the Gospel narrative for the 13^th Sunday remind this truth. 

In a strict sense, we really need to leave our own families in order to fully commit ourselves to our serious pursuits of the perfect state – whether you are Christian or Buddhist. It is because our families are considered as a worldly factor and a potentially distracting factor in our discipleship.  This also reflects God’s desire for a husband to leave his parents in order to become one flesh with his wife (Genesis 2:24). 

That is why Catholic priests, monks and nuns leave their families and totally commit themselves to the service for Christ practicing celibacy and living in their religious communities or parish rectories, rather than living with their families. They take the three-fold vow of poverty, chastity and obesity, for this reason. Likewise, Buddhist monks leave their families in order to enter into their rigorous formation processes, remaining celibate, so that they can fully dedicate themselves to the service of the Dharma, the truth in Buddha’s teaching. 

Like Luke 9:23-24, Luke 9:57-62 is another difficult yet powerful paradoxical teaching of Jesus. On the surface, it appears to go against the teaching of filial piety – if Luke 9:59-62 were interpreted literally. But, Jesus sure did not mean to go against God’s commandment, “Honor your father and your mother”(Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16) when he did not allow a man, who is interested in following him, to wait until he can bury his father and when he did not allow another man to bid farewell to his family (Luke 9:59-62).

Just as Jesus’command to leave every personal and family matter completely and immediately to follow him (Luke 9:59-62) can be viewed as antagonistic to the God’s commandment to honor(care for)  our fathers and mothers (Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16), the concept of  pabbajja was at first criticized in China because it was believe to counter the Confucius’ moral teaching of filial piety (孝).

Growing up in the Buddhist cultural context of Japan, what comes to my mind in thinking of Luke 9:59-62 is pabbajja (pravrajana) in Buddhism. Pabbajja,which is an act of denunciation of the worldly (lay)  life to enter into a sacred life, literally means “going forth”.  Our attachment to a worldly life, lay life, which includes our families, can compromise our commitment to the mission. 

In Jesus’ words, what holds us back from “going forth” is the plow to keep one’s hand on in Luke 9:62. To follow Jesus on his mission, we do not need the “plow” which represents our worries to survive in this worldly life. Likewise, in Buddhist pabbajja, monk’s life is totally dependent upon the alms from upasaka (upasika), those who practice Buddhism without leaving their homes and families.

Pabbajja is required, in a strict sense of Buddhism, to become a bodhissatva (菩薩), which literally means one who strives for enlightenment. Through pabbajja, we can become authentic seekers of enlightenment, as bodhissatva. Being  bodhissatva through pabbajja is the way of attaining Nirvana by becoming Buddha and gaining prajna (wisdom) of Dharma. To put this into the Christian context, becoming Buddha corresponds to attaining a sainthood or Sainthood, while becoming bodhissatva through pabbajja parallels becoming a fully committed disciple of Christ by following Jesus’ command of denouncing all worldly attachments, as described in Luke 9:59-62.

Speaking of pabbajja, both Jesus and Shakamuni left their respective families. In Shakamuni’s case, he left and completely abandoned his comfortable life in the royal palace and his status of prince. In Jesus’ case, he left his mother, Mary, who was a widow then, when he began his mission for the God the Father, at around age 30, while Shakamuni denounced all his worldly prestige as the prince of his father’s loyal palace, as well as his wife and child at age 29. 

If you have to worry about your own family while following Christ, then, it is like having an  extra-marital affair. Just as a husband who has an affair cannot fully commit to his wife as he is supposed to, we cannot make our total commitment to Christ if we did not leave our families immediately upon being called. 

The importance of our total commitment is already found in the  Book of Genesis – when God called Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac.  Of course, God really did not want Abraham to kill Isaac, but He asked him to sacrifice Isaac to test the level of his commitment to Him. God assessed if Abraham would let his concern for Isaac get in the way of his commitment to Him. By faithfully following God’s order to sacrifice Isaac, God noticed that Abraham’s level of commitment and judged worthy of His covenant with him.

If we interpret Luke 9:57-62 as antagonistic to filial piety, if we interpret Luke 9;23-24 as trivialization of life, then, this logic would view Genesis 22:1-18 that God solicited Abraham to murder Isaac.

Jesus wanted to make sure that those who are interested in his mission will not follow him out of impulse and whim but they rather know another set of cost of discipleship – in addition to self-denial and embracing a possibility of martyrdom.  This is why Jesus had to say things like,” Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head”(Luke 9:58), “Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God”(Luke 9:60), and “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God”(Luke 9:62). 

When Jesus said ,” Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head”(Luke 9:58), to a man who wanted to follow him, he meant to teach that there is no security or stability in life on the discipleship. A life of a disciple means living a life on the edge and on the move, never to have a settled-in life. But, in a worldly life, we all desire to have a secured life – especially financial security (aren’t we all crazed about our retirement savings, 401K, pension, Social Security benefit, etc?) – something to rest our head on, something to rest our anxious heart on. But, to have a life on the discipleship, a life of pabbajja, we are to find a sense of security in the kind of insecure life. This is a paradoxical aspect of this Jesus’ teaching. To find a sense of security and peace in a life on the edge, we must find ourselves in God for Christians and in Dharma prajna for Buddhists. 

By saying “Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God”(Luke 9:60) to another man who wanted to follow him, Jesus wanted him to understand the urgency in the discipleship. It means that we cannot wait until our parents die or that we cannot wait until we become free from family obligation, in order to become Jesus’ disciple. We must follow Jesus immediately upon receiving a call – if we desire a secure life in God, the perfect Nirvana-like freedom and peace. 

When Elijah called Elisha to be his attendant companion to carry on God’s mission, Elisha was allowed to bid farewell to his parents and cleared his earthly belonging by slaughtering all his lives stocks and treating his people with them to make a closure on his worldly life (1 Kings 19:19-21). However, Jesus did not allow even such a time to anyone who wants to follow him and whom he asked to follow him. This also teaches that we must be ready, at any moment in life, to follow him, dropping every worldly things – objects of our worldly attachment, whenever Jesus asks us to follow him, in the manner of pabbajja. That is why Jesus does not want to see our hand holding the plow when he calls us, by saying, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God”(Luke 9:62), though Elija let Elisha use the plow one last time before he left his worldly life. 

Following Luke 9:18-24 from the 12^th Sunday (last Sunday), reading Luke 9:51-62 on the 13^th Sunday makes it clearer about what Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls “costly grace”, required as the “cost of the discipleship”.  By contrasting with Buddhism tradition of pabbajja, we can also associate Jesus’ teaching on the discipleship to Buddhism, while deepening our understanding and appreciation of the Christian discipleship. 

Of course, it is not all about the “costly grace” to be disciples of Christ in the pabbajja-like way. The second reading of this Sunday, 13^th Sunday, Galatians 5:1, 13-18, describes the benefit of paying the “costly grace” in our discipleship, and the benefit is the freedom set by Christ for us. But, Paul warns us not to abuse this freedom by giving into the fleshly and worldly temptations. Of course, as we continue to grow in our discipleship, we can handle this freedom better, as we gain stronger abilities to detach ourselves from our worldly desires and carnal temptations for the sake of the  Nirvana-like ultimate and perfect freedom and peace, with joy.

Pastoral Psychologist's Take on the Book of Revelation in Commemorating Ascension of the Lord

日本語によるコメント：

今日は、復活したキリストの昇天を記念する日であり、ヨハネの黙示録についてちょっと考えてみました。　

キリストは昇天とともに、この世から肉体での姿を消してしまい、弟子たちもちょっと不安になりましたが、キリストに引き続き、天にまします父より聖霊が送られ、それにより勇気付けられ、そのご、どのような困難、迫害にも耐えられるようになりました。

昇天後のキリストは、時がくれば戻ってくる、そして、信者のための新しい住処を約束された。　その住処がいったいどういったものか、そして、そこに信者が住めるようになるまでにはいったいどのようなことが起こるのかについて書かれたのが、聖書の一番最後にあるヨハネの黙示録です。

つまり、アダムとイブが失ったエデンの楽園よりさらにすばらしい楽園がキリストの約束した新しい神の家の中の住処なのです。ところが、それまでの道のりは容易ではありません。というのは、アダムとイブ以来、人間が神にそむき、犯した罪による”垢”落としの為、７人に天使たちが悪魔との戦争をしなければならないからです。

心理の臨床家として、私は、キリストが約束した新しい楽園を心の安泰、すこやかな魂の比喩でもあるととらえます。そして、黙示録に記された新しい楽園までのさまざまなチャレンジ、戦い、は、心の安泰、魂の健やかさを取り戻す為の修行的な努力の比喩でもあると考えます。　だから、森田療法のような心理療法は結構しんどい努力（体得の為の努力）が必要なんです。

また、黙示録にある新しい楽園への道は、仏教でいう浄土への道と比較しながらかんがえるとキリスト教にあまりなじみのない日本人の方にもわかりやすいかと思います。

私の解釈では、仏教でいう悟りのない凡夫という人間は、神にそむきやすく、神の罰を受け、一度和解しても、また、もとの木阿弥で、罪を犯し続ける。だから、アダムとイブの失楽以降の人間は苦しみの終わりなきサイクルを続けている。この、終わりなき苦しみのサイクルは、仏教でいう六道（　地獄界、餓鬼界、畜生界、　修羅界、人界、天界）をぐるぐると輪廻転生でもってめぐり続けるようなものとも考えられましょう。そうした終わりなきサイクルが、創世記より黙示録までの聖書にしるされています。そうした中での、人間と神との関係、契約のドラマが聖書の物語の心理的な側面です。まあ、聖書からの教訓としての人間と神の関係とは、何度も浮気する問題のある夫婦関係のようなものにたとえることができます。　

神としても、”浮気”を繰り返す人間にもううんざりし、プッツンしようかとも思ったことかも知れませんが、神はやはり人間を愛している。だから、プッツンできない。そこで、慈悲深き神はあたかも、仏が菩薩の姿となってこの世の人間を救うように、今度は自分がイエスという人間の姿、ある意味では権現様、となってこの世の凡夫との交わりに現れ、悔い改めさせ、福音を伝える。その究極ともいえるのが、黙示録の２１章から２２章５節までに描かれたあたらしい楽園を得る意味だといえます。　キリスト教でいう改心により罪のサイクルからおさらばして自由になる、そして新しい楽園で神と共に暮らすことは、仏教でいう悟りにより輪廻転生のサイクルから自由になり、浄土で安らかになるということにもたとえられるかと思います。

Theologically, the Book of Revelation is about the second coming of Christ, Parousia,  as the risen Lord had  indicated before he ascended to the Father. 

John 14 starts with these words of the Lord:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.  In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be” (John 14:1-3).

The place that Jesus has promised to prepare for his faithful believers and followers in the Father’s house is what is to be brought along with his second coming.  It is envisioned in Revelation 21:1-22:5 as the New Jerusalem or the New Eden.  

Appearance of New Jerusalem as the New Eden (Revelation 21:1-22:5) is not exactly the same as recovering the “good old” Eden that Adam and Eve had lost for their sin, Original Sin (Genesis 3). This teaches the fact of impermanence – what is lost is lost forever.  However, what is lost may be replaced with something new that resembles what is lost but comes in a much better form.

As a pastoral psychologist, I find this lesson from the Book of Revelation serves as a helpful therapeutic metaphor to inspire my traumatized clients/patients into post-traumatic growth.  I would like to write on this in more details on another occasion. 

Biblically, ever since the eviction of Adam and Eve from Eden (paradise) in Genesis 3, the relationship between God and the humans has been going through roller-coasters.  With the first murder in humanity, committed by Cain, out of jealousy (Genesis 4:1-8), the relationship between God and the human has become worsened, as the humans have continued to sin against God. In response, God decided to cleanse all sinful corrupted beings, including the humans of wickedness, through the deluge (Genesis 6-8).  

Though there was a mending of the human relationship with God through the covenant ark of Noah, the human, again, sinned and sinned, departed from their loyal relationship with God.  This resembles repeated infidelity committed by pathologically unfaithful spouses. 

This behavioral pattern of infidelity continued in a vicious cycle for generations throughout the biblical canon.  This vicious cycle of human violation of the covenant is one consistent theme found throughout every canonical book in the Bible from Genesis on. 

In response to this vicious cycle of sin offense against God, God decided to incarnate Himself to send more powerful prophetic message to the sinful humans. This is where the New Testament begins.  This decision of God to make himself in the form of the human flesh as Jesus by impregnating Mary, the virgin, was to save the human out of His anger through metanoia, turning the human heart from sin to God.  This is out of God’s love for the humans. 

Nevertheless, the sin of the humans killed Jesus. This greave sinful act somewhat resembles the behavioral pattern of Cain’s murder of Abel.  Yet, Christ resurrected and began to bring the scattered disciples back together, as a shepherd gathers his sheep, and taught the messianic meaning of his death and resurrection before his ascension to the Father.  This is what we read during Easter season to prepare for Ascension and Pentecost. 

Through Jesus’ messianic message given to the disciples, we are hinted at Christ’s return and what will be brought with his return.  The Book of Revelation describes what will happen to the world -  to make the way for his return and what comes with his return (Revelation 5, the opening of the seven-sealed scroll;  Revelation 6-16, the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls; Revelation 17-19:4, the three-fold fall of anti-Christ symbolized with Babylon; Revelation 19:5-21, the victorious arrival of Christ and the marriage of Christ and the Church; Revelation 20, locking and sealing the devil; Revelation 21-22:5, the new paradise as New Jerusalem, New Eden; Revelation 22:6-21, closing exhortation). 

In following the flow of the narratives in the Book of Revelation, we know that it is the promised path to return home – the home that Adam and Eve had lost.  

Eden used to be our home, collectively speaking. 

The humans have been evicted and wondering for way so many years outside Eden. Spiritually, we have been “homeless” and wondering around ever since the Adam and Eve’s eviction from Eden – until the dwelling place in the Father’s house in Jesus’ promise (John 14:3) is brought with his second coming as New Eden. 

Series of disasters brought to cleanse the world through the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven bowls by the seven angels (Revelation 6-16) are to make the way for Christ to return, bringing the New Eden, where we will find our new dwelling place.  This is like a house cleaning before we receive an important visitor. A very similar image is invoked in Advent, when we prepare the way for Christ to come (his first coming), recalling Isaiah’s prophetic words:  A voice is calling, "Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God (Isaiah 40:3, cf. Mark 1:3).  

Clearing and cleansing the way for Christ to return so that we can return our long-lost home in the totally renewed home – New Eden! This is what the Book of Revelation is about. Thus, reading the Book of Revelation should bring a sense of joy, stimulating our eschatological hope in the fullness of the mystery of Christ. 

Psychologically, it is also important that we prepare our souls as the seven angels prepare the world to return our home in New Eden, in reading the Book of Revelation.  The cleansing the world by the seven angels must concur the internal purification of our soul in order to reach our home in New Eden – internally and externally, through Christ’s apocalyptic guidance in the Book of Revelation. 

The internal cleansing process, which we must embark to purify our soul in order to return home,  shall put us series of tribulations and trials as the world will go through series of seven-fold battles with devils and his collaborators.  Namely, this is our process of metanoia, which Filipino Catholic theologian, Jose DeMesa, framed with “pagbabalik-loob”.  Indeed, our path of “pagbabalik-loob” may come with many challenges – perhaps, seven-fold.

The Filipino (Tagalog) word, “Pagbabalik-loob”,  literally means returning to our true self.  So, what is our true self – our true identity? 

It is our “kapwa”(self-identity in object relation)  found in our covenant with God, rooted in imago Dei (the image of God), in which we are created (Genesis 1:27).  Therefore, in our “pagbabalik-loob” efforts, while the seven angels work hard to cleanse the world through seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven bowls, we must restore our damaged covenant, wounded object relation, with God, by repenting our sin and receiving the absolution through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  After all, this is our efforts to restore our “kapwa” with God.  

Further spiritual purification of our soul through appropriate spiritual disciplines, such as the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, is also helpful for our “pagbaballik-loob” efforts to return home in New Eden – to dwell in the Father’s house. 

Let the Book of Revelation be our powerful inspiration to break ourselves free from the vicious cycle of sinning-angering God-reconciling-sinning.  Unless this vicious cycle is completely broken, we cannot attain our “loob”, our true innermost self,  in “pakikipag-kapwa” (harmoniously shared object relation) with God.  Likewise, unless we free ourselves completely from this vicious cycle, we cannot dwell in the New Eden that will come with Christ’s return, which is in Christ’s promise as he ascends. 

In thinking of breaking the vicious cycle that we have been going through for many generations – ever since Adam and Eve’s eviction from the original Eden,  a lesson the Book of Revelation offers echoes the Gautama (Shakamuni) Buddha’s teaching on liberating ourselves from the vicious cycle of transmigration of the soul – the vicious cycle of birth-rebirth – samsara.  

We continue to suffer unless we break free from the cyclical nature of samsara – unless we attain the Buddhahood through awakening, according to Buddhist teaching. 

All these sin-God’s anger-punishment- reconciliation-sin cycles found in the canonical books in the Bible upon Original Sin of Adam and Eve is like samsara of the humans.  Therefore,  attaining “pagbabalik-loob”,  as our internal preparation for Parousia and the New Eden,  parallels the Buddhist’s spiritual efforts to attain the Buddhahood through awakening to the Dharma to be free from samsara.  This is the path toward nirvana (eternal and profound peace) through moksha (liberation).

In the Pure Land Buddhist’s view, those who have attained the Buddhahood through awakening to the Dharma will enter the Pure Land. This is very similar to the Christian eschatological and apocalyptic view we can draw from the Book of Revelation as I have described above.