Let Us Yoke with Jesus for Nirvana in Him

Being a Japanese Catholic, with a Buddhist family background, I strive to find ways to better explain the Gospel of Jesus to make sense also in Buddhist contexts. Here is one of my attempts for my mission to address the Gospel teaching in the Buddhist context in regard to meekness and yoke to relieve ourselves from distress in life for a Buddhist-Catholic dialectic learning.

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Living a life on earth sure comes with the multitudes of challenges. The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism begins with a humble acknowledgement of duḥkha-satya (truth of suffering) in life of this world. In response to the reality of suffering in life, Gautama Buddha taught the Eightfold Right Path based on the Four Noble Truths, to help us overcome suffering by attaining anatman (egolessness). About 500 years after Gautama Buddha’s teaching on duḥkha-satya, Jesus, who is the Christ, was sent by the Father in heaven to this world to deliver us from bonds of our sins, including suffering.

In the Abrahamic monotheistic religions, including Christianity, the humans began to suffer upon the fall of Adam and Eve, known as the Original Sin. Tempted by Satan in the serpent in Eden, Adam and Eve defied God. It was because the Satan activated their egos, by making them wanting to taste the forbidden fruit. It means that the flame of raga (passion, greed) was ignited in the human heart, in a way to put a division between God and us. As a result, they became ego-conscious. That is why they became ashamed of their nakedness. Then, they were evicted from Eden, which means paradise in Hebrew, and it was the beginning of still-unfolding human life of suffering. At the same time, it has been a life of human ego, which often gravitates our consciousness to itself, keeping our attention from God. As our attention is centered in our ego, we are more likely to sin, as the flame of raga continues to burn. In response, God has been trying to bring our attention back to Him, while Shakamuni Buddha taught how we can extinguish raga, thus, entering into the state of nirvana, becoming the anatman being.

Outside Eden, we have been lost like the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32. As he relinquished his ego and journeyed back to his father, whom he had betrayed, we, too, are to return to God the Father, with whom we had been in Eden. However, we cannot return to the Father alone. We need the help of parakletos, the advocate, who is called to be with. First, the parakletos is Christ himself, and second, he is the Holy Spirit that Christ promised to be sent by the Father (John 14:16, 26).

Just as Christianity teaches us our need to have Christ to be saved, because we cannot save ourselves, Buddhism teaches that we cannot save ourselves from the vicious cycle of suffering, called samsara, thus needing the power of Amitabha, which means the being with infinite (immeasurable) light (amitabha) and infinite life (amitayus). That is why the Pure Land School of Buddhism in China and Japan teaches the importance of “Namuamidabutsu”( 南無阿弥陀仏), which means complete submission of ourselves to the providence of the amitabha and amitayus of the Amitabha Buddha, who is known as the “spiritual Buddha”, while Gautama Buddha is known as the historical Buddha.  To Christians, the only way to the salvation is to submit our total selves to the will of God the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ, as he is our primary parakletos.  Besides being our primary parakletos, Jesus is the way and the truth (John 14:6), and no one can go to the Father except through him (ibid.).

That is why Jesus is inviting us to yoke with him so that we can journey back to the Father together with him, bound by his yoke, which is easy and its weight is light. This invitation to yoke with him – to take his yoke, to attach ourselves to his yoke, is to be with him and to observe his law, as the Greek word used for this context in Matthew 11:29-30 is zygos (ζυγός). In fact, this Greek word for a yoke is no stranger to the term familiar with biology, zygote, the fertilized egg, through the union of sperm and egg, to being the growth of biological life. In Greek, zygote (ζυγωτός) literally means yoking sperm and egg, sperm yoking with egg. Ζυγός (zygos) has the nuance of putting two beings together. In this sense, Jesus was inviting us to be with him to those who were burned with the fire of raga, overburdened with the legalism imposed by the fundamentalistic moralists because of sinfulness, or distressed about sins and their consequences through these words,, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

Usually, “yoke” in the above Gospel narrative is understood as a metaphor for “law”. The sinners were made so burdened with the way the Mosaic Law was taught by the Pharisees, when Jesus said these words. Moved by his compassion, Jesus offered a relief from this distress by inviting them to take his law (yoke), which is easy to observe. However, by using the word, “yoke”, which also means conjoitment, as indicated from its Greek word, zygos (ζυγός), used by the Gospel writer, the above words of Jesus in the Gospel gives a deeper meaning, indicative of Jesus’ desire for intimacy with us.

In Matthew 5:17, Jesus said that he came to this world not to abolish the Law of Moses but to fulfill or complete the Law. To echo this, Paul explains in Romans 10:4 that Jesus is the telos (τέλος), end-purpose, of the Law. In other words, Jesus himself is the ultimate purpose of the Law. Therefore, he is our yoke (law) to take and to yoke with, so that we may be righteous enough in God’s eyes for salvation.

It is also important to note that Jesus also invites us to learn from him (Matthew 11:29) as we take his yoke, as we yoke with him. So, what are we to learn from him in this context? In order to understand this, we must read some narratives preceding to the above-cited words of Jesus (Matthew 11:28-30).

In reading Matthew 11:20-24, you notice that Jesus was rather harshly rebuking the unrepentant sinfulness of some Galilean towns, such as Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. People in these towns are spiritually repugnant in the eyes of Jesus. To put in Buddhist terms, they were living a life of kleshas (spiritual defilements), including raga (greedy narcissistic passion), and mana (pride). Because of this, Jesus said, “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him” (Matthew 11:25-27).

Here, Jesus indicates something hidden from those who live a life of kleshas. In other words, Jesus suggests that there are certain important things that those who live a life of sins cannot see. In order to prevent us from falling blind with our sinfulness, we need to be as meek as Jesus is. That is why Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves”(Matthew 11:29). In other words, Jesus invites us to yoke with him so that we may become as meek and humble of heart as Jesus. After all, it is the ultimate way to overcome all the distress associated with the flame of raga, which prompted Adam and Eve to lose Eden, to begin vicious deuteronomic samsara-like cycles.

Perhaps, these words of St. Augustine of Hippo, in his “Confession” (Book I, Ch.1) helps us better appreciate what it means to take upon Jesus’ invitation to yoke with him.

Great are you, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is your power, and of your wisdom there is no end. And man, being a part of your creation, desires to praise you, man, who bears about with him his mortality, the witness of his sin, even the witness that you "resist the proud," — yet man, this part of your creation, desires to praise you. You move us to delight in praising you; for you have formed us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in you. Lord, teach me to know and understand which of these should be first, to call on you, or to praise you; and likewise to know you, or to call upon you.

The above words of St. Augustine echoes Jesus’ praise of the Father for keeping the divine salvific wisdom from those who chose not to repent but to continue to defy Him but reveling it only to those who become as obedient as a child in Matthew 11:25. In other words, child-like obedience in Matthew 11:25 is echoed in meekness in Matthew 11:29, as these are about humility. This echoes the Pure Land Buddhists’ humble spirit of submission to amitabha and amitayus of Amitabha Buddha in “Namuamidabutsu”( 南無阿弥陀仏) chanting. As the Pure Land Buddhists strive to overcome suffering of life, attributed to raga, by this “Namuamidabutsu” obedience, humility, and meekness, the Christians turn away from sins and seek Jesus the Christ, who invites us to find “nirvana” in him by yoking with him.

In addition to the above words of St. Augustine, the following words of St. Ignatius of Loyola also echoes what it means to yoke with Jesus with our humility so that we become bound by the same yoke with Jesus for the freedom from distress.

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding and my entire will
- all that I have and call my own.
You have given it all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours, do with it as you will.
Give me only your love and your grace.
That is enough for me.                               

“Suscipe” prayer from the Spiritual Exercises 234

Now that we have gone through metanoia, realizing that we need parakletos, to be saved. This means that we need to let our ego and what puts fire on it, namely raga, go by letting God to take it all. This way, we may be received by God to yoke with Jesus– to be one with Christ, for rest from distress. It is Christ’s desire that we yoke with him through meekness, reflecting these words of his, “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you” (John 14:20).

Do you find yourself in nirvana in Christ upon submitting yourself to his invitation to yoke with him, just as the chanting of “Namuamidabutsu” vows to submit relinquish ego and whatever it causes to the care of amitabha and amitayus of Amitabah Buddha?