Essays on the Bible, Volume 1

By Masahisa Goi

In Essays on the Bible, 20th century Japanese philosopher and spiritual leader Masahisa Goi discusses the universal truths within well-known and well-loved passages from the New Testament. Drawing on a profound source of spiritual intuition, he elucidates the ancient teachings of Jesus for people in the modern era, grounding them in history and offering comparisons with Buddhism as well as his own teachings and method of prayer. Whether or not readers have a background in Christianity or any prior knowledge of the Bible, these essays serve to broaden our understanding of what Jesus taught and how he and his disciples lived. With every word he spoke, Jesus is shown to be a true saint and messenger of God, born on earth to guide humanity to eternal peace and harmony.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Byakko Press
• Release date: Apr 2, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463046128

Masahisa Goi

Born in Tokyo, Japan, on November 22, 1916, Masahisa Goi was a poet, philosopher, writer, and singer. Though he aimed at a career in music, he found himself spontaneously drawn to the realms of philosophy and spiritual guidance. At the age of 33 he attained oneness with his divine self. From that time on, he endeavored to reach out to people by holding informal talks, where anyone was invited to participate and ask questions. He enjoyed this direct contact with people, and provided many with spiritual guidance toward the attainment of inner peace.Mr. Goi authored more than 60 books and volumes of poetry, including God and Man (his first and most fundamental work), One Who Unites Heaven and Earth (an autobiography of his early life), The Spirit of Lao Tsu, Essays on the Bible, How to Develop Your Spirituality, and Catch the Light, to name a few. Translations of many of his works are in progress.Based on the universal prayer May Peace Prevail on Earth which he advocated, Masahisa Goi founded a worldwide movement of world peace through prayer, transcending religious, ethnic, and political boundaries. Before departing from this world in 1980, he named Mrs. Masami Saionji, his adopted daughter, as his successor and leader of the world peace prayer movement that he initiated.

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Introduction

Despite the numerous Bible analyses that have already been published, I was led to write these essays after many requests to write down my own interpretations. While I have a deep respect for Jesus Christ, I do not hold the one-sided view that Jesus is the only child of God. Instead, I consider Jesus, Buddha, and Lao Tsu all to be saints of equal stature.

When people perceive Jesus to be the only child of God, they are apt to become self-righteous and intolerant of other religions. In doing so, they betray the true intentions of Jesus, who taught that all people are brothers and sisters.

Both the New Testament and the Buddhist scriptures were compiled and written by disciples after the physical death of their teacher. While they undoubtedly contain many true words of Jesus and Buddha, they also contain passages based on the disciples’ own speculation or inspiration. Furthermore, some words were added solely out of a desire to extol the character of the teacher. Thus, we cannot regard everything written in the New Testament and the Buddhist scriptures as directly embodying Jesus and Buddha.

It is my intention to deliver an interpretation of the New Testament that clearly distinguishes genuine words of Jesus from those added later by his disciples. I cannot help but find it unendurable when some Christians take an exclusivist and self-righteous attitude, for it squeezes the vast, unconditional love of God into the narrow framework of conventional Christianity, and peers out at the universe from this very restricted viewpoint. In addition, I do not agree with the idea of connecting all events in the Gospels to the prophecies of the Old Testament, presenting each occurrence as the fulfillment or manifestation of this or that prophecy. I would like to see fewer people who cling to ideas of prophecy and more who use the Gospels as a guide for attuning themselves to the laws of the universe and developing firm courage and a bright, amiable disposition while naturally going about their daily lives.

When people focus too much on predictions of the future, they often construct the very events that they have been envisioning in their subconscious. These kinds of events are the products of one’s own emotions and thought power. They have nothing to do with the divine will, but are created by a consciousness that has distanced itself from the mind of God. If the predictions in question were only good ones, it would be all right, but when people construct their own misfortune out of a preoccupation with predictions, it means that their religion is having a negative influence on them.

A true spiritual path lies in freeing oneself from all the ideas and emotions that we tenaciously cling to, and attaining oneness with the vast and unlimited mind of God, which naturally gives birth to a life of great love. When people fix their thoughts too much on one thing—even a good thing—the vibrations of their fixed expectations can bring about misfortune in their own lives and in the lives of others.

For your reference, I will now provide some background information about Palestine at the time of Jesus. It is well known that Jesus was born in a stable in Bethlehem, in the Jewish district of Palestine. The land of Palestine was about one and a half times the size of Shikoku, the smallest of the four main Japanese islands. The country was situated on the fringe of a desert that separates Africa from Asia, and was also influenced by Europe via the Mediterranean Sea. Thus, it was a melting pot for peoples from Africa, Asia, and Europe—a place where they exchanged cultures and fought battles. But its people had never been united as one country or ruled by one ethnic group. At the time of Jesus, Palestine was a colony of the Roman Empire.

The people of Palestine were mostly small-scale farmers, fishermen, carpenters, tanners, and shepherds. Ordinary citizens had little wealth, while the nobility consisted mainly of the Sadducees, who knew how to please foreign officials and authorities from Rome. These aristocrats enjoyed prosperous lives, controlling worship and ceremonies at the temple, as well as the temple’s property and treasury. Competing with them were the Pharisees, who believed in strict obedience to the laws of Moses, and held very strong religious authority and power.

Thus, there was an enormous disparity in wealth, and the vast majority lived in poverty. Although they unwillingly accepted the political and religious rule of those in power, deep in their hearts resided the fervent desire to restore the glory and prosperity they had enjoyed under King David and King Solomon. This desire also stirred their hopes for the advent of the messiah.

Under these conditions of ethnic dispute, great inequality, and foreign occupation, there naturally arose a spirit of rebellion among the people. Galilee, where Jesus spent his youth and his early years as a teacher, was blessed with an abundance of water from rivers and springs, and was relatively flat, leaving space for grapes, wheat, barley, fruit, and livestock. However, the general geography of Palestine, which included the snow-capped Mount Hermon at 2,814 meters and the Dead Sea at around 400 meters below sea level, brought about remarkable extremes in climate, further contributing to the disharmony of the land. It was in such an environment that Jesus was born and raised.

Undoubtedly, Jesus was an enlightened messenger sent by God with the sacred mission of liberating humanity from its illusions. It was the divine will that, in order to experience life in the physical world, Jesus was born into a poor family in a land with a severe climate that was struggling with ethnic strife and foreign colonization. Through the experiences of his physical life, Jesus developed his own unique style of teaching.

God’s mind views everything from the perspective of eternity. Therefore, the divine plan is not based on a short period of time, but is a very long-term plan. While existing as the divine mind and law of the great universe, God also conducts activities on earth through angels, saints, and guardian divinities² in order to bring humanity back in tune with the universal law. In other words, God works to enable people to live in accordance with the divine mind.

This work has given birth in this world to angels and saints such as Moses, Lao Tsu, Buddha, John the Baptist, and Jesus. As Jesus had his own unique heavenly mission, so too did Buddha and other saints. Therefore, there is no need to question who is superior among them, for they all had their own unique approach to life and their own method of teaching.

Given his background, Jesus not only guided people to purify their souls, but also taught his disciples the basic principles for reforming society. For this reason, Christians have focused more on the ‘horizontal’ activities of serving society and humanity, while Buddhists tend to concentrate on individual spiritual development. It is this focus on realizing fundamental change in human society, rather than seeking only inner enlightenment, that has made Christianity the widespread global religion that we see today.

Although all saints conduct their activities on earth as messengers from heaven in accordance with the divine will, their styles of teaching and providing guidance naturally have differed depending on the era and the environment in which they lived. God’s mind has taken these circumstances into account when planning the great evolution of humankind. Thus, the Second Advent of Christ does not mean that Jesus will appear as the Jesus from Nazareth who lived two thousand years ago. What it means is that the great bright light of truth, or Christ, will clearly manifest on earth.

Will this light manifest in the form of a single human being, or as the various abilities of many different people? Or, will it perhaps appear as a science of great harmony that transcends our present-day science and opens the path for the great awakening and evolution of humanity? Only those in the spiritual and divine worlds know the answers to these questions.

It is said that those who believed in Christ will be reborn when Christ returns to earth. What this means is that the will of Christ will be fulfilled at that time. However, there are also those who will be physically reborn when Christ returns.

One thing that is clear is that different religious streams such as Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism will cease to function in isolation from one another. All religions will naturally be united within the great bright light of truth, and religion and science will achieve perfect harmony on both the horizontal and vertical planes. Only then will humanity rise above its confusion, and the road leading to our large-scale evolution will open up before us. Lao Tsu, Buddha, Jesus, and all other saints devoted their lives on earth for the sake of this day, and even now they are sending us bright waves of light from the spiritual and divine worlds.

It would seem that, up to now, nothing has exerted a greater influence on humanity’s way of living than Christianity. People cannot help but be deeply moved by the life Jesus lived in this world and especially by his sacrifice on the cross, for these are manifestations of the great love of God.

Jesus on the cross is the absolute Christ, the pure embodiment of God’s great love. There is one view that maintains that the Jesus on the cross was not Jesus at all, but Paul, one of Jesus’ disciples who resembled him greatly, and that the real Jesus continued to live and spread his teachings. However, this is not a crucial issue. What we can say, I think, is that the tenet of Jesus bearing the sin of the world and ending his sacrificial life on the cross in order to purify the physical existence of humankind has contributed tremendously to the spread of Christianity as we know it today.

The resurrection of Jesus after his physical death may indicate the transformation of his spiritual body into physical vibrations. But again, this is not an important question. What matters most is how greatly Jesus’ life has influenced humanity’s way of living. This involves, among other factors, Jesus’ focus on both the elevation of the soul and the fundamental principles of human society—the idea that it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter heaven, the compassion shown to Mary Magdalene, and the attitude of reconciliation, whereby if someone robs you of your coat, you should give them your cloak, and if someone slaps your right cheek, you should offer them your left cheek. The legacy of these teachings is the real meaning of Jesus’ life.

Lastly, when thinking of Jesus, we must never forget about John the Baptist, who was absolutely indispensable to Jesus’ mission. It was only after Jesus attained his divine self-awareness that John was able to leave this world in peace. I think that many people tend to overlook John’s greatness, which is often obscured in the shadow of Jesus. However, I consider John a great saint, equal in stature to Jesus, the only difference being the nature of their heavenly missions.

John was entirely unselfish and not at all afraid of death. When arrested, he stood fearless and dignified before King Herod and proudly taught the path of God. Even when facing a sword, he remained firm and untroubled. But even greater than this was his attitude toward Jesus, expressed as He…whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose (John 1:27). John accepted and fully accomplished his mission of glorifying Jesus without ever straying from this path. He is the epitome of fairness and selflessness.

It is extremely difficult for people to assume so pure an attitude, which is why I feel that all people of religion should observe themselves through the life of John the Baptist. When I think of him, I feel an inexplicable sense of exhilaration pervade my body and soul—what I might call ‘the greatest version of human life.’

In the Beginning Was the Word

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

(John 1:1-5)

This passage about light which appears at the beginning of the chapter shows us the distinctive nature of the Gospel of John, which cannot be found in any of the other Gospels. It also bears a remarkable similarity to the first chapter of Genesis in the Old Testament, which reads:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

(Genesis 1:1-5)

These two texts strike us as being