My dear friends,
Jesus's teaching to Nicodemus, as described in John 3:1-17, mirrors the culmination of the Bodhisattva's journey, as depicted in the final three of the Ten Oxherding Pictures, where love and compassion for the world and its inhabitants leads the Bodhisattva to abandon the blissful peace of nirvana in order to help them find abiding happiness, freedom, joy and peace.
- Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
a leader of the Jews.
He came to Jesus by night and said to him,
"Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher
who has come from God;
for no one can do these signs that you do
apart from the presence of God."
Jesus answered him,
"Very truly, I tell you,
no one can see the kingdom of God
without being born from above."
Nicodemus said to him,
"How can anyone be born after having grown old?
Can one enter a second time
into the mother's womb and be born?"
Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you,
no one can enter the kingdom of God
without being born of water and Spirit.
What is born of the flesh is flesh,
and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Do not be astonished that I said to you,
'You must be born from above.'
The wind blows where it chooses,
and you hear the sound of it,
but you do not know where it comes from
or where it goes. So it is with everyone
who is born of the Spirit."
This heaven is so vast,
no message can stain it.
How may a snowflake exist in a raging fire?
Here are the footprints of the Ancestors.
"How can these things be?"
Jesus answered him,
"Are you a teacher of Israel,
and yet you do not understand these things?
"Very truly, I tell you,
we speak of what we know
and testify to what we have seen;
yet you do not receive our testimony.
If I have told you about earthly things
and you do not believe,
how can you believe
if I tell you about heavenly things?
Too many steps have been taken
returning to the root and the source.
Better to have been blind and deaf
from the beginning!
Dwelling in one's true abode,
unconcerned with and without
- The river flows tranquilly on
and the flowers are red.
except the one who descended from heaven,
the Son of Man.
And just as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whoever believes in him
may have eternal life.
"For God so loved the world
that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him
may not perish but may have eternal life.
"Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world
to condemn the world,
but in order that the world
might be saved through him."
Barefooted and naked of breast,
I mingle with the people of the world.
My clothes are ragged and dust-laden,
and I am ever blissful.
I use no magic to extend my life;
Now, before me, the dead trees become alive.