Kiitsu—Returning-to-One
Welcome to "Kiitsu—Returning-to-One" the podcast formally known as "Making Footprints Not Blueprints." My name is Andrew James Brown, and I’m the Minister of the Unitarian Church in Cambridge, UK.
Knowing that full scope always eludes our grasp, that there is no finality of vision, that we have perceived nothing completely, and that, therefore, tomorrow a new walk is a new walk, I hope that, on occasion, you’ll find here some helpful expressions of a creative, inquiring, free and liberative religion and spirituality that will help and encourage you to journey through life, making footprints rather than blueprints.
Kiitsu—Returning-to-One
S11 Bonus Episode - Who is Christ? (A Christmas Day talk by Imaoka Shin'ichirō)
The full text of this podcast with all the links mentioned in it can be found in the transcript of this edition, or at the following link:
https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-eternal-buddha-is-no-one-else-but.html
Please feel free to post any comments you have about this episode there.
Opening Music, "New Heaven", written by Andrew J. Brown and played by Chris Ingham (piano), Paul Higgs (trumpet), Russ Morgan (drums) and Andrew J. Brown (double bass)
Thanks for listening. Just a reminder that the texts of all these podcasts are available on my blog. You'll also find there a brief biography, info about my career as a musician, & some photography. Feel free to drop by & say hello. Email: caute.brown[at]gmail.com
Who is Christ?
A short address given to the Tokyo Kiitsu Kyōkai on or around Christmas Day sometime in the 1980s . . .
Strange as it may sound, I have met three Christs. First, I have met Christ who was born as a carpenter’s son about 2000 years ago in Bethlehem, Israel. He was baptised by John the Baptist and became conscious of his mission as God’s son. After retreating to the wilderness and being tempted by Satan 40 days, he began to preach “Repent; for the Kingdom of Heaven is upon you” (Matthew 4:17) in spite of the fact that “Foxes have their holes, the birds their roosts; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Matthew 7:20). He gave the golden rule and many other immutable maxims. Although he declared “I have conquered the world” (John 16:33), he was crucified in the end.
The apostle Paul introduces another Christ. Paul was originally a violent persecutor of Christians and had not seen Christ in person. Therefore, his views on Christ are quite unique, as follows:
“I betrothed you to Christ, thinking to present you as a chaste virgin to her true and only husband” (2 Corinthians 11:2), “and that is how Christ treats the church, because it is his body, of which we are living parts.” (Ephesians 5:29-30). Christ said the same: “I am the vine, and you are the branches” (John 15:5). In short, according to the apostle Paul, Christ is a church consisting of him and his disciples. Therefore, I think the story of a prodigal son in the 15th chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel is an excellent explanation of it. The father did not save the prodigal son because he himself was quite worried, just the same as his son. When the son was saved by coming home, the father was saved. Both son and father were saved simultaneously by the son’s homecoming.
Christ is more than individual or corporate. The author of St. John’s Gospel teaches us one more Christ as follows:
“Your father Abraham was overjoyed to see my day; he saw it and was glad. The Jews protested, ‘You are not yet 50 years old. How can you have seen Abraham?’ Jesus said, ‘In very truth I tell you before Abraham was born, I am’”(John 8:56-58). “So the Word became flesh; he came to dwell among us, and we saw his glory, such glory as befits the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
According to the author of St. John’s Gospel, Christ is super-historic, eternal and spiritual. If so, Christ must have been not only before Abraham was, but in the days of Socrates, Gautama, and Confucius. Because Socrates, Gautama, and Confucius saved the people of their days, they must have been Christ.
This reminds me of a true story concerning a discussion between a missionary and a Buddhist in the Meiji era. The Buddhist asked the missionary “My parents were earnest and ardent Buddhists and died without the chance to learn Christianity. Where are they now, in paradise or in hell?” The missionary answered “They are in hell, of course.” The Buddhist said “I will never be converted to Christianity. As you say, if there is truly a hell and my parents are there, I am very anxious to go to hell to see my parents and renew our ideal home life there. Then this hell will become paradise.”
Isn’t this a thought-provoking story? While the missionary did not know the spiritual, eternal and universal Christ, the Buddhist did not know the historical Christ, but believed in Amitabha, i.e. Eternal Buddha. And I think the Eternal Buddha is no one else but the Eternal Christ. Christ exists everywhere and at any time. I am convinced that Christ is born here today. Let us, therefore, celebrate Christ’s birth here within each of us just at this moment.