S11 Bonus Episode - The Eternal Buddha is no one else but the Eternal Christ—a talk given to a United Reformed Church Advent online retreat called “Waiting for the light”

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

Transcript

This short talk was given to a United Reformed Church Advent online retreat called “Waiting for the light” on December 2nd, 2025

—o0o—

As I am sure other speakers in this retreat will note , the word “advent” comes from the Latin word “adventus”, meaning “arrival” or “coming”. I take it that, in the Christian context of this gathering, that the “Light” that is believed to be coming, and for which you are waiting, is primarily understood as being, in some fashion, related to Jesus.

But which Jesus? As the church historian Jaroslav Pelikan notes, there are many Jesuses, and in his well-known book, “Jesus Through the Centuries”, he takes us through eighteen of them. 

• The Rabbi: The early portrayal of Jesus in the first century
• The Turning Point of History: Jesus as a pivotal figure
• The Light of the Gentiles: Jesus as a figure for the gentile world
• The King of Kings: The concept of Jesus as a powerful monarch   
• The Cosmic Christ: Jesus as a universal, cosmic figure
• The Son of Man: A focus on the human side of Jesus
• The True Image: The search for the authentic image of Jesus
• Christ Crucified: A return to the image of the crucified Jesus
• The Monk Who Rules the World: The image of Jesus in monastic tradition
• The Bridegroom of the Soul: Jesus as a spiritual and mystical figure
• The Divine and Human Model: A model for both divinity and humanity
• The Universal Man: The Renaissance concept of a universal figure
• The Mirror of the Eternal: Jesus as a reflection of the eternal
• The Prince of Peace: The role of Jesus as a peacemaker
• The Teacher of Common Sense: A more pragmatic view of Jesus
• The Poet of the Spirit: The spiritual and artistic inspiration drawn from Jesus
• The Liberator: Jesus as a symbol of social and political liberation
• The Man Who Belongs to the World: The final chapter’s concluding image of Jesus

So one question a person attending this Advent retreat might consider is, for which Jesus — who the Gospel of John says called himself the light of the world — for which Jesus are you waiting?

Naturally, I would never seek to answer that question on your behalf. But one thing I can do is bring before you, for consideration, the three Jesuses — here called Christs — that the important Japanese Yunitarian (sic), educator and advocate of free-religion, Imaoka Shin’ichirō-sensei felt he had met during his long life journey that took him from a Jōdō Shinshū Buddhist upbringing, into Anglican Christianity, then into the Congregational ministry, then into the Japanese Yuniterian (sic) movement, then to an exploration of Shintō and a return to Buddhism, especially to what is called the New Buddhism (Shin Bukkyō), and finally into the development of what he called jiyū shūkyō, that can most simply be translated as free-religion (with a hyphen) but which is best translated as a creative, inquiring, free and liberative religion. He spoke about these three Christs in a Christmas Day address he gave to his own free-religious community in Tokyo, the Tokyo Kiitsu Kyōkai (the Tokyo Returning-to-One Gathering) sometime in the 1980s. The full text of his short talk can be read at the end of this post (and listened to as a bonus episode of my podcast).

The first Christ Imaoka-sensei spoke about was what we would call the historical Jesus. The man “born as a carpenter’s son about 2000 years ago in Bethlehem, Israel” who . . .

“. . . 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 for 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” (ibid.).

The second Christ Imaoka-sensei spoke about was what we call the corporate Christ, a religious conception introduced to the world by the apostle Paul — a man who, remember, never met the historical Jesus. For Paul, Christ is the church community, the living body of which all its members are living parts, a vine and its branches. Imaoka-sensei felt that the parable of the prodigal son stood as an excellent illustration of this, essentially familial, idea. He wrote:

“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” (ibid.).

In other words, Imaoka-sensei thought our salvation — however one understands that — is not something brought about by the father (even God the Father), nor brought about by the returning son (that is to say by some individual), but by the community, the home. Christianity, naturally, calls this the Church, but Imaoka-sensei called it the Kyōkai — which is any cooperative, free-religious community that encourages the mutual refinement of character, and which Buddhism calls the Sangha. 

The third Christ Imaoka-sensei felt he had met in his life was one that was much more than the individual Jesus of history, and even more expansive and inclusive even than the corporate Christ of Christian faith. It was a Christ who he felt was “spiritual, eternal and universal.” This Christ, especially within Asian expressions of Christianity, has often been named the “Cosmic Christ” and, today, as everyone everywhere is now being forced to wake up to the reality of the climate emergency, this is an idea which is gaining popularity, especially within religious communities that are developing what may be called “ecotheologies.” Imaoka-sensei was extremely alert to this ecotheological idea, and in another of his essays, written in 1981 called, “I Believe in a Universal Cooperative Society,” he wrote:

“When we think about it, the self, others and a cooperative society all exist because of the universe or nature. Humankind cannot exist apart from nature. That is the basis of our life. I would also like to establish that not only human society but also the heavens, the earth, nature and all the universe are one community (a cooperative society)” (Selected Writings on Free Religion and Other Subjects, p. 21).

Drawing particularly on the Gospel of John, Imaoka-sensei says that, for him, this third kind of Christ “is super-historic, eternal and spiritual,” one who must not only have been before Abraham was, but who also existed in the days of Socrates, Gautama Buddha, and Confucius. Indeed, Imaoka-sensei believed that:

“because Socrates, Gautama, and Confucius saved the people of their days, they must have been Christ” (Selected Writings on Free Religion and Other Subjects, pp. 111-112).

Having stated this, Imaoka-sensei then begins to draw his very short talk to a close with what he tells us is a “true story concerning a discussion between a [Christian] missionary and a Buddhist in the Meiji era.”

“The Buddhist asked the [Christian] 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 [Christian] 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” (ibid.).

Drawing on this story, Imaoka-sensei, concludes his short talk with the following words, words which seem to me to be a perfect way to conclude this short reflective talk:

“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” (ibid.).

And now, as Imaoka-sensei would often say at the end of his talks, I invite your own thoughts, reflections and criticisms about my talk. Thank you.