Early Christian Influence on Asian Buddhism

This past weekend an acquaintance in the community I was visiting with our intern equated the Christian faith with the West in at least two negative statements he made. The implication was that it isn't an Asian faith. I corrected him by stating that Christianity in fact originated in the East, but I don't think that fact sunk in.

In "The Lost History of Christianity", Philip Jenkins highlights the forgotten history of the early Asian church. He also shares the following anecdote. In 782 the Indian Buddhist missionary Prajna arrived in the Chinese imperial capital of Chang'an, but was unable to translate the Sanskrit sutras he brought along with him due to having limited Chinese. No problem... just ask the local indigenous Christians for help!

The Christian bishop Adam, himself an Asian and whose name heads the list on the Nestorian monoment, had already translated parts of the Bible into Chinese. Either out of intellectual curiosity or from ecumenical goodwill, he helped this Buddhist missionary with his translation. Japanese monks in Chang'an at this time took these very translations back with them to Japan, where they became the founding texts of the two great Buddhist schools Shingon and Tendai which influenced all the famous Buddhist movements of later Japanese history. Scholars still speculate whether Adam either subconsciously or consciously worked Christian concepts into the translated sutras. (Jenkins, p. 16)

First Day of Ghost Month

The seventh month of the lunar calendar, also known as “Ghost Month,” began today.

People immersed in  local Taiwanese folk religion believe that on the first day of the 7th month of the lunar calendar, the gates of hell are opened for one month, allowing spirits imprisoned in the ten halls of hell (18 levels sort of like purgatory) out for a vacation as they wander to and fro in the physical world.

Our “Peace Truck” hit the street about 9:45 am. It also offers a prayer hotline for situations both related and not related to ghost month. May God in His wisdom use the music and spoken words to set up divine appointments which lead to peace, wholeness, healing, and deliverance.  

We had some outside help from interested acquaintances in the community this time around. First, a friend from the community with whom we maintain a cordial relationship lent her voice for part of the recording. Second, the man from the advertising company felt our poster did not have an acceptably-high pixel density. So he took the initiative of having his junior higher put another one together for us. While I  prefer our original design better (the picture of Jesus with the lambs is too traditional for my taste), the text, telephone number, etc. are much more visible on his. In the end, for the sake of cordial relationships and not wanting to dampen his enthusiasm, I mixed them up, with his on the left and front, and ours on the back and right. May God use both of them!

For the other poster, and text published previously, etc. click here. Also, here’s a video of this morning’s action if anyone cares to watch:

Welcome to Pirate Forest Township!

This evening when I went to meet our intern and the leader of a drug rehabilitation center in Taiwan at the Conservative Baptist Church in BeiGang, the pastor, Mike Gee, who is from nearby ShuiLin (Water Forest) Township, shared some interesting history, most of which I had heard before but some which I had not.

The monument at the traffic circle in BeiGang commemorates the place of earliest immigration of Chinese into Taiwan right there in BeiGang, 391 years ago (?). They came not from mainland China, but from Japan. Since they were pirates, they had already been kicked out of China.

The township next door where MIke is from is called “Water Forest Township” (ChuiNa). However, in Taiwanese the original name was Water Thief Forest (ChuiChatNa). Water Thief, of course, means Pirate! They came first to this part of Taiwan, murdering many of the native inhabitants and driving the rest off the plains and up into the mountains, taking their land and women, since they had none.

I had just been at the ChuiNa（Mandarin Chinese:ShuiLin) 水林  Presbyterian church to share with a bunch of students just a few hours before. Too bad I didn’t know they lived in “Pirate Forest Township” then! It would have made a great introduction (I’m told most young people living there now would not know that Water Forest was originally known by another name).

Peaceful July

How to bless people here with peace during the 7th lunar month, known here in Taiwan as ghost month?  We willuse a manner similar to the truck advertisements last year for Christmas and this year for Easter.

1。Written on the Truck Poster:

Peace to Everyone! Free Prayer to “Return the Soul of a Terrified/Startled Person” (this sentence would makes perfect sense to someone involved in traditional folk religion in this part of Taiwan—it is usually offered as a business transaction) No money required！

At the suggestion of a Taiwanese teacher, I asked my Saturday Children’s English Club students to draw pictures to see what ideas they could come up with. I gave them the theme “peace”:

LOL. He says: If you don’t fight (wars, etc), then there won’t be anyone die!

These last two pictures both contain apples, which was quite meaningful (there are also fish in the pictures, which in the Chinese language sounds like the word for “abundance”, but  when we tried to put them on our poster, they looked too much like beached whales to me so we deleted them).

To Chinese people, apples are equated with peace because of the same sound in the first syllable of each word. In fact, when I googled “apple” and “peace” in chinese, a number of web pages ask the question: “Why do Chinese people give away apples on Christmas Eve (literally in Chinese: “Peace Eve” ).

This is a first start. We need to make some final design decisions soon:

2．Taiwanese Truck Recording:

In a modern language version of Taiwanese:

“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” (John 14:27, NLT)

Hello friends! If you as an adult or child have had your soul startled, or are lacking peace in your heart, you can come here for a free prayer for your startled soul to return, or to pray for peace. Effective! Please call… to make your appointment. (again, this makes more sense to Taiwanese in their language than looking at the English)

If the musical group “Streams of Praise” gives us copyright permission, we will also use their song “Peaceful July” in the recorded announcement.

3。When people call to make an appointment, explain that the person in question needs to come him or herself, and that Jesus is able to help them. We will also emphasize that our method of helping the startled soul to return is different than their traditional folk religion method—we are praying in the name of Jesus. If this is acceptable to them, they are welcome to come.

4. When they come, there is a CD of personal testimony in Taiwanese playing. And 5 bible verses about God’s peace will be on the walls for them to look at while they wait for a moment:

Matt 11:28-30

Isaiah 26:3, Isaiah 32:17, 57:19

Phil 4:6-7

1 Peter 5:6-7

5. We have a standard prayer ready to use which can easily be customized (won’t try to translate it here).

6. If anyone asks why we are praying for them for free, we explain that the love of God is free with no strings attached. We are performing this small service to show the love of Jesus. Would they like to know him?

7.When they leave, we give them an apple, as well as one of three booklets dealing with the topic of blessing (an important cultural theme here). After people receive this kind of service in their traditional folk religion, it is expected they receive something like this.

8。Of course, for any chance of this is to come to fruition or work in the end without us coming across as absolute fools, we must schedule a time of prayer and fasting before the appointed time. We’re taking a risk here, but God seems to be leading us in this direction.

7/30/2010 Update:
Unfortunately, as I gathered feedback from various individuals, the apple idea didn’t seem to click. So here is our revised poster, with the music we have now been given permission to use on the days requested:

A Real American Breakfast!

Here in Taiwan, although I love the food, one of the meals I miss the most when eating out is an authentic American breakfast, rich in calories and with plenty of coffee, juice, etc: blueberry pancakes, waffles, omelettes, eggs over easy, sausauges, you name it! So imagine my ecstasy eariler this week when I observed this new breakfast shop named “American Breakfast” in North Point next door to the 85C coffee shop!

  Though it was early afternoon, I parked the car and went in to take a look at the menu. The fare seems only slightly different than the breakfast shops in this town. And just like at one of those shops in my village, I can eat pizza for breakfast! Now that’s a real American breakfast?