In the Neo-Theosophical teachings of Benjamin Creme, founder of Share International, it is promulgated that the near-future coming of Maitreya (meaning "friendly" in Sanskrit) sometime in the 21st century will fulfill not only Buddhist prophecies about the appearance of a future great teacher named Maitreya, but also the prophecies of a number of other world religions - including Christianity (the Second Coming of Christ), Hinduism (the Kalki avatar of Vishnu), Islam (the Imam Mahdi) and Judaism (the Jewish Messiah). Creme says along with Alice A. Bailey and C.W. Leadbeater that Maitreya manifested himself through (or overshadowed) Jesus 2,000 years ago during the three years of the Ministry of Jesus.
This article provides the background of these teachings in the original teachings of Madame Blavatsky, and the later teaching of C.W. Leadbeater and Alice A. Bailey as well as a general summary of Benjamin Creme’s teachings regarding Maitreya.
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Maitreya, said to be one of the Masters of the Ancient Wisdom, is a being regarded by those adherent to Theosophy to be the most spiritually advanced being of human origin that has so far evolved during this Earth round (period of spiritual evolution), except for Buddha, in the Spiritual Hierarchy of Earth. (Sanat Kumara doesn't count, because he is said to be from the civilization that Theosophists believe exists on the etheric plane of Venus that already is hundreds of millions of years in advance of our civilization.[1][2]) It is believed Maitreya has attained the seventh Level of Initiation. In the teachings of Benjamin Creme and Alice A. Bailey he is also referred to as Christ (see the section below called “Maitreya’s overshadowing of Jesus”). The Theosophical concept of the Maitreya is modeled on the Buddhist Maitreya.
Maitreya is also believed by Theosophists to hold an office in the Hierarchy of the Masters of the Ancient Wisdom called The World Teacher, the function of which is to encourage and inspire the development of religious leaders, and various world religions such that each people or specific civilization will have the religion that is best suited for them.[3]
In the Ascended Master Teachings, Maitreya, besides being called Lord Maitreya, is also referred to as the Cosmic Christ.
Madame Blavatsky spoke of a Christ Principle that is the force for good in the Cosmos and is within the “inner man”.[4] Between the time of Madame Blavatsky’s death in 1891 and his discovery of Jiddu Krishnamurti in 1909, C.W. Leadbeater formulated a Christology in which he identified Christ with the Buddhist deity known as Maitreya and maintained that this deity held an office known as The World Teacher within the Hierarchy of the Masters of the Ancient Wisdom.
It is believed by Theosophists that, besides having had numerous incarnations in Atlantis, that after the fall of Atlantis, Maitreya incarnated as a Hierophant in Ancient Egypt,[5] as Krishna,[3] as a high priest in Ancient India,[6] and that he also incarnated in the body of the Master Jesus during the three years of the Ministry of Jesus.[3]
Benjamin Creme asserts that Maitreya was the first human being to achieve the third Initiation and that he did so in Atlantis.[7] No Theosophical guru has specified the precise date when Maitreya resurrected (i.e., reached the fifth level of Initiation), but it is usually assumed to be in late Atlantean times. Assuming this to be the case, this means that in all the post-Atlantean incarnations of Maitreya mentioned above, he appeared as an avatar.
The followers of Benjamin Creme and Alice A. Bailey believe in the Nestorian/Gnostic Christology promulgated by C.W. Leadbeater which asserts that Maitreya overshadowed the Master Jesus during the Ministry of Jesus, such that there were two beings (two souls) in one body—Maitreya was Christ and the Master Jesus was Jesus of Nazareth; the combination of the two beings—two entities in one body—functioned as Jesus Christ.[3][8] Those adherent to the Ascended Master Teachings, a group of religions based on Theosophy, believe in the existence of Maitreya; however, they believe that although he encouraged the mission of Jesus, he did not actually overshadow Jesus.[9]
According to Leadbeater, Maitreya’s original plan in the early-20th-century was to manifest through a South Indian Brahmin, Jiddu Krishnamurti. Krishnamurti was "discovered" by Leadbeater in April 1909, on the private beach that formed part of the Theosophical Society Headquarters in Adyar, India. Krishnamurti and his family had been living next to the estate for a few months before this discovery. Leadbeater proclaimed that Krishnamurti was to be the vessel for the indwelling of the coming World Teacher that many Theosophists were expecting. This new teacher would, in the pattern of Moses, Buddha, Zarathustra (Zoroaster), Christ, and Muhammad divulge a new dispensation, a new religious teaching for the coming Age of Aquarius. Krishnamurti was extensively trained for his mission and a new organization, the Order of the Star in the East, was set up to assist him in his expected mission. However, in 1929, Krishnamurti rebuffed attempts by Leadbeater and Besant to continue with the renamed Order of the Star. He dissolved the Order at its annual Star Camp at Ommen, the Netherlands, on August 3, 1929, and repudiated the messianic mission and role that Theosophists expected of him.[10][11]
In order to understand Benjamin Creme’s teachings, it is necessary to understand Alice A. Bailey’s teachings, since he is a follower of Alice A. Bailey and his teachings closely follow hers. The major difference is the two teachings that Benjamin Creme says that Maitreya is in contact with the space brothers, extraterrestrial inhabitants of the solar system as conceived by Theosophists.
Alice Bailey (1880–1949) left the Theosophical Society in the 1920s to establish the quasi-theosophical Arcane School. She expanded Leadbeater's work and his Christology,[12] She referred to Maitreya as the Cosmic Christ[13]
In the Alice A. Bailey material, she asserts that World War II was a cosmic conflict between good and evil. The Masters of the Wisdom, representing the Forces of Light, were on the side of the Allies; the Dark Forces were on the side of the Axis. According to Bailey, Adolf Hitler was possessed by the Dark Forces.[14] With the defeat of the axis by the allies in 1945, the stage was set for the appearance of Maitreya to inaugurate the New Age.
In January 1946, Bailey prophesied that since, according to her view, "Krishnamurti had rejected being overshadowed", Christ would return himself by manifesting a physical body of his own on the physical plane "sometime after AD 2025",[15] and that this would be the New Age equivalent of the Christian concept of the Second Coming of Christ.[16]
She further stated that St. Germain is the manager of the executive council of Christ.[17] This executive council is a specific group of Masters of the Ancient Wisdom charged with preparing the way for the Second Coming of Christ and the consequent inauguration of the Age of Aquarius. According to Bailey, when Christ returns, he will stay the entire approximately 2,158 year period of the Age of Aquarius, and thus the New Age equivalent of the Millennial Age will not be just a single millennium but will be the Aquarian bimillennium. During this era, said Bailey, Christ (Maitreya) will reign as the spiritual leader of Earth, the Messiah who will bring World Peace.[16]
In August 1946, Bailey prophesied that Christ would return in an airplane from "the place on Earth where He has been for many generations" and that after doing so, he would appear on worldwide television.[18]
Benjamin Creme (who was the vice-president of the Aetherius Society from 1957 to 1959 [19][20]), is a follower of Alice A. Bailey who claimed, beginning in 1959, to have been contacted telepathically by one of the Masters (he was told not reveal which one, but Creme's Master is usually assumed to be one of the two unnamed "English Masters" mentioned by Alice A. Bailey) and prepared for his mission, which Creme said he was told was to receive messages from Maitreya. Beginning in 1975 (the same year the crop circles began to appear), Creme says he started to actually telepathically channel Maitreya. Creme stated that Maitreya telepathically communicated to him that he had decided to return to Earth earlier than the post-2025 date given by Alice A. Bailey. On 6 September 1977, Creme said that he began receiving messages from Maitreya regarding the process of his forthcoming emergence. These revelations are compiled in the book Messages from Maitreya.[21] According to Creme, Maitreya informed him that he materialized a physical body for himself in early 1977 in the Himalayas and then on Friday, 8 July 1977 he booked an airplane flight from Pakistan to London, just as had been prophesied in 1946 by Alice A. Bailey.[22] When Maitreya landed in London, this was according to Creme the esoteric Second Coming of Christ (since Maitreya had not yet revealed himself to the world). Creme said that Maitreya then took up residence in secret in the Brick Lane neighborhood of that city. According to Creme, Maitreya does not need to eat because he is capable of living off prana (thus he is a breatharian); however, he can eat if offered food. Maitreya has no navel and is 6 feet 3 inches tall.[23]
Creme put advertisements in many of the world’s major newspapers in early 1982 stating that the Second Coming would occur on Monday, 21 June 1982 (summer solstice in the northern hemisphere), at which time Christ (Maitreya) would announce his Second Coming on worldwide television. When this failed to occur, Crème’s organization regrouped as Share International to prepare for the near-future Emergence of Maitreya, when, it is believed, the Day of Declaration to inaugurate the Age of Aquarius will occur.
Creme asserts that Adolf Hitler was the Anti-Christ and his defeat in World War II made possible the return of Maitreya.[24] According to Creme, the Age of Aquarius will be the "Age in which the love nature of God, [originally] revealed by Christ in Jesus, becomes manifest on a world scale".[25]
Creme states that Maitreya manifests in visions to various people—an average of 26 different people per day.[26] Maitreya, claims Creme, miraculously appears physically before gatherings of between a few dozen and several hundred people of various religious groups an average of about three times a month.[27][1] [28] Sometimes when Benjamin Creme is lecturing, he says he allows Maitreya to briefly overshadow him, and when this happens, some of Creme's followers report seeing Creme surrounded by a golden aura.
Maitreya's main mission during the Age of Aquarius according to Creme will be to promulgate the Principle of Sharing, such that the technologically advanced nations share their wealth with the poorer nations so that everyone will have adequate sustenance. It is believed by the followers of Creme that Maitreya has vast superhuman powers and also that he is in regular telepathic contact with the space brothers in their flying saucers;[29] it has been asserted by Benjamin Crème that Maitreya is physically invulnerable and is capable of teleporting anywhere in the solar system.[30] Creme's followers believe that Maitreya, in collusion with the flying saucers of the space brothers, are the cause of the crop circles (the modern manifestation of which began to appear in 1975, the year that Creme claims that Maitreya began to telepathically contact him); more crop circles appear in England than any other country, it is asserted, because Maitreya spends a large percentage of his time in London.
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