B-C Otto, “Maitreya-Christ”
Forthcoming in: E. Asprem (ed.), Dictionary of Contemporary Esotericism
Preprint manuscript of: B-C Otto, “Maitreya-Christ”, Dictionary of Contemporary Esotericism (ed. E. Asprem), Leiden: Brill.
Archived at ContERN Repository for Self-Archiving (CRESARCH) https://contern.org/cresarch/cresarch-repository/ Oct. 23, 2018.
Maitreya-Christ
Maitreya is the Sanskrit name (Pali: Metteyya) of the “future Buddha” mentioned in
some of the earliest Buddhist scriptures, such as the Suttapiṭaka (the second basket of
the Pāli canon: see therein division 5, book 14 [Buddhavaṃsa], chapter 28 [Cakkavatti
Sīhanāda Sutta]). It is thus one of the oldest motifs of Theravada Buddhism and
epitomises the religious motif of Parousia within Buddhist history. Maitreya is usually
considered to be the next awakened teacher of the Buddhist dharma after the last one,
Siddhārtha Gautama, and thus figured prominently in major strands of Buddhism. He
became an important motif in Buddhist iconography (with the 71-meter stone statue
near Leshan, Southwest China, as the largest exemplar), and had a particularly strong
bearing on Tibetan Buddhism, where he plays an important role till this day. Yet,
according to the Cakkavatti Sīhanāda Sutta, his arrival is not to be expected all too soon:
he will return hundreds of thousands of generations after Siddhārtha Gautama (namely,
when humans “will come to live 80,000 years”: Davids 1965, 72f), and the Buddhist
dharma will be completely forgotten upon his return. Even though there have been a few
Buddhist claimants over the past centuries, Maitreya is usually considered to reside in
an other- or outer-worldly sphere (Sanskrit Tuṣita), where he may also be contacted
through advanced meditation.
Against this backdrop, Maitreya’s reception and significance in Western esotericism is
quite astonishing. Over the last century, more than a dozen Western esotericists either
claimed to embody Buddha Maitreya or had this status attributed to them by others.
From a Buddhist perspective, this is not a trivial claim. Being Maitreya not only means to
have permanently realised one’s “Buddha-nature”, obliterated one’s individual karma,
perfected a range of extraordinary abilities (such as the spiritual indriyas [“faculties”],
the brahmavihāras [“immeasurables”], as well as a range of siddhis [“powers”]), and to
be able to incarnate or vanish into nirvāṇa at will. More importantly, being Maitreya
B-C Otto, “Maitreya-Christ”
Forthcoming in: E. Asprem (ed.), Dictionary of Contemporary Esotericism
means being the direct successor of the last Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama, thus bearing
an immense global and historical significance.
Maybe due to the grandeur of this claim, it has attracted and fascinated Western
esotericists since the late nineteenth century. Unsurprisingly, it was Helena Petrovna
Blavatsky (see àTheosophy) who – inspired by Alfred P. Sinnett’s Esoteric Buddhism
(1883) – popularised Maitreya in The Secret Doctrine, where she claims that “Maitreya is
the secret name of the Fifth Buddha, and the Kalki Avatar of the Brahmins — the last
Messiah who will come at the ‘culmination of the Great Cycle’” (Blavatsky 1888, 384).
Mixing Buddhist and Hindu concepts, Blavatsky refers to the Buddhist equivalent of the
concept of àaeons (Sanskrit kalpas). Without referring to Maitreya, Blavatsky also
announced the appearance of a “new torch-bearer of truth” in The Key to Theosophy
(Blavatksy 1905, 195). Yet, Maitreya remained marginal in Blavatsky’s thought, and it
was the so-called second generation of Theosophists, foremost Charles Leadbeater and
Annie Besant, who turned him into a crucial figure. By equating Maitreya with Christ,
they created, as it where, an esoteric amalgamation of one world teacher, combining
both past and future, East and West. Alice Bailey would later add Muhammad al-Mahdī,
the twelfth and last Imam in Twelver Shia, to this list, thus suggesting that Buddha,
Christ and Al-Mahdī were essentially the same person – and that the appearance of this
outstanding person was imminent.
In 1909, Charles Leadbeater – after some alleged long-term telepathic training in
clairvoyance and astral consciousness by an “ascended master” named Chohan Kuthumi
(Leadbeater 1930, ch. 9) – identified a 13-year-old Indian boy named Jiddu
Krishnamurti, who was the son of Annie Besant’s scribe and groundskeeper, as the
incarnation of the world teacher (several other candidates did not make it). Besant and
Leadbeater acquired custody for Krishnamurti in 1910 and began to raise him according
to Theosophical doctrines. In 1911, Besant founded the Order of the Star in the East,
which purpose was to prepare and support the work of the “new torch-bearer of truth”.
Interestingly, Krishnamurti was introduced as the re-incarnation of Christ to Western
branches of the Theosophical Society, whereas he was called Maitreya in front of Adyar
B-C Otto, “Maitreya-Christ”
Forthcoming in: E. Asprem (ed.), Dictionary of Contemporary Esotericism
Theosophists (Leadbeater 2007, 250f). The equation of Maitreya and Christ may first
have been for purely strategic reasons.
As is well known, Rudolf Steiner considered the installation of Krishnamurti as
Maitreya-Christ to be more or less absurd and hence (on top of various other reasons)
separated from the Theosophical Society in 1912 by founding the àAnthroposophical
Society (see Steiner 1987, 10f, and further Tillet 1986, Vol I, 506-53). Even though
Besant and Leadbeater did their best to shield Krishnamurti from mundane influences,
he became more and more frustrated with the Theosophical Society from his early
twenties onwards, due to what he perceived as its dogmatism and authoritarianism. In
1929, Krishnamurti finally separated from his mentors and the Theosophical Society at
large. He also rejected his role as Maitreya-Christ. The Order of the Star in the East,
which, at that time, encompassed some 45,000 members – mostly Theosophists (see
Taylor 1992, 328) – was resolved in the same year. Krishnamurti remained an important
spiritual teacher in his own right until his death in 1986.
Theosophists were disappointed by Krishnamurti’s resignation, but continued to believe
in the imminent arrival of the future world teacher Maitreya-Christ – who was from now
on usually considered a single person, both Maitreya and Christ. Alice Bailey was
arguably the most prominent theosophical author who continued to proclaim his return.
In her book The Reappearance of the Christ (1947), which was allegedly channelled by
the ascended master Djwal Khul, she claimed that “Christ might come in Person and
walk among men as He did before. This has not yet taken place but plans are being laid
which will enable Him to do so” (Bailey 1947, 19). In a letter to her followers written in
1946, she suggests some time after the year 2025 for Maitreya-Christ’s return – a date
that, at the time of writing, still figures prominently among some contemporary
esotericists (such as 2025initiative.org and whenthesoulawakens.org).
In the early 1950s, Bailey’s works were read by àBenjamin Creme. From the mid-1970s
until his death in 2016, Creme has been the most important prophet of Maitreya-Christ’s
return (see, e.g., Creme 2007). Creme publicly announced several dates for Maitreya’s
B-C Otto, “Maitreya-Christ”
Forthcoming in: E. Asprem (ed.), Dictionary of Contemporary Esotericism
public appearance and from the early 1980s onwards his organisation àShare
International published a monthly journal where signs and appearances were collected.
Share international is still active and continues to proclaim Maitreya-Christ’s return.
Inspired by but independent of this theosophical trajectory, a range of other twentiethcentury esotericists sympathised with the idea of Maitreya-Christ’s appearance, or
pondered the possibility that they might actually be this outstanding figure. Of course,
the “new age” narrative was deemed more attractive when equipped with an
outstanding spearhead – and Maitreya-Christ was a natural candidate. For instance, L.
Ron Hubbard, the founder of àScientology, revolved around one central question in his
poem, The Hymn of Asia (publ. 1974, written around 1956): “Am I Metteyya?” (Hubbard
1976, 8). According to the editor’s Introduction (probably written by Hubbard himself),
Buddhist sources such as the Cakkavatti Sīhanāda Sutta indicate that Maitreya will (1)
have golden or red hair, (2) reappear some 2,500 years after Gautama, i.e. roughly
around 1950 CE, and that he will (3) reappear in the West. Even though none of these
claims are correct, Hubbard comes to the startling conclusion that “Even your own
prophesies | Centuries Old | Said I would appear | In the Western World. | I appeared”
(idem, 16).
In a similar vein, àSamuel Aun Weor, the founder of Universal Gnosticism, identified
with Maitreya-Christ and signed some of his books, such as The Message of Aquarius
(1960), with “Samuel Aun Weor, Maitreya Buddha, Kalki Avatar of the new Age of
Aquarius” (Weor 1960, 7). Gilbert Bourdin, the founder of “aumism” (today also called
“l’Association du Vajra triumphant”), built, in 1981, the hitherto largest – 22-metres high
– Western Maitreya statue in his newly-founded city Mandarom Shambhasalem, which is
located near Castellane in the French Alpes. Yet, his own, significantly larger statue (33
metres) was blown up shortly after his death by the local police in 2001, due to claims of
a missing building permit. Another prominent esotericist claiming the title is àClaude
Vorilhon, also known as Raël, the founder of the UFO religion àRaëlism. Raël publicly
uses the name “Rael-Maitreya”, for instance on his Facebook page
(facebook.com/rael.maitreya), but also in various book publications (see, e.g., Vorilhon
2003). Raël is convinced that the extra-terrestrial Elohim, who created humanity and
B-C Otto, “Maitreya-Christ”
Forthcoming in: E. Asprem (ed.), Dictionary of Contemporary Esotericism
have been responsible for its destiny ever since, support his claim. Raël styles himself as
their final prophet, following Buddha, Jesus and some forty other religious figures of the
past (see Vorilhon 2006).
Whereas these well-known esotericists seem to have adopted the title Maitreya-Christ
mostly for strategic reasons, numerous contemporary esotericists either believe
themselves to be Maitreya or have adherents who deem them so. One example is the
Iranian Muhammad Hussein who, since the early 1980s, has run a small “Mission of
Maitreya, Eternal Divine Path” in Albuquerque, New Mexico, along with a website
(maitreya.org) and a youtube-channel (youtube.com/user/MissionOfMaitreya). Another
is the US former trucker, Ronald Lloyd Spencer, who has referred to himself as “Buddha
Maitreya the Christ” since 1996 and runs a small retreat centre in Northern California
entitled “Buddha Maitreya Shambala Monastery”
(shambhalalifeextendingwellnesscenter.com) as well as a youtube-channel
(youtube.com/user/MaitreyaSangha). Even though the pattern is similar, these two
claimants differ widely. If we believe the autobiographical report on Muhammad
Hussein’s website, he “discovered” his identity as Maitreya through intense religious
experiences and revelations between the mid-1970s and early 80s, a gradual
development which culminated in his prophetic 772-page text THOT. The Holiest of the
Holiest: The Last Testament (first ed. 1982). In contrast, Lloyd Spencer’s
autobiographical account simply claims that he is “God on Earth known as the Planetary
Logos, who has many previous auspicious lives and incarnations that include Krishna,
Gautama Buddha, Jesus The Christ, Babaji and several incarnations […] within Tibetan
Buddhism including the Tibetan Yogi Saint Milarepa, Padmasambhava, Atisha, Je Tsong
Khapa and Dorje Shugden” (Spencer 2018a). He goes on to provide a large number of
Tibetan certificates that would attest this claim (Spencer 2018b). Whereas Hussein
offers nothing but wisdom and speech, Spencer also sells healing tools called “etheric
weavers”, “meditation vajras”, or “metatron pyramids”, which purpose are “to receive
Buddha Maitreya the Christ’s transmission of the Soul. His blessing dissolves past karma,
helps people to heal and experience the love and connection through their etheric field
(mind, body, emotions) to the Lord who is always present in every life and at every
death” (Spencer 2018c).
B-C Otto, “Maitreya-Christ”
Forthcoming in: E. Asprem (ed.), Dictionary of Contemporary Esotericism
What began as the blurred theosophical reception of a traditional Buddhist motif in the
late nineteenth century advanced to a popular idiom in esoteric discourses of the
twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Numerous esotericists either sympathised with the
idea of the imminent resurgence of the world saviour Maitreya-Christ, or claimed to
embody this figure themselves, either for strategic reasons or out of sincere belief.
However, the inflationary use of the title in contemporary esotericism poses a problem
to both claimants and believers: obviously, there can only be one Maitreya-Christ. This
problem may become virulent when two claimants encounter each other. For instance,
in the early 1980s Benjamin Creme refused Muhammad Hussein’s request to
acknowledge him as the Maitreya, whose appearance Creme had long announced, thus
provoking Hussein’s scorn (Hussein 2018). Lloyd Spencer has only recently been
accused of being a drug addict, fraud, and rapist by a “Buddhist Tribunal on Human
Rights”, which had investigated his case for “spiritual fraud” and “false Buddhism”
(International Buddhist Ethics Committee & Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights 2018).
As it turns out, the tribunal itself is part of a private vendetta by yet another Maitreya
claimant, an unidentified bearded man and self-proclaimed “Master Maitreya
Samyaksambuddha” who runs the so-called “Maitriyana Buddhist University” via a
California-based website that offers distance learning courses in Buddhist therapy
(Maitriyana Buddhist University 2018). Competition is high, encounters are rare, and
validation is impossible: Maitreya-Christ is a fascinating test case of religious creativity
in contemporary esotericism.
Bernd-Christian OTTO
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