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WHEN WILL THE BUDDHA RETURN?    By: Andrew Rooke:

 

 

THE HISTORICAL BUDDHA:

 

• Siddhārtha Gautama, (Pali: Siddhattha Gotama), was a spiritual teacher in the north eastern region of the Indian subcontinent, who founded Buddhism. He is regarded by Buddhists as the Supreme Buddha (Sammāsambuddha) of our age. Gautama, also known as Śākyamuni or Shakyamuni (“sage of the Shakyas”), is the key figure in Buddhism, and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules, are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death and memorized by his followers. Various collections of teachings attributed to Gautama were passed down by oral tradition, and first committed to writing about 400 years later.

 

• Born c. 563 BCE Lumbini, today’s Nepal

 

 

• Died c. 483 BCE Kushinagar, today in India

 

• Predecessor: Kassapa Buddha 

                                                           

• Successor: Maitreya Buddha.

 

•  

 

THE FUTURE BUDDHA: BODDHISATTVA MAITREYA:

 

• Maitreya (Sanskrit) or Metteyya (Pāli) is a future Buddha of this world in Buddhist eschatology. In some Buddhist literature, such as the Amitabha Sutra and the Lotus Sutra, he is referred to as Ajita Boddhisattva.

 

• Maitreya is a bodhisattva who in the Buddhist tradition is to appear on Earth,

achieve complete enlightenment, and teach the pure dharma. According to       scriptures, Maitreya will be a successor of the historic Śākyamuni Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. The prophecy of the arrival of Maitreya is found in the canonical literature of all Buddhist sects (Theravāda, Mahāyāna, Vajrayāna) and is accepted by most Buddhists as a statement about an actual event that will take place in the distant future.                                                                                                              

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HIERARCHIES                                                        ARE LIKE PENDANT JEWELS HANGING FROM ONE ANOTHER

 

                                                                 ↑

Hierarchies more                                                                                                spiritual than ours

 

O

 ‘Laya Centre’: Point of ‘emanation’

of energies from a more spiritual

advanced Hierarchy                       Divine hierarchies

                                                 

                                                    Gods or divine-spiritual         

                                           

INVOLUTION                       Demi-Gods or Divine Heroes.     EVOLUTION – Spirit

Spirit manifests in Matter                                                                                         evolves through Matter

        to become pure spirit

        again but this time

                                                                                                                           Self-Aware

                                                       Heroes, Mahatmas, Ascended Masters

 

        MEN – THE HUMAN WORLD

Men – the midpoint of       

Evolution between

Elementals and pure

Spirit.                                                    ANIMALS

    PLANTS      - Each Kingdom is divided  

    into 7 groups

             MINERALS

          ELEMENTALS

 

O

Connection point or ‘Laya Centre’ to a lower (more material)    

                                                Hierarchy

HIERARCHIES MORE MATERIAL

THAN OURS ↓

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PLANETARY ROUNDS

 

I            A      ○     ○ G

 

II     B      ○           ○ F

 

III        C      ○       ○ E

 

IV                           D      ○       

 

 

 

PLANETARY ROUNDS EXPLAINED

 

 

• Humanity begins the evolutionary process in this incarnation of the Earth on Globe A, then on through B,C,D (our Earth), then to Globes E, F, and G of the manifest worlds then through 5 more unmanifest Globes to make the journey around once, i.e. = 1 Planetary Round of Humanity’s life experience.

           

• The globes are not separate ‘out there’ in space but rather different aspects of the Earth’s constitution of which we are living and conscious of only one – Globe D.

 

 

• After Humanity has gone around once there ensues a Planetary Pralaya or Night, a rest period of equal time.

 

• The Human Life Wave (and all the others – minerals, plants, animals, demi-gods, gods), pass around the globes 7 times in order to gain every aspect of life experience that the Earth offers.

 

 

• Humanity at present has just passed the mid-point of the 4^th Global Round, i.e. this is a pivotal phase of Humanity’s spiritual progress as we are now on our way back to the spiritual source.

 

 

 

              EVOLUTION OF ROOT RACES IN THE FOURTH ROUND

 

 

DOWNWARD CYCLE                                                   ASCENDING CYCLE

Evolution of                            VII ROOT RACE                 Re-evolution or re-

physical and                                                                           version of spirit-               intellectual nature                                                            6.5        uality and the gradual

and the gradual                                                                       decrease of   

regression of                                                                            materiality and

Spirituality.                                                                               mere brain

                                                                                                  Intellectuality.

 

                                       1^st Root Race                      VI RR

 

—————————————————————5.5

II RR                                                                          V RR­­­­­­­­­­­­_____________________

 

—————————————————————-4.5

 

III RR                                                                         IV RR_____________________

 

———————————3.5——————————————————————-

MERIDIAN OF RACES.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ROOT RACES EXPLAINED:

 

 

 

• On any one Globe, Humanity (or any of the other major kingdoms of life) passes serially through 7 evolutionary phases called Root Races in Theosophy. Please note that ‘Race’ is not defined by colour or biology but by rather a group of people of shared spiritual evolutionary status.

 

• We are members of the 5^th Root Race.

 

• Each of the 7 Root Races reaches its maximum of efflorescence and power at about the mid-point of the Race. We are at the present time about 16,000 years away from that mid-point of our 5^th Root Race, Globe D, in our 4^th Global Round of life experience as humans on the Earth.

 

• At around the mid-point of the root race, the ‘seeds’ of the next, or, for us, 6^th Root Race are planted.

 

• The seeds of the next Root Race are introduced by a ‘Racial’ Buddha, i.e. in the case of the next or 6^th Root Race by Gautama Buddha.

 

 

 

 

ROUNDS AND RACES: HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE?

 

• As far as I understand it, the theosophical explanation of evolutionary time periods is as follows:

 

• The total lifetime of one Root Race covers two periods of 4 yugas or 8.64 million years.

 

 

• The time of 7 Root Races of humanity’s experience on the Earth Globe ‘D’, is 60.48 million years approximately.

 

• The time of humanity’s journey around the 7 manifest Globes ‘A’ through ‘G’ in the 4^th Round is 432 million years, approximately.

 

• And looking at the longer term:

 

• The lifetime of the Earth is 4.320,000,000 years of which we are approximately half way through.

 

• The lifetime of the Earth is followed by an equal length of ‘rest period’ before the Earth is ‘reborn’ once again.

 

• The life of the solar system according to the ancient Hindu timeline which Theosophy follows is 311,040,000,000,000 years! About half of this period has been completed and therefore we are at the bottom of the grand cosmic cycle, i.e. on the lowest cosmic plane.

 

 

 

 

WHAT IS THE SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BUDDHA?

 

 

• There wasn’t just one ‘Buddha’. Buddhas, or ‘Enlightened Ones’ have an essential role to play in the spiritual evolution of Humanity. They are highly evolved spiritual entities – the ‘terrestrial’ Buddhas are men but vastly more spiritually evolved than the normal man in the street.

 

• The historical Buddha that we know, Gautama Buddha, through his own massive efforts over many lives had already attained the consciousness level of a ‘6^th Global Rounder’, i.e. the, to us now, high spiritual level of the normal human being of 150 million of years into the future.

 

• Unlike the Pratyeka Buddhas who pursue their own evolution largely heedless of those travelling along behind them, the Buddhas of Compassion like Gautama, forsake the indescribable bliss of Nirvana to aid the spiritual evolution of Humanity and other life forms.

 

• The ‘terrestrial’ Buddhas of Compassion make rare but cyclic appearances, two for each Root-Race appearing towards the middle and end of a Root Race and two for each Global Round.

 

• Gautama the Buddha was the 9^th in the series of ‘Root Racial’ Buddhas, that is, the spiritual instructor of our 5^th Root Race. As such, according to Buddhists and Theosophists, he is an extremely important entity in the history of man’s spiritual evolution to the present stage and forward into the coming 6^th Root Race.

 

 

 

 

WHAT ABOUT THE FUTURE ‘MAITREYA BUDDHA’?

 

 

 

• Gautama Buddha watches over the spiritual destinies of our own 5^th Root Race because he is the first of the two who are coming in our 5^th Root Race.

 

• The second or coming Buddha, the Maitreya Buddha, so popular in New Age Philosophy, according to Theosophy will not come until the end of our 5^th Root Race or some 4.32 million years hence!

 

 

• At the present time, the ‘seeds’ of the 6^th Root Race are being developed and the Buddha inaugurated this process as one of the first duties of the first Buddha of any Root Race.

 

 

 

 

SOME ALTERNATIVE VIEWS:

 

 

 

• Maitreya has been here already: there have been many people who have claimed to be Maitreya over the years since Buddha’s passing. Some of them have led large scale rebellions against various Chinese governments, and in the modern age such New Age luminaries as Scientology’s L. Ron Hubbard have claimed to be the Maitreya Buddha. While a number of persons have proclaimed themselves to be Maitreya none have been officially recognised by Buddhists generally. A particular difficulty faced by any would-be claimant to Maitreya’s title is the fact that the Buddha is considered to have made a number of fairly specific predictions regarding the circumstances that would occur prior to Maitreya’s coming; such as that the teachings of a Buddha would be completely forgotten, and all the remaining relics of Sakyamuni Buddha would be gathered in Bodh Gaya and cremated. Maitreya is predicted to attain Bodhi in seven days (which is the minimum period), by virtue of his many lives of preparation for Buddha-hood (similar to those recorded in the Jataka stories of Shakayamuni Buddha).

 

• Maitreya’s coming is characterized by a number of physical events. The oceans are predicted to decrease in size, allowing Maitreya to traverse them freely. The event will also allow the unveiling of the “true” dharma to the people, in turn allowing the construction of a new world. The coming also signifies the end of the middle time in which humans currently reside, (characterised as a low point of human existence between the Gautama Buddha and Maitreya).

 

 

 

 

MAITREYA: SOME ALTERNATIVE VIEWS:

 

 

• The buddha never ‘died’, he is still here: according to Buddhist tradition the Buddha died at the age of 80. Another tradition says that he ‘died’ to the outside world at 80, but lived on for another 20 years teaching his inner group of disciples. According to Theosophy, he remains on Earth in his ‘Nirmanakaya’ vehicle, i.e. with all his inner constitution intact minus the astral and physical body. He stays here out of love and pity for Humanity instilling thoughts of compassion and selflessness into the ‘thought atmosphere’ of the world to aid humanity’s spiritual progress through his messengers and ‘helpers’ in the physical world, i.e. the Mahatmans and their students. Most important, we can place ourselves in direct synchrony with the Buddha as a living force at any time if we sincerely attempt to follow the Path of Compassion.

 

• REMEMBER, IT DOESN’T MATTER IF WE FAIL TO LIVE UP TO THE BEST OF OURSELVES EARLY IN THIS JOURNEY, AS WE HAVE BEEN INSTRUCTED BY THE BUDDHA’S ‘HELPERS’ TO AT LEAST TRY!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The above are PowerPoint slides from a lecture delivered to the Theosophical Society (Pasadena) in Melbourne, Australia in December 2009. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the theosophical Society (Pasadena).