मैत्रेय भगवान
मैत्रेय भगवान ब्रह्मांडीय आत्मा और प्लैनेटरी बुद्ध का पद संभालते हैं। मैत्रेय संस्कृत शब्द मैत्री से लिया गया है, जिसका अर्थ है "प्रेम से परिपूर्ण दया"। मैत्रेय पृथ्वीवासियों के आध्यात्मिक उत्थान के लिए ब्रह्मांडीय आत्मा की प्रभा को केंद्रित करते हैं। ये शुक्र ग्रह से जनवरी १, १९५६ को पृथ्वी के संरक्षक बनकर आये थे - उस दिन गौतम बुद्ध ने विश्व के स्वामी होने की पदवी संभाली थी, और मैत्रेय ने गौतम बुद्ध के स्थान पर ब्रह्मांडीय आत्मा की। यह सब रॉयल टेटन पर आयोजित एक कार्यक्रम के दौरान हुआ था। मैत्रेय का काम पृथ्वी पर होने वाले संभावित बदलाव, पथभ्रष्ट देवदूतों के आवागमन तथा ईश्वर के रास्ते पर चलनेवाले व्यक्तियों के आध्यात्मिक उत्थान पर नज़र रखना है।
पृथ्वी पर ऐसे अनेक बुद्ध हुए हैं जिन्होंने बोधिसत्व के मार्ग के माध्यम से मानव जाति के विकास में योगदान दिया है। ब्रह्मांडीय आत्मा भगवान मैत्रेय बुद्ध की दीक्षाओं से गुजर चुके हैं। वह इस युग में उन सभी को शिक्षा देने के लिए आए हैं जो महान गुरु सनत कुमार के मार्ग से भटक गए हैं। गौतम बुध और भगवन मैत्रेय दोनों सनत कुमार के ही वंशज हैं।
इतिहास में मैत्रेय का ज़िक्र
चीन, जापान तिब्बत और मंगोलिया समेत पूरे एशिया में मैत्रेय की पूजा की जाती है। इन सभी स्थानों पर बौद्ध धर्म के अनुयायी मैत्रेय को एक "करुणामय कृपालु व्यक्ति" और आने वाले बुद्ध के रूप में पूजते हैं। बौद्ध धर्म के अलावा अन्य संस्कृतियों और धार्मिक संप्रदायों में भी मैत्रेय विभिन्न प्रकार से जाने जाते हैं। कहीं ये धर्म के संरक्षक और पुनर्स्थापक हैं, तो कहीं धर्म के मध्यस्थ और रक्षक। ये एक ऐसे गुरु हैं जो अपने सभी भक्तों से व्यक्तिगत तौर पर बात करते हैं, तथा उन्हें दीक्षा और ज्ञान देते हैं। मैत्रेय दिव्य माँ द्वारा भेजे गए एक दूत हैं जिन्हें माँ ने अपने बच्चों को बचाने के लिए भेजा है। इन्हें ज़ेन लाफिंग बुद्धा भी कहते हैं।
बौद्ध विद्वान इवांस-वेंट्ज़ ने मैत्रेय का वर्णन एक "बौद्ध मसीहा" के रूप में किया है - एक ऐसा मसीहा जो अपने दिव्य प्रेम की शक्ति से पूरी दुनिया को पुनर्जीवित करेगा, और सार्वभौमिक शांति और भाईचारे के एक नए युग की शुरुआत करेगा। ये अभी तुशिता स्वर्ग में हैं, जहां से पृथ्वी पर उतरकर ये मनुष्यों के बीच जन्म लेंगे और ठीक उसी प्रकार से बुद्ध बनेंगे जैसे गौतम बने थे। गौतम बुद्ध की तरह ही मैत्रेय भी बौद्ध धर्म के इतिहास और पूर्व में होने वाले बुद्धों की जानकारी लोगों को देंगे और मुक्ति प्रदान करने वाले इस मार्ग को नए सिरे से प्रकट करेंगे।[1]
"हेम्प-बैग बोन्ज़"
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चीनी बौद्ध धर्म में, भगवान मैत्रेय को कभी-कभी "हेम्प-बैग बोन्ज़" (जूट के थैले वाले भिक्षु) के रूप में चित्रित किया जाता है। ("बोन्ज़" एक बौद्ध भिक्षु है।) इस भूमिका में, मैत्रेय एक हृष्ट-पुष्ट तथा हंसमुख, मोटे-पेट वाले, लाफिंग बुद्ध के रूप में दिखाई देते हैं। उन्हें अक्सर अपना थैला पकड़े हुए बच्चों के बीच बैठा दिखाया जाता है - खुश बच्चे उसके ऊपर चढ़े हुए हैं। चीनियों के लिए मैत्रेय समृद्धि, भौतिक संपदा और आध्यात्मिक संतुष्टि का प्रतिनिधित्व करते हैं। बच्चे एक बड़े परिवार को दर्शाते हैं।
Buddhist scholar Kenneth Ch’en writes of this portrayal of Maitreya:
One feature of his appearance singled him out—he carried a hemp bag wherever he went. Into this bag was deposited whatever he received, and for this reason, the bag became an object of intense curiosity, especially among the children. They would chase him and climb all over him, and force him to open his bag. On such an occasion he would place the bag on the ground, empty the contents one by one, and just as methodically put them back into the bag. The expressions attributed to him were all enigmatic and exhibit [Zen] characteristics.... Once a monk asked him about his bag; he replied by placing it on the ground. When asked what this meant, he shouldered the bag and went away. Once he was asked how old the bag was, and he replied that it was as old as space.[2]
This bag demonstrates the mystery of space and the miracle of space under the dominion of the Buddha. Its timelessness shows the Buddha’s mastery of segments of eternity, hence eternity itself, through the flame of Mother.
The lineage from Sanat Kumara
Lord Maitreya and Lord Gautama were the first from among mankind to respond to Sanat Kumara’s magnetic pull to face God and to return to that divine estate in which man had first been created and which he was destined to outpicture in the world of form.
The time came when the one who had served the earth as her Planetary Buddha chose to return to his own planetary chain, leaving a vacancy in this office for one from among earth’s guardians to fill. Lord Maitreya applied for the initiations necessary to qualify for this office. Centuries of self-discipline, of training, of devotion and of mastery were required in order for him to attain his present stature. His colleague through all of these classrooms of experience was Lord Gautama, who, by a margin won the buddhic degree first, while Lord Maitreya was accorded the office next in line—that of World Teacher.
As World Teacher, his mission was to design for each two-thousand-year cycle the specific type of spiritual instruction most required for the human race for that period. Whenever there was a readied and willing instrument, he was to act as mediator, polarizing the atoms of the four lower bodies of that lifestream, so that the divine plan of that one’s individualized I AM Source might flow through its instrument, outpicturing in the world of form the works of a Christ.
Lord Maitreya is the teacher of Jesus, who, with Kuthumi, now holds the office of World Teacher. Maitreya demonstrates on behalf of an evolving humanity the cosmic consciousness of the Christ in all areas of human endeavor and its universality throughout cosmos. He is known as the Great Initiator and was, in fact, the initiator of Jesus in his individualization of the Christ flame in his final embodiment as world saviour and exemplar of the way, the truth and the life to all aspirants on the path of personal Christhood.
Maitreya’s Mystery School
Maitreya was himself a chela of Lord Himalaya (manu of the fourth root race) and has his own Focus of Illumination in the Himalayan Mountains. He was the guru of twin flames in the Garden of Eden, which was a mystery school of the Brotherhood. The Mystery School of Eden, located on Lemuria near where San Diego is today, was the first mystery school on planet Earth. And Maitreya, referred to as the Lord God in Genesis, was its first hierarch.
Since the expulsion of man and woman from the Garden of Eden because of the misuse of the sacred fire in the incorrect application of free will, the Great White Brotherhood has maintained mystery schools and retreats that have served as repositories for the knowledge of the sacred fire that is vouchsafed to twin flames when they have demonstrated the discipline necessary to keep the way of the Tree of Life. The Essene Community was a repository for certain of the ancient mysteries as was the school at Crotona conducted by Pythagoras.
Following the sinking of Lemuria and Atlantis, the mystery schools that had been established there were relocated in China, India and Tibet as well as in Europe, the Americas and the Pacific fire ring, where they were maintained for thousands of years until, one by one, they were overrun by the hordes of darkness.
Wherever these schools have been destroyed, the ascended masters who sponsored them withdrew their flames and sacred shrines to their retreats on the etheric plane. Here their disciples are trained between embodiments and in their finer bodies (during sleep or samadhi) in order that they might attain that divine Self-knowledge that, until Saint Germain once again advanced it in the twentieth century, had not been available to mankind en masse in the physical plane for centuries. Maitreya has explained that in this time the outer world itself has become the retreat in which each man will take his initiations and, passing these, will gain his eternal freedom, his ascension in the light.
The Mystery School come again
► Main article: Maitreya’s Mystery School
The long-awaited “Coming Buddha,” Maitreya has indeed come to reopen his Mystery School to assist Saint Germain and Portia, twin flames of the seventh ray and hierarchs of Aquarius, to usher in the New Age. On May 31, 1984, he dedicated the Heart of the Inner Retreat and the entire Royal Teton Ranch to the path and teaching of the Cosmic Christ in order that those who departed from his tutelage, going the way of Serpents (the fallen angels who led Eve astray), might be restored and the children of the light follow the Son of God in the regeneration.
Retreats
► Main article: The Focus of Illumination
► Main article: Maitreya's retreat over Tientsin, China
As well as the Focus of Illumination, his retreat in the Himalayas, Maitreya maintains an etheric retreat over Tientsin, China, southeast of Peking (Beijing). With Lord Gautama he also teaches students seeking to graduate from earth’s schoolroom at the Eastern and Western Shamballa and at the Royal Teton Retreat.
As the sponsor of twin flames, he is the friend of all initiates of the sacred fire. When called upon, he will give the illumination of the Christ and the strength of the Word to pass the initiations that come under his sponsorship.
His banner is the thoughtform of a mighty clipper ship as it comes in with the tides at eventide to fetch souls of mankind to take them to another shore. His musical keynote is “Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life.”
For more information
Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Maitreya on Initiation
Sources
Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, The Masters and Their Retreats, s.v. “Lord Maitreya.”