Theos-Talk Archives (September 1996 Message tl00365)

Dear John,

I had a time finding something like a definition of Maitreya, even though I
looked into a number of Buddhist books on my shelf. The quote below is from
"Buddhism" by Christmas Humphreys Esq. He was for long years the President
of the Buddhist Society in London. Very steeped in Buddhism. Was friendly
with DT Suzuki, and the Dalai Lama of his day. Wrote a number of books which
make Buddhism more intelligible to a Westerner. He was also a Theosophist.


"The Tibetan Pantheon
`"..... The DHYANI BODHISATTVAS in turn express themselves or manifest
through a human body, which in the eyes of men becomes known as a named
Buddha. Thus one of the Dhyani Buddhas or Dhyani Chohans ... reincarnated as
the Dhyani Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, who overshadowed, as the Christ
principle over shadowed the boy Jesus, the man known to history as Gautama
Siddhartha, the Buddha. Thus the world of advanced, self-perfected men is
not a haphazard collectiion of those who have preceded their fellows in
spiritual development, but a descending hierarchy from the nameless Absolute
to the human leaders of mankind. Some of these, says the Wisdom, have once
been men, in this or in some previous planet; others have yet to be men. ALL
ALIKE ARE SPIRITUAL FORCES, AND AS SUCH BUT ASPECTS OF THE INDIVISIBLE
ETERNAL UNITY.

        The best known of these mighty beings, in the sense that their names
most frequently appear in Tibetan Buddhism, are the Dhyani Buddha Amitaba
(Amida in Japan, and Opame in Tibetan), Avalokiteshvara (Chenresi) who is at
once a name for the colllective host of the Dhyani Budddhas, and one of
them, and MAITREYA (in Pali, Metteyya) who will be the next human Buddha,
although not for some hundreds of thousands of years......"

Seems to me that Maitreya is the Buddhist equivalent of the Messiah.