In our journey into Gnosticism, we started by looking at where and when the sect started, who was the founder, Christ/Maitreya and what was the objective for forming such a mystery school; universal brotherhood. Previously, we looked at Jeshu; who he was and when he was born. We now begin to look at the purpose behind his incarnation. The main event is the appearance of the World Teacher, Christ/Maitreya. I use the double term for the name of this 43-self, because to many, the name given by the Greeks to this monad is how he is known. However, the esoteric tradition is that a monad keeps the name it was last known by when it left the 4th Kingdom of Nature. This is why he is known as Maitreya, the most senior disciple of the Lord Buddha, who was the previous World Teacher. The individual who holds this title is the head of our planet’s Second Department and supervises the dissemination of philosophies and religions. The World Teacher usually makes a visible appearance to Humanity at the end of a zodiacal epoch. As has already been discussed, the planet at this time is usually in a state of cultural and emotional decline. It is a result of the ebbing of energies from the previous epoch.
Maitreya did not turn up unannounced. The Bible talks about the Magi knowing he was about to appear. What this is an allegory of is that this was a zodiacal event. As the Magi are supposed to be astrologers, people of their ilk would know something spectacular was about to happen. It was the gnostic lodges that were the heralds of the imminent arrival of the World Teacher. Their message has the greatest resonance for those souls who had reached the 3. Cultured and 4. Compassionate stage of their own consciousness evolution and were awaiting such an event.
Why did Maitreya appear where he did? It was an attempt, by the Planetary Government, to impress upon the Jewish nation, which was extremely self-willed, an ideal of unity. It is clear that he failed. What ended up happening is that there was a strengthening of this nation’s inner solidarity but at the expense of a sharpening of their outer antagonism towards other peoples and cultures. The Jews clung to their belief that they were a chosen people. They felt they were apart from all other nations. What they failed to realise then and now, is that to be chosen means you are prepared to serve evolution, leading all to a path of unity, not just other Jews.
Jeshu had been perfecting his nature and his physical instrument over many incarnations, to fulfil the task that was set for him over 2,000 years ago. In 76 BCE, he vacated his physical organism and Lord Maitreya assumed control of it. Why did Maitreya choose this method of incarnation? Because this obviated the need for him to go through the tiresome process of a nine-month gestation and years of just learning how to control his organism. Think about it, a rock is conscious in the 1st world of matter. It shares group envelopes in the Emotional and Mental worlds but it is unconscious there. Plants begin to move their consciousness into the emotional world. Animals can go one plane higher and begin to be subjectively conscious in the lowest of the Mental worlds. Humans function in all three of these worlds. However, we are only objectively conscious of the Physical and Emotional planes. Even then, the majority of the Physical plane is not available to us yet, 49:1 to 49:4 and we are only objectively conscious in the Emotional World when we leave our physical body, during the hours of sleep. Once in this world, we are only objectively conscious as high as our monad has managed to focus itself. For most of us, this is found in the bottom four subplanes. Our causal bodies are a mystery to us, but this is what differentiates us from the animals, who also have access to the lowest subplane, 47:7 of the Mental World. Now look up and see how far away the Monadic World, 43, where Christ/Maitreya dwells, is from us. It must be a real wrench to make the transition from Plane-43 to Plane-49. You would not want to stay in a physical organism a second longer than was necessary. But this journey was made and the monadic consciousness of the World Teacher focused itself in the body of Jeshu. He was now set to carry out his mission, which he did mainly in Palestine for the next three years.
So, what exactly did Christ/Maitreya preach to the people who were prepared to listen? He talked about the glad tidings of the divinity of all life. He talked of the omnipotence of the ‘Father’ and of the “Kingdom of Heaven”, which is within all of us. He told those gathered that they all had an inalienable share in this glory. It was not reserved for the prophets and the priestly classes. We just had to reach for it in our lives. There was a second, esoteric/hidden message that was given to the disciples exclusively. These Jeshu had gathered before Maitreya took command of his body. This select group were told about the unity and divinity of all life. There was also information given that was not in general circulation, even amongst the knowledge orders of the time. Information such as the circulation of life around the Universe, through involution and evolution. Remember, when you are talking about involution, you have to get into the whole story about the four stages a monad evolves through. We are very used to spiritual evolution just being human-focused. Realising that rock is at the 4th stage of its evolution, meaning there must be three less conscious stages that have been passed through, must have been a challenging concept to grasp then, let alone now. The triadic chain must have also figured in any teachings to make sense of these four stages of consciousness evolution.
This teaching ministry was interrupted in the year 72 BCE. Why? Because Maitreya was talking about esoteric knowledge to the laity. Information, which up to this time had only been known within the confines of the mystery schools. If you remember in the last presentation, the Essenes considered sharing any information that they thought was esoteric, punishable by death. So they connived, through the offices of the Sanhedrin, to have Jeshu sentenced to death. This execution was achieved by stoking up hatred against Jeshu and the mob promptly stoned him, not Maitreya, to death. Maitreya had no karma to fulfil, so could not suffer such a death. Jeshu did have karma to fulfil and so accepted his fate. The lesson to take away from this. Be careful who you lend your body!
Ok, so Jeshu was out of the game and preparing for his last incarnation, as Apollonius of Tyana. Christ/Maitreya in the meantime had taken up residence on the Etheric Plane, which of the four subplanes is not certain. I would hazard a guess that it was the 1st, the atomic subplane. He would then be able to manufacture lower envelopes as needed. So, there was no “ascending to heaven” in a puff of smoke or a blaze of glory. Instead, using his etheric envelope, the World Teacher lived among his initiated disciples for many years, continuing to teach them. Most of these disciples had acquired etheric sight and emotional clairvoyant vision. Laurency reports that on two separate occasions, Maitreya made himself visible in the temple. He did not overturn any tables, as the Gospels report. In fact, it was the hawkers that overturned their own tables, as they fled in panic at this sudden apparition. Our World Teacher is still to be found in the Etheric World surrounding our globe. He has not returned to World 43, which is his true home. Why is he located here and not there? Because we need all the help we can get! When enough of us send up energies to call him back, he will make a reappearance, so it is rumoured. Looking at our general self-absorption, it is unlikely this would happen any time soon. There are many groups fervently praying for this return. Some say it is linked to a general council meeting of the Hierarchy that is held 25 years into the start of each new century. I, personally suspect the energy needed is going to have to be much greater than a scattering of dedicated meditators. Something spectacular is going to have to happen that would make the whole of Humanity cry out in fear and panic. If you are impatient to know the exact date, ask a Jehovah’s Witness!
We shall leave it there for today and in the next presentation, we will look at the message Maitreya came to give over 2,000 years ago.