Maitreya, the Buddha to Come (2 of 3)
Maitreya, the Buddha to Come (2 of 3)
PART TWO: Amitabha, the Buddha of Boundless Light
This article continues our exploration of the spiritual philosophy of Mahayana Buddhism. It is part two of a three-part series. We begin by picking up where the last article left off.
5. Amitabha, the Buddha of Boundless Light
As we explored in Part One, the fixed star Vega of the constellation Lyra is the “Adi-Buddha” of our Solar System - i.e. its ruling hierarch. From within the “spiritual mind” of Vega are emanated seven Rays of spiritual Light. In Mahayana Buddhism, these Seven Rays are personified as the seven Celestial Buddhas, each personifying one of the seven spiritual qualities of Vega’s consciousness.
Each of the seven Celestial Buddhas manifests a vibration, color, theme, and mood. These qualities are made manifest into the solar system through the powers of seven Celestial Bodhisattvas, whose task is to bring the seven qualities of the Buddha into active manifestation.
Together, the seven Celestial Buddhas, working through seven Celestial Bodhisattvas, manifest the Seven Rays of Vega’s consciousness into the Solar System.
The evolving life of the planet is held within the womb of the Solar orb, which is the recipient of these Seven Rays from Vega. Through this connection, the powers of all seven Rays that are within the Sun are made manifest on Earth.
In the life of the evolving planet, the seven powers of the Seven Rays are ever-present, but the planet has to evolve through seven cycles of evolutionary development in order to bring all seven of these soul powers into a state of full realization.
The Sun possesses all seven of these Rays in full development. The Earth, a developing solar embryo held within the body of the Sun, has not yet achieved its full evolution. Therefore, not all of the Rays are fully developed and brought into manifestation within the Earth sphere.
In each Earth age, one addition Ray is brought into development and only at the end of all seven ages will all Seven Rays be fully developed.
Each of the Earth’s seven developmental ages brings one additional quality of consciousness from one of the seven Celestial Bodhisattvas into manifestation.
The Fourth Age, which is the age that preceded ours, gave birth to the Ray personified by Amitabha, the Buddha of Boundless Light. Amitabha, or Amida as he is also called, is the Fourth Celestial Buddha whose consciousness has been made manifest here on Earth, with three others preceding him. In our current age, all four powers or Rays are present and able to be brought into active expression.
Our current age is in turn giving birth to the consciousness of a fifth Ray or fifth Celestial Buddha: Amogasiddha. Given that our Age is still not complete, the Consciousness of this Buddha is still coming into formation; it is still being made manifest through the growth of humans in our present cycle.
In the Fifth Age, the Consciousness of a new Ray is set to be released, but before this takes place all of humanity must first be brought up to the point where it is fully awakened to the Fourth Ray: the Ray of Amida. This has not yet happened for the majority.
Before mankind can collectively manifest the Fifth Ray, it must first develop and release Amitabha’s Fourth Ray of consciousness. Only once this has taken place can mankind then work toward the release of the Fifth Ray.
Amida’s Ray of consciousness is the one that mankind must first bring to complete realization before the Ray of the Fifth Age can fully be made manifest here on Earth. Only once this Fifth Ray is brought into manifestation will the destiny of our current age be fulfilled. Then, the Earth and the human kingdom within it can move onto the sixth stage of its evolution.
According to the Mahayana system of religious philosophy, the wisdom of the Fourth Ray was made manifest into the collective body of mankind through the last historical Buddha to incarnate, Gautama Buddha. Through Gautama, the doctrine associated with Amitabha’s wisdom-Ray was revealed to the world and he symbolizes and embodies its perfection. This doctrine of Amida’s is termed the Heart Doctrine.
For mankind to complete its destiny in the Fifth Age, it must first learn and embody the Heart Doctrine. Only then will it gain the resources it needs to generate from within itself the Human Buddha for the Fifth Age, Maitreya. This forthcoming Human Buddha is said to currently be awaiting embodiment in the heavens outside of the planetary sphere of the Earth.
Needless to say, because of its importance for the destiny of our age, the wisdom teachings associated with the Ray of Amida is essential for us to understand and appreciate.
For us humans of the Fifth Age, the Ray of Amida should be revered as the gateway through which the doors to the fifth Celestial Buddha, Amogasiddha, can be opened and its Ray of Consciousness released into active manifestation. For this reason, the Heart Doctrine should be revered as the path that we all must learn to love and follow.
As Manly Hall explains, “Amida is the Being of the Higher Self, personified as a heaven world of consciousness, in which consciousness enjoys the jewels of its own blossoming.” The Heart Doctrine is designed to awaken this mode of consciousness within the Self.
The purpose of the Heart Doctrine is to attune the consciousness of the individual person (the ego) with the spiritual consciousness of its higher, spiritual Self (the “Super-Ego” or “Sattva” principle). This is the aspect within each of us that is Divine and is a Bodhisattva in the making.
In his description of Amitabha and the state of spiritual consciousness that he personifies, Manly Hall writes:
“As the Buddha of Boundless Light, Amitabha signifies the light of reality itself which illumines - that is, makes knowable to the subjective powers of the human being - the very mystery of existence. This Boundless Light is not a physical but a spiritual radiance by which the substance of things beyond form and dimension is knowable to the open eye of the seer.”
In this way, Amida personifies Wisdom as an eternal reality of Consciousness manifesting forever on the plane of the solar orb. This Ray of Consciousness is eternally there as a state of realization to those who have developed the capacity to become receptive to it.
Those rare individuals who do evolve themselves to this state become “Bodhisattvas” or “beings of Enlightenment”.
Amida’s kingdom is a heavenly state of consciousness where the higher Self of each person resides. In the Mahayana system, this dimension or quality of consciousness is called the Pure Land, the Western Paradise, and sometimes also “Sukhavati”.
Sukhavati references the paradisiacal, heavenly world of myth. In the Mahayana system, it is described as a sphere of karmic compensation given as a reward to humans who have purified their souls to the point that they become receptive to its harmonic pattern in terms of the rate of vibration of the state of consciousness it represents.
In reality, souls attain to this sphere by awakening themselves to its ever-present state of existence. This means that Enlightenment is an ever-present reality of our psychological lives; and the task of each individual is to awaken themselves to it.
The consciousness of Amitabha, as well as that of the other six Celestial Buddhas that accompany him, is made manifest within the Solar System through the being seven Celestial Bodhisattvas.
The word “Bodhisattva” is a compound word that combines the root word of Buddha (“Bodhi”) with another root word: “Sattva”. Sattva means “Self” or “Self-consciousness”: it is the principle of individuality at its highest state of expression.
The Sattva is the true Self or Higher Self of each person (as opposed to the ego) and exists as a microcosm or downward reflection of the Vajrasattva. Bodhi, meanwhile references the existence of a “spiritual soul” or “spiritual mind” whose substance is of the nature of Light and Nirvana.
Through this method of disambiguating the term, we can see that a Bodhisattva is a word that refers to a “Enlightened Being”, someone whose consciousness has been refined to the state where they have become a pure, clear instrument for the transmission of the Light of the Seven Rays. Through the work of the Bodhisattvas, the Wisdom of the Buddhas is made manifest in our Solar System.
Bodhisattvas are usually depicted as sitting on lotus blossoms, this representing the fact that these entities originally put in the work to evolve themselves to an enlightened state in a previous cycle of evolution. Like us, they have “risen from ignorance and, like the lotus, grown up through the darkness of unreality to finally blossom in the light of perfect realization.”
As Manly Hall describes them, the seven Bodhisattvas are the “Sons of Wisdom”. Through them, “unconditioned reality is manifested in varying degrees in the conditioned universe.”
The opened lotus that Bodhisattvas are associated with in Buddhist art represents life perfected through experience. This references the idea that these Bodhisattvas once evolved through a lower state to attain their present exalted condition. In this way, they become the ideal “heroes” for terrestrial mankind to revere, setting an example that each person must try to imitate and reproduce within themselves as they evolve and grow.
The seven Bodhisattvas exist as ideals for us to follow: they represent man in its future perfected state, implying that within each of us is the seed of a Bodhisattva that is still blossoming within its lotus petal.
We are gradually evolving to become Bodhisattvas just as they are gradually evolving to one day become Buddhas: “they are ascending to the state of Buddhahood, their growth accomplished through their contributions to the growth of all other beings.”
The great vow of the Bodhisattva is the ultimate standard by which their saintliness is measured: these entities have forgone their potential to go onto higher state of universal consciousness (“Paranirvana”) and have instead returned to a lower sphere of existence that they have already graduated past needing to involve themselves with. Here, on this lower plane, they offer themselves as instruments through which the wisdom necessary for man’s evolution can be departed to it, ensuring its growth.
6. The Amitabha Triad
The seven Celestial Bodhisattvas exist within the Solar Sphere. Their field or aura of consciousness extends between Heaven and Earth, binding the spiritual life of the Sun with the evolving orders of life still existing in our terrestrial sphere.
Bodhisattvas are beings who have evolved their souls or Sattvas to the point where they are able to manifest the quality of consciousness of the particular Celestial Buddha whose Light they are embodying.
A Bodhisattva is literally a “Light Being”, its Light being the Ray of the particular Celestial Buddha who consciousness they are manifesting.
The Enlightenment already attained by the seven Bodhisattvas allows them to serve as vehicles or instruments through which the Seven Rays can manifest through the evolving kingdoms of Life on Earth.
As Manly Hall explains, “The Buddhas sow the seeds of infinite wisdom in space, and the Bodhisattvas reap the harvest - bringing it to perfection by guarding and guiding the unfoldment of living creatures.”
At Earth’s present state of evolution, not all Seven Rays have been brought into active manifestation.
The Earth is in the fifth of seven grand cycles of its evolution. As such, only four of the seven Rays have been released here on Earth in full, with a fifth actively manifesting.
The fourth Ray is still in the process of being released within the collective body of mankind, as is the fifth to a greater degree of rarity.
Before our current Age is over, both Rays must be brought into full release with the collective life of the Globe. Only then can the sixth age and sixth Ray come into manifestation.
To recap briefly: at present, the spiritual qualities of the 4th and 5th Rays are being actively developed and released here on Earth. The development of these Rays is, from a spiritual standpoint, the main purpose for mankind’s existence here on Earth at the present time.
Of the seven Bodhisattvas existing within the solar sphere, two in particular are held to be particularly important in regards to the present evolution of humanity. These two are intimately associated with the Celestial Buddha Amitabha. One is named Avalokita (aka Kwan Yin) and the other is Manjusri.
Together, Amitabha and these two supporting Bodhisattvas form the “Amitabha Triad”.
Kwan Yin and Manjusri embody the “anima” and “animus” or feminine and masculine polarities of Amitabha.
Kwan Yin embodies Amida’s consciousness in the form of Compassion, while Manjusri embodies it in the form of Wisdom. These two qualities are the Yin and Yang principles of the Ray of divine consciousness that Amitabha personifies.
These two Bodhisattvas exist within the Sun, where Amida’s Ray of consciousness is enthroned. There, “seated upon their lotus thrones, they remain forever in contemplation, deep in the eternal state of the principle which they personify.” (MPH).
As Manly explains, the name Avalokita (Kwan Yin) means “the one who looks down” or “he who hears the voice of the world.” This name is a reference to the idea that this Bodhisattva is “specially mindful of the sorrows, burdens, and spiritual yearnings of human beings.”
MPH writes: “Kwan Yin is usually described as the beloved son of the Buddha Amitabha. He is, therefore, the first begotten of the Eternal, the “Word” made manifest, the Son of Compassion, the presence of the Divine in the assembly of the congregation. He is the patron of the Arhats, Lohans, hermits, recluses, and sages.”
Hall continues: “Avalokiteshwara (the extended name of Avalokita or Kwan Yin) abides in the Western Paradise of Amitabha, where he inclines his consciousness in perpetual attentiveness to all creatures that have not achieved internal security.”
The mechanism in which this Bodhisattva is able to attune himself to the emotional suffering of humanity is through the field of his aura, which extends down from the Sun to envelop the highest and most subtle planes of the planetary sphere, where it penetrates the consciousness of every human at their innermost and uppermost levels.
Bodhisattvas exist in a perpetual state of Nirvana and have earned this privilege: they are beings who have evolved themselves through past experience to the attainment of a state of perfect wisdom.
Amida’s Consciousness is made manifest in the Sun through the experiential quality of Nirvana or Enlightenment, which Avalokita and Monjusri each embody as its Yin and Yang polarities.
As MPH explains: “As the Buddha of Boundless Light, Amitabha signifies the Light of Reality itself. This Light illumines - that is, makes knowable to the subjective powers of the human being - the very mystery of existence.”
He continues: “This Boundless Light is not a physical but a spiritual radiance by which the substance of things beyond form and dimension is knowable to the open eye of the seer.”
To attain Nirvana is to become one with the consciousness of Amitabha through Avalokita, who channels Amida’s Ray of consciousness into manifestation within the Solar System.
The experience of Nirvana, according to Mr. Hall, is an all-encompassing experience of union with the pure, unselfish emotion of Love, which, when experienced, is seasoned heavily with the mood of Compassion.
Compassion and Love are the Yin or “feminine” qualities of Amitabha, with MPH noting that “compassion is the Universal Mood held by the power that meditated the world into existence.”
7. Avalokita, the Voice of the Silence
In Mahayana Buddhism, Amitabha’s ray of consciousness is not only associated with the experience of Nirvana, but also with the afterlife state where souls go between incarnations.
In Mahayana Buddhism, Amitabha’s “kingdom” is called the “Pure Land”. This celestial paradise is also known by other names, including “Sukhavati” and “The Western Paradise”.
This kingdom is associated both with the experience of Nirvana and with the afterlife state where humans who have lived according to Amitabha’s codes go after death to await their next incarnation.
The Western Paradise of Amitabha is mythologized in Mahayana Buddhism’s religious philosophy as a blessed afterlife state where the souls of humans who have paid homage to Amitabha’s qualities will be taken between incarnations.
According to MPH, Sukhavati is not so much a place but a state of consciousness associated with Amitabha’s illuminating brilliance. “Amida is the Being of the Higher Self, personified as a heaven world of consciousness, in which consciousness enjoys the jewels of its own blossoming.”
At death, the consciousness of the individual ascends back to its the spiritual seed or “higher Self” that exists as the Super-Ego: the incarnating individuality whose existence extends over hundreds of terrestrial lifespans, each of which exists as the extension downward into matter of the consciousness of this higher spiritual Self.”
This “Higher Self” is a Bodhisattva-in-the-making. Its developmental process for achieving this ultimate state is carried out over the course many lifetimes of it undergoing Earthly experience, where it repeatedly extends and retracts and then re-extends it consciousness into the Earth sphere in the form of human personalities which it ensouls, vivifies, and guides.
The consciousness of this Bodhisattva-Self is enthroned in Amida’s Pure Land and in the afterlife state ascends back to this level. According to its own degree of evolution, it will be awakened to Amida’s brilliance in various degrees of receptivity. The more receptive one has become to it, the more they will experience this afterlife state as a heavenly paradise.
In Mahayana Buddhism’s religious philosophy, it is believed that those who have lived a life in harmony with Amida’s quality of consciousness can experience, at the moment of death, the Amida Ray through the form of the Bodhisattva Kwan Yin (Avalokita).
This encounter takes form as a profound and enlightening mystical experience, where the blessed Avalokita guides you into a glorious afterlife cycle, where you will await your next future incarnation in a state of spiritual bliss or Nirvana.
Kwan Yin embodies the gentle wisdom of Amitabha’s Love. This Love is, “simply put, a pure emotion that symbolizes the longing of parts to return to union with the whole.” This is the mood that permeates heaven and makes the existence of the Pure Land possible.
Amida’s Love principle is something we experience in everyday life through the love we share with each other. This love is, at its core, “an objectification of this inner primordial spiritual longing of Amida.”
8. Manjusri, the Alchemist
The great vow of Kwan Yin and Manjusri is the Vow of the Bodhisattva, which is the vow that the fully evolved soul makes in renouncing their right to absorption into a higher state of spiritual existence (“Paranirvana”) so that they may come back and selflessly offer themselves as a vehicle through which the Wisdom of the Seven Rays can be made manifest to a younger cohort of still-evolving souls who require its Wisdom for their nourishment and development.
The seed of the Bodhisattva-Self is within each of us; Kwan Yin reveals this to us through the mystical experience of Nirvana. Nirvana is the experience of the lower self coming into conscious communions with the higher spiritual Self.
But the evolution of this higher spiritual Self is not complete until our inner Manjusri has been brought into a state of complete realization and full release.
Once cultivated, Manjusri gives the individual the strength and courage to make that final great leap into the Paranirvana of a yet greater and more complete state of realization and enlightenment.
In astronomical terms, Kwan Yin propels the individual into the realization of the solar Self, but Manjusri takes us one step beyond into the realization of the spiritual consciousness of Vega, the Father-Star - the “Vajrasattva” of our system.
Manjusri is the seed-potential of an inner Adept that exists within each of us.
This Adept-Self or “Bodhisattva-Self” is the alchemist, the sage, and the initiator. For Carl Jung, he was Philemon: the personification of Wisdom in the form of the archetype of a "Wise One” existing deep within the unconscious dimensions of our psyche.
Representing the intellectual aspect of the higher Mind rather than its emotional aspect (which is what Kwan Yin represents), Manjusri, like Hermes, is said to be the author of all books, the writer of all symbols, and the source of all knowledge.
Behind Manjusri’s use of exoteric symbolism is veiled the Esoteric Doctrine and its knowledge concerning “the mystery of the ever-becoming of Wisdom.”
This references the mystic, tantric, meditational aspect of the philosopher’s path: the level where intellect fades out into a greater, mysterious state of “pure knowing”. This is the state of Nirvana associated with the Bodhisattva-Self.
So Manjusri is the patron of both the philosopher-scholar and the mystic-Adept. He symbolizes both the intellectual and the magical aspects of the Doctrine and is considered the embodiment of perfect wisdom perfectly realized.
The dual nature of Manjusri - the mystic and the intellect - is represented by the two objects he is often depicted as carrying: a sword and a book.
As MPH explains, Manjusri is depicted in religious artwork as “carrying in one hand the flaming sword of detachment, while in the other, the peculiar symbol of the intellect: a book supported in the heart of a lotus blossom.”
He continues: “Manjusri, in his realization as Mind, ponders the mystery of life. Here he represents the Self as the seeker; realization moving toward the thing to be realized.” But on the other hand, this Bodhisattva also represents the achievement of realization: “This Bodhisattva, in the doctrines of Lamaism, is the lord of magic, astrology, oracles, incantations, and charms. It conjures up the worlds, and then with its flaming sword destroys the very phenomenal universe it has engendered.”
Through the Doctrine he personifies, Manjusri raises the philosopher and perfects the Adept. He is that principle that propels us forward toward the ultimate Wisdom of Absolute Unity: "He carries in his hand the sword of quick detachment, and men recognize their nearness to his essence when they hear the sweet voice of inner guidance. The path of Wisdom is through him, through the dream to the Great Awakening.”
While Avalokita’s voice is that of the “Silence”, Manjusri’s is that which speaks within us to guide us towards the realization of the Great Work we are destined for.
Manjusri represents the seed-Archetype of the Great Work. This spiritual seed already exists within us as the “spiritual Self”, which is above the Earth sphere, incarnating personalities into it. The voice of this inner Self speaks to us and directs us toward our destiny though its “sweet voice”.
Our task is to awaken ourselves to the guidance of this inner Bodhisattva so that we may cultivate and manifest its consciousness fully within our personalities. This is the task that the higher spiritual Self within us is seeking to fulfill over the course of hundreds of lifecycles.
The great alchemical Work is the accomplishment of the complete integration of the Higher Self with its lower bodily vehicle within the course of one lifespan.
The Adept is an individual from the present life wave who has evolved themselves to the point where they have become a fully conscious realization of the Higher Self. In this way, they become objective realizations of the Bodhisattva-ideal.
Within the soul of the Adept (often called an “Arhat” in Buddhism), the Great Work is accomplished. With this integration, the lower self rises to a state of union with the higher Self and thereby attains to a state of immortality, meaning that its consciousness no longer suffers from the attachments that bind it to the cycle of birth and death.
In this state, the human becomes complete: by becoming at-one with their higher Bodhisattva-Self - they become the realization of the Bodhisattva-archetype that exists as a seed potential within each of us.
Avalokita leads you through the heart to the awakening of this higher Self, and after that the “sweet voice” of Manjusri will guide you to the final attainment and liberation.
We participate in the archetype of Manjusri in our daily lives by participating in relationship of teacher-and student. As Manly Hall explains, the archetype of Manjusri’s “sweet voice” is felt in public life as “the speech of the teacher-father-brother-friend. It impels through a secret desire to only do good and to do it lovingly and simply.”
When we become the student of a greater teacher or the teacher to a lesser student, we participate in the archetype of Manjusri. He is the archetypal guru within each of us trying to teach the disciple, which is the lower, animal-nature of the human psyche.
Manly Hall describes Manjusri’s influence within us as “the courage to relax away from the illusion of existence and to live for causes, not effects.”
This represents the courage to live according to Law with absolute conviction. This is the kind of courage you need to follow the path of the initiate - a path that will take you eventually to that final step beyond the mystery of birth and death.
According to MPH, this form of courage is “the final courage, which is to place everything in the Law and be content.” In psychological terms, this is the courage of the ego to release itself to the complete authority of the Super-Ego: the Higher Self within.
9. A Philosophy of Synthesis
Before moving on, let’s pause and summarize the essential ideas behind the Amitabha Triad, which is comprised of:
Amitabha, the Celestial Buddha of Boundless Light;
Avalokita, the Bodhisattva of Compassion; and
Manjusri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom.
Ultimately, the three entities in this Trinity pertain to a doctrine of synthesis: one complete idea or quality within the Divine Mind (Amitabha) manifests through the perfect equilibrium between two opposing principles, one Yang (Manjusri) and one Yin (Avalokita).
In Taoism, this exact pattern of thinking is presented in their doctrine of the “Tao”, with Tao defined as the eternal fact of equilibrium that forever synthesizes Yin and Yang, keeping the two always one.
Manly Hall expands on this idea: “In the religious philosophy of Asia, all of the divinities, with the exception of the Supreme Power, the Absolute itself, are represented as twofold. Each of the masculine divinities has its attendant female energy which is called the shakti, or goddess, or consort. This is to remind the disciple that every intellectual impulse must have its equivalent emotional reflex. All that flows out must flow back. All that comes forth must return. All that is learned must be used. All that is believed must be proved. All that is possessed must in time possess. Everywhere the Law operates through a balanced triad of energies—the Law, its operation, and its reaction.
In the Amitabha Triad, Wisdom (truth; love) rules over Strength (wisdom; courage) and Beauty (faith; compassion).
In this way, Amitabha manifests through our consciousness via its two soul powers which represent its anima and animus and are personified by the Bodhisattvas Avalokiteshvara and Manjusri.
Here, the anima represents the emotional extension of realization and is personified by the bodhisattva Avalokita. The animus represents the intellectual extension of realization and is personified by Manjusri.
In more qualitative terms, we can say that Amitabha symbolizes Love, which is the absolute ruler of everything that exists. Compassion and wisdom serve this Love, “bringing all living things in the end to that ultimate good which true Love must naturally desire for everything that it loves.”
Here we see that wisdom and compassion are complimentary polarities of each other: they work together to propel the individual upward toward the complete realization of Amida-consciousness.
As Manly Hall explains, “Manjusri impels consciousness to search for Truth through the discovery of Self. Avalokita, meanwhile, seeks to forget itself in the service of others.”
These work together: the search for universal enlightenment, the path that Manjursi embodies, directs consciousness towards the path of service, the path that the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Avalokita, so beautifully personifies.
From a spatial standpoint, Manly Hall notes that Avalokita represents centripetal motion, implying motion from the outside in, while Manjusri represents centrifugal motion, or motion from the inside out.
According to Buddhism’s Heart Doctrine”, the path to Enlightenment first requires one to move from the superficial level of the ego to the inner realization of the Self. This is the path of the Heart that Kwan Yin personifies.
This path is one in which emotional impulses are gradually “sublimated” and perfected into the pure principle of emotion (compassion; love) that Avalokita represents.
Only once a connection with the inner Self has been made (i.e. the path of Kwan Yin has been fulfilled), one then moves onto the Wisdom-path of the Bodhisattva Manjusri, which is the path of the higher intellect.
Intellect without a purified heart will not lead you to the ultimate realization of truth. The purification that Amitabha provides clarifies truths and priorities for the individual and provides him with the faculty of discrimination, where, presented with options, he will intuitively choose that which aligns with Truth because he has experienced this Truth and knows it.
In alchemical terms, Manjursi is the Sun, Avalokita is the Moon, and it is the task of the Adept to bring these two principles into a state in which they are equilibrated together while also brought into full and complete expression as individual principles within the soul.
To Mahayana Buddhists, the historical Buddha Gautama personifies the Adept: the individual who rises from the present life wave to synthesize the solar and lunar principles within themselves and thereby attains to the state of the Bodhisattva.
Gautama Buddha personifies the individual who perfectly embodies on Earth the archetype of the Ray of Wisdom that Avalokita embodies within the sphere of the Sun.
Through Gautama, his Doctrine, and his Sangha (or his School or Church), this Ray was released into the outer body of mankind. Through the other world teachers of the age (Pythagoras, etc.) the other six Rays were also brought into outward manifestation.
Together these teachers and schools and the doctrines they established have worked to catalyze a major evolutionary progression within the collective life of mankind.
As Philosophy evolves through the current age, mankind evolves with it. Gradually, as more of mankind is elevated, more of the Doctrine is revealed to it.
Gradually the full existence of the Sangha, the Doctrine, and the Teacher is revealed to the outer body of mankind so that all may be saved by its Light.
We are fast approaching a point in which philosophy is being prepared to enter into a new evolutionary phase, with a new level of revelation set to accompany it. This will catalyze another major forward motion in the collective body of man.
Over the course of the Piscean Age, Philosophy has gone through many progressions and developments, the revelations of the tantric and mandala systems of meditation circa the 12th century being one example and the revelation of the ”New Method” for applying Philosophy of Science by Lord Francis Bacon in the early 17th century being another.
We are in desperate need today of a new progression of the Doctrine and a new revelation of Light that it will bring. According to Mahayana Buddhism, this progression will come in the form of Maitreya, the Buddha to come. It is to this topic that we will turn in the third and final part of this series.
