[In
the last Teaching given at the Chitwan Puja last June, Guru had said that in
order to know True Dharma and True Essence, one must be one’s own
essential self. This simple statement is about retrieving one’s own true,
pristine nature, and requires shedding of the thickly encrusted “human nature”
built up over thousands of years of intellectual divisiveness, to return to the
essential nature of human beings that is of the same essence as
the universe and its Way. Statements of such revolutionary nature fill
the Guru’s Teachings, but are often overlooked or misunderstood by the bounded
mind long habituated to separation.]
Prof. Joan Stanley-Baker
On October 19th,
Maha Sambodhi Dharma Sanga Guru launched his new Maitriya Dharma Centre located
in the remote wilderness of Badegaun in the mountainous Sindhupalchok
District of Nepal. The Guru called for an official photo session,
surrounded by his monks and nuns, and issued a press release announcing the new
headquarters. This heralds a significant new phase in the spread of Maitriya
Dharma across the world. Since the time of Shakyamuni Buddha 2500 years
ago, Nepal is poised to become, once more, the centre of world-wide
Dharmic effulgence.
The
Maitriya nuns and monks now wear robes hitherto unknown in
Buddhist monasteries or convents, of blue and white instead of the
traditional crimson, orange, yellow or shades of brown or grey.
There
is a new banner that is the Maitriya Guru’s Standard, differing from traditional
Buddhist flags. The colors are, in descending order, of blue, white, yellow,
red and green. Instead of Nepali or Sanskrit, writing on the individual banners
will be in Maitri, the language of Maitriya (often spelled as “Maitreya”).
The
Bodhi Shravan Dharma Sangha Centre has been reorganized and is now headed
by a small central committee directly under the Guru’s
personal command. Henceforth announcements and decisions will be
issued directly from his Office, through Jyampa Topchen and Jyampa Ninchenmo.
Dharma
Sangha Guru announced that spreading of the new Marga (Path) of Maitriya Dharma
“begins from zero.” This statement implies that no Maitriyan
Teachings have yet been received in the preceding Age of Shakyamuni Buddha, and
that a brand new Age has begun, the Age of Maitriya. The Guru will devote
the foreseeable future to writing the New Teachings in the seclusion of his new
kajopa (small house) now in construction and near completion.
A
waterfall and a spring here provide pure fresh water, and a river running at
the base of the mountain can be heard at night, as cicadas and wild birds sing
during the day. In this remote and relatively uninhabited terrain stretching
from the valley river up over 1500 metres above, there are wild deer as well as
leopards, cougars and other fauna. For human visitors it is a stunning
environment with clear sunny skies and dappled shade beneath deciduous trees.
Views of mountains in echelon across the valley include small
terraced farms and a few earthen houses. From higher vantage points one can see
the snow capped Himalayas reaching into blue skies. There is a sense of flowing
unity and joy where energies of trees, breezes, grasses and animal life flow
into each other the way water moves in and around fishes in the ocean. There
are ants and bees here, as well as mosquitoes and other insects. It is as if
all nature’s creatures are content here, their vibrations in harmony bloom into
pervasive tolerance and respect for one another. Walking in these mountains the
visitor becomes easily immersed in the overwhelming peace and tranquillity.
Reading
over the Teachings Guru has given the world since 2007, it is clear that the
Maitriyan world is singularly, comprehensively egalitarian and in Oneness, free
from the slightest hint of anthropocentrism where Man holds dominion over all
creation. Rather, Creation and All Creatures are one and of the same essence,
inextricably part of one another. Once absorbed in Maitri, human beings can
begin to shed, like wornout snake skin, their millennia-old habit of
separation, of I and Thou, of all conceptual (illusory) boundaries. And once
human consciousness tunes into Maitriyan Loving Compassion, that is total
identification with all things, everything becomes Maitri. Everything becomes bliss.
Humans can thus be freed from the crippling shackles of greed or envy, to flow
effortlessly like fish in the unbounded ocean, in the unbounded space-time of
Peace. Everything still looks the same, but one’s relationship to all takes a
cosmic leap, because now the universe is one, and one is the universe.
In
the last Teaching given at the Chitwan Puja last June, Guru had said that in
order to know True Dharma and True Essence, one must be one’s own
essential self. This simple statement is about retrieving one’s own true,
pristine nature, and requires shedding of the thickly encrusted “human nature”
built up over thousands of years of intellectual divisiveness, to return to the
essential nature of human beings that is of the same essence as the universe and
its Way. Statements of such revolutionary nature fill the Guru’s Teachings, but
are often overlooked or misunderstood by the bounded mind long habituated to
separation.
These
days on the mountain workers carry 100 kg bags of cement, stone or
beams up and down the steep and often slippery winding mountain paths to
finish Guru’s kajopa. Everything locally available is being used in the
construction of this modest dwelling-cum-study. Workers will then embark
on enlarging the 2 km path down this mountain and up to the next village
across the river, in preparation for vehicle transport of construction
materials for a sizeable Dharma Hall. It is here that this new phase in
the Maitri flowering on earth will commence, where the Maitriya Guru will personally
train monks and nuns in the future universal language of
Maitri. Centuries down the road, these early years of Maha Sambodhi Dharma
Sangha Guru’s Coming may indeed seem remarkable by their peculiarly humble and
obscure beginnings.
And
it is precisely the Guru’s gentle loving compassion amidst the scepticism,
rejection and man-made obstacles that has drawn from all corners of the world
the many very special souls that now form His early International Sangha. In
waves they come, as if drawn from the core of their being to the familiar scent
of a deep-rooted fragrance lost eons ago. As observed in previous reports, they
comprise largely of the types of new beings populating the world over the past
few decades, identified by scholars as Indigo Children, and more recently
Crystal Children, beings from higher civilizations in distant planets who
dedicate themselves to the rescue work needed to help lift Planet Earth from
its current course of certain self-destruction. Gathering at Guru’s Pujas
around Nepal, they teach yoga, give herbal or psychic healing, make music, cook
raw foods, give massages and otherwise dedicate life-energy to the wellbeing of
others. Here on the mountain without a puja, devotees continue to trickle in. A
group from China have come to offer assistance whilst from eastern Europe,
India, New Zealand devotees participate in the construction efforts, or spend
most waking hours absorbed in meditation or chanting.
Metaphorically,
the large Dharma Drum now being built of copper 127 cm across and weighing 100
kilograms, has already sounded, its wakening thunder echoing across mountains
and valleys, reverberating in the hearts of all sentient beings ready to
welcome the Maitriyan Age.
