The Temple

A Satsang (Discourse) given by Maitreya on "The Temple." The Temple will be built based on The Greatest Sign. The Greatest Sign is The Sign revealed to humanity through Maitreya. It Reveals the Unity of all religions and Spiritual Truth on earth (universe). It unifies All and Explains Creation and History under One God. Building of The Temple will bring another great symbol of unity to humanity.

2/7/1988 Satsang (Discourse) by

Maitreya

Question: About the Temple -- where will it be, how will it be built and how does it relate to The Greatest Sign?

Maitreya: You can call the Temple the outer expression of the inner teaching of the Mission. As you know, the Temple is going to be built in the shape of The Greatest Sign. The Greatest Sign is the crystallized teaching around which the rest of our teaching evolves.

Even the Reminder says, "We surrender ourselves to you, the words revealed to us through your Prophets and The Greatest Sign, which clarifies the confusion between all."

The Greatest Sign is really a symbol of unification, the unifying force on earth. It shows how all religions have so far come as a segment of the greater truth, that is represented by The Greatest Sign.

The building of the Temple itself, as a building, is not the goal. The realization of The Greatest Sign and the teaching behind the Temple is important. They bring the unity as every person who comes to this Temple realizes that each door, each entrance to the Temple, represents one or more religions of the world, which have come to humanity for the last six or twelve thousand years.

This also brings the realization that if you are a Hindu, a Cabalist, a mystic of the Christian religion, a Sufi, or on any path that tries to realize the universe through personal experience and oneness with the Spirit, you are a part of The Greatest Sign. If you are a Jew, a Christian, a Moslem or from any other religion of the world, you'll find that you are included. The Greatest Sign represents you.

Separation from God really doesn't exist. That's why we don't say any one is separated from God. We say, "There's an illusion of separation." Illusion means something which isn't true. It means something that we imagine exists. Separation is an illusion. So really there is no separation from God.

It's the same thing for the Mission. The Greatest Sign and the Temple represent the unity of the universe, the oneness of One God. Any belief or religion which separates itself from the Temple or the Mission, has an illusion of separation. They are not really separated from us. We don't consider anyone separate from the Mission. They might have an illusion that they are separate. They might have an illusion of, "No, My way is different than yours." They might have an illusion that, "My own religion is different. I'm a Moslem, or a Jew, or a Christian, or a Baha'i, or a Mystic, or a Buddhist, or a Hindu or whatever." That is an illusion.

Of course, Maya, or illusion, is very powerful. Probably 99% of humanity has an illusion of separation from God. And that is where the problems come from. Yet, with meditation and more people in higher consciousness, the more people will realize that they have no escape, they are a part of God. That is the only place to go -- or not to go, they're already there. Just to realize it, that God is everything. We are one in the Spirit. If we're one in the Spirit of God then there is no religion.

God-realization is not a religion. God-realization is to know God, to be one with God. If you are not one with God, then it becomes a religion. Religion really means dogma. In most of the references to religion it's, "My religion is this." What he or she really means is, "This is the dogma I believe in." Dogma might not be the truth. Dogma means a series of beliefs.

Dogma can be truth if you really are one with God and you have a series of beliefs in oneness with God. Yet dogma can also be untruth -- like any belief which separates. There's a very easy way to realize untrue dogma. Like I said, there is no separation in God. There is no separation in Spirit. Everything is one in the Spirit of God. So if someone believes that another is separated from him or her, an illusion exists.

Untrue dogma also is the same thing. It's a belief, or a set of beliefs, or religion that believes that some other people are not as good as they, or they are separated from them. That is untrue dogma, that is religion. That is belief. That brings suffering. That brings all the confusion on the earth.

Yet if you bring this truth, that there is no such thing as separation, then all of us are the Children of God and One in His Spirit. That is the True Religion. This is also what The Greatest Sign, THOTH, the Temple and we are supposed to do. The Temple manifests a crystallized teaching, a Oneness of all religions and God to humanity, and THOTH also represents the same thing. The Mission represents the same thing. The Greatest Sign represents the same thing.

That is why the Temple is built with six entrances. Each entrance represents one or more of the religions of the world. Each person can enter the Temple from any door. But when you are inside the Temple, you are one with all the religions. There is no separation. They are One.

There are also twelve sections around the center of the Temple which house all kinds of literature, pro and con our teaching. We should at least give the people a chance to read an idea saying something against Oneness. Put it on the bookshelf where the people can pick it up, read it and see that point of view also, to see how they feel about it.

God loves people to search, ask and knock. He will answer them and guide them. Of course, a few people might become confused, not realizing how to search and really go to the heart of the matter. There's always the possibility that some people will fall into illusion. On the way to reach the Essence of God there are a lot of pitfalls. Some people might become attached to a person. Some might become attached to their own lives, a negative idea, etc. So if anyone, any system, any belief becomes concerned about those who do not believe their set of beliefs, then they become rigid. They become a burden on humanity.

God is not a burden. God is freedom. God is complete openness of mind and heart...not a complete openness of mind and heart that if anything untrue came, still you believe in it and accept it. He has already given His Words in the Scriptures and THOTH that we can measure against.

God's Words have come in Scriptures. We have offered humanity many Scriptures to which they can refer. They can go to the Bhagavad-Gita. They can go to the Upanishads. They can go to the Old Testament or the New Testament. They can read the Koran, the books of Baha'i or any other Scriptures that relate to The Greatest Sign. If you look at them and remove the confusion between them by understanding our teaching and The Greatest Sign, then they are a very good measure to see -- is this word really true? Is it really true that I have to set my subconscious mind in such a way that I become a millionaire? Or is it the goal of life to buy and have all these things that we watch on television that tell us, that is the goal of the life?

The measurement is, The Goal of The Life is To Be(come) Divine. That is the measurement. That is what I can measure my life against. These people on television are bombarding me all the time, "Buy this, eat that, go on this vacation, get this job, buy this car." Is that the goal of the life?

That's OK. I'm not saying it's bad to have a nice car. Yet, is it the goal of my life? Should I live all my life for it? So see, there are measurements. Although we are open-hearted and open-minded, we are not fools. We are not people who can be dragged to any new fad, or into any new idea or to any new approach.

If you don't have any measure, then you don't have anything against which to measure this information. So you're pulled in every direction. There are so many things out there telling you, "Here, we have the truth." The other person says, "No, we have the truth." Another person says, "We have the truth." Suddenly you realize that you're compromising a lot of your principles if you want to be pulled toward each of them, because you have no choice. You have to fit your set of values in such a way that they fit all these beliefs.

That is where some people are confused, because they want to believe in so many beliefs out there which are not from God. You can't please everyone. Somewhere you have to draw the line and say, "No, I won't believe it. Though this sounds good, I will examine it. I might put it in my spirit for some time, play with it and let it soak in me and my spirit to see what the Spirit says. Is it really the Word of God? Is it really what God wants to be done and is it the way He really wants?"

So each person can search, ask, knock and at the same time, measure everything he receives with these values that have been cherished all through history. Any nation, any family, any organization, any people who followed these principles prospered because the Spirit was behind them. And those values are strongly manifested in the communities, in family love, in the house that is based on the Spirit, on God.

The house, the family, the community which is based on the Spirit is strong. It's a very strong unity. If you have a nice strong house, it doesn't matter how large a storm is out there. You sit inside, warm and comfortable. Outside, yes, there is a storm. You don't care because your house is strong, it's built on a good foundation. If someone comes and says, "Hey, let's put this door in this place," and another says, "Let's stretch that wall that way," after awhile your house doesn't look like a house anymore, it's just going in all different directions. And because you haven't planned it very well from the foundation, it becomes a very weak, ugly house. If there's a strong wind, that's it. It just falls like a house of cards -- just falls all the way down to the ground.

So the Temple is the unifying manifestation of our teaching and because it is a building, it will attract a lot of people. Even those who come to visit will have experiences in the rooms and corridors in the center. They will see another manifestation of a unified humanity. They will come and look, feel, and experience, and they will be affected.

Also there will be many books in the libraries that they can read, search and understand. Eventually, after they read, search and intellectually try to understand, they go one step closer. They go to the center of the Temple which is a quiet place. There are no lectures. There is nothing there to disturb you. It is a place of meditation, a place of Soul-to-Soul and Spirit-to-Spirit communication, to be with God.

The intellect is good. We're not saying that intellect is bad. You should read the books in those libraries. But go beyond intellect. Go to the Spirit beyond intellect.

You enter the Temple in one religion, in one door. You become unified inside that Temple. You have access to all kinds of literature that you can read and use to satisfy your intellectual curiosities. Still, that is not enough. You go to the Spirit in the center of the Temple. The center of the Temple is where the real realization is.

The top of the libraries are built in the shape of pyramids. Pyramids are very intellectual things. They're very sharp-sided, like intellect.

A dome is very spiritual. It's very hard to find any sharp sides. It's very mellow. It's very smooth. That's why in the very top of the center of the Temple, there will be a dome.

So when you sit in the libraries and read, the effect of the pyramids will please the intellectual understanding. When you go inside, in the center of the Temple and you meditate, there will be greater spiritual realization because of the dome that's at the top of the center of the Temple.

Around this Temple there will be universities in which to study scientific facts, scientific endeavors, intellectual understanding, and research and development to try to find out about the universe in the libraries, etc. So nothing is left out. A well rounded, prepared humanity will be created. Humanity is not only the physical, but also is the mental and the spiritual.

So humans can develop themselves in all levels. They will not be developed in only one level. See, anything that develops in only one level is going to be a very unbalanced development. Even if you develop only spiritually, it's unbalanced. You go too far. You sit there in an ecstatic level. If God wanted you to go into an ecstatic level, He would have created this universe in that state. He wants you to see the play. He wants you to search Him, to find Him and to realize Him on all levels, the physical, mental and the spiritual levels.

Around this Temple and the universities, there are the Communities of Light where people who meditate are living. They have their own communities, their own system. They have their own chosen people as leaders or representatives. Each community has their own set-up of how they run their community. At the same time, they have access to all this knowledge.

So you can just imagine, if you can, the New Jerusalem -- Communities of Light, the Temple, the meditation rooms in every community or the community centers. In the community centers there are also going to be lectures, study and all those things for the people who want to go to a deeper level, to have the ability to give Satsang.

There are no lectures in the Temple. In the Communities of Light there are all kinds of lectures and endeavors to make the people realize higher consciousness.

All of these are interrelated, and the Temple is a very great part of the whole thing. It is the external manifestation of our teaching.

Question: What would you say to someone who said, "The Communities of Light sound wonderful but at my age, I'm never going to see them. So what is the value to me?"

Maitreya: Well there's a story. A king was riding on his horse with his company. He suddenly came across this 95 year old man planting a tree. The king became very startled. He said, "This man is not going to be here more than, at the most, five or ten years. This tree is going to take fifty years to grow and become strong and useful." So he, just out of curiosity, went to that man and said, "Old man, why are you putting so much effort into this tree, that's not going to give you any fruit or anything that will be useful to you?"

The old man said, "Others grew and I ate. Now I grow that others might enjoy." In essence he said, "I will plant this tree. I might not see it. I might not receive any fruit from it but others after me will enjoy this tree. Others will receive the good fruit of it and may even remember me for what I did. Yet, even if they don't remember me, it doesn't matter. The most important thing is, I can do this for the future."

What he was saying was, I'll put forth this effort now because I'm not attached to the results of my action. He was completely submissive to the Spirit. He was saying, I'm not doing this because there is something in it for me, I'm doing it because that is God's Will. That is how the universe works. If I plant a tree, in the future, others will enjoy it.

If I put some endeavor in this Mission, the future people will see the results. I might even come back and live in those communities. When you believe in reincarnation, you don't live just for this life. You live for many lives to come.

So, if you say, I'm not going to put in any effort because I'm old, then you're already dead. You have to put in effort to the end, to the last breath that is in your chest. And not that you're going to gain something, but because God put that breath in your chest and you're going to use that breath for Him.

If you believe the Communities of Light are the answer, then it's your obligation to help, join and do what you can. Maybe you have been studying about this and it has been revealed to you that this is the answer and now what you are looking for has been told and fulfilled. It doesn't matter if it's going to benefit you or not.

I might not even see the Temple myself, yet is it going to prevent me from putting my effort toward it? It might take l,000 years before people start realizing what I am saying. Should that prevent me from going ahead and doing my work, from doing the thing that Spirit told me to do? No, it doesn't, because we're not attached to the results of our actions. We do the task in the moment.

You see, you do it because you want to do it, because you follow God. God's timetable is different from mine and yours. See, it took more than 5,000 years for what God had promised to Abraham to be fulfilled for his children. If Abraham had said, "Oh, it's not going to be for me. I'm not going to see this promise. So I'm not going to do Your bidding. I'm just going to stay in a small little place somewhere in the big city and do my little thing."

He had to do it because he knew God. He said, "Even if it takes thousands of years, that's what I have to do now. If it takes two thousand years, fine, I'll do my thing now."

It sometimes seems slow but that's how God works. If you want to do things fast, you make a lot of mistakes. You fall into the trips that push you to the edge, of pushing yourself for something that is not God's Will.

You may come into recruiting people, trying to really get members to the Mission, members to the organization, because the members are not coming. "I am on the Board of Directors, I'm not going to be selected as the President for the next term. So I have to push my people to get members." After awhile the Spirit leaves you. There's no Spirit in that organization.

Spirit takes Its time and It doesn't do for the results of Its action. Of course, if you receive results, beautiful, wonderful. It opens your heart. It makes you joyful. When you see people doing something beautiful around the Mission, it makes your heart sing. You say, "That's beautiful! That's such a Unity!"

If every person brings a little of his beauty to the group, then we're going to be a beautiful group. But if I lock up my beauty because I'm not going to see the results, that is not a good approach. That means that you are not yet submissive to the Will of God. Therefore, do the Will day-by-day, the result will eventually manifest itself.