The Third Seal (Christianity)

A two part lecture given by

Maitreya

At The Feast Of Tabernacles 09/25/1991

Part I

Part I Audio (transcript read by disciples) 

(To Part 2)

We're going to have a lecture today. We're going to explore a wonderful story together for these two days.

Probably you have never heard it this way before, so while I'm talking if you have any questions just go ahead and ask me to explain further. We can discuss it and just flow together with it. If you don't understand a part of it, let me know that you didn't understand. If I'm going too fast, let me know. Do you understand [to a French speaking participant]?

Participant: Sixty percent.

Maitreya: You didn't practice since you left Albuquerque [all laughing]? He was getting very good in understanding English when he was in Albuquerque. You have to practice it.

Actually, you can't learn another language unless you are living with the people of that language for ten years [all laughing]. Really, it takes that long. And still you need The Grace of God to know what they are talking about.

We are going to talk about the third seal. As we know, the third seal is a part of The Greatest Sign, and The Greatest Sign is the Eternal Divine Path.

Let's see when the third seal started. Can anyone tell me when the third seal started?

One Answering: Before the worlds were.

Maitreya: The third seal started in eternity. So God already knew about the third seal even before the creation was started, before He sent His First Begotten Son to humanity to teach them.

The Eternal Divine Path was with God forever. There was never a time that He didn't know about the Eternal Divine Path.

That's why it is called eternal. It started in eternity. It is Divine, and it is a Path: Eternal Divine Path. So it started from eternity, it is Divine, and it is a Path.

The third seal is a part of the Eternal Divine Path, so it also started from eternity. Of course, as we discussed before, and I'm sure Radah explained in her lecture, the First Begotten Son, or the Spirit of God, was projected to the universe and the First Begotten Son had to go through the Eternal Divine Path.

He had to meditate, to realize himself again. He had to discern and understand the environment and how it affects him, for instance, how the food he eats affects him, how people around him affect him, how the shows he watches affect him, how the books he reads affect him, the whole thing.

This is what we all have to do. We have to discern all the time how the environment affects our consciousness. Those things that disturb our consciousness and bring us down, we avoid, or at least we overcome. We come to a place where they don't affect us anymore.

There are two paths, the path of yoga and the path of tantra. The path of yoga is to avoid. It means discipline, to avoid it. You say, "I am not going to do these things because of the way they affect me." But the path of tantra is to go through it and see the triviality of it. You understand, "What good did this do me?" For instance, "Do I have to watch television for such a long time, or do I have to go through this desire that I have?" You come out of it and you say, "So what? That didn't satisfy me. That wasn't it. It was not permanent, it was temporary."

Of course, greater than going through the desire is going through the desire and your wants in your meditation. "I have such a desire, why can I not control this desire that I have?" Then you meditate on it and you go through it step by step. You come out of it and you say, "So what? Why should I go and spend all my energy and time for this desire, and at the end what am I going to gain? Nothing. It is even going to destroy me, my family, or my environment, or anything that I have."

That is another kind of tantric meditation, that you go through your desires in your meditation, and then you come out of them and say, "No, I don't want this. I'll just drop that desire."

So the First Begotten Son meditated, and understood, because The Grace of God was with him. Remember, there was chaos and God said, "Let there be light." That light was really the Spirit of God projected to the chaos, to the darkness, to the universe. "And The Word became flesh." The Word assumed a body, assumed flesh, and he came to the flesh to experience the flesh. Because God was in Pure Consciousness, He didn't know how the flesh felt.

He had to come to the flesh to go through the process and say, "Yes, this is how the flesh feels. This is how the universe feels. This is how humanity feels." Then little by little he understood. And because The Grace of God was with him, he progressed very fast through the flesh, and he realized through his meditation how the environment affected him, and how things affected him.

Because a desire arose in God, because that was the Will of God in the beginning which said, "Let there be light." For what? He said, "Let there be light," so he could help the rest of the universe also reach Pure Consciousness and go back to God. So that desire was in him also.

As he was meditating he realized, "I have to create more people to realize this wonderful thing that I have realized myself." He started reaching out to other consciousnesses. As he reached out more to the other consciousnesses, the other consciousnesses started to progress a little bit, and started to understand what he was talking about.

Of course, it was very hard. It took many years to do that. But he tried. He just kept saying the same thing over, and over, and over, and eventually he reached a few. Some people said, "Hey, this consciousness has something to tell us. Let's listen to what he says."

Anyway he started to attract some consciousnesses around himself who started to see what he was talking about. When they progressed, he was happy. When they didn't progress, he became unhappy, etc. But at the same time he realized how important a proper environment is for spiritual progress.

That's when he realized the communities were so important. As he was doing that, he realized the community cannot be established if everyone says, "What is in it for me only," being self-centered, being selfish. "I can get out of it as much as I want, I don't care what everyone else wants or needs."

So sacrifice, not being self-centered, being other-centered, being God-centered, becomes important. That is the third seal. The third seal is really the symbol of sacrifice. What did Christ teach? He sacrificed, didn't he? He sacrificed everything. He sacrificed even his life. He went all the way to the cross. For whom?

He didn't have to do that, did he? He didn't have to. He could have just said, "No, I'm not going to do that." Actually, he tried in the garden of Gethsemane. He said to God, "Can you take this cup from me?" But he immediately realized, "Oh no, I can't do that."

That is what the prophecy said, that it was going to happen. That is what he had to do. He had to go through it. He went all the way to the cross and was crucified. He brought the third seal, sacrifice, in the Eternal Divine Path.

So really the third seal is the symbol of sacrifice, not being self-centered, not being selfish. What did we say sacrifice is?

Comment: To give up all for the ideal?

Maitreya: That's a good one. What does sacrifice means?

Comments: To be humble.

Maitreya: We can see all these things are related to sacrifice. Of course, sacrifice is something we do in the community, and the community also gives us back other privileges, other wonderful things that, compared to what the community can give to us, our little sacrifice is not that much.

Community can give us our physiological and safety needs, the two basic needs of humans, which they need even to start meditating. If you don't have your physiological and safety needs taken care of, how can you sit and meditate? After that it gives companionship, belongingness, it gives all other things that, if you read Maslow or psychology, they talk about those things that are the basic needs of humans.

It provides all those things, and besides those benefits it provides an environment where you can sit and meditate, not being afraid of other things in the environment that affect you. So community gives a lot of privileges and asks very little.

The First Begotten Son went through this process and he eventually, of course, reached Pure Consciousness. He went back to where God said, "Let there be light." The light became flesh, went through the Eternal Divine Path, came back to Him, and Pure Consciousness became light. "And God saw the light, and the light was good," because He knew that the Eternal Divine Path was good and the process was good.

The First Begotten Son reached a point where he made it. So God looked at it and said, "It was good." That became light and the rest of the universe became darkness. That's what the day and the night means in the first verses of Genesis.

He came back as a human, in the fleshly body, and he became Adam. Actually, if you look at the meaning of Adam in Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian, it means perfect, perfection. If someone in those languages said to you, "You're really an Adam," it means you are really perfect, you are a very mature person. That's what Adam really means.

Adam was a perfect man, a perfect person, a perfect being. He was also male and female. Of course, God created more than one Adam. He created many humans. But the First Begotten Son as Adam came to humanity and became their first teacher.

The first teacher of humanity was Adam, and he taught them the Eternal Divine Path, the Mystical Paths and community. Actually, if you look at any religion, they talked about the community. You don't see any religion that doesn't talk about community.

Every religion, even Buddha himself, talked about Sangha and dharma. Sangha means community. Dharma means the innate nature of the person in that community.

So if you have a community where everyone follows their innate nature, or dharma, that community becomes what? That community becomes a Community of Light, because every person knows what they are good at and they utilize their abilities in the setting of that community.

None of us have the same abilities. Each of us have different abilities. As each ability manifests itself in the body, after awhile we have so many resources and so many wonderful things we can accomplish together because everyone can do a part of it.

Of course, there is a misconception, or a problem, that we sometimes want everyone to be like us. If they are not like us, we feel a little uncomfortable. But as we meditate and realize this wonderful higher level of looking at things, we can accept in every one of us the part that is wonderful. Then the parts that are not exactly compatible with us, we can just cope with them. We don't have to reject them.

Actually, neither attachment nor rejection is good. Attraction or repulsion both come from the lower nature. If you are too attracted or too repulsed about a thing, it is opposite, it is not the middle path. It is not with the realization of a realized person who neither becomes too attracted nor too repulsed. If you are too attracted to anything very fast, you still have things to work on. If you are too repulsed by things, you still have things to work on.

So we each have abilities and we have to recognize that, realize that, and love one another, as God loves us. God doesn't say love one another. He says, "Love one another as I love you." You see, there are different kinds of love. God loves us with compassion.

Compassion is a kind of corrective love. It just doesn't say, like everyone, "I love you." That love of God is different. He loves you with compassion, with corrective love. He can see your beauty. He can also see those parts that can be improved. He loves those parts that are beautiful and He works with those parts that are not so wonderful.

That is the kind of love He is talking about. He is not saying it like a lot of people who throw around the word "love" very casually. God's love would be on a much higher level.

But when did the Eternal Divine Path, when did His teaching really start historically and scripturally? It started after Adam came and taught humans. Later on humans fell. That's the story in the Bible again, that Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Later on, of course, Adam was split into male and female, and eventually they fell. They became more and more fleshly bodies. Their ethereal bodies became more fleshly bodies.

In the beginning we didn't have these physical bodies, we were mostly ether. The humans were directly connected to the Spirit. We were more and more spirit. But as we fell from following what we were told, we became more and more flesh. Eventually we became absolutely flesh, at the time of Noah.

Then this teaching had to be given to the human in a new way. That is when Noah became the first human teacher. When Noah started teaching them about this new teaching, he also taught the same thing, the Eternal Divine Path. Of course, he had to put a new way of rituals into it.

He started the burnt offering. God smelled the sweet savour, and He was very pleased and said, "OK, I'm not going to destroy you any more. Anytime I see the rainbow I will remember that."

He didn't have to destroy the human any more because the humans were so powerless now. They didn't have any telepathic abilities. They didn't have those powers that they could move things around. Even if some humans wanted to show a little of spiritual powers, everyone says, "Oh, this person is great. We have to follow him."

Probably before the humans received their physical bodies, they were more powerful than any human ever was, or is, in this age. They were powerful. And they fell. They had all the powers. Actually they could extract the life form and use it for rejuvenation and everything that they needed.

But what happened to them? God said, "I am not going to cope with this human anymore." They were powerful. So again, we shouldn't look for the powers because power doesn't mean realization, a higher level of consciousness.

He destroyed them. He said, "No, I don't want this kind of human. They have to go."

Then He created us with our third eyes closed, and it became the pineal gland. Actually if you look at the pineal gland, it looks very much like an eye.

So our third eyes were closed. We know a lot of people whose eyes are not open. They can't see anything spiritual. He closed it up because we weren't ready for the spiritual power or ability.

If He gives us a little power, we go crazy [laughing]. We say, "Wow, I can see the future. I can see the angels. I can read other's minds, etc."

They go crazy. They start an organization, become a spiritual teacher and have a lot of followers. But they had just a glimpse of the truth.

So Noah really was the first spiritual teacher of the humanoid, or the Homo sapiens, which were created as us. He started a new teaching. At this time the humans were also split into five different kinds, Shudras, Ksattriyans, Vaeshyaes, Viprans, and of course, Brahmins, which we won't go into detail of what they are now.

But God had a wonderful Plan in mind when He created these new humans. This wonderful Plan started when he choose Abram (Abraham). He told Abram (Abraham), "Leave your country, leave your family, and go to a new land that I will show you."

This time He didn't tell me that. I just ended up in a new country, a new nation, a new place. He told me to do His work after I came to the new country. But there is a similarity that we can see there. He left his country and went to a new nation, a new country, and a new way of life.

When God told him to do that, Abram (Abraham) was a submissive man to the Will of God. He said, "Fine, I will do that." The moment he accepted that, God gave him a blessing, that, "This blessing is going to be upon Abram (Abraham) and his children."

Question: How did Abraham receive this Will of God, in his mind? How is the way he received this order to go and find another land?

Maitreya: You mean did God come to him as a person, or did He come in a revelation? Most probably It came from a revelation. He felt something that he had to do and he felt it was the Will of God, because he was so close to God that he could feel His Will.

The Voice of God is very, very soft, very hard to hear. Even when you hear it you are not sure. You don't know from where it came. Did it come from back, front, up, down, right, left, or where? It is almost not there, but at the same time it is there. But there is a conviction that comes with it. So when it talks about God told him to do something, probably he heard such a voice that he had to do this.

Also we can see something of the Will of God in our situation. When we come to a block, when everything is blocked to us, then we have to seek a new way, another outlet. Eventually if we seek, fast and pray, God is going to reveal to us the way to go. Probably that is what happened to Abram (Abraham) also.

So because Abram (Abraham) left his family and obeyed God, God blessed him. That is how we also can receive the blessing of God. We have to listen to Him. What does He want us to do?

The Goal Of The Life Is To Be(come) Divine. What does it mean to be(come) Divine? A Divine person is absolutely in tune with the Will of God. Absolutely! When you are absolutely in tune with the Will of God, then you and He are one. Your will and His Will are one. That is how you can become a Divine person.

The more you glorify God, the more you will be glorified. The more you glorify yourself, the more you will be humbled. That's the Law. That's why Abram (Abraham) is known as the submissive one, the one who was completely surrendered and submissive to the Will of God.

God even said, "Take your child and sacrifice him for Me." Abraham said, "OK, fine, if that is Your Will I will do that." So you can see how submissive he was, compared to our submission to the Will of God. Of course, that doesn't mean that he is going to ask everyone to do that. But that shows how submissive Abraham was.

Because Abram (Abraham) followed the Will of God, God blessed him. When you obey God, the blessing becomes an unconditional blessing. That is why God said, "Forever this blessing is going to be upon you, that all nations are going to be blessed by you. Whoever blesses you will be blessed," and all that, which has been given him in the Bible.

Also, later on, God came to Abram and said, "You are no longer going to be called Abram. You are going to be called Abraham." Abram actually means A-bram. "Bram" means Brahmin. Brahmin means a person who is in tune with God, or who is a spiritual teacher.

If you look in the Bible, actually you can find a lot of Sanskrit words. Like Shiva, there is a name in the Bible of Shiva and that is Sanskrit. And Brahmin, Abram and many other words you can find that are very much related to that.

So Abram means he is not a Brahmin. "A" in Sanskrit makes things negative. Like "vidya" means knowledge, and "avidya" means the opposite, ignorance. Brahmin means a Brahmin. A-Braham means not a Brahmin.

Although they considered him not a Brahmin, God choose him. So God doesn't look at the human titles that people give one another. He looks at our hearts. If our hearts are great He says, "Yeah, that heart is wonderful, I love it. He is a Brahmin." So although his name said he was not a Brahmin, he was accepted as a spiritual teacher.

But also Abram means the father of one nation. Then He changed his name from Abram to Abraham, the father of many nations. And He repeated the same promises to Abraham. That time He didn't say one nation, he said, "You're going to be the father of many nations."

When his name was Abram, God said that only one nation would come out of him, and their numbers were going to be the number of the stars and the dust of the ground. They cannot be counted and many territories were going to be theirs, etc. But this time, when He changed his name to Abraham, He said, "Many nations are going to come out of you." Because now he is the father of many nations. We can see how this relates to the way things happened later on.

Then as we said, He also gave the same promises to Abram. He gave promises to Abram and then He repeated the same promises to Abraham. Now what were the promises He gave to Abram and Abraham? There were two promises that He gave to each of them.

This is very important. This story is so important that if Christians and Jews understood it, they would open themselves to the rest of our teaching, because this is from the Bible, absolutely from the Bible, from their book, from their Scriptures.

It shows how God already said that there would be two Messiahs from Abram and Abraham. If that is true, and Abram (Abraham) is the father of the Hebrews, Christians and Moslems, then these three religions have no choice but to accept that. It is so important that the prophecies be understood, how God has been unfolding this wonderful story.

There are two promises that He gave to each of them: to Abram and to Abraham. The first promise was the scepter, the promise of the scepter. What is the scepter? The scepter is the symbol of kingship. Kings usually carry a scepter.

This scepter came from God, so it is a spiritual kingship, or it is the sign of the Messiah. He gave the promise of the scepter, or spiritual kingship, and also the birthright. The birthright is the territorial, or material blessing.

These two promises were given both to Abram and to Abraham. So there are two promises. Can anyone tell me what they are?

Answer: The scepter and the birthright.

Maitreya: What is the scepter?

Answer: Spiritual kingship.

Maitreya: That's right. And the birthright?

Answer: Territorial blessing.

Maitreya: Good. So there are two promises given to Abram, the father of one nation, and to Abraham, the father of many nations. The scepter is the kingship, or the spiritual blessing, and the birthright is the material blessing.

Now the blessing he gave to Abram is for his child. Who was the child of Abram?

Answer: Ishmael.

Maitreya: This child was from Hagar and Abram. Actually Abram was from Ur. Ur is in the south of -- that's not a good country to mention right now. Wasn't it south of Iraq? In the United States they are pretty bad guys right now.

But he was from Ur in the south of Iraq. Actually, that part of the country was a nation that was under the influence of the Persian Empire. The Persian Empire, as you know, is now called Iran, and Iran really means the Land of Aryans.

Actually, the Aryans were from North Europe. When their land became less and less usable, they started immigrating toward Russia, India, and Iran or Persia.

If you look at the Indian people in Asia, the northern Indians are much whiter than the southern Indians because the continent of India was actually a part of Africa. It moved from Africa and eventually it went underneath the continent of Asia, pushed it up, and the Himalayas and all those mountains formed.

So the Indian people were pretty dark-skinned people. When you see the southern Indians, they are very dark people, and the northern Indians are much whiter. That is because the Aryan Race, which was the white race, came from Europe, and came to Persia and India and mixed with the natives. The native teaching was mostly related to the Shiva teaching, and the Aryan teaching was different.

Comment: I've been to India and didn't know why the people in the south of India were blacker. I thought it was because the sun was stronger [all laughing].

Maitreya: So they came and they mixed with the natives. They came to Persia, and they actually settled mostly in Persia and in southern Iraq. Eventually they became the Persian Empire. They took over the Assyrians, and that's where Abram (Abraham) came from.

Then he later married Hagar. Hagar was an Egyptian, and she was black. The Egyptian people were black people. That's why the Arabs are darker in skin because Hagar was a dark-skinned person. The children of Hagar were a cross between Abram and the black people.

The child of Hagar and Abram was Ishmael. And the first blessings given from God were for the children of Abram, not Abraham, but Abram, the father of one nation.

What is that nation now? Who are the children of Ishmael? They are all the Arab people.

Comment: It would be nice to have a video and see all that.

Maitreya: Yes, that would be very nice. That's one of the wonderful things about the Mission, you can make so many movies and so many things about what we teach here. There is so much potential.

You can write children's books. You can create movies and things that repeat themselves more and more to humanity, until eventually they start getting this vision and idea, "Yeah, God has already said He was going to send His seals with different religions, and all religions have come from Him and they are unified."

It is not, the Mystical Paths are separate from Judaism, Judaism is separate from Christianity, Christianity is separate from Islam, Islam is separate from the Baha'is. That's why we have such a wonderful thing going on here. That's why sometimes you see I'm a little frustrated, because I see such a potential in this, and then we just go on with the small little details and mundanity in our lives. And we are so burdened with the mundane questions, that I just feel, "So what? You can just drop those, and get on with this."

Yes it is, it is a wonderful thing.

We can see that even Abraham didn't understand what God was talking about, because later on when God said, "I am going to give you a child by the name of Isaac," Abraham said, "Can't this blessing be upon Ishmael?" He didn't believe he would have another child because he was ninety-nine years old and his wife was ninety years old [laughing]. He said, "What are you talking about, I can't have a child. It's too late for me." So he said, "God can you give that blessing also to Ishmael? I know that I'm not going to have another child."

But God said, "No, I'm going to give you a child." Even though Abraham didn't understand it, God said, "I already blessed Ishmael." In the Bible it shows that when He gave the first promises to Abram, they were for Ishmael. Then later on he said, "Now your name is Abraham, your wife's name is no longer Sarai, it is Sarah, and I'm going to give you a child who you will name Isaac, and this blessing is now for Isaac."

So we can see that there were two promises for two children. As we said, one child was the first child of Abram, and he was Ishmael.

We can also find this in the Koran. The same thing was revealed to Prophet Muhammad that, "We will make a nation out of you and a Messenger will come out of thee." Exactly the same promise, isn't it, that he's going to be a nation?

Actually after I wrote down this revelation about the two sons of Abram (Abraham), I found this in the Koran. After I wrote this down, later on, one day I was reading the Koran and I said, "Hey, look, it's even in the Koran."

That is exactly what it says, "A nation is going to come out of you and a Prophet will guide them." Again what? The nation is the material blessing and the Prophet is the Messiah, or the spiritual blessing or the scepter.

We can see that even the Koran confirms that God has already promised Ishmael that such things were going to come to him. So the blessing which was given to Abram was for Ishmael and his children.

Now we will see what the birthright is that was given to the children of Ishmael, or the Arabs. The Arabs are a nation, aren't they? They are from Saudi Arabia to Jordan, to part of Israel, Egypt, all of North Africa, all the way to Spain.

Spain was under the influence of the Arabs for 250 years. So there is a lot of Arab blood in the Spanish people. Even if you look at the culture of the Spanish people, it is very much Arabic, even some of their names.

In New Mexico we are very close to the Spanish people. They have the names, Hussain or Mansor. These are all Arabic names. The style of their houses and the adobe they make, that is very Arabic. And then their language has the same tune of the Arabic language.

Also because of the concept that you can have as many wives as you want in the Arab cultures, it made it very possible that their blood just fused into the other nations because anywhere they went they married many wives, and they had a lot of children.

That's why you can see the Spanish people have a lot of Arab blood in them. You can almost say the Spanish people are Arabs. Even their temperament, their music, and their culture is pretty Arabic. So you can say that even South America has kind of been given to the Arabs because most of South America is Spanish.

Actually, pretty soon the United States is going to be 50-50%. That is, 50% of the population will be Spanish (or other related races).

You can see that Europeans, white Americans and probably the Canadians are all the children of Isaac. New Mexico is a kind of meeting place, and the Mission is right in between these two nations. That's another interesting point that just came to me a couple of weeks ago.

Comment: At what level do the teachings of the Bible and the teachings of Shiva merge?

Maitreya: I wasn't relating the Bible to Shiva's teaching. I was just saying that there are a lot of Sanskrit names that we can find in the Bible. But I'm sure that if you meditate on that, there is some relationship with every aspect of all teachings. There is some truth behind it.

Shiva was the teacher of tantra meditation. He was a tantric meditator. Actually they depict him as a person who was sitting in the middle of the grave.

Shiva was always depicted as a person who sat on the grave where the people are buried, where the bodies are put. Does she know about the teaching of Shiva? [She knows the picture] He had snakes and skulls, etc. That is the symbol of the emptiness of life, all death. The moment we are born, we start dying. So destruction is a part of life. Shiva was teaching that really everything in this life is emptiness.

The most important thing is to realize Self, or Spirit, or Soul. That's the only thing that is permanent. Everything else is temporary. That is the path of tantra. You go through the experience, you come out of it and you realize, "That was empty." As long as you are enjoying life you think that is it, that is the most wonderful thing in your life. But after you go through the enjoyment, at the end of it you see that, that wasn't it either.

Always life and death are present in every aspect of our lives. So we can probably relate that to what the Bible says, that God is the most important thing in our lives.

So as we saw, the first promise was with Abram and his first child. Then God came and promised Sarai a son. Sarai was barren, as you know. The Bible said she couldn't have a child.

But God came to them and said, "I'm going to give you a son." Sarai didn't believe it. She even giggled. She said, "What is He talking about? I am ninety years old and my husband is ninety-nine years old. Abraham is too old and I am too old. We can't have any children." And as we said Abraham asked, "Can this blessing be for Ishmael?" God said, "I've already blessed Ishmael."

But God fulfills His promises. He said He was going to do it and He did it. That's another confirmation. That's another strength for us in the Mission.

Sometimes it feels like no one wants to listen to our Message. People are caught in their own little lives, and those little lives are more important than this Message, this wonderful truth that has come to us. Then we sit back and say, "Am I wrong? What am I doing here? Why is it not happening? I have been trying to get this Message going for how long, since 1977? It's thirteen years since this Message is here and I'm trying to get it out. And it is not catching on. What is going on here? Is God with me or is God not with me? Is all this wrong that I'm doing?"

Then you remember how you received it and you feel, "That sounded right the way I received it. I was guided to receive this, etc." Eventually you conclude, this is a good teaching, this is a wonderful Message.

So the conclusion is that either humanity is not ready for it, or the way we present it is not right. Eventually, however, we come to this conclusion, "But God always fulfills His promises." He said His Kingdom will come on earth.

When we tell some people, "We're going to bring the Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth," they usually say, "Good luck." They are right. It is a pretty tough thing to do.

Just listen to the radio. There is so much going on even in Canada right now. They are trying to pass that new constitution and every province is having trouble with it. They are arguing back and forth, etc. I say, "How can we unify all these people together?"

But you can look at this and say, "Well, God said He is going to do it, and He did it before." God said He is going to bring His Kingdom on Earth and He will do it.

So that is our strength, isn't it? If we realize that God promised something and He fulfilled it no matter how bad it looks, you just hang onto that promise and say, "God said that He is going to do it so I'm going to hang onto that no matter how bad it looks out there."

Question: It's too bad we don't know when [all laughing]. That's for sure I believe that is going to arrive.

Maitreya: Good. But when? That's what we don't know because the future belongs to God.

God also is very flexible. He accomplishes things He says He will do but He always has a reserve, a way to do it. He chooses people who will bring this. He gives the Message and expects them to do things for Him. But if they fail He usually has some others reserved to do it, some back-up for it.

Well, a case in point is when the Quebecians got in touch with us, a gentlemen by the name of Jean was the first person who got in touch with us. But he didn't do it. Six months later, Raymond from nowhere [all laughing] called the Mission. He wanted to come and visit us. I said, "Fine, come." We had never been in touch with him, or sent him any material or anything.

Comment: It's not impossible that God could say to us how many times it happened. He could relate how many times the Communities of Light are going to be created on earth. He could do that?

Maitreya: Well, when I started the Mission I thought it was going to happen in a year, personally. I thought, "What do they want? Do they want unification of all religions? It is here, isn't it? All religions are unified. Do they want to bring the Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth? How it's done is here."

I thought anyone who heard this Message would say, "Yeah, that's it. Let's get on with it." Then instead they wanted to be healed. They wanted to receive money. They wanted to know the future. Who is their lover? Who is the best person for them to marry? Miracles, signs.....

Comment: And a lot of information...

Maitreya: Does he look good? Does he have good hair? Why does he walk? Why does he talk? Why does he sleep?

What has all of that to do with the Mission and the Message? You see, those are all completely irrelevant.

We have to just trust that it is going to happen. When is it going to happen? The sooner we get on with the work and do it, the sooner it is going to happen. The more we doubt it, the more we stay in our little lives and resist it, the more it's going to wait.

So in a sense a part of the fulfillment of the prophecies is upon us, how we respond to Him. It's a two way street. God reaches to us and we reach to Him. It's not a one way street.

As I said, you don't know what the human can do to God. If you think God can do things to us, you don't know what you can do to God. You can make Him very, very happy, or very, very sad.

Do you want to accelerate the timing? This is the way to do it. You have to really see the vision, see the wonderful thing that we are representing here to humanity, and do it as fast as possible.

Anyway, let's get on with the lecture again. The promise given to Abraham was then passed to Isaac. From Isaac it passed to Jacob. At the time of the death of Jacob, Jacob separated the blessings. He gave the blessing of the scepter to Judah, and the blessing of the birthright He gave to Joseph.

So from now on, because we are going to explain the third seal, we're going to continue with the blessings given to the children of Isaac. Next year, when we go into the fourth seal, we are going to continue with the blessings given to the children of Ishmael. But from now on we're going to go on and just say what happened to the Children of Israel and how the third seal was evolved.

The blessing was divided and given to Judah and Joseph. The scepter, the kingship, was given to the tribe of Judah. If you look at the kings coming to the Hebrews after the judges, except for the first king, Saul, whom the Hebrews chose (not God) and was not from the tribe of Judah, the rest of them (whom God chose) were all from the tribe of Judah. He promised that the kingship was going to stay with them forever, at least for the next era. King David, Solomon and all his children came from the tribe of Judah.

Actually, there is a story that eventually one of the blood relatives of King David moved and went to England, and that the kings and queens in England actually are still related to King David.

If they believed in reincarnation, they would have known that the kingship could stay with them even if they were not blood related. But some stories push it a little further and make it that the kings of England are related to King David.

Anyway, later on the Children of Israel were divided into two nations: the House of Israel, the northern kingdom (ten tribes of Israel) which is called the House of Israel, and the children of Judah (the southern kingdom) which are the tribe of Judah, Benjamin and the Levites with them.

The first time you hear the word "Jews" in the Bible is in II Kings chapter 16. They were in war with the Children of Israel, the northern kingdom. Then, of course, the House of Israel was conquered. Many people don't know what happened to them, the ten tribes of Israel. They just completely vanished for a lot of people. Of course, as we explained in the book Children of Abram (Abraham), All Prophecies Are Fulfilled in THOTH, they left the northern kingdom, scattered northward and eventually ended up in Europe, and some of them stayed in Europe and some came to the United States.

But the Jews, of course, were also taken away. They were conquered and carried away. Eventually they ended up in the Persian Empire, and Cyrus sent them back. He gave them enough resources to build their temple, and the Jewish people started flourishing back to their land. Eventually, of course, they were demolished after the Islamic conquest of the Holy Land.

Actually most of the Jews that are known now are the people from Khazar. It was a kingdom in the northwest of Iran, very close to the Caspian Sea. They were the people who called themselves Jews because the people in the west and north were Christians, and the people in the west and south were Moslems. They didn't want to be influenced by either culture. They called themselves Jews because they wanted to be different, unique. They wanted to become a buffer between these two so they wouldn't fight with one another.

Then they became Russian Jews, went to Europe and scattered throughout other parts of the world. Now most of the Jews we know are from that part of the world.

So the birthright blessing was given to the Children of Israel. As we explained, they left and went to the north, to Europe and to the United States. Their territory is from north or from Israel, north of Israel, to Europe and to the United States. So these are the Children of Israel.

And the promise of the blessing or the kingship or the Messiah was Esa. Esa came from the children of Judah, and that is exactly what Israel told them, that Judah is going to have the scepter and the scepter is going to be with them until the Shiloh comes.

What does Shiloh mean? It means Messiah. That means that when the Messiah comes that kingdom is going to be taken away from them. See again, if we understand the prophecy, God gave promises to Abram and then gave promises to Abraham. Then those promises that were given to Abraham will come to the Children of Israel. Israel divided the two promises, the birthright was given to the children of Joseph and the scepter to the children of Judah.

The Messiah came from the Jews, or Judah. The birthright came from the children of Joseph. Actually, if you read The Book Of Mormon, it talks about how the Children of Israel left Israel, came to Europe and eventually ended up in the United States.

Of course, all of them were killed by the American Indians. All these things have been written in the gold plates that Joseph Smith found. The people he talked about who came out of Israel and went to Europe, were the children of Joseph. He said in The Book Of Mormon that they were the children of Joseph. We can see that Israel gave the birthright, or the material blessing, to the children of Joseph, and they are the ones who came to Europe and eventually to the United States.

Of course, the children of Joseph were Manasseh and Ephraim. Actually, Ephraim is an Egyptian form of the name Abraham: Ephraim and Abraham, see how close they sound? The younger was preferred over the older.

Then England became a very powerful nation. It became so powerful that "the sun never sets in its territory." That is what was said, "We are so big that the sun never sets in our territory," because they had so many territories all over the world.

Now then the younger one is the United States, which also became powerful. Although it is younger, it became the most powerful nation we have ever had in history. So they are actually considered (people in the west, just the United States and Canada and this area that is the most prosperous in the world) to be the children of Ephraim, who was younger. And the people in England are the children of Manasseh.

We saw the Arabs also became like the stars. We can see that both promises God gave to Abram and Abraham are fulfilled.

See, we have to go beyond our national interests, etc. We have to see how God works.

If I was interested in my own national interest, I wouldn't be sitting here and talking about Jews and/or Christians and praising them, because where I was born, the people are Moslems, and Moslems are supposed to be against the Jews. That is the norm. If you are a Moslem, you shouldn't be praising anything about the Jewish and Christian people.

But we have to go beyond our national interests. We have to become God-conscious. We have to look at how God looks at the things. We shouldn't get upset when we are talking about these things, if it relates to other nations, or their prosperity, or their strength that came from God.

But it is finished now. With the coming of this new revelation, this old era is finished now. God fulfilled all His promises that have been given to every nation. Now everyone is equal. Everyone is in the same level in God's eye.

That blessing is finished. God made all these prophecies to show humanity that when He promises something, He fulfills it. That is what we have to understand from these prophecies, that He exists. Believe me, 99% of humans don't believe God exists. They really don't believe God exists.

So this event has been given to us to strengthen our faith. If we really believe God exists, that is going to strengthen us in all levels of our lives.

That's why these truths are taught here. Not that, "What nation is greater than another nation, who's more prosperous, who receives more blessing, who doesn't receive the blessing, and who is better than the other person?" Those are ego trips.

We have to go beyond ego trips. We have to realize that this all has been given by God to make us realize that God exists. If we just receive this out of our teaching, we have received a lot. And if we can make others also realize that, they have received a lot.

So I'm going to stop this lecture here. We will continue this tomorrow.
 

The Third Seal (Christianity)

Lecture By

Maitreya

At The Feast Of Tabernacles 09/26/1991

Part II

Part II Audio (transcript read by disciples) 

(To Part 1)

I want to make something very clear right from the beginning. I heard there was a concern because we're talking about Isaac and Ishmael. We're creating different races and creating separation between them. That is because we say that God blessed Ishmael and Isaac, and their children are now all around the earth, and that they were preferred over the rest of humanity. That creates separation and feelings of superiority for them (children of Isaac and Ishmael).

We have to realize that God did all these things to show people who don't really believe that God exists, that God really exists. He promised and He carried out His promises to the end. But those promises are now fulfilled. That is the most important thing to realize about this part of this lecture, that God exists and that those promises are now fulfilled.

That's why the book Children Of Abram (Abraham), "All Prophecies Are Fulfilled" in THOTH shows that because those promises are fulfilled, all humanity is now equal. Those promises, blessings and preferences that had been given to humanity are now fulfilled.

This can be clearly seen if we realize that since the time after World War II, humanity has been going more toward equity and equality. We can see that many people, or nations, who had been oppressed, or were not given equal opportunity, are gaining those opportunities little by little. Of course, we still have a long way to go.

Usually when a process starts in God's Plan, it takes some time. As we say, "One day of God is one thousand years." So when the Spirit says it is going to happen, it is going to take some time to be done.

We can see that after World War II, for instance, the blacks in the United States became freer. They gained their civil rights. Another example is those third world countries that weren't really into gaining their own independence, raised and started to become more independent. The process is even going on right now in a greater degree.

By this revelation, those promises given to Abram (Abraham) are completely fulfilled. If we realize that, these points shouldn't create any separation at all. Actually, they should unify humanity more, under one God, and at the same time create a greater faith for everyone.

So there is no one higher, and no one lower anymore. No one is less than anyone. We are all equal. He who manifests greater fruit is greater in the eyes of God.

We talked yesterday about the beginning of the Eternal Divine Path: how God chose Abraham and his children, Ishmael and Isaac, how He promised both the birthright and the scepter, how the scepter was the Messiah, and the birthright was the material blessing, etc. We eventually reached the point where Esa was the one who brought the third seal and its teaching to humanity. So today we will start from where we left off yesterday. Are there any questions from yesterday's lecture? [There were none]

We realized that Esa is the one who is known in the West by the name of Jesus. As we explained in THOTH, there is no "J" in Hebrew. There are no such names as Judah or Joseph, they are actually Yahud or Yoseph. There is also no such name as Jesus.

You might wonder where the name of Jesus came from. Actually, the "Je" in Sanskrit means "victory," and z"sus" means the god Zeus. So Jesus means, victory to Zeus.

When Christianity came to the Greeks this word Jesus was adopted because Zeus was their god. The Romans replaced a lot of things in Christianity, for instance their holidays, days of the week, etc, and also the name was changed to Jesus.

Actually, I asked many linguists and Hebrews where the name of Jesus came from "Can you explain to me where the name came from?" No one knew. They twisted it and whatever they did, they never could explain where the name Jesus came from.

But they know him as Esa in the East. Actually, there is a temple in India that has a record of Esa, that he spent some time in that temple. There is also a record in that temple that he was crucified in Jerusalem, etc.

So his earthly name was Esa. There wasn't anyone by the name of Jesus at all. That's another thing that fulfills the prophecy that Christ said that they would come to him and say, "I prophesied in your name and healed many." And he said, "I don't know you." They say they healed in his name, and he said "I don't even know you" because they are not healing in his name, they are healing in the name of Zeus (Jesus, victory to Zeus).

So his earthly name was not Jesus, but Esa. He brought the teaching of the third seal.

We already talked about the nations becoming divided and when the Jews came back, they had lost the original teachings about their religion. When the Jews came back from Persia, their whole religion was completely destroyed. They didn't know much about what their religion was, what their Bible contained, what was the Old Testament, what their teaching was, etc. They found a book in the wall of the old temple and they took that book as being their old Scripture.

Anyhow they were so influenced by other cultures that they no longer had the basic teachings of their ancestors. God was preparing the way for the coming of the Messiah. That is when they started longing for a Savior. They longed for the coming of the Messiah. And that is when we see the prophecies started coming to the Jews of the coming of the Messiah.

Eventually, Esa came as the expected Messiah. But there were a lot of differences among people about how he was going to come. There were the Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes and many other different groups who had different philosophies and different ways of interpreting their Scripture, whatever that was.

It is just like watching television these days. We can see so many preachers explaining about the coming of the Messiah and how he's going to come. Someone says, "There is going to be a rapture." Someone else says, "No, there is not going to be a rapture." Another says, "The tribulation is going to be seven days." Someone else says, "No, it's going to be seven months." Others say, "No, it's going to be seven years," and this and that. Someone says, "One day you will wake up in the morning and see the people are starting to go up to the sky," because they are going into the cloud to meet the Christ, and all those types of things. Today we can see the same thing is present as it was then.

So when Christ came, and he was a humble man who walked around wearing a robe and sandals, preaching the coming of the Kingdom, I guess all the Sadducees and Pharisees, all the doctors of law who had studied a lot and were very intellectual, etc, wouldn't believe that anything good could come out of Nazareth. Nazareth, probably wasn't the intellectual center of the time. When he came they didn't accept him.

Also what he was saying was different than what they were taught. That always happens. When the Messiah comes, when the expected revelation comes, it's going to be different than before. Because if it is the same as we already have, why do we need someone else to come and give us the same thing? If these people who are preaching already know what the truth is, why do they need the Messiah? They already have it. You see?

So whenever Christ comes, he teaches new things and all those teachings that are completely different from what the people are expecting. He comes and gives the truth, and eventually he fulfills his mission.

But what was the mission of Esa? The mission of Esa is the third seal. So the number three is very, very important all through the New Testament. Even the name Esa is E S A, three letters. He is the third seal.

His mission also was three-fold. The first thing that he fulfilled was the promise of the scepter, the coming of the Messiah from the tribe of Judah. He was from the tribe of Judah. They traced his genealogy back to King David, and King David was from the tribe of Judah.

Also, as we said, there were two nations, the northern kingdom, which was called the House of Israel, and the southern kingdom, which was the House of Judah. The House of Israel were those who were scattered toward the north and northwest, and they eventually came to Europe. As we mentioned in The Book of Mormon, it is explained that the people who came to the United States were the children of Joseph.

We can see that the House of Israel was scattered from the north of Israel to Europe and all those areas. One of Christ's missions was to gather the people. If you look at Christianity, it mostly spread from Jerusalem, to Europe, to us. He really gathered the people, the lost tribes of Israel under his teaching. So the Christians are mostly the Children of the House of Israel.

This also was told by the high priest the same year when Christ was preaching in Jerusalem, that the Christ will gather the lost Children of Israel. This is another very important prophecy, that if you understand the Bible, then you understand that whenever it talks about the House of Israel it is referring to the northern kingdom.

Comment: They say that the French people came from that house.

Maitreya: Yes. They came from Europe. Most Europeans come from the House of Israel. The House of Israel, of course, was ten tribes. So probably each country, or more, in Europe can be connected to one or more of the tribes of Israel.

Comment: The French come from Reuben.

Maitreya: Reuben. The French came from Reuben? How did you come to know that?

Comment: Well, I've been reading the Plain Truth also. They discovered that the French came with the mix of the ones, it was the Reuben tribe.

Maitreya: Oh great! The Church of God has a lot of good realization about the House of Israel and the House of Judah.

So Christ gathered the people, the lost tribes, the House of Israel. Also, of course, he brought the spiritual message, on which we are having the theme of this Feast, sacrifice.

The third seal is the symbol of sacrifice, and sacrifice means being humble, not being self-centered. That is very necessary if you want to create the Communities of Light. If everyone is self-centered, selfish, and says, "What about me? What is in it for me?" and doesn't want to share and be with the rest of the community, that community is not going to last. It is just going to fall apart.

That message is part of the Eternal Divine Path, and that is what Christ brings to humanity. We can see his whole life, teaching, conduct, and eventual crucifixion is sacrifice. He sacrificed himself for his ideal.

We can see also, that apparently he was crucified and probably his followers felt pretty bad that, "Well, what kind of Messiah was he? He came from God and instead of accomplishing his mission he was crucified." Everyone probably felt down and very bad about it. A lot of doubts came to their minds.

But we can see, as we said, God accomplishes His promises. He promised that such a Messiah was going to come and his teaching was going to become one of the great religions of the world. And it did.

Again, we can look at this thing and see how the new teachings are usually received by humanity. They are not ready for it. When a new teaching comes to humanity, that new teaching is far ahead of them. That's why they can't even conceive what this person is talking about. They say, "You are crazy."

When we tell some people that our teaching is based on creating the Communities of Light and the Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth, they look at us and say, "Good luck!" [laughter].

So we have to recognize that we are pioneers, and pioneer work is always harder. It is just like the first people who came to the United States, or to the West, or to Canada, as pioneers. Was it easy? There were trees and no roads. They didn't know what kind of animals lived there. There were snakes. There were scorpions. There were tarantulas. There was disease, etc.

The first pioneers who founded the United States (I don't know too much about how Canada started) almost died the first winter. We can see pioneer work is not easy. We have to recognize that and that is how we have to pursue our work and say, "We are pioneers. We have to work harder. We have to reach further. We have to be more patient, have more perseverance," etc.

But we see his followers were with him all this time, and he talked about the Kingdom. Then even the mother of two of his disciples was so sure that he was going to become king that she came to him and said, "Let one of my sons sit on your right hand, and another sit on your left," and the rest of the disciples became upset that, "Why should these two disciples sit on his right and left, what about the rest of us?" I'm sure you know about the gospels.

So they were pretty sure that he was going to become a king, that he was going to revolt, throw out the Romans and take over the Jewish kingdom. He was going to become the king of the Jews. Suddenly, not only didn't he become king, but they crucified him and put him on the cross, etc.

We can see that sometimes we have to look at the Scriptures, at how it happened, and then relate that to our own situation as to why what we are doing sometimes seems so hard. It is because humanity is not ready. Yes?

Question: I understand what you are saying about the crucifixion of Esa but what about the resurrection and the ascension?

Maitreya: There are a couple of theories about how that happened. One of them is that you can look at the resurrection symbolically. The third seal, as we know, is related to the third chakra, and our lower nature is the first three chakras. When you go through the third chakra, you reach the fourth chakra, the heart chakra, which is where the higher nature starts. So resurrection is a kind of symbol for coming from the lower nature and being resurrected or ascended to the higher level.

Also there is a theory that he really wasn't dead when they took him down from the cross, but that he actually was revived and lived for a long time after that. They say he taught his disciples for around forty more years, directed them and taught them.

Question: In Israel or somewhere else?

Maitreya: Somewhere else. He left that place. Well, where it was, again is a debate. Some people say he went to the northern kingdom and he stayed there, etc.

So that is why I stop at the end of the fourth gospel in the Bible, and go to the beginning of The Revelation. At the end of the last gospels, between the last gospel and The Revelation, Acts, Romans, Philippians, Peter, III John, Jude, and all other books, there are a lot of opinions from his disciples.

I'm not saying these books are completely void of the truth but the disciples like to exaggerate [laughter]. They love to do that. The disciples love to exaggerate. Also they like to put something into the teaching that is theirs.

So we can see that those books, although they have a lot of truth, might twist the truth a little bit, or a lot.

Question: What is your version? Because you should know what happened [laughter].

Maitreya: Well, it is really not that important. The reason is, understanding the symbolism of it and what the message was, is more important. Because if I say my version, that becomes another theory. But if you realize what the symbolism was, that he brought the third seal, struggled with the lower nature (in the desert), and he was crucified, that is more important than what actually happened to him. It is just like the ego, if you want to resurrect from your lower nature, you have to crucify your ego to come to the higher self.

So I think the message is more important than the euphoria around the Messenger. The life of the Messenger is also important for a lot of people, about who he was, where he was, what happened to him, etc. But eventually the message is more important.

Comment: It's just by curiosity. I know it's not more important.

Maitreya: Yes, I know.

Question: And what is the essence of the message of Christ?

Maitreya: Sacrifice.

What are some of the symbolic things that happened in Christ's life that relate to three? For instance, for three days he remained on earth after he was crucified. He said, "When I am crucified I am going to be raised after three days and nights"

Actually that's one of the things they changed because they say he was crucified on Friday and he resurrected on Sunday morning. He said, "I'll be buried three days and three nights." Can you count from Friday to Sunday morning? Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday night, so it's one day and two nights.

Comment: It said, on the third day he arose.

Maitreya: No. He said, "I'll be there three days and three nights."

Question: Where is that?

Maitreya: That's in the Bible in the New Testament. He said, "For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Math 12:40). Then they say, "He was crucified on Friday afternoon and he rose on Sunday morning." How is that possible?

And that was the only sign he gave to them for his legitimacy of being Christ. He said, "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign: and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:...(Math. 12:39)." Then they even twisted and missed that one. But actually he was crucified on Wednesday afternoon, and he was resurrected on Saturday night. That is three days and three nights. So when they went to the tomb on Sunday morning, he wasn't there.

Again he fell three times while he was carrying the cross. Three times he was tempted by the devil. Can you come up with some threes?

Comment: Did he give the message of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost?

Maitreya: That is good, the trinity. That was the next one.

Comment: The three years of public life.

Maitreya: Yes. Of course, that was three and a half years.

Comment: The three times of Peter falling.

Maitreya: That was a good one.

Comment: The cock crowed three times.

Comment: They always say three wise men came at his birth.

Comment: And the three gifts, the gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Comment: They count fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen generations from David to the carrying away of Babylon, and the carrying away into Babylon until Christ are fourteen generations [Math 1:17].

Maitreya: So there are three fourteens. He died at the ninth hour of the day, that's three times three. He started his mission when he was thirty-three years old, that's eleven (the number of the Christ) times three. Anytime any number is repeated three times, that means it is from God. It is emphasized.

It is just like 777. The number of God is 7. When it becomes 777, when it is emphasized three times, it is really from God.

He left home when he was twelve years old, three times four. Three of his disciples went with him to the mountain. There were three crosses when he was crucified.

His three-fold mission, which we discussed: the scepter, the gathering of the people, and the spiritual message.

He had twelve disciples, three times four (four is the number of manifestation). And his name is E S A, Esa.

Comment: There were three cities that he affected: Bethlehem, Nazareth and Capernaum. You know why I was thinking about that? Because when you were talking about that, I remembered when we were in Israel we visited all three cities. When we visited Bethlehem I didn't feel the Spirit like I thought I would feel the Spirit. It is very commercialized. When we visited Nazareth, I felt the peace. When we visited Capernaum I felt the energy, the power. And I just realized these feelings sitting here when you were talking. Then I thought, well, that's three [laughter].

Maitreya: Now the question, has humanity understood his message and his teaching? Did they understand his teaching? [all agreeing they had not].

He had the sharpest teaching, that's why he is called the Prophet of the two-edged sword (see THOTH, Revelation of The Revelation, Tablet 5, verses 3-4). In the teaching in the Bible of the third seal, the Prophet has a two-edged sword or teaching. That's why he was so sharp, and it really affected the egos. It destroyed their egos and they didn't like it at all. Because his teaching was so sharp it hurt a lot of people, and that's why they crucified him.

People don't really want to know the truth. To tell you the truth, they don't want to discover the truth. I shouldn't say that because no one wants to know the truth [laughter]. So I should say, to tell the truth, if you tell the truth, it sometimes hurts and that's why they don't like it.

He called them the generation of vipers, "You scribes and Pharisees, you don't know God." And they were the law-makers who always sat at the head of the table. They were the most respected people in the community, they had all the powers and everything that he didn't care about. He didn't think about if they had connections or if they had money, etc. He said the truth.

If you do that, many people don't like it. And that is why he was crucified. Of course, that is what he had to do. That's the way he had to do it because God said he was going to give the sharpest teaching, and the teaching of Christ is very sharp. Read the New Testament, it really tears up your spirit if you are looking for the truth. And also it is very, very close to the Bhagavad-Gita.

If you have read the Bhagavad-Gita and you read the New Testament, it's like some of those sentences were taken from the Bhagavad-Gita and put right into the New Testament. For example, "I am the way and the truth and the light, no one goes to the Father except through me," and all those things. It is just like Krishna talking to Arjuna, "I am the way. If you want to come to the Godhead, this is the only way you can come," etc. It's very similar.

His ministry was very short, only three and a half years. That's a pretty short period to train any disciples or to do anything. That is why when he left, his disciples were in disarray. They didn't know what to do. They just gathered together and said, "What happened?"

Comment: They weren't mature.

Maitreya: No. Actually it takes around seven years for any disciple to really mature, if he or she is really sincere. That is why when he left they were lost. Eventually, Paul took over and most ideas in Christianity have come from him.

So he had to come back to bring the next seal. He had to come back and teach them more about his teaching. Of course, he learned his lesson. He didn't go to the market place any more and blast people away. Actually he learned his lesson when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane.

He only preached three years and then, as we said, the disciples were only with him three and a half years. They loved him, and he said so many truths. But after he was crucified, they had to go out and preach. So they started to exaggerate a little bit. As I said, in Acts and all those books, we can see this. What they say is truth, but that truth is also truth about every other Messiah or teacher who came to humanity.

If you look at modern Christianity, they are mostly teaching Paul. That's why I call them "Paulists," not Christians, because they are really teaching Paul and what he taught them. They refer to the gospels very little.

If you don't know the Mystical Paths, you won't know what Christ was talking about. So that's another thing. Also when the disciples went to preach in other countries, the people were trying to change their minds. Eventually when Rome accepted Christianity, a lot of things changed there and also in Greece.

We can see that the true teachings of the Christ were lost. Also another reason for it was that there was a trend of intellectualization of humanity from two thousand three hundred years ago.

Question: Concerning the cross, the crucifixion, Christ already spoke about the next seals to come and the other signs when he was saying, "May I do your Will? May Your Will come on earth," he was speaking about the fourth one. When he was saying to the disciples, "Go to every nation and spread the message," he was speaking about the fifth one. And when it was about the resurrection, God in us and you go to your higher self, to God. That's like the sixth sign and seventh sign. It is already in that.

Maitreya: How did you come up with that conclusion? Did you read it in THOTH?

Comment: I had a flash, like this.

Maitreya: Actually if you read the Scriptures, every Prophet talks about all the seals, but the emphasis is on the seal they revealed.

As we said, there was a trend toward becoming intellectual. And that is where the vision of Daniel comes in with the statue that had a head of gold, the chest of silver, the belly of brass, the legs of iron and the feet of iron and clay. We see that gold was the symbol of kingship, the quality of a Ksattriyan, a kingly personality. Gold is flexible. Gold is precious. Gold is warm. Gold is -- what else is gold?

Comment: Gold is the best conductor of

electricity.

Maitreya: Yes. And all those things. So gold is very precious. It also, at the same time, can be molded into any shape you want. It is not a very hard metal. You can easily adjust it.

Comment: It doesn't tarnish.

Maitreya: [Since time was short Maitreya started going over the rest of the lecture pretty fast.] That's right exactly, it doesn't get rusted. It stays forever. So that head was Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom.

Then the next kingdom was the Persian Empire, which was silver. Silver is still precious. It has many qualities of gold but it is not as precious as gold.

The third one was brass. Now brass is no longer as precious as gold, which was the Grecian Empire.

As they come down, they become more intellectual. For instance, in the Grecian Empire most philosophers came into the light. What were their names? [many answering here, Socrates, Aristotle] Plato and all those men.

Then the next kingdom became the Roman Empire. Of course, they split into eastern Rome and western Rome, and that is why there are two legs there. There is the Roman Empire and the one in Greece, Constantinople. So they became two nations.

But they became very intellectualized. They became a democracy and had senates, etc. All those democratic ideas come to us from there. It was after that, that the world became more and more intellectual. In the Renaissance, the intellectual domination came to its highest level. Of course, with the intellectualization comes the commercialization.

Comment: More advanced for the body but away from the Spirit.

Maitreya: Exactly. Actually, one of the tendencies of the intellectuals is that they are very sensual people. They want to satisfy their senses. That's why you can see more and more the Romans became sensual people.

Of course, there is a long explanation of how it happened. We have books in THOTH that explain how it happened, such as The Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth, Commentaries on Prophecies In Daniel, Period Of Intellectual Domination, and others. So the intellectuals took over because the kings relied more and more on their intellectual ministers. They needed their ministers, their intellectual ministers, to take care of their territories. The wars became more complicated. There was no longer, "You have a sword, I have a sword, so let's fight." The politics, politicians, and all of this came about. So the intellectuals became more and more in power. Eventually, as we said, the Renaissance came.

Whatever the intellectuals gain from their intellect, they spend for material things. They bought things. The commercialism started to dominate. Eventually in the industrial revolution, industrialization became the power base. Now we are in the era of going toward spiritualization. That is why the next domination is going to become the spiritual domination.

We can see that this intellectualization of things also affected the spiritual teaching. The real spiritual teachings of Spirit, little by little, became intellectualized.

Then in the time of Rome, of course, the Romans believed in a lot of things that were very dear to them, but their teaching wasn't as great and powerful as what Christ brought to them. That's why Christianity was accepted by the Romans, but a lot of things were changed in Christ's teaching with their beliefs.

So when Christianity was accepted by the Romans they changed much of Christ's teaching. Actually, they almost accepted Christianity but they brought everything they had from other religions to Christianity. Their religion was getting unbearable, because Julius Caesar, or every Emperor they had, became a god after he died. Actually he passed a law from the senate that he was god. So they had a lot of gods, and also they worshipped the sun god. When Christianity came, Christ was the Son of God, so they replaced the sun god with the Son of God. The Son of God was more powerful and universal, instead of the sun of one solar system.

They changed the Holy Days of God. They replaced them with holidays. We now have Easter. There is no place in the Bible where it says you should keep Easter. Actually, Easter comes from Esther. Esther was a woman teacher who, in the Bible, was doing a lot of things, like bringing fire down, etc.

They changed the time of the day. The emperors had powers so they had a lot of followers, and they didn't get crucified either [laughter]. For instance, they say midnight, and then a minute later it's one minute into the morning. They just said it was midnight, how can one minute later be one minute into the morning, or one o'clock in the morning when it was just midnight one hour ago? The midnight is true because the night starts in the evening when the sun sets. At twelve o'clock it's actually halfway between sunset and sunrise, so it's midnight. But then the next minute or hour is not one minute or one hour into the morning. It has six hours to go to become morning, and then morning starts.

They changed the week days, Saturday (Saturn day), Sunday (the day of the Sun), Monday (moon day), etc.

As we said, the day Christ died was not Friday. It was Wednesday. They changed that to Friday because Friday was the free day. They were free. They had a celebration.

They changed the time of Christ's birth to the time of the equinox. We hear that when he was born the shepherds were out, the weather was very good, etc. In the Middle East you never see a shepherd out in the middle of the winter in the mountains because they usually put their sheep in the stables underneath the mountain. They dig a hole into the mountain and they put their sheep in there to keep warm for the winter. So you never see a shepherd in the mountains in the winter. That shows that he wasn't really born in the winter.

They replaced the sun god with the Son of God. "He was born to save humanity," is from Mithraism. Mithraism is a branch of the Zoroastrian religion. There was a legend in Mithraism. The legend predicted a Savior would be born from a virgin and he would save the world. So that again came from that concept. We can see all these things are from Rome to replace the original teaching.

Now you may ask, "So what? Let's just follow the holidays that are there. What is so bad about them? We can follow any holiday." But God has already given His Holy Days. He said, "These are the days I want you to keep Holy."

Why should we replace holidays with the Holy Days? The first reason is because the Holy Days are from God. If we believe that God exists and we believe that we should follow God, we should also follow his Holy Days.

The second reason is for the unification of humanity. Imagine that we unify all of humanity. Now every culture and every country has their own national holidays. They have their own time of holidays. They have their own days that they want as holidays. Then we are going to be having holidays 365 days a year [laughter].

But if everyone accepts that "Those holidays are all narrow because they are nationalistic, etc, so let's put something that is from God," then we can replace all these holidays with Holy Days. Then only seven times a year we will have Holy Days for everyone.

Also it's much higher. It goes beyond again the narrowness of the individual, the lower level or earthly attachments. Also it is obedience to God. We obey Him. He says, "Keep these days as the Holy Days," so we keep them as Holy Days.

Now with all these changes that Christians teach, is it all terrible? Are the Christians completely wrong? Should we think that everything they say is wrong?

No. When they say, "Christ died for our sins," that is true. Whenever the Messiah comes, he takes our sin on himself. That is why such upheavals start on earth anytime the Messiah is on earth. In the seven seals in The Revelation, any time a seal comes, there is an upheaval after that. It purified. It purifies the earth by being here. So, yes, he takes our sins.

"He is the only way." That is true also. Christ is the only way. The Messiah is the only way, the one who comes and fulfills prophecies, the prophecies which are for him, and he comes and brings that teaching. His teaching is the only way. That is why we can completely forget about any other teaching and focus on his teaching because that is the only way. And that completely takes us out of the confusion that is out there.

If you are out there and you want to find a spiritual path to follow, you will be so confused so fast that you won't know what happened to you. This channel says something. That channel says something. This is from Helios. The other person is from...., all these things. After awhile you get so confused.

When I came to the United States, I just went to the university. I didn't have any connection with the people in the external world. When you are in the university, it's a completely different environment. You are cut off from the world. You're not really in the society. From there I came out and started the Mission. Of course, we told this story at the first Feast of Tabernacles. We went through the story of how it came to me, etc.

I had no idea what was out there. We started the Mission. Then when we came to Albuquerque, boy, these people started coming to the Mission in tons, and tens, and hundred-fold. They just poured into the Mission and started giving all their own teachings, their opinions, their ways, and that "They are right" and "They know the truth."

After awhile I said, "What is this?" They absolutely made me confused with the whole thing. They were talking about this and that, this channel, Kut-humi, the Master K, the hierarchy, and Mr. Hortex, and this and that. I had to really just keep myself away for awhile, fast, meditate, and pray. I said, "What is going on around here?"

And they are confused. I tell you that, they are confused. They are confused very, very good [laughter].

So if you look out there, you can see again that the prophecy is very true that there is confusion. There is a lot of confusion out there. It is true that he is the only way.

Another teaching of the Christians is that "The Holy Ghost is significant." The Holy Ghost is The Grace and that is how you go to the Father." Grace is The Holy Mother in the universe. That is very important for us to realize God. Without The Holy Ghost, we cannot even approach God. She is the nurturer and has all the knowledge and power in the universe. That is also true.

Being anointed -- "If you are not anointed you cannot even approach God, you cannot be a teacher for God." That is also true. You have to be anointed, that's why I said, "I don't choose anyone here. If you are anointed, and you are called, God has already anointed you, and you are here."

Question: That's what anointed means, just being called? Well, because I was reading about it the other day. In old times to be anointed, like for the kings, it was with the oil. I know that that doesn't pertain to us. I just wanted to check that.

Maitreya: If there is any other meaning, go ahead and tell us.

Comment: Well, it was just the meaning they used in the Old Testament, that I mentioned. Their kings were anointed, that's all.

Maitreya: But of course, the king is anointed so he can anoint the other people, as Christ did. He gave power to his disciples, etc. So, yes, that is also true. Hopefully we will become anointed here in Darshan. The energy will get to you, you will become good channels for God, go and preach these Words to others.

Of course, Christ is anointed by God. This really means he has the Spirit of God with him. So if he sees a person with potential, he also can anoint that person. He can give that Spirit to them.

Another teaching is that "He shall return." He always returns. He was the First Begotten Son in eternity. He came as Adam, the teacher of the first humans. He came as Noah. He came as Abram (Abraham). He came as Christ, King David, Prophet Muhammad, Bab, and on and on. So he returns again and again.

In The Revelation it says, "He is the only one who opens the seals." Anytime he opens a seal, of course, there is an upheaval on earth. So that is also true.

"The Trinity -- the Father, Son and Holy Ghost:" As we said, there is Father, and there is The Holy Ghost, or the three creative forces. They are one, and they are Spirit. They are the Soul of the universe.

Spirit cannot manifest itself. It needs a body to manifest Itself to humanity. So when the Father and The Holy Ghost manifest themselves through that body, that body becomes the son. You see the Trinity in unity.

There is one unity. As we said, Father and Mother are like two sides of a piece of paper. You can't separate the two sides, can you? Even if you could tear the paper in two, still there are two sides of the paper [laughter]. It is just inseparable, Father and Mother are inseparable, and they come through the Son. So Father, Son and Holy Ghost are the Trinity. At the same time they are united and are one.

Now go and ask anyone who talks about the Trinity to explain about the Trinity and the unity. They are going to talk about it for hours and still they cannot explain to you why the Trinity is united in one, because they don't know.

So that is also true, there are three parts in God. There is Father, Mother (or Grace), and they come through the son, so there are three in one.

"He has forgiven our sins." That is also true. There is a very psychological reason for it. We are very hard on ourselves and we usually don't forgive ourselves.

It is very hard. If we do something wrong, it is very hard for us to forgive ourselves. But if we believe Christ died for our sins and we are forgiven, if God has already forgiven us, then we can forgive ourselves. So anytime we forgive ourselves, we can renew ourselves by being born again, clean and purified, and start over.

Of course, we shouldn't do that over and over. He might forgive us once or twice, but we can't keep doing it and say, "Hey, I'm going to get the forgiveness." We have to realize that. So know that you are forgiven, OK. With that just cleanse yourself, and with that cleansing we can live clean. That is also true.

See, there is a lot of truth in Christianity that we can look at and say, "Yeah, it is a wonderful truth and teaching that with all the changes, truth still came to us."

Now what is the spiritual meaning of Christ's teaching, the third seal? It was the symbol of sacrifice, we said. We can see all through his teaching and life, sacrifice stands out.

Again, the symbolic meaning of the crucifixion is to realize that we cannot resist the Will of God. See, he was still in the third seal. He was progressing. He was learning about his missions. So when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, "Father, can you take this cup from me?" See, he still wasn't completely submissive there. He wanted not to go through with it. He was resisting the Will of God for him.

Who wants to be crucified? It hurts putting nails through your hands and feet, and to be left hanging there to die of thirst, especially if they give you vinegar instead of water. That is not very enjoyable. So he didn't want to go through it.

He wasn't submissive, but he realized right away that that is the way he had to go. He had no choice. He had reached the point where he had to fulfill that part of his mission. That's why he said, "No, Your Will be done, not mine."

So the next lifetime, when he came back, he brought what religion? He brought the religion of submission or surrendering. We can see the connection there. He learned how to be submissive in that lifetime. The next lifetime he was submissive and surrendered to the Will of God. He learned that lesson forever!

Also sacrifice, as we described, means not being self-centered, being humble, being selfless. With only forgetting the ego and doing His Will, or "Thy Will be done," the Communities of Light are possible. Then also the happiness is possible.

We always think about the self, self, self. It's a very unhappy life. We will not reach happiness that way. But by forgetting self and sacrificing for something greater in our lives, we will reach happiness. Actually, as we describe in THOTH, that is when God Himself is happy.

When He started creating the universe and sacrificing for it He said, "Wow, that's great. I can forget about Myself and My problems, and this and that, and get to something greater than Myself."

Now what is the relationship between the third seal and The Greatest Sign? Can anyone tell me?

See the third seal in The Greatest Sign? It shows that sacrifice, not being self-centered, or crucifying the ego, is necessary in order for the Communities of Light to be manifested.

As we said, the first seal was the meditation, or the beginning of the spiritual progress, or the Mystical Paths. And then we direct these energies toward creating the Communities of Light.

So if we only meditate and we don't direct that energy toward the Communities of Light, what is going to happen? What kind of meditation is that? We just meditate and meditate [laughter] and nothing happens.

But if you direct that energy toward the Communities of Light, what is going to happen? You build energy and then you release it to the community. You build this energy and you release it to the community.

It's just like there was a play that was called "Warm Fuzzies." I don't know if you have heard of it or not. The more you give the "Warm Fuzzies," the more "Warm Fuzzies" you're going to have. The more you keep them, the more they are going to spoil (like the manna in the desert given to the Children of Israel), and you're going to have less. That's exactly what happens to your meditation. The more you realize and apply the wisdom and happiness gained to the creation of communities, the more you will receive. He who has more will receive more. From whom has little, even that will be taken away.

So you meditate, you give the energy to the community and you have more energy, more "warm fuzzies." You love and everything, "Oh, I have even more and in a greater degree." You have an outlet.

I've seen people who sit and meditate. They come out of meditation and they are not constructively using that energy. It is just like having gun powder. You can put a ton of that gun powder here, put a match to it and it just goes puff, nothing happens. But dig a hole underneath a big stone, put the gun powder under the stone and light it, and you can create roads, you can build houses, etc.

So you can see that if you mediate and then direct that energy toward the creation of the Communities of Light, the energy of your meditation becomes constructive. Also, a lot of people meditate and say, "I don't feel anything, I just meditate and nothing happens."

It is just like warm fuzzies. You are keeping the warm fuzzies in your pocket. They spoil, you're not giving them away. You have to give them away as fast as possible, don't keep them. "I don't want this. Anything you give to me I give back to your work, the Communities of Light."

So the third step is not being self-centered, not being selfish, being humble, and that is also necessary in the Communities of Light. As we said, we realize God, meditate, direct our energy toward creating the Communities of Light, share with everyone and become one with everyone. Then the community can prosper and we can prosper.

The fourth point is being submissive and surrendered to God so that you don't get attached to anything. That is the path of detachment. Anything that comes from us, is God doing it through us.

We say, "I am not the doer. I don't take the credit. Even if someone gave me credit, I say, as Christ said, 'Go and do your work.'" If someone praised you, say, "It was the Father who did it, not me."

Of course, you have to become a universalist, to go beyond any narrowness of the mind, anything which narrows your mind. Being a universalist means you have to shatter any narrowness and go beyond it. You have to include the whole universe.

With that you, of course, become a Paravipra and become one of the people who spiritually will be attractive, very attractive spiritually because you are not narrow, or attached, or egoistical. You work for some worthwhile ideal and you meditate. So you become a Paravipra.

Not only do you reach Pure Consciousness but you help the whole universe. So you can see that Esa's teaching is a part of The Greatest Sign. It's a part of the Plan of God.

Esa was the Messiah, the First Begotten Son that God brought to us. As we said, he has come over and over and he opened every seal. So again he came as Messiah and opened this third seal, a part of the great truth, The Greatest Sign and the Eternal Divine Path. That is a part of the Eternal Divine Path and the great truth.

Each seal in The Greatest Sign is a part of the greater truth. We saw that Esa brought the third seal and there are more. There are seven seals in The Greatest Sign. Each seal in The Greatest Sign is a part of the greater truth. As we see, the greater truth is the whole thing.

The whole is greater than the parts. The whole has life. Separate each organ or part from the body and no life will exist. However, parts are needed for life to manifest. What we are saying is, there are many parts in The Greatest Sign, just like many organs in the body. Each organ is necessary for our body to live. But our body as a whole is greater than each organ and the body can have greater life when all organs are accepted and functioning correctly.

Now separate an organ from the body and put it away. Would it still have life? It wouldn't have life. Just take your arms away from your body. They can do nothing. They don't have the connection with the rest of the body.

The whole of The Greatest Sign is the whole body and it only can have life if we accept and understand all parts and components of it. Then it will give us life.

So the greater truth is the Eternal Divine Path. The Eternal Divine Path, The Greatest Sign, THOTH and our teaching in the Mission altogether are the components. They have to be accepted or received in whole in order for us to receive the life. We can't accept only one part and throw the rest away.

Some people tried to do that. It didn't work. Accepting one or a few parts of the Mission and rejecting other parts is like receiving a few organs of the body and expecting to have a normal life.

Can we have only our heart, arms, and stomach and have a normal life? No legs, etc? We can't walk, or function.

It will not work. Each part, however, is necessary for the body, the Mission, to function properly. Of course, some organs, some parts are more vital than others. Some parts, like the brain in the body, if they are not there, the body will die. Some others are not that vital, but they are good to have.

So there are parts of the Mission that are essential, such as the brain. If we don't have it, there is no Mission, no Eternal Divine Path. Some parts are not that vital, for instance, the rituals we give, probably you don't have to do all of them all the time. It's good if you could do all of them all the time, everyday. But if you can't do all of them, do some of them.

When we come to the Feast of Tabernacles, we do them all. At least one week in the year it's good to do all those things over and over.

The Greatest Sign and the Eternal Divine Path are the answer for human salvation, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, individually and collectively.

The Mission is the whole body, it has life. Any separated part, not accepting the whole, will die fast.

The Mission unifies all the great religions of the world. We unify all the great religions of the world and the Mystical Paths. It fulfills all the prophecies. It shows the way to bring the Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth. It brings individual and collective salvation to humanity.

As we said, you are in Communities of Light, so you are given all the opportunities to progress physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, and the Communities of Light are the base of the Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth. So it's the salvation of both, the individual and the earth. It shows the shortest Path to the highest spiritual advancement.

It's the highway to heaven. There is no going around. If you really follow the Eternal Divine Path, and purify yourself according to what this Mission says, you are going to get there fast. It is the answer to all human longings, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, individually and collectively. That is also true.

So we can see that the third seal is a part of The Greatest Sign, and The Greatest Sign is the answer to all our prayers.

Sal-Om!