So, how does the passion of the Christ, where he felt the wieght of the sins of the whole world, and was being made a scape goat, translate into Buddhism? How does salvation in Christian terms overlay on Buddhism or Eastern thought in general? For example, the mechanism of salvation- the believing, or having faith in Christ as the mechanism of salvation...how does that translate into Buddhist terms?
Chris
In rule Nine of
A Treatise on White Magic, one Master (of the Fifth Degree) offers the following explanation. He gives a brief description of the FOUR kinds of forms with which Humanity, the FOURTH Kingdom in nature has to deal, in this - the
FOURTH cycle, and most *material* point in our Spiritual Involution-Evolution. Please note, the
ARHAT Initiation, which both Jesus of Nazareth
and also Jiddu Krishnamurti (!) underwent ... is also, the FOURTH.
The Occult significance of this, already, even to a *blind* man - may begin to take on obvious weight. Master DK enumerates the four types of forms under consideration as
- The Form of the Personality
- The Form of the Environment
- The Form of the Devotee
- The Form of the Causal Body [or, reincarnating `Soul,']
The full descriptions for these can be found online,
here. My first go at your questions, Chris, would be to look at what is said about #2, in contrast to #4:
2. The Form of the Environment. This is really the evolutionary working out of the involutionary group soul. It relates to our contacts, not just exterior, but on the inner planes as well. In similarity of vibration comes coherency. When therefore a man raises his vibration and builds anew from the beginning, and alters consequently his key, it results in dissonance in his surroundings and subsequent discord. Therefore - under the law - there comes always to the striver after the Mysteries and the manipulator of the law, a period of aloneness and of sorrow when no man stands by and isolation is his lot. In lesser degree this comes to all, and to the arhat (or initiate of the fourth degree) this complete isolation is a characteristic feature. He stands midway between life in the three worlds and that in the world of adepts. His vibration does not synchronize, prior to initiation, with the vibrations of either group. Under the law he is alone. But this is only temporary. When the environment satisfies then is the moment of anxiety; it indicates stagnation. The application of the law causes primary disruption.
4. The Form of the Causal Body. This is the vehicle of the higher consciousness, the temple of the indwelling God, which seems of a beauty so rare and of a stability of so sure a nature that, when the final shattering comes of even that masterpiece of many lives, bitter indeed is the cup to drink, and unutterably bereft seems the unit of consciousness. Conscious then only of the innate Divine Spirit, conscious only of the Truth of the Godhead, realizing profoundly and to the depths of his being the ephemeral nature of the form and of all forms, standing alone in the vortex of initiatory rites, bereft of all on which he may have leant (be it friend, Master, doctrine or environment), well may the Initiate cry out: "I am that I am, and there is naught else." Well may he then figuratively place his hand in that of his Father in Heaven, and hold the other out in blessing on the world of men, for only the hands that have let slip all within the three worlds are free to carry the ultimate blessing to struggling humanity. Then he builds for himself a form such as he desires, - a new form that is no longer subject to shattering, but suffices for his need, to be discarded or used as occasion warrants.
If we pursue this line, we find much said about
this new form which the High Initiate Jesus was in the process
of building, throwing plain light on the words:
"Touch me not, as I am not yet ascended unto my Father."
Meanwhile, compare with this experience of the Initiate Jesus, the words of
Christed Jesus, here with commentary from Alice Bailey, rather than the Master DK:
The third initiation, that of the Transfiguration, testified to the fact of the at-one-ment which Christ made between soul and body. Integration was complete, and the consequent illumination was made apparent to His disciples. He appeared before them as Son of Man and Son of God, and having proved to them Who He was, He faced the death which lay ahead of Him, and the intervening service.
In the fourth initiation, He demonstrated this integration not only as God-Man, but as the One Who enfolded in His consciousness the entire world of men. He unified Himself with humanity, and portrayed the effectiveness of that divine energy which enabled Him to say in truth, "I, if I be lifted up from the Earth, will draw all men unto Me." (St. John, XII, 32.) He was lifted up between Earth and Heaven, and for two thousand years these words of His have stood unchallenged. (emphasis added)
These excerpts are from the book
From Bethlehem to Calvary, in which Alice Bailey provides her
own understanding of Christ's Love, and of the life of Jesus. Her approach is as of someone with a Christian background, who later met her own Master
in the flesh.
Alice knew her Teacher by one of his eastern names, though she mistook him for long years as Jesus, since no room existed in her Christian upbringing for any other possibility. I would like to confirm, along with Alice and hundreds,
thousands of others, that such room can safely be made without
displacing the Christ, as He is,
or His centrality to the Christian religion. I have met arhats, in the flesh, and KNOW them to be a reality. These are men, and
women, of the same attainment as Jesus (2000 years ago), and of Krishnaji in 1925, who are alive and well, in the world today.
You would not know an arhat by casual observance. They do not wear signs that advertise their
abilities, or
advanced evolutionary status, since their goal is Service. This becomes impossible, if thronged by the masses, seeking cures for every ill, panaceas for toothaches, and special presentations of the same Wisdom that is Universally available,
regardless of a person's tradition, location, or outward circumstances - IF that person's aspiration is pure, and their intention sincere.
All this, I can testify to, or
Witness as Truth, from my direct experience, my perception and experience, as well as what *still* represents to me the
Ideals toward which I strive, neither as Buddhist, nor Christian, nor Theosophist ... but simply as
one who has heard. The Christ in me, bears witness to the authenticity of my message, as I do not borrow every line from another source, or need to resort to any other authority for my Inspiration.
If it comes from God, it must first come from within. Even if a measure of the Christ Light and Love flashes forth, it is not because I first look OUTward
, in seeking this illumination and inspiration. Either I must first acknowledge the seed, the potential, which God has planted in me, when He created me in His own image ... or it is *useless* to look elsewhere, outward, and expect to find it in any Avatar, any Holy Man, any Christ, Buddha or Savior.
When one's feet are planted firmly on this Ground, the Truth of our Being
established *in* Godhead, while not yet having attained fully to our GodHOOD, as has Christed Jesus ... it will not matter by what authority another person may seek to strip away our
presentation, or persona. S/he cannot stand on this same Ground, and yet call us a liar, or tell us that what we speak is not of God.
However, as this Ground is not simply that out of which my own
rootedness in the Divine has been provided, nurtured and caused to
*begin* to flower forth ... the Buddhist, or person of another mindset, or approach to God's Teachings and Wisdom, may wish to demonstrate that
equally well rooted are people of other faiths, other traditions, to whom and which Saviors, Buddhas, and Christs have come. And *not* simply because "we received a Divine Manifestation over here" does our fellow man have the authority to present his experiences and testity to their significance.
It is
because, just as our feet (can be) firmly planted on, or rooted in, God's rich, fertile SOIL ... SO TOO, can every other person's. This is our Blessing, through God's Grace, that He has seen fit to deny NO MAN entrance to His Kingdom,
and least of all, to allow any one man ... to hold the keys of passage which EACH of us holds, having been presented these for safekeeping, by and tom,
Christ within. {Enter Mysticism}
Every one of us, is a Fortress of the very Strength,
in potentio, of God the Father. Our demonstration of this spiritual power, it turns out, has
everything to do ... with how well we are able to show forth the same
Unconditional Love, shared unreservedly throughout the entire Family of Man, as from Brother unto Brother, and even as realized in the closest of human relationships - that between Mother, and Her most wonderful child. 
Unto those whom much is given, much is expected. This is not because God is unfair or plays favorites, but because those who have this greater Responsibility have
earned it, and in order to preserve Divine Balance,
MUCH must be given. This is the true explanation, as best we might be able to comprehend it with the Intellect, of why the Heart continues to give, and give, and give ...
even when this remains the very last centre of vital force, or organ, supporting the life, of one man - yielding His all, for God's Truths, God's Plan, and God's Purpose ... as even the closest, admit their dismay, disbelief, and disheartentment.
He dies. He dies, even daily, because in preparation, he must be ready to
BE this God, which the people have created, as they seek to understand themselves, each other, and the purpose for their being. He does not
assume any role that he has not already. The Arhat becomes, because of his experience -
Death - the ending of the forms of the environment, as he has allowed himself to unwittingly support them (in their illusory nature, the Buddhist view provides). His role in not a
new one, assumed from without, but the willingness, and the recognition, from
Within, that as the Spark of Heat, of Light, of Sound,
and more -
His own truest Identity is *not other than* the
Identity which has been foisted upon him:
G-D, the Divine, the Most Holy, and even,
The HIGHEST.
Now what is left? If he has died to the illusion of ego, of self (
a thoroughly Buddhist conception, teaching and understanding), what can be left? Not the death of the body, he now knows
objectively the continuity of his own former existences, and can verify those of any being, within reason, whom he examines. The physical body, along with the
Lotus itself (the Causal body, or Soul) may become shattered, as is the case for many an arhat in ages past, but
did not Christ Jesus *rebuild* the Temple
*not made with human hands* in three days time? This is mentioned in the very beginning of this post, in quotation.
The goal of spirtual evolution which occupies an Arhat's focus as he prepares for the 5th Initiation (
Adeptship, total Self-Mastery), is just that. Nothing of what we think of as
"personality," or `Ego,' still remains. Identity, however, is a Mystery which has not yet fully been revealed. Knowing that *Identity* is not different (non-dual) than God's own, in no way means that we have
Attained to what God intends for us, even as Individuals, as uniquely focused representations of the Divine Self-Consciousness, still
called into Being, or cyclic incarnation, by the cry of the World Soul.
Most of us, like myself, are pretty well caught up in the samsara, are we not? Aspirants to the Mysteries, perhaps, or aware of some of the teachings, especially fortunate if we have had the good sense to
practice what has been given, lest our much more humble responsibilities
(arghhh, ) be diminished even more so, that we may at least make Good on the tiny task(s), which we have been given.
Ego, a projection of the Soul into space and time, is not, in the last analysis, an
Illusion, or
Dream, in the sense that it does not exist whatsoever, or have any rooting in the great Ground of Being. Rather, it is something like a really, really funny
Joke, and it's on US, because neither are we
who we thought we were (we are much, much more, yet also, perhaps, a bit less), nor
what. One might even be left with a sense of,
So we're really all just the same wacked-out, crazy Veteran Cosmic Rocker,
staring at ourself in a room full of mirrors. Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah!
Oh yeah, God's the Biker, as in in Zen and the Art of - ... or again, whoooo! What a long, strange trip it's ... or perhaps just, The Answer my friend, is blowin in the
W-
Just keep ol' Timothy's hands off the channel knob, and usually it's a bit easier to keep pace with the Divine Tempo, cadence, rhythm, pulse ...
Heartbeat, ahh, Music!!!
Usually metaphors and similes work best, unless we genuinely want to know something like,
how does the Arhat, already aware OF our greater Identity,
come into the Fullness OF that Identity, and what might such a state of consciousness, or Divine Being, be like?
The Tibetan Master, who appreciates the value and importance of the Flower, even
before the Flaming Jewel within it has been revealed, would probably give an answer very different, if the student were a Buddhist Lama ... than say, if the person had a Kabbalistic background, and the proper training to grasp such concepts as the
Ain Soph Aur. As that is almost pure mumbo-jumbo to me, the answer might be phrased against a more Western background, expressed in terms of the very topic of discussion, and question originally asked, concerning the
Nature of Christ's Love for us. So he might cite the Biblical passage:
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
And this, I hope, in my wordy and eccentric way,
is what I was really trying to say ... just with a bit more art, and perhaps the lack of some of the matter
o) of the Original.
Namaskar,
~Zag
