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Home Preface 5 Planes of Existence Introduction Five Planes of Manifestation A to Z Contact Related Information BIBLE VERSES |
BIRTH OF BUDDHASymbolic of the entrance of the Self, or World-soul, into the lower nature of the Life cycle during the period of Involution, when the Soul is one, not many. "From the side of the Queen Māyā, who was purified by her vow, her son was born, without pain and without illness. Like the sun bursting from a cloud in the morning,-so he, too, when he was born from his mother's womb, made the world bright like gold, bursting forth with his rays which dispelled the darkness." - Buddha-Karita I. 25, 26. The “side of the queen” is an allusion to the outgoing spiritual force which regulates the manifestation of the World-soul. The "purification by the vow” signifies the consecration or dedication of the matter of the lower planes to the expression of the Self within. The Son is born and comes forth on the astromental plane, since he is the centre of the solar universe, and becomes the means of uniting all principles, powers, and forces into one focus, and of co-ordinating all the fragments of the Divine nature in their harmonious expression in the cosmos. "Pain and illness" are absent from the birth of the Soul, inasmuch as the spiritual effort which is made is the deepest realisation of bliss in the nature of the Self. Then as the sun shines forth from the dazzling rim of the morning cloud, so the inner Self, emerging from the prison-house of Matter wherein it had lain potential, brought out of chaos its vehicle the cosmos, and revealed the truth involved within himself. Forth from the inmost recesses of his being, proceeded the rays of his effulgence, the Divine modes of functioning which turn apparent nothingness into the beginnings of the manifested all. "The infant Buddha came forth, and the great kings of the four cardinal points received him in a cloth or net." - LILLIE, Budd. in Christendom, p. 18. The Soul is received by the four principles of the quaternary in an astral mechanism of desire and sensation, that is, the four lower planes are organised for the manifestation of the incarnate Self. "The resemblances between the Christian and Buddhist legends are so close that we can scarcely imagine it to be a mere coincidence. Jesus and Buddha are both said to have been born of a 'pure virgin,' honoured by heavenly spirits at their birth, prayed to by kings, and loaded with presents. Happy is the whole world,' sing the Gods under the form of young Brahmins, at the birth of the child, as we are told in the Lalita Vistara, the legendary biography of Buddha, dating from before Christ, 'for he is indeed born who brings salvation, and will establish the world in blessedness. He is born who will darken sun and moon by the splendour of his merits and will put all darkness to flight. The blind see, the deaf hear, the demented are restored to reason." " - A. DREWS, The Christ Myth, p. 104. “Professor Kellogg points out that in the Chinese books Buddha is said over and over again to have been incarnate of the Holy Spirit.'" - A. LILLIE, Budd. in Christendom, p. 16. “As Buddha, Christ, and Zoroaster are all symbols of the Higher Self incarnate in the lower nature, some similarities in the allegories concerning them are to be expected. The pure virgin" signifies the purified part of the lower nature, in which the Holy Spirit can implant the Divine germ of Righteousness and Truth. The higher qualities, intellectual faculties, and ideals (gods) rejoice at the birth of the Self who will bring salvation to the soul. The advent of the Divine Ruler and Saviour imparts fresh energy to all the impulses towards the higher life. He is born whose light of knowledge will by comparison make the learning of the lower mind seem ignorance (darkness), and he will set Truth in the place of ignorance. The spiritually blind shall be made to see the truth. The qualities deaf to the Divine voice shall be enabled to hear the words of Love and peace. Those egos whose qualities are distorted and unbalanced shall be restored to spiritual equilibrium. |
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