"The Masters and the Path"

C.W Leadbeater

CHAPTER XIV

THE BUDDHA
990. THE Buddha of the present time is the Lord Gautama, who took His last birth in India about two thousand five hundred years ago, and in that incarnation finished His series of lives as Bodhisattva, and succeeded the previous Buddha Kasyapa as Head of the Second Ray in the Occult Hierarchy of our globe. His life as Siddartha Gautama has been wonderfully told in Sir Edwin Arnold' s Light of Asia, one of the most beautiful and inspiring poems in our language.
991. Seven Buddhas appear in succession during a world-period, one for each race, and each in turn takes charge of the special work of the Second Ray for the whole world, devoting Himself to that part of it which lies in the higher worlds, while He entrusts to His assistant and representative, the Bodhisattva, the office of World-Teacher for the lower planes. For One who attains this position Oriental writers think no praise too high, no devotion too deep, and just as we regard those Masters to whom we look up as all but divine in goodness and wisdom, so to an even greater degree do They regard the Buddha. Our present Buddha was the first of our humanity to attain that stupendous height, the previous Buddhas having been the product of other evolutions, and a very special effort was needed on His part to prepare Himself for this lofty post, an effort so stupendous that it is spoken of constantly by the Buddhists as the Mahabhinishkramana, the Great Sacrifice.
992. Many thousands of years ago there arose the need for one of the Adepts to become the World-Teacher of the fourth root race; for the time had come when humanity should be able to supply its own Buddhas. Up to the middle of the fourth round of the fourth incarnation of our Chain, which was exactly the central point of the scheme of evolution to which we belong, the great Officers who were required-- the Manus and the World-Teachers and others-- were supplied to our humanity by more advanced humanities of other Chains, which had made more progress or perhaps were older than we; and we ourselves, having been thus assisted, shall in our turn have later on the privilege to make provision for other and more backward schemes of evolution.
993. In such ways the real brotherhood of all that lives is demonstrated; and we see that it is not merely a brotherhood of humanity, or even of the life in this chain of worlds, but that all the chains in the solar system mutually interact and help one another. I have no direct evidence that solar systems give assistance to each other in such ways, but I should imagine it by analogy to be almost certain that even that is done. At least I have myself seen Visitors from other systems, as I have said before, and have noticed that They are not merely travelling for pleasure, but are certainly in our system for some good purpose. What Their purpose is I do not know; but of course it is not my business.
994. Now at this time in the remote past to which we have referred, humanity should have begun to provide its own Teachers; but we are told that no one had quite reached the level required for the incurring of so tremendous a responsibility. The first-fruits of Humanity at this period were two Brothers who stood equal in occult development; one being He whom we now call the Lord Gautama Buddha, and the other our present World-Teacher, the Lord Maitreya. In what way They fell short of the required qualifications we do not know; but, out of His great love for humanity the Lord Gautama instantly offered to make Himself ready to undertake whatever additional effort might be necessary to attain the required development. We learn from tradition that life after life He practised special virtues, each life showing out some great quality achieved.
995. That great sacrifice of the Buddha is spoken of in all the sacred books of the Buddhists; but they have not understood the nature of the sacrifice, for many believe it to have been the descent of the Lord Buddha from Nirvanic levels after His Illumination to teach His Law. It is true that He did so descend, but that would not be anything in the nature of a sacrifice; it would only be an ordinary, but not very pleasant piece of work. The great sacrifice that He made was this spending of thousands of years in order to qualify Himself to be the first of mankind who should help His brother-men by teaching to them the Wisdom which is life eternal.
996. That work was done, and nobly done. We know something of the various incarnations that He took after that, as Bodhisattva of His time, though there may be many more of which we know nothing. He appeared as Vyasa; He came to ancient Egypt as Hermes, the Thrice-Greatest, who was called the Father of All Wisdom; He was the first of the twenty-nine Zoroasters, the Teachers of the Religion of the Fire; still later He walked amongst the Greeks as Orpheus, and taught them by means of music and of song; and finally He took His last birth in the north of India, and wandered up and down the Ganges valley for five and forty years, preaching His Law, and drawing round Himself all those who in previous lives had been His pupils.
997. In some way which we cannot hope yet to understand, because of the great strain of those many ages of effort, there were certain points in the work of the Lord Buddha which it may be that He had not time to perfect utterly. It is impossible at such a level for there to be anything in the nature of a failure or a fault, but perhaps the strain of the past was too great even for such power as His. We cannot know; but the fact remains that there were certain minor matters to which at the time He could not perfectly attend, and therefore the after-life of the Lord Gautama was not quite the same as that of His Predecessors. It is usual, as I have said, for a Bodhisattva when He has lived His final life and become Buddha-- when He has entered into glory, bearing His sheaves with Him, as it is put in the Christian Scriptures-- to hand over His external work entirely to His Successor, and devote Himself to His labours for humanity at higher levels. Whatever may be these manifold activities of a Dhyani Buddha, they do not bring Him again into birth on earth; but because of the peculiar circumstances surrounding the life of the Lord Gautama two differences were made, two supplementary acts were performed.

998. THE SUPPLEMENTARY ACTS

999. The first was the sending by the Lord of the World, the Great King, the One Initiator, of one of His three Pupils, who are all Lords of the Flame from Venus, to take earthly incarnation almost immediately after the attainment of Buddhahood by the Lord Gautama, in order that by a very short life spent in travelling over India He might establish therein certain centres of religion called mathas. His name in that incarnation was Shankaracharya-- not he who wrote the commentaries, but the great Founder of his line, who lived more than two thousand years ago.
1000. Shri Shankaracharya founded a certain school of Hindu Philosophy, revived Hinduism to a large extent, putting new life into its forms, and gathering together many of the teachings of the Buddha. Hinduism to-day, though in many ways it may fall short of its high ideal, is a very much more living faith than in the old days before the coming of the Buddha, when it had degenerated into a system of formalism. Shri Shankaracharya was also largely responsible for the disappearance of animal sacrifices; although such sacrifices are still offered in India, they are but few, and those are on a very small scale. Besides His teaching on the physical plane, Shri Shankaracharya accomplished certain occult work in connection with the higher planes of nature which was of considerable importance to the later life of India.
1001. The second supplementary act to which I have referred above was undertaken by the Lord Gautama Himself. Instead of devoting Himself wholly to other and higher work, He has remained sufficiently in touch with His world to be reached by the invocation of His successor when necessary, so that His advice and help can still be obtained in any great emergency. He also undertook to return to the world once in each year, on the anniversary of His death, and shed upon it a flood of blessing.
1002. The Lord Buddha has His own special type of force, which He outpours when He gives His blessing to the world, and this benediction is a unique and very marvellous thing; for by His authority and position a Buddha has access to planes of nature which are altogether beyond our reach, hence He can transmute and draw down to our level the forces peculiar to those planes. Without this mediation of the Buddha these forces would be of no use to us here in physical life; their vibrations are so tremendous, so incredibly rapid, that they would pass through us unsensed at any level we can reach, and we should never even know of their existence. But as it is, the force of the blessing is scattered all over the world; and it instantly finds for itself channels through which it can pour (just as water instantly finds an open pipe), thereby strengthening all good work and bringing peace to the hearts of those who are able to receive it.

1003. THE WESAK FESTIVAL

1005. The occasion selected for this wonderful outpouring is the full moon day of the Indian month of Vaisakh (called in Ceylon Wesak, and usually corresponding to the English May), the anniversary of all the momentous occurrences of His last earthly life-- His birth, His attainment of Buddhahood, and His departure from the physical body.
1006. In connection with this visit of His, and quite apart from its tremendous esoteric significance, an exoteric ceremony is performed on the physical plane at which the Lord actually shows Himself in the presence of a crowd of ordinary pilgrims. Whether He shows Himself to pilgrims I am not certain; they all prostrate themselves at the moment when He appears, but that may be only in imitation of the prostration of the Adepts and Their pupils, who do see the Lord Gautama. It seems probable that some at least of the pilgrims have seen Him for themselves, for the existence of the ceremony is widely known among the Buddhists of central Asia, and it is spoken of as the appearance of the Shadow or Reflection of the Buddha, the description given of it in such traditional accounts being as a rule fairly accurate. So far as we can see there appears to be no reason why any person whatever who happens to be in the neighbourhood at the time may not be present at the ceremony; no apparent effort is made to restrict the number of spectators; though it is true that one hears stories of parties of pilgrims who have wandered for years without being able to find the spot.
1007. All members of the Great White Brotherhood, except the King Himself and His three disciples, usually attend this ceremony; and there is no reason why any of our earnest Theosophical members should not be present at it in their astral bodies. Those to whom the secret has been confided usually try so to arrange matters as to put their physical bodies to sleep an hour or so before the exact moment of full moon, and to be undisturbed until about an hour after it.

1008. THE VALLEY

1009. The place selected is a small plateau surrounded by low hills, which lies on the northern side of the Himalayas, not far from the frontier of Nepal, and perhaps about four hundred miles west of the city of Lhassa. This little plain (see Diagram 11) is roughly oblong in shape, its length being perhaps a mile and a half and its breadth rather less. The ground slopes slightly downwards from south to north, and is mostly bare and stony, though in some places covered with coarse wiry grass and rough scrubby vegetation. A stream runs down part of the west side of the plateau, crosses its north-west corner, and escapes about the middle of the north side through a pine-clothed ravine, eventually reaching a lake which is visible at a distance of some miles. The surrounding country seems wild and uninhabited, and there are no buildings in sight except a single ruined stupa with two or three huts beside it, on the slope of one of the hills on the eastern sides of the plain. About the centre of the southern half of the plain lies a huge block of greyish-white stone, veined with some glittering substance-- an altar-like block, perhaps twelve feet in length by six feet wide, and standing about three feet out of the ground.

1011. On His materialization in the centre of the circle all the Adepts and Initiates bow gravely towards Him, and another verse is chanted. After this, still intoning verses, the inner rings divide into eight parts, so as to form a cross within the outer circle, the Lord Maitreya still remaining at the centre. At the next movement of this stately ritual, the cross becomes a triangle, the Lord Maitreya moving forward so as to stand at its apex, and therefore close to the altar-stone. Upon that altar, in the open space left in front of the golden bowl, the Lord Maitreya reverently lays the Rod of Power, while behind Him the circle changes into a rather involved curved figure, so that all are facing the altar. At the next change the curved figure becomes a reversed triangle, so that we have a representation of the well-known sign of The Theosophical Society, though without its encircling snake. This figure in turn resolves into the five-pointed star, the Lord Maitreya being still at the southern point nearest the altar-stone, and the other great Officials or Chohans at the five pints where the lines intersect. A diagram of the symbolic figures is herewith appended, as some of them are not easy to describe. Diagram 13.

1014. When this seventh and final stage is reached the chanting ceases, and after a few moments of solemn silence the Lord Maitreya, again taking the Rod of Power into His hands and raising it above His head, utters in a few sonorous words of Pali:
1015. “All is ready; Master, come!”
1016. Then as He again lays down the fiery rod, at the exact moment of the full moon, the Lord Buddha appears as a gigantic figure floating in the air just above the southern hills. The members of the Brotherhood bow with joined hands, and the multitude behind Them fall on their faces and remain prostrate, while the others sing the three verses which were taught by the Lord Buddha Himself during His earth life to the schoolboy Chatta:
1017. The Lord Buddha, the Sage of the Sakyas, is among mankind the best of Teachers. He has done that which was to be done, and has crossed to the other shore (Nirvana). He is filled with strength and energy; Him, the Blessed One I take for my guide.
1018. The truth is non-material; it brings freedom from passion, desire and sorrow; it is free from all stain; it is sweet, plain and logical; this truth I take as my guide.
1019. Whatever is given to the eight kinds of the Noble Ones, who in pairs form the four grades, who know the truth, verily brings great reward; this Brotherhood of the Noble Ones I take as my guide.

1020. THE GREATEST BLESSING

1021. Then the people rise and stand gazing at the presence of the Lord while the Brotherhood chants for the benefit of the people noble words of the Mahamangala Sutta, which has been translated thus by Professor Rhys Davids (Certain slight modifications have been introduced from other sources, when they seemed decided improvements.) :
When yearning for good, many devas and men
Have held divers things to be blessing;
Do thou then inform us, O Master,
What is the greatest blessing?
Not to serve the foolish,
But to serve the wise;
To honour those worthy of honour;
This is the greatest blessing.
To dwell in a pleasant land,
To have done good deeds in a former birth,
To have a soul filled with right desire;
This is the greatest blessing.
Much insight and much education,
Self-control and a well-trained mind,
Pleasant words that are well spoken;
This is the greatest blessing.
To support father and mother,
To cherish wife and child,
To follow a peaceful calling;
This is the greatest blessing.
To bestow alms and live righteously,
To give help to one' s kindred,
To do deeds which cannot be blamed;
This is the greatest blessing.
To abhor and cease from sin,
To abstain from strong drink,
Not to be weary in well-doing;
This is the greatest blessing.
Reverence and lowliness,
Contentment and gratitude,
The hearing of the Law at due seasons;
This is the greatest blessing.
To be long-suffering and meek,
To associate with the tranquil,
Religious talk at due seasons;
This is the greatest blessing.
Self-restraint and purity,
The knowledge of the Four Great Truths,
The realization of Nirvana;
This is the greatest blessing.
Beneath the stroke of life' s changes
The soul that stands unshaken,
Passionless, unsorrowing, secure;
This is the greatest blessing.
Invincible on every side
Is he who acteth thus;
On every side he walks in safety;
And his is the greatest blessing.

1022. The figure which floats above the hills is of enormous size, but exactly reproduces the form and features of the body in which the Lord last lived on earth. He appears seated cross-legged, with the hands together, dressed in the yellow robe of the Buddhist monk, but wearing it so as to leave the right arm bare. No description can give an idea of the face-- a face truly God-like, for it combines calmness and power, wisdom and love in an expression containing all that our minds can imagine of the Divine. We may say that the complexion is clear yellowish-white, and the features clearly cut; that the forehead is broad and noble; the eyes large, luminous and of a deep dark blue; the nose slightly aquiline; the lips red and firmly set; but all this puts before us merely the outer mask and gives but a little grasp of the living whole. The hair is black-- almost blue-black-- and wavy; curiously, it is neither worn long according to Indian custom, nor shaved altogether in the manner of Oriental monks, but is cut off just before it reaches the shoulders, parted in the centre and swept back from the forehead. The story is told that when the Prince Siddartha left home to seek the truth, he seized his long hair and cut it off close above his head with a sweep of his sword, and that ever afterwards he kept it at the same length.
1023. One of the most striking features of this wondrous apparition is the splendid aura which surrounds the figure. It falls into concentric spheres, as do the auras of all highly advanced men; its general plan is the same as that of the Arhat depicted in Plate xxvi in Man Visible and Invisible but the arrangement of its colours is unique. The figure is englobed in light which is somehow at the same time dazzling and yet transparent-- so bright that the eye can hardly rest upon it, and yet through it the face and the colour of the robe stand out with perfect clearness. Outside of that comes a ring of glorious ultramarine; then in succession glowing golden yellow, the richest crimson, pure silvery white and a magnificent scarlet-- all these being of course really spheres, though showing as bands when seen against the sky. Shooting out at right angles, outside all these, are rays of all these hues intermingled, and interspersed with flashes of green and violet, as will be observed when we refer to our frontispiece.
1024. These colours, in exactly this order, are described in ancient Buddhist scriptures as constituting the aura of the Lord; and when in 1885 it was thought desirable that a special flag should be found for the Buddhists of Ceylon, our President-Founder Colonel Olcott, in consultation with our Sinhalese brothers at Colombo, evolved the idea of utilizing for that purpose that same significant grouping of colours. The Colonel tells us ( Old Diary Leaves. Vol. iii, page 352.) that he learnt some years later from the Tibetan ambassador to the Viceroy of India, whom he met at Darjeeling, that the colours are the same as those in the flag of the Dalai Lama. The idea of this symbolical standard seems to have been widely accepted; I have myself seen it in Buddhist Temples at places as far apart as Rangoon and Sacramento in California.
1025. Through a most unfortunate mistake these bands of colour were given in a wrong order in the plate accompanying the first edition of this book; the error has now been corrected. It is of course impossible to obtain in a printed illustration any approach to the brilliancy and purity of the colours as seen in the sky; all we can do is to offer a suggestion to help the imagination of the reader.
1026. In earlier books we have described scarlet in man' s aura as expressing anger only; so it does in the ordinary lower astral; but quite apart from this, we find that at higher levels a far more magnificent and luminous scarlet, the very essence of living flame, betokens the presence of dauntless courage and high determination. It is of course as denoting the possession of these qualities in a superlative degree that it appears in the aura of the Lord Buddha. We might conjecture that the somewhat unusual prominence of this brilliant scarlet band may be significant of the special manifestation of those qualities in that age-long work of self-development to which I have referred on page 298.
1027. The Lord Maitreya, who takes so prominent a part in this ceremony, will in due course of time succeed to the office now held by the Lord Gautama. It will perhaps be of interest to compare His aura with that which we have just described. The easiest way to imagine it is to look at the illustration of the aura of an Arhat on Plate xxvi of Man Visible and Invisible and then modify it in imagination as here indicated. It has a general resemblance to that, but besides being so much larger the colours are somewhat differently arranged.
1028. The heart of it is blinding white light, just as in the case of the Arhat; then, eliminating the yellow from that part, let the rose-coloured oval retain its present position, but extend inwards up to the edge of the white. Outside that rose-coloured oval put a band of yellow instead of the blue; outside the green comes a belt of blue; outside of that the violet, as in the book, but outside of the violet again a broad band of the most glorious pale rose, into which the violet imperceptibly melts. Outside of all comes the radiation of mixed colours, just as in the book. The rays of white light flash through it in the same way, yet even they seem faintly tinged with the ever-present pale rose. The whole aura gives the impression of being suffused with the most delicate yet glowing rose, much as is Plate xi in Man Visible and Invisible.
1029. A point which seems worthy of notice is that in this aura the colours come exactly in the same order as in the solar spectrum, though orange and indigo are omitted. First the rose (which is a form of red) then the yellow, shading into green, blue, violet in succession. And then it goes on into the ultra-violet, melting into rose-- the spectrum beginning again in a higher octave, just as the lowest astral follows upon the highest physical.
1030. Of course that is a very poor description, but it seems the best that we can do. It must be understood that it exists in many more dimensions than we can anyhow represent. In order to say thus much about it I have tried to do something nearly equivalent to taking a three-dimensional section of it. But it is wise for us to remember that it is by no means impossible that another section might be taken in a slightly different manner, which would yield somewhat dissimilar results, and yet be quite as true. It is hopeless to try to explain on the physical plane the realities of the higher worlds.
1031. When the Mahamangala Sutta is finished, the Lord Maitreya takes the golden bowl of water from the altar-stone, and holds it above His head for a few moments, while the multitude behind, who have also provided themselves with vessels filled with water, follow His example. As He replaces it on the altar-stone another verse is chanted:
1032. He is the Lord, the Saint who is perfect in knowledge, who possesses the eight kinds of knowledge and has accomplished the fifteen holy practices, who has come the good journey which led to the Buddhahood, who knows the three worlds, the unrivalled, the Teacher of gods and men, the Blessed One, the Lord Buddha.
1033. As this ends, a smile of ineffable love beams forth from the face of the Lord as He raises His right hand in the attitude of benediction, while a great shower of flowers falls among the people. Again the members of the Brotherhood bow, again the crowd prostrates itself, and the figure slowly fades out of the sky, while the multitude relieves itself in shouts of joy and praise. The members of the Brotherhood come up to the Lord Maitreya in the order of Their admission, and each sips the water in the golden bowl, and the people also sip theirs, taking the remainder home in their quaint leather bottles as holy water to drive away all evil influences from their houses, or perhaps to cure the sick. Then the vast company breaks up with mutual congratulations, and the people bear away to their far-distant homes an ineffaceable memory of the wonderful ceremony in which they have taken part.