An Interview with Benjamin Creme: Manifesting the Divine
But they have no idea of the time. Some imagine it in 2,000 or 3,000 years from now, some in 200,000 years from now. I’m speaking from Japan, as you know, and the Japanese believe that the Buddha will indeed return as Maitreya Buddha, but it will be in 650,000,000 years, or something like that. So there is no hurry from their point of view.
My information is that Maitreya, the head and leader of our Spiritual Hierarchy, is the embodiment of all these expectations. He is the Christ to Christians; the Buddha to Buddhists; Krishna returned or Kalki Avatar to Hindus; the Messiah of the Jews; the Imam Mahdi to Muslims. And many of them believe He is coming very, very soon, within two or three years. In fact, some believe He is already in the world. They are quite right. My experience is that Maitreya has been literally, physically, in the everyday world of our life, in the middle of our life, living in the Asian community of London since July 19, 1977.
JF How did you become involved in the work of telling the world of Maitreya’s Emergence?
Benjamin Creme I was contacted by one of His disciples—a Master of Wisdom—way back in January of 1959. In a few months, March 1959, I was brought into the Hierarchy and had a great experience in which Maitreya said that He Himself was coming sooner than anyone thought possible.
He said it would be in about twenty years. In the event it was eighteen years. He said I would have a role in His coming (He didn’t say what the role was) if I accepted it. I was filled with His energy, the subject of tremendous power and love. It was a transfiguring experience. And so I said I’m your man, whatever it is I have to do I’ll do. So that’s what I’ve been doing since 1975: preparing the way for the return of the Christ (in Christian terms) although He is also seen by all these other groups under these different names.
JF You talked about a group of divine Men known as the Masters of Wisdom, the inner government of the planet. Where do the Masters come from and are They like us?
Benjamin Creme They are exactly like us. They are like ordinary Men living in the world except that They have gone ahead of us in evolution. They haven’t changed Their physical appearance but They have evolved Their consciousness until They are like Gods. They have a God-like consciousness. They are divine in that sense but They see us as divine in exactly the same sense. They see no difference in Their divinity and our divinity. They see life as the sphere in which divinity exists. They see all of us as living in a divine and spiritual universe and They see the nature of all life as spiritual.
