An Interview with Benjamin Creme: Manifesting the Divine
The World Teacher Will Show Us the Way
By Jason Francis
Scottish born artist, author, futurist and editor of Share International magazine, Benjamin Creme has been lecturing about the emergence of the World Teacher, Maitreya (My-tray-uh), for over 35 years. I had the privilege of interviewing Benjamin Creme by telephone for OM Times during his May 2010 lecture tour of Japan.
Jason Francis Who is Maitreya?
Benjamin Creme Maitreya is the head and leader of a group of (from our point of view) completely perfected Men: Masters of Wisdom, as They’re called. They are Men who have gone ahead of us in evolution and have finished the evolution of this planet. They don’t even have to be on this planet but many of Them remain and oversee the evolution of the rest of us—that’s Their role.
They are a kind of inner government of the planet. They know the Plan of Evolution, which is in the mind of the Logos of this planet: the great Heavenly Man Whose body of expression this planet is. They seek to put that Plan into operation through humanity and the lower kingdoms.
Many different religious groups see Maitreya as the One they are expecting. Christians await the return of the Christ who through Jesus said He would appear again—not when He would appear, but that He would come again. Maitreya embodies what we call the Christ Principle (the energy of love); not just transmits or channels it through Himself but embodies it in His own Being. And so He is the Christ.
Two thousand years ago He worked through Jesus. Jesus in the esoteric tradition is not the Christ but the vehicle for the Christ. The Christ Himself being Maitreya. This is the age-old way for a teacher to come. For example, 600 years before Jesus the Buddha manifested Himself through the Prince Guatama. And Guatama Buddha became known as the Buddha, but He wasn’t the Buddha. He was the vehicle for the Buddha, a body through which the Buddha worked. That’s the way the teachers have come to the Earth right up until this time.
This time it’s different. Maitreya has found a way in which He Himself can come to the world; not through a disciple like Jesus or Krishna or the way the Buddha worked through Guatama, but in His own Being. And so we have the return of the Christ in completeness and not working through a lesser Being.
Muslims await Him as the great Imam: the Imam Mahdi. Hindus await Him as the return of Krishna, or some believe He is Kalki Avatar—the teacher for this coming Age. Buddhists await him under His name, Maitreya Buddha. Before He died the Prince Guatama gave a message from the Buddha, which was that at this time would come into the world a great Teacher by the name Maitreya who, by dint of His tremendous spiritual status, would galvanize and inspire humanity into the creation of a brilliant, golden civilization based, as He put it, on righteousness and truth. So for these last two thousand and a half years the Buddhists have awaited the return of Maitreya Buddha.
