According to Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Anthroposophy, Buddha is a sacred master of the Rosicrucians. He said that Rosicrucian Theosophy referred to the further development of Buddha after his historical incarnation (563 BC.-483 BC.), and that "Buddha is the inspirer of our spiritual science". Further, Steiner indicates that we receive the power of Buddha when we practice the Rosicrucian meditations.
The scholars say that there have been two Buddhist missionary paths: the Southern path which fosters early Buddhism in the area from India to Sri Lanka, Myammar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, and the Northern path which is the later Buddhist stream flowing from India to China, Tibet, Vietnam, Korea and Japan. Perhaps we can call that path of which Steiner spoke, the Western stream of the spiritual Buddha.
Ancient Indians, who thought that the supersensible region was the real world, saw the physical world as illusion. Buddha said that everything had no eternal substance, and that one should be free from egoism. And he said over and over again that the Ego was one's Lord, one's light and one's stable island. Zen masters say that one should be conscious of one's own Ego. They teach that one should not try to become Buddha, but one should be one's self. Buddhism is an eastern philosophy of Ego and Freedom rather than a non-ego religion. Steiner said that the Ego bearer resemble a luminous orb but that it is, in fact, a vacuum. It seems to a bluish oval because of the bright aura surrounding it. He said that the ancient Greeks believed that the sun, universal symbol of the Ego, was a vacuum which reflected the cosmic light that came from yonder sphere of the zodiac where the human Ego originated. We know that the objects and beings that become embodied in the physical world are present as hollow spaces in the spiritual world.
Mahayana Buddhists insist that Emptiness means the "brilliant heart". Esoteric Buddhists meditate on the brilliant jewel, which is called mani, as the symbol of the fifth element or Emptiness. Mani was taken from the dragon brain, and this is the Grail of the East. In the later phase of Buddhism (since the Mystery of Golgotha), there have since appeared Bodhisattvas who carry the swords of Ego consciousness.
In his lecture in 1911 Steiner said that the transformed Buddha stream would join the Christ impulse from "today" through the next six hundred years. Where can we find this new, trasformed Buddha stream?
It was 1889 when Henry S. Olcott (1832-1907), president of the Theosophical Society and author of Buddhist Catechism (1881), visited Japan and lectured on Buddhism.
A. Kumamoto wrote articles on Steiner's Spiritual Science from the view point of Japanese esoteric Buddhism in the latter 1920s. T. Tanimoto also lectured on Steiner's pedagogy at a Japanese Buddhist University in 1929 and wrote that Steiner's method of cognition of higher worlds was essentially Buddhist. (Steiner's book on the Threefold Social Order was translated into Japanese in 1922. His philosophy was introduced into Japan in 1926, and his architecture in 1930.) J. Kitayama, who had met Rudolf Steiner, wrote in 1940 that Steiner did not describe Buddha as a past personality, but experienced Buddha directly. S. Watanabe wrote essays on Steiner in 1953 in which he considered that anthroposophy repeats Buddhist teachings in modern form.
Rudolf Steiner spoke about Buddha's prehistoric relationship to Christ in his lecture cycle “Man in the Light of Occultism", “Theosophy and Philosophy" (June, 1912). Mercury (today's Venus) was part of the Sun, when the sun had parted from the earth. And then Mercury parted from the Sun. Christ was in the Sun, and he sent Buddha from the sun to Mercury.
Steiner said in his lecture cycle on “Universe, Earth and Man" (August, 1908) and in “Egyptian Myths and Mysteries" (September, 1908) that Buddha had become the vessel for Wotan or Odin, the god of German mythology, and that Wotan reappeared as Buddha.
He went on to describe the spiritual activities of Buddha at the time of Jesus in his lecture cycle on the Gospel of St. Luke (September, 1909). Buddha in his spiritual body (Nirmanakaya) appeared as an angelic being when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and said to the shepherds in the fields, “Glory to the God (correctly “May the God appear") in the highest, and peace on earth among men of good will!"
Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to Jerusalem, and met a man, Simeon by name, who thanked God, “Now let Your bondslave depart in peace, Lord, in agreement with Your word, for my eyes have seen Your salvation." Simeon was the reincarnated Asita, Indian sage, who had visited King Shuddhodana, father of Gotama (Gautama) Buddha, when Gotama was born. He said to the king, “I am already old. I can not be alive until your baby will become the Buddha." Through the astral body of Jesus, Simeon saw the Buddha who floated above Jesus.
Buddha nurtured Jesus spiritually for twelve years. Buddha left when Mary, Joseph and the twelve year old Jesus went up to Jerusalem at the Passover Feast. At that time the Jesus Ego of the Gospel according to Matthew, the Ego of the reincarnated Zarathustra (Zoroaster), entered into the Jesus of the Gospel according to Luke. Thereafter the Buddha taught people through the being of John the Baptist.
Steiner indicated that Buddha had refreshed and rejuvenated himself through being with the infant Jesus. Moreover, the Gospel according to Luke taught a Buddhism which is understandable to man's naive feelings. The Buddhism which had become a complicated system of thought, was rejuvenated, and became in turn simple and charitable in the Gospel according to Luke.
In his lecture cycle “East in Light of West" (August, 1909) Steiner spoke about the Buddha in the fourth century. At that time Mani, founder of Manichaeism, spoke with Buddha in the spiritual body, also with Zarathos or Nazarathos (the reincarnated Zoroaster or Zarathustra) and Skithyanos, and they decided to preserve the wisdom of the Bodhisattvas in the Rosicrucian mysteries. Buddha, Zoroaster and Skithyanos are the spiritual masters of the Rosicrucians.
Steiner spoke about Buddha's further activities in the lectures on Esoteric Christianity and Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz (1911-1912). Buddha was a spiritual teacher at an esoteric school in Colchis, near the Black Sea, in the seventh and eighth centuries. One of his students reincarnated as St. Francis of Assisi. Christian Rosenkreutz held a conference with Buddha and others at the end of sixteenth century, and Buddha went to Mars in 1604, to bring peace to those souls on Mars, and to avoid separation of people on the Earth into two groups: materialists and hermits. Rosenkreutz knew that the teaching of Nirvana was important to the souls on Mars; the planet of conflict. St. Francis later went to Mars with Buddha. Buddha inspired Leibniz (1646-1716), Hegel (1770-1831), Schelling (1775-1854) and Soloviev (1853-1900).
Steiner taught about the Maitreya, the future Buddha, in his lectures between 1909 and 1911. Maitreya was active in Jeshu ben Pandira, the founder of the Essenes. Steiner also taught that Maitreya is the greatest teacher of the Christ impulse (lectures on April 13, 1910 and on September 19, 1911), and works with the Rosicrucian stream (lecture on November 20, 1911). The Maitreya Bodhisattava will become the new Buddha five thousand years after Gotama had become Buddha.
Steiner said that as the Moon stream, Islam, which was revived Judaism, influenced the Christianity of the Middle Ages in the same manner, the Mercury stream, the transformed Buddha stream, is now coming into the Christian stream today (lecture on March 13, 1911).
Where can we find this Buddha stream in its new form? Steiner said that Buddha has inspired our spiritual science (lecture on September 19, 1911), and that we receive the power of Buddha, saviour of Mars, when we practice the Rosicrucian meditations (lecture on December 18, 1912).
Can we not consider that the renewed Buddha stream is contained in Anthroposophy?
The scholars say that there have been two Buddhist missionary paths: the Southern path which fosters early Buddhism in the area from India to Sri Lanka, Myammar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, and the Northern path which is the later Buddhist stream flowing from India to China, Tibet, Vietnam, Korea and Japan. Perhaps we can call that path of which Steiner spoke, the Western stream of the spiritual Buddha.
Ancient Indians, who thought that the supersensible region was the real world, saw the physical world as illusion. Buddha said that everything had no eternal substance, and that one should be free from egoism. And he said over and over again that the Ego was one's Lord, one's light and one's stable island. Zen masters say that one should be conscious of one's own Ego. They teach that one should not try to become Buddha, but one should be one's self. Buddhism is an eastern philosophy of Ego and Freedom rather than a non-ego religion. Steiner said that the Ego bearer resemble a luminous orb but that it is, in fact, a vacuum. It seems to a bluish oval because of the bright aura surrounding it. He said that the ancient Greeks believed that the sun, universal symbol of the Ego, was a vacuum which reflected the cosmic light that came from yonder sphere of the zodiac where the human Ego originated. We know that the objects and beings that become embodied in the physical world are present as hollow spaces in the spiritual world.
Mahayana Buddhists insist that Emptiness means the "brilliant heart". Esoteric Buddhists meditate on the brilliant jewel, which is called mani, as the symbol of the fifth element or Emptiness. Mani was taken from the dragon brain, and this is the Grail of the East. In the later phase of Buddhism (since the Mystery of Golgotha), there have since appeared Bodhisattvas who carry the swords of Ego consciousness.
In his lecture in 1911 Steiner said that the transformed Buddha stream would join the Christ impulse from "today" through the next six hundred years. Where can we find this new, trasformed Buddha stream?
It was 1889 when Henry S. Olcott (1832-1907), president of the Theosophical Society and author of Buddhist Catechism (1881), visited Japan and lectured on Buddhism.
A. Kumamoto wrote articles on Steiner's Spiritual Science from the view point of Japanese esoteric Buddhism in the latter 1920s. T. Tanimoto also lectured on Steiner's pedagogy at a Japanese Buddhist University in 1929 and wrote that Steiner's method of cognition of higher worlds was essentially Buddhist. (Steiner's book on the Threefold Social Order was translated into Japanese in 1922. His philosophy was introduced into Japan in 1926, and his architecture in 1930.) J. Kitayama, who had met Rudolf Steiner, wrote in 1940 that Steiner did not describe Buddha as a past personality, but experienced Buddha directly. S. Watanabe wrote essays on Steiner in 1953 in which he considered that anthroposophy repeats Buddhist teachings in modern form.
Rudolf Steiner spoke about Buddha's prehistoric relationship to Christ in his lecture cycle “Man in the Light of Occultism", “Theosophy and Philosophy" (June, 1912). Mercury (today's Venus) was part of the Sun, when the sun had parted from the earth. And then Mercury parted from the Sun. Christ was in the Sun, and he sent Buddha from the sun to Mercury.
Steiner said in his lecture cycle on “Universe, Earth and Man" (August, 1908) and in “Egyptian Myths and Mysteries" (September, 1908) that Buddha had become the vessel for Wotan or Odin, the god of German mythology, and that Wotan reappeared as Buddha.
He went on to describe the spiritual activities of Buddha at the time of Jesus in his lecture cycle on the Gospel of St. Luke (September, 1909). Buddha in his spiritual body (Nirmanakaya) appeared as an angelic being when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and said to the shepherds in the fields, “Glory to the God (correctly “May the God appear") in the highest, and peace on earth among men of good will!"
Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to Jerusalem, and met a man, Simeon by name, who thanked God, “Now let Your bondslave depart in peace, Lord, in agreement with Your word, for my eyes have seen Your salvation." Simeon was the reincarnated Asita, Indian sage, who had visited King Shuddhodana, father of Gotama (Gautama) Buddha, when Gotama was born. He said to the king, “I am already old. I can not be alive until your baby will become the Buddha." Through the astral body of Jesus, Simeon saw the Buddha who floated above Jesus.
Buddha nurtured Jesus spiritually for twelve years. Buddha left when Mary, Joseph and the twelve year old Jesus went up to Jerusalem at the Passover Feast. At that time the Jesus Ego of the Gospel according to Matthew, the Ego of the reincarnated Zarathustra (Zoroaster), entered into the Jesus of the Gospel according to Luke. Thereafter the Buddha taught people through the being of John the Baptist.
Steiner indicated that Buddha had refreshed and rejuvenated himself through being with the infant Jesus. Moreover, the Gospel according to Luke taught a Buddhism which is understandable to man's naive feelings. The Buddhism which had become a complicated system of thought, was rejuvenated, and became in turn simple and charitable in the Gospel according to Luke.
In his lecture cycle “East in Light of West" (August, 1909) Steiner spoke about the Buddha in the fourth century. At that time Mani, founder of Manichaeism, spoke with Buddha in the spiritual body, also with Zarathos or Nazarathos (the reincarnated Zoroaster or Zarathustra) and Skithyanos, and they decided to preserve the wisdom of the Bodhisattvas in the Rosicrucian mysteries. Buddha, Zoroaster and Skithyanos are the spiritual masters of the Rosicrucians.
Steiner spoke about Buddha's further activities in the lectures on Esoteric Christianity and Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz (1911-1912). Buddha was a spiritual teacher at an esoteric school in Colchis, near the Black Sea, in the seventh and eighth centuries. One of his students reincarnated as St. Francis of Assisi. Christian Rosenkreutz held a conference with Buddha and others at the end of sixteenth century, and Buddha went to Mars in 1604, to bring peace to those souls on Mars, and to avoid separation of people on the Earth into two groups: materialists and hermits. Rosenkreutz knew that the teaching of Nirvana was important to the souls on Mars; the planet of conflict. St. Francis later went to Mars with Buddha. Buddha inspired Leibniz (1646-1716), Hegel (1770-1831), Schelling (1775-1854) and Soloviev (1853-1900).
Steiner taught about the Maitreya, the future Buddha, in his lectures between 1909 and 1911. Maitreya was active in Jeshu ben Pandira, the founder of the Essenes. Steiner also taught that Maitreya is the greatest teacher of the Christ impulse (lectures on April 13, 1910 and on September 19, 1911), and works with the Rosicrucian stream (lecture on November 20, 1911). The Maitreya Bodhisattava will become the new Buddha five thousand years after Gotama had become Buddha.
Steiner said that as the Moon stream, Islam, which was revived Judaism, influenced the Christianity of the Middle Ages in the same manner, the Mercury stream, the transformed Buddha stream, is now coming into the Christian stream today (lecture on March 13, 1911).
Where can we find this Buddha stream in its new form? Steiner said that Buddha has inspired our spiritual science (lecture on September 19, 1911), and that we receive the power of Buddha, saviour of Mars, when we practice the Rosicrucian meditations (lecture on December 18, 1912).
Can we not consider that the renewed Buddha stream is contained in Anthroposophy?