Blavatsky H.P. - The Future Buddhas: Difference between revisions

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  | previous    = Blavatsky H.P. - Can the Mahatmas be Selfish?
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  | next        = Blavatsky H.P. - Miscellaneous Notes (34)
  | next        = Blavatsky H.P. - Miscellaneous Notes (34)
  | alternatives = [http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/articles/v6/y1884_045.htm KH]; [https://universaltheosophy.com/hpb/the-future-buddhas/ UT]
  | alternatives = [https://universaltheosophy.com/hpb/the-future-buddhas/ UT]
  | translations = [https://ru.teopedia.org/lib/Блаватская_Е.П._-_Грядущие_Будды Russian]
  | translations = [https://ru.teopedia.org/lib/Блаватская_Е.П._-_Грядущие_Будды Russian]
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{{Style P-Title|THE FUTURE BUDDHAS}}
{{Style P-Title|THE FUTURE BUDDHAS}}
{{HPB-CW-comment|view=center|[''The Theosophist'', Vol. V, No. 11(59), August, 1884, pp. 268-269]}}
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On page 144 of Esoteric Buddhism we have the following:—“A Buddha visits the earth for each of the seven races of the great planetary period. The Buddha with whom we are occupied was the fourth of the series . . . The fifth, or Maitreya Buddha, will come after the final disappearance of the fifth race, and when the sixth race will already have been established on earth for some hundreds of thousands of years. The sixth will come at the beginning of the seventh race, and the seventh towards the close of that race.”
{{Style P-Quote|On page 144 of ''Esoteric Buddhism'' we have the following:—“A Buddha visits the earth for each of the seven races of the great planetary period. The Buddha with whom we are occupied was the fourth of the series . . . The fifth, or Maitreya Buddha, will come after the final disappearance of the fifth race, and when the sixth race will already have been established on earth for some hundreds of thousands of years. The sixth will come at the beginning of the seventh race, and the seventh towards the close of that race.”


Later on we find on page 146:—
Later on we find on page 146:—
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According to this latter interpretation then, if we are to accept our enlightened Gautama as the fifth Buddha, it is not understood what the author means by saying “the fifth or Maitreya Buddha will come after the final disappearance of the fifth race,” &c., &c. If, however, it is meant that the Maitreya Buddha will then become the sixth, it will thereby necessitate an eighth Buddha to complete the series, which I believe is not the case.
According to this latter interpretation then, if we are to accept our enlightened Gautama as the fifth Buddha, it is not understood what the author means by saying “the fifth or Maitreya Buddha will come after the final disappearance of the fifth race,” &c., &c. If, however, it is meant that the Maitreya Buddha will then become the sixth, it will thereby necessitate an eighth Buddha to complete the series, which I believe is not the case.
Again, just after the passage first quoted, the author points out a  
Again, just after the passage first quoted, the author points out a  


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[[File:Hpb_cw_06_266_1.jpg|center|x200px]]
[[File:Hpb_cw_06_266_1.jpg|center|x200px]]
<center>MARY GEBHARD</center>
<center>MARY GEBHARD</center>
 
<center>Reproduced from a contemporary oil painting, courtesy of Madame Marie-Josephe Gebhard-L’Estrange.</center>
<center>Reproduced from a contemporary oil painting, courtesy of</center>
<center>(''See for biographical sketch the Bio-Bibliographical Index'')</center>
<center>Madame Marie-Josephe Gebhard-L’Estrange.</center>
<center>(See for biographical sketch the Bio-Bibliographical Index)</center>
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[[File:Hpb_cw_06_266_2.jpg|center|x200px]]
[[File:Hpb_cw_06_266_2.jpg|center|x200px]]
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<center>THE GEBHARDS’ HOME, PLATZHOFFSTRASSE 12,</center>
<center>THE GEBHARDS’ HOME, PLATZHOFFSTRASSE 12, ELBERFELD, GERMANY</center>
<center>ELBERFELD, GERMANY</center>


<center>Reproduced from an original photograph made in 1951 for Ernst Pieper, of Düsseldorf,</center>
<center>Reproduced from an original photograph made in 1951 for Ernst Pieper, of Düsseldorf, Germany. The house belongs at present to the Family Frowein. H. P. B. lived and worked in it for about two months in the Fall of 1884, and again in May and June of 1886.</center>
<center>Germany. The house belongs at present to the Family Frowein. H. P. B. lived and</center>
<center>worked in it for about two months in the Fall of 1884, and again in May and June of 1886.</center>
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{{Page aside|267}}{{Style P-No indent|difficulty likely to arise in the minds of his readers. “Here we are in the middle of the fifth race,” he says, “and yet it is the fourth Buddha who has been identified with this race.” But his explanation does not clear the point. He explains how after the end of an obscuration and beginning of each great planetary period, when the human tide-wave “arrives at the shore of a globe where no humanity has existed for milliards of years,” a teacher is required to impress “the first broad principles of right and wrong and the first truths of the esoteric doctrine on a sufficient number of receptive minds, to ensure the continued reverberation of the ideas so implanted through successive generations of men in the millions of years to come, before the first race shall have completed its course.” But the difficulty remains all the more unsolved as to why that very necessity does not exist in the case of subsequent races, each of which is said to be separated from its predecessor by cataclysms, and why it is that the fifth Buddha or teacher will come after the final disappearance of the fifth race, the sixth at the beginning of the seventh race, and the seventh at the close of that race.}}
{{Page aside|267}}{{Style P-No indent|difficulty likely to arise in the minds of his readers. “Here we are in the middle of the fifth race,” he says, “and yet it is the fourth Buddha who has been identified with this race.” But his explanation does not clear the point. He explains how after the end of an obscuration and beginning of each great planetary period, when the human tide-wave “arrives at the shore of a globe where no humanity has existed for milliards of years,” a teacher is required to impress “the first broad principles of right and wrong and the first truths of the esoteric doctrine on a sufficient number of receptive minds, to ensure the continued reverberation of the ideas so implanted through successive generations of men in the millions of years to come, before the first race shall have completed its course.” But the difficulty remains all the more unsolved as to why that very necessity does not exist in the case of subsequent races, each of which is said to be separated from its predecessor by cataclysms, and why it is that the fifth Buddha or teacher will come after the final disappearance of the fifth race, the sixth at the beginning of the seventh race, and the seventh at the close of that race.}}


{{Style P-Signature|KHETRA MOHANA MUKHOPADYAYA, F. T. S.}}
{{Style P-Align right|{{Style S-Small capitals|Khetra Mohana Mukhopadyaya}}, ''F. T. S''.}}
{{Style P-No indent|BELGHORIA}}
{{Style P-No indent|{{Style S-Small capitals|Belghoria}}}}
{{Style P-No indent|12th June, 1884.}}
{{Style P-No indent|12''th June'', 1884.}}
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Note:—What Mr. Sinnett meant by the two passages on pages 144 and 146 of his Esoteric Buddhism, was that Gautama was the fourth Buddha, i.e., “enlightened,” while he was the fifth spiritual teacher. The first “teacher” of this “Round” on this planet was a Dhyan Chohan. As a Dhyan Chohan, he belonged to another System, and was thus far higher than a Buddha. As, however, in ordinary language, all spiritual teachers are called “Buddhas,” Mr. Sinnett speaks of Gautama as the fifth Buddha. To be more accurate, it must be said that Gautama was the fifth spiritual teacher in this “Round” on this planet, while he was the fourth who became Buddha. The one who will appear at the close of the seventh race—at the time of the occupation of the next higher planet by humanity—will again be a Dhyan Chohan. The passage of humanity into a planet and its going therefrom to another—are two critical junctures, necessitating the appearance of a Dhyan Chohan. At its first appearance, the seed of “spiritual wisdom” has to be implanted and then carried on to the next planet, when the period of obscuration of the inhabited {{Page aside|268}}planet approaches. The intervening disturbances, caused by racial cataclysms, on the globe, do not destroy that seed and its growth is ensured by the appearance of the intermediate Buddhas.—Editor.
Note:—What Mr. Sinnett meant by the two passages on pages 144 and 146 of his ''Esoteric Buddhism'', was that ''Gautama'' was the ''fourth Buddha, i.e''., “enlightened,” while he was the ''fifth'' spiritual ''teacher''. The first “teacher” of this “Round” on this planet was a ''Dhyan Chohan''. As a ''Dhyan Chohan'', he belonged to another System, and was thus far higher than a ''Buddha''. As, however, in ordinary language, all spiritual teachers are called “''Buddhas'',” Mr. Sinnett speaks of Gautama as the fifth ''Buddha''. To be more accurate, it must be said that Gautama was the fifth spiritual teacher in this “Round” on this planet, while he was the ''fourth'' who became ''Buddha''. The one who will appear at the close of the seventh race—at the time of the occupation of the next higher planet by humanity—will again be a ''Dhyan Chohan''. The passage of humanity into a planet and its going therefrom to another—are two critical junctures, necessitating the appearance of a ''Dhyan Chohan''. At its first appearance, the seed of “spiritual wisdom” has to be implanted and then carried on to the next planet, when the period of obscuration of the inhabited {{Page aside|268}}planet approaches. The intervening disturbances, caused by racial cataclysms, on the globe, do not destroy that seed and its growth is ensured by the appearance of the intermediate ''Buddhas.—Editor''.