Jesus Was Not Overshadowed

Benjamin Creme claimed that Maitreya, who is now both Buddha and Christ, overshadowed his disciple Jesus. I will state first of all that I do not believe this to be true, and secondly that I might be one of the few people alive today who can say exactly what it is like to be overshadowed. My teacher, the Bodhisattva Tara, overshadowed me for 13 months, from October, 2016, to November, 2017. During that time I was not conscious of myself and yet I remember everything that she did.

I have no hard evidence that Jesus was not overshadowed and my statement is a matter of faith and instinct. The idea that Jesus was overshadowed is actually very strange; it belongs to the world of spiritism instead of spirituality. The symbolism involved in overshadowing is itself rather odd. It is true that in the psalms God provides a protective shadow to those who live in the desert. But when He wishes to teach us the image is always one of illumination, as we might expect. Light is a universal symbol of insight, knowledge, and wisdom.

The doctrine that the Bodhisattva Maitreya overshadowed his disciple, the Master Jesus, was first proposed by Charles W. Leadbeater, a man given to many controversial statements. His attempt to train Jiddu Krishnamurti to be a “vehicle” for Maitreya resulted in the fragmentation of the Theosophical Society. The German section under Rudolf Steiner adopted an entirely new name, Anthroposophy, along with a message based squarely upon Jesus as the Christ. Leadbeater probably wanted to include Christianity among the religions that Theosophy championed without detracting from the preeminence that Tibetan Buddhism had in Madam Blavatsky's writings. In other words, Leadbeater desired to see a Theosophical Christianity and still call it Esoteric Buddhism, the name that A. P. Sinnett gave to Theosophy’s teachings.

I believe that Elizabeth Clare Prophet had the correct idea when she said that Jesus met Maitreya in India when he went there during his “lost years” between the ages of 13 and 30. According to her, Jesus accepted Maitreya as a teacher but the words of Christ in the gospels are those of the Aramaic master and not of his teacher using him as a medium.

Most people who write about Jesus' sojourn in India describe his encounter with Hindu teachers and yogis. Mrs. Prophet is correct when she tells us that he found a Buddhist teacher---for India was essentially a Buddhist land before the Islamic invasion. The skillfulness of Elizabeth Clare Prophet's treatment of history is worthy of attention.

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