Recently I read an article about the late L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, that said he claimed to be an incarnation of Maitreya. He even managed to patch together some bogus scripture to prove it. (I'd actually heard this before, but had forgotten it. It's a bit hard to process.)
Most of you probably know that Maitreya is said to be the fifth and last buddha of the current world age, who will come sometime in the future when the dharma has been lost. But it might seem he's made some premature appearances. For example, a few years ago someone in Europe claimed that Maitreya had arrived and had appeared to millions of people on American television. Alas, I could not find out what channel he was on.
There have been and still are some fairly large spiritual movements claiming that Maitreya is either already among us or is about to show up. The Theosophists (see "Henry Steel Orcott's Unlikely Life") were keen on the latter idea. The fellow proclaiming Maitreya's television appearances says that the universal buddha is teaching the value of peace, justice, and sharing. That's fine, but hardly original.
Some other groups have decided Maitreya is the antichrist, although views differ as to whether this is a good or a bad thing.
The human desire for someone (else) to show up and make everything better appears to be inexhaustible. There have been a number of messianic Maitreya cults in Asian history, going back centuries, in which charismatic leaders proclaimed themselves to be Maitreya and caused all sorts of mayhem.
The thing is, the teachings are all here, available to all of us. We have everything we need to wake up. We don't need some kind of Magic Cosmic Savior to show us the way, because the way already is marked.
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