Great Construction

Descent from Heaven

     What are called the Second Coming of Christ and the Advent of the Messiah do not mean that a physical body descends as is from heaven. These terms signify that a distinctive spirit descends from heaven and lodges in the physical body of a selected human being. In Buddhism, the phrase “the lower birth of the Maitreya” means that “the spirit of Maitreya is born in a lower world,” that the spirit of a higher level appears in the society of a lower level. Buddhism also has the expression “Womb-store Maitreya,” and because this expression refers to the period within the womb of Buddhism, Maitreya has indeed already come into this world. Therefore, since the Maitreya has been born, Buddhism has entered its period of extinction. That Buddhism will end after the birth of Maitreya is contained in the Sutra of the Completion of the Appearance of the Maitreya.
     The following is what I heard some thirty-odd years ago when I met a Christian pastor who was very well-known at the time. This interpretation was indeed original with him. He said that the end of the world as mentioned in the Bible means that all of humanity in the world will perish but that this was only a temporary death and that after a thousand years had passed, Christ, in a physical body, would descend from heaven and revive all of humanity. I simply could not believe this most preposterous idea, because this was a literal word for word rendering of what was in the Bible.

Unpublished manuscript, 1948
    translated by cynndd