The Maithri Samma Sambuddha

Everything discussed up to this point has been the Buddha-teaching in general, not specifically the Maithri Buddha teaching. But it is the Maithri Buddha teaching that this era requires — and that is exactly why it has been arranged this way, in keeping with the evolution of beings.

Why a Maithri Buddha Teaching, Now

In this chapter, the one now living is the Maithri Buddha King. Within his field, much of what is discussed concerns karma. Through this, the Maithri Buddha shows beings a path by way of karma itself, and it is exactly here that the Maithri Buddha teaching begins to emerge. What matters further is that the path by which a being can be liberated can also be shown through karma.

What Karma Actually Is

What is karma? Karma is a kind of energy-source moving toward another energy-source it is drawn to — connecting with further energy-sources, reacting with them, becoming entangled with them, and, through the promotion of new energies, moving off in a variety of directions.

Consider this present moment: how did we come to meet one another? Where did each of us come from? How do we happen to know each other? Are we related in some way? For what reason did we meet at exactly this moment, with this strength of trust, this strength of warmth, arranged just this way, right now? If you ask who brought you here, there is no real answer. What brought you here is karma. That is exactly what karma means. The subject of karma runs very deep, and it can become entangled with something very old within you.

Think of it this way: you may have enemies, people who resent you, people who try to pull you down or oppress you — every one of them is your karma, not simply 'people.' To give an example, I was once told to leave a meditation centre I used to attend. Looking at incidents like that, the people involved were not wrong, because that reflects the nature of their karma and mine together. In that moment, they may have been driving their karma in one direction, and I mine in another. In every such case, what is really at work is simply karma operating. The only way to be free of this is to remain neutral.

Staying Neutral: Karma Operates, But You Need Not Be Bound to It

How does one become neutral? If you give something as an order — 'come here now' — karma is present in that. But if you offer the same thing merely as a suggestion, karma does not operate in the same way; then the other person remains free either to come or not to come.

Consider this too: a river flows — flowing is simply its nature; the river is not 'making' itself flow. But when water is made to flow through a pipeline that was built, karma is present there, because that pipeline was deliberately constructed.

There is a neutral nature present throughout this universe, and it exists within us too — and there, karma does not operate. It is where self-appropriation, the sense of 'I,' enters into what you are doing that karma becomes active. And yet — you are not really 'doing' anything, and still it happens. This is a very subtle point to work through. What is meant here is that you are not doing a thing in that sense, but nor are you living passively, doing nothing at all, like someone merely drifting through.

Consider ordinary acts like breathing or going to the toilet — these can be carried out without that kind of 'doing.' Now, if you feel like eating something you enjoy, and you go and find it and eat it, karma is operating there. Seen from another angle, karma is, in fact, always operating regardless. This is a very deep point. Even if you went to eat simply because you were hungry, karma is still operating — but you are not settling into that karma.

Suppose someone scolds you harshly, with rough words. That person is scolding, certainly, and we recognise it as our own karma — but we do not settle into that karma, and so it does not truly 'operate' on us. That is, we are not connecting ourselves to it, even though karma is operating. The one standing there is simply free of it. That, in fact, is exactly what 'Buddha' means.

There is no moment at all in which karma is not operating. There are, however, particular occasions on which karma is being generated. Karma exists in one form or another at every turn — but one can allow karma to operate without becoming identified with it, without turning into it.

The Maithri Buddha King has no separate Chathurarya Shakthi — Four Noble Energies — discourse as such. The Maithri Buddha is what forms when all the purity present in the universe comes together as one. Within the Maithri Buddha, this Chathurarya Shakthi already exists, and every discourse he gives is, at heart, always a Chathurarya Shakthi discourse — there is no separate teaching apart from it. All of his teachings are, in truth, messages addressed to the universe itself.

Even if you say you can 'settle into' karma, karma still operates. Even if you say you will not, karma still operates. Even saying nothing at all, karma still operates there. But none of this should move you — you still need to speak, and karma still need not operate on you.

Bodhi, the Karma-Path, and the Dissolution of Past Avatars

Question: Does that mean not becoming centred on it? Answer: No, it isn't about not becoming centred. It's that you have no bond with karma — no connection to it — even while karma continues to operate.

Question: So isn't that what's called 'Buddha'? Doesn't that happen automatically for someone who has become an Arahant? Answer: That happens at the fruition called parinibbana, for one who has become an Arahant.

Question: At the very moment of letting go of the body? Answer: What happens at the establishing of Bodhi is being released from the existing karma-path and being given a new karma-path — so the karma-path is still operative. But the Maithri Buddha can give the path-vision directly, giving the fruit of parinibbana itself — showing, right now, what exists at parinibbana.

The karma of one dwelling in the fruit of Arahantship is operative. The karma of Buddhas is operative too. Even the Maithri Buddha's karma operates — yet he remains without being connected to it. One who has attained the Arahant-fruit is, for the most part, in that same position. But where Bodhi is concerned, karma is operative, and connected to the karma pertaining to Bodhi specifically.

Question: Isn't that also simply being free of self? Answer: You could put it that way, but the difficulty is that 'self' then gets confined within the boundary of whatever field one holds onto as 'I.' Saying 'I am working for the sake of beings' is, in a sense, free of self — yet even there, karma cannot be absent; from another angle there is still an 'I' present. There, the nature of that 'I' changes according to the interpretation we have given it.

Consider this: I once observed, in a vision, a monk who spoke a great deal in terms of concepts. I saw his hut catch fire, his belongings stolen, something valuable to him lost. He was in turmoil, restless. I went to him and said, 'Venerable Sir, isn't all of this simply concepts arising in the mind?' At that, it became clear to him that something exists beyond mere concepts. Naming something a 'concept' does not, on its own, free anyone from karma — karma is not a concept.

Someone might then ask: are you only talking about karma, then — is karma all there is here? One could try to say no — but how was even that thought, 'no,' born? Can that be explained? How did it come to be formed relative to other possible answers? Can anyone explain how this present moment came to be connected in exactly this way? No — and that is precisely what karma is.

All the spiritual root-manifestations formed up to this point undergo dissolution. They appeared in this way in order to demonstrate the path travelled so far — its history, its lineage — so that the world could see confirmed the path by which the true Buddha came. That is, having touched every one of these spiritual fruits, having carried out everything relating to the Buddha for this purpose, the path is shown, its ending point is shown, and the way its earlier and later junctures were formed is shown — and from that, every avatar is in turn removed. The whole of this history, up to now, is removed along with them. In this way, the Buddha-teaching, together with the other stories that travelled alongside it, is clarified as to how it evolved, is confirmed, and is brought forward, and that history is used to prove to beings that the path travelled so far is correct. Likewise, a number of paths by which beings can be liberated have been brought forward according to these very doctrines.

Question: When all the avatars are dissolved, how does a being come to see Nibbana? Answer: With the Maithri Buddha, every method by which any being can see Nibbana already exists — from wherever a being stands, there is a crossing point, a path. Earlier, only some of these crossing points could be seen. With the Maithri Buddha, any being can see whichever crossing point takes them across.

Question: Do the five niyama-dharmas discussed earlier break down, then? Answer: No, they do not break down.

Question: Regarding bija-niyama — the seed-order — such as a jack-fruit seed sprouting into a jack tree, does that order apply to karma too? Answer: There, bija-niyama was described separately, and within that separate description, a distinct interpretation was given to karma. Within that particular framework, karma is given its own separate interpretation.

Consider this: here are two phones, both of them smartphones. Yet one is given the interpretation 'Samsung phone,' and by contrast the other is called an 'iPhone.' Even so, both of these phones remain, at bottom, smartphones.

The Five Niyama and Karma's Own Interpretation

In just the same way, it was by giving karma its own separate interpretation that this was called karma. It is according to interpretations of exactly this kind that the five niyama — ritu-niyama, bija-niyama, kamma-niyama, dhamma-niyama, and citta-niyama — are distinguished from one another. It is done relative to the interpretation we ourselves have given.

Now consider this: citta-niyama, dhamma-niyama, and bija-niyama are distinguished from one another because we have given citta-niyama its own separate frame. It is from that frame that the next frame comes to differ. All of these frames could just as easily be collapsed into one. Which happens depends simply on how we choose to divide things up.

Question: So can all the niyama-dharmas, then, be called karma? Counter-question: Relative to what would you call all of them karma?

Question: Relative to your own discourse. According to you, the niyama-dharmas were divided relative to an interpretation you yourself gave — so, relative to that, can we call all of it karma? Answer: If you say 'bija-niyama,' you need to give it an interpretation. Did we go about inventing new interpretations? There was already a prior interpretation given for it, and it is according to those five interpretations that we are explaining things.

So we are now giving karma its own separate interpretation. We are speaking of karma having given it a definition — saying, 'this is what karma is.'

Question: So does that mean everything has to be called karma? Answer: No, that isn't so. If one were to say that, it would need to be grounded in some definition. Then, in speaking of 'karma,' one would have to ask what is actually meant by it. Is it meant as something merely thought up? As a result, a vipaka? No — karma is not the giving of results; giving results is only one small part of it. In the Four Noble Truths discourse, a complete analysis of karma is given, and it is according to that analysis that everything is said to rest on karma.

Question: So did you give an interpretation to all five niyama-dharmas? Answer: No. According to what is set out in the conventional texts, bija-niyama operates according to the nature of the seed. Dhamma-niyama is the nature of water flowing along — the doctrine belonging to water itself. Accordingly, a few such simply-existing matters were taken up and described in that way.

It is because we are speaking on the basis of karma that karma was given its own interpretation. It is on the basis of that interpretation that all of this is spoken of.

Does a tree have karma? A tree does have karma, but there is no one there to take on the tree's karma. But if someone takes a seed from that tree and plants it elsewhere, building a village around it, then, if that tree's karma still exists, there is now someone there to take on that karma. There, even though karma continues as a natural law, an owner now exists to take on that karma.

The fault does not lie in karma itself — it lies in taking ownership of karma. That is, in involvement.

Now consider this: suppose I scold you. If you become involved in that, karma operates there. But so long as you do not become involved in it, even though it remains karma, no connection to that karma actually takes place. There, all that happens is karma flowing along simply as a doctrine.

But if this not-taking-of-ownership is achieved through effort, karma arises relative to that effort instead. That is, whether or not one becomes involved no longer even matters to such a person — the very feeling of it becomes neutral for them.

Neutrality Without Bodhi, and the Limits of Passing It On

Question: In the absence of Bodhi, are Arahants also neutral with respect to karma? Answer: Yes — but only if they have received the relevant path-vision can they arrive at that state.

Question: So it isn't automatic, simply from attaining the fruit of Arahantship? Answer: It does not happen from the fruit of Arahantship alone. It is something that happens after parinibbana.

Question: Can the Maithri Buddha give this neutrality as a path to others? Answer: Yes, he can make the path clear enough for someone to reach that state. But it is not an easy task, because the Maithri Buddha is one who has transcended karma. For someone who has transcended karma in that way, doing this is very easy. But for someone else, since they have not themselves transcended karma, what may actually be happening is that they are simply being untangled from a knot of karma tied by one who has already transcended karma. So it does not work in quite as straightforward a way as it might sound.

The Bodhisattva, Honest Work, and Becoming Neutral

(Turning toward a Bodhisattva) For example, say I tell you to work honestly for me. Then your karma is generated on the basis of that honest work done for me. But within that same process, all of your karma is exhausted, and this karma, too, is exhausted along with it. What happens there is that all of this person's karma is gathered together and bound into a single new karma. Working within that as it proceeds, one begins to feel, in life, what is meant by being neutral.

In this world where you and I dwell together, what are these tears and sighs for?

It is in just this sense that, for as long as you remain with me — the one called the destroyer of karma, the Maithri Buddha — remaining neutral is exactly what is meant here. But if one does not become neutral in this way, they leave my path. Accepting that the Maithri Buddha neutralises karma is, in itself, the means by which one can be lifted up.

Question: Doesn't working in this way involve a surrender of yourself? Answer: Yes — it is within that very self-surrender that everything is brought to completion.

Question: So doesn't the honest work done for you turn, in that sense, toward merit? Answer: You could put it that way. There are a great many things a person can do in this world. Among them, doing something for the sake of a Buddha is the greatest. Greater still is an action done for one proclaimed foremost. Greater still again is an action done for a Buddha King.

Greater still is an action done out of trust in the purity present throughout the universe. To think of that purity, to trust it, and to act from it, is to become that purity oneself. If someone is able to act in that way, that action becomes a supreme and rare one. Every other action ranks below it.

Predictions, Purity, and the Rarity of Viyarana

Question: You said predictions are also given from that same point? Answer: Yes — a Buddha King can give them, and one proclaimed foremost can give them too. It is difficult for an ordinary Buddha-aspirant. The predictions given by a Buddha King and by an Agra Buddha strike exactly like a nail driven true.

Purity is that rare. What is given from that point onward does not change. Being able to understand that subject, and to see it, can, in itself, be built into a number of such rare accomplishments. It is through your questions that the Dhamma comes out from me.

The Instant of Becoming the Maithri Buddha

Question: Is there also a shift in the range from which karma is seen and spoken of, at this point? Answer: Purity has taken shape as a kind of energy, and within it, Mara's army arises.

Becoming the Maithri Buddha is something that happens within a single instant. Defeating the entire ten-fold army of Mara, in every direction, within that single instant, the Maithri Buddha appeared, became Buddha, delivered the Maithri Buddha discourse, and arrived in exactly this way.

In truth, for the Maithri Buddha to become Buddha does not require an austerity of the kind Gautama Buddha underwent. The Maithri Buddha King's appearing takes only the space of a single instant.

The Defeat of the Ten-fold Mara at the Ganga's Bank

He then describes how the defeat of the ten-fold Mara before the Maithri Buddha King actually took place.

I was seated beneath a tree by the river Ganga at Rishikesh. The army of the ten-fold Mara rose up out of the earth and came toward me — rising up through people, through water, from among grains of sand. As they rose in this way, I said, 'that is not enough.' Then they rose up even from the very pores of my skin. Still I said, 'not enough.' At that they said, 'even your saying not enough is itself Mara. Your very knowing that you are going to defeat Mara is itself Mara.' In this way they kept breaking apart and multiplying, and went on speaking. Then, looking toward them, I said: Mara, I am faithful to the whole. I am faithful to this entire Maithri Buddha dispensation; I am faithful to this entirety. Therefore there is nothing I need to defeat; therefore I accept it all. I am faithful, and at this moment there is nothing for me to do to them. After that I said to them: this, then, is the Maithri Buddha King.

I do not accept any karma. I do not acknowledge it. It is the one who destroys all karma who is called the Maithri Buddha King. So I do not defeat Mara — because even defeating is itself karma. It was they themselves who named themselves Mara; it was they themselves who tried to defeat me. I did nothing. The point at which that karma is severed — that very point is the one truly neutral point in the universe. I sit with both eyes open, simply watching. People pass by from there. Everything happens. I do nothing, and the mind does not run — the mind has come to a stop. Without even that much, sitting with eyes wide open, watching everything unfold — that is what is meant by abiding in the neutral nature.

Why the World's Energy Needs Balancing

Relative to the world, the energy of the world is distributed out — among trees and plants, medicinal herbs, rocks and stones, and human beings. Now, there is no way for human energy to be distributed out in the same way. That is why energy runs to excess within human beings. That is why human beings fight, kill one another, wage war. Human beings are busy; they must work, must run about — they cannot simply be still. The reason for this is the excess of energy within human beings. It is to bring this into balance that the Maithri Buddha has descended into this world. Because of this, I too carry excess energy. To balance that energy, the natural law itself — the Dhamma — is essential, and it is achieved through ease, through comfort.

From this point on, what I speak of becomes very simply understood by people. They feel it, because the discourse travels together with energy itself. No harm comes to any being from it — only good comes of it.

My own karma operates too. Karma travels through this as well. What has happened here is a separation, and an understanding. The ability to read karma has been gained.

The Naivety of Science, and the Water-Bottle Example

Question: You said energy has divided out among trees, animals, and rocks. Now, put in terms of cause and effect, people could understand that. For instance, someone asks about the double-slit experiment — they will not accept it if you simply say 'that is karma'; surely it needs to be broken down so that it can be explained in those terms?

Answer: There, I can only answer relative to the particular person asking that question.

Looking at that example — the dots in that experiment are said to appear differently depending on how they are observed. What has to be said about that is that it reflects a naivety present both in science and in the intellect.

Take it this way. Take this water bottle. While you are looking at this water bottle and thinking of it as a water bottle, what is actually happening is this: the water bottle you are watching is itself changing. Your eye is changing too. And you yourself are changing too.

That is exactly why the Buddha-teaching explains this kind of change so deeply.

But to someone who has taken refuge in science as science, and who carries science's own naivety along with it, the example given above looks just like a magic trick.

But we say: the bottle changes; the eye watching the bottle changes; the person who has that eye changes; and the cause-and-effect law operating within all of it changes too. This is teaching a very deep dependent origination. Rejecting that, people ask how such a thing changes, and how it can be proven.

We say: the amount that changes internally is far greater than the amount that appears, from outside, to change as it is observed — and this can be shown, proportionally, through inference.

Proof That Doesn't Change Tomorrow

Question: That's fine — the Buddha-teaching's account and standard science's account are both fine. But shouldn't this be explained in a way ordinary people can understand?

Answer: Suppose an answer were given to that, suppose it were proven — even so, would any of the problems in that person's life tomorrow actually change? Their suffering, their happiness, their peace, their irritation, their worry, their stress — none of that would change. Building yet another layer of surface-level logic does not change any of it.

So go back and examine the earlier example. If what was being sought was the cause of ignorance, that is fine — but then what that truth actually is needs to be made clear. If truth has truly been seen, all doubt should be dispelled, and the whole of science should become visible. Going by the earlier example, believing that to be 'true science' shows only that the true path-vision has not, in fact, been received.

Question: So then, is it the path-vision that truly sees truth that we should be talking about? Answer: If the path-vision that truly sees truth were genuinely received there, one would attain Arahantship. Only someone who has become an Arahant can see truth. It is one who has seen truth who becomes a Buddha, or an Arahant.

So one who seeks truth with blind eyes, deaf ears, and a deluded mind will never encounter truth.

Where the water is too hot, one adds a little cold water and shows the way forward — the question should never simply be rejected. Studying the conventional sciences is a worthwhile thing in itself, but truth is not contained within them. That is exactly why what is called 'science' keeps changing, from one era to the next, with new things constantly being added to it.

But the Buddha-teaching shows the actual methods for seeing truth. Seen in that way, truth becomes visible. But looked at through conventional science, what becomes apparent are only new interpretations and new conclusions. Those are not truth — they are merely conclusions.

How Beings Will Be Arranged Going Forward

Question: In the future, when people come and ask questions, will there be an opportunity to question such conclusions? Answer: Any kind of question can be asked, in any way at all.

Question: How will beings be arranged corresponding to this? Answer: That is decided according to your own purpose. If you sow a field, its harvest is yours. You might sow a field so that it becomes food for animals, or so that you can sell it and earn an income, or so that it becomes food for yourself. So how, or whether, you arrange beings depends on your own purpose.

Question: What I am asking is how beings will be arranged corresponding specifically to the Maithri Buddha — there was a particular method before; is there such an order now too? Answer: That is exactly the point — it is you who calls beings forth. That question belongs to you now. So it is decided according to your own intention. You reap the harvest of the very seed you sow.

Question: Is this the final version of the teaching? Answer: The subject of Buddhahood is inconceivable. It is decided according to a being's own wisdom. If a being's need can be fulfilled through this... I think it is right to put it this way.

A Personal Reflection: Why the Struggle Was Necessary

To tell the truth, I did come for this. But I did not want to come to it easily, because by nature I am a stubborn character — that is simply my temperament. That is exactly why, fighting, working, dragging a heavy load along the way, within the space of a few seconds I became the Maithri Buddha and rose up. It was because of that power. I had no wish to simply arrive casually and become the Maithri Buddha. That is exactly why all the accounts of the Buddhas were drawn together, the Buddha King was shown, the historical accounts, with their earlier and later junctures, were connected and brought forward, the Saddharma Pundarika Sutra was spoken, the middle mandala was shown — and only once all of that was finished did the Maithri Buddha come and deliver the Dhamma as well. The Dhamma is not delivered by mouth — speaking Dhamma by mouth is easy. It is delivered through action itself. That is what is meant by teaching through action.

Two Children, Two Future Buddhas

The best thing that happened there was this: after becoming Buddha, while seated there, two small children came up to me. One of them held onto my leg. A little while later, some more children came, carrying flower-lamps, saying various things. One of them, too, was leaning against my leg. They had flower-lamps in their hands. One of them lit a lamp. One lamp went out; then they lit it again. After that, that whole little group went on its way.

Question: What was it that the Maithri Buddha King's first Buddha-discourse, delivered through action, actually consisted of? Answer: Those children had brought me flower-lamps. There was a lighter there. I asked, 'why the lighter?' — I said nothing more than that — and lit the two lamps from both sides. What was happening there, what did they actually want? They gave me what was theirs, and then, when they needed it, they took it back and went on their way. That is what happened. They left overjoyed, taking with them what was relevant to them.

Within those two small children, a bodhi-citta arises. Both of those children become Buddhas. One becomes a Samma Sambuddha. There is room for the other to go even further than that — it cannot be said which. As they grow older, the two of them will come to understand a great deal, and will become deeply mature. Going forward, as they grow up, they will come to speak of things beyond what we speak of now.

A Field for Every Seed: The New Realms of Being

Question: Now that all the avatars have been dissolved, are you present, alive, everywhere, at all times? Answer: Yes, that is exactly so. The Maithri Buddha is an entire field — that is, the whole of existence itself is a field belonging to him. Every seed you sow is sown within that field. You may sow whatever seed you wish.

Question: What becomes of the previous thirty-one realms? Answer: New realms of being — satthavasa — come into existence. There is no such fixed thing as 'thirty-one realms.'

Satthavasa means the abodes in which beings dwell — that is, realms such as the human realm, the deva realm, the peta realm, and the brahma realm come into being according to karma.

It happens like this: just as people bring in paddy and build paddy fields, and farming comes into being as an industry; just as bringing in clay and making pots gives rise to the pottery industry; just as taking soil from the ground and cutting bricks gives rise to the brick industry — in just the same way, new realms of being come into existence. Within this, people reap one thing or another for themselves, and, correspondingly, new realms of being arise. The idea of 'thirty-one realms' passes out of existence. The thirty-one realms came into being because, in Gautama Buddha's time, people cultivated jhana and built those realms within their own minds.