Thursday, January 12, 2012

RAEL: The NON Maitreya

The following is a synopsis of Maitreya by Claire Labrie, an essay that exposes the fraud in Rael's claim that he is Maitreya. The full expose can be found at https://web.archive.org/web/20141114160735/http://raelmaitreya.clairelabrie.com:80/dossiers/dossiers/maitreya_eng.html .

Rael claims to be the awaited Buddhist savior Maitreya based on the following elaborated in a Korean Raelian website: www.maitreya.co.kr/eng/index.htm and You Tube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhRXhzXKcP0


The Korean site claims that according to Buddhist scriptures, Maitreya, the new Buddha, will appear from the country in the West ruled by the King of the Cock in the Buddhist Year 3000. Rael was born in France and had his alleged ET encounter in France. The website claims France is the country in the West ruled by the «King of Cock». It further claims that the year of Rael's encounter in 1973 corresponds to the Buddhist year 3000 (the pretension being that the Buddha was born in 1027 BCE).


Rael posing as Maitreya (See FAIR USE notice)

FRANCE, WESTERN COUNTRY of the COCK ? False! Maitreya and «the Cock» are found in INDIA!

The Korean website uses Chinese sources (Agon and Kegon-kyu sutras). The following are passages show us clearly that India is the country in the West by the Chinese of the ancient world. These excerpts were collected from different authors:

« The last twenty three centuries have seen a continuing cultural inter flow between the Western Paradise that is India and the Celestial Kingdom that is China. … To the Chinese, Central Asia was the way to the Western World of India. »  « (Chinese name) came to Sravasti (India) ... well known for his long seventeen year voyage inIndia ... On top of his translation of scriptures ... the most essentials, he is the author of « Records of the Western Regions… »  « (Chinese name) visited Sravasti (India) in 407 AD. He was one of China's greatest travelers of the fifth century. He walked… from central China (AD 399) …through India in the county of…From there, …reaching Chienkand (China) in AD 413. He was bringing with him books of the Buddhist Canon »  «  …while later works are credited to nearly one hundred Chinese monks who had been to the West for education in the Buddhist tenets. » 

It is in ancient India, north-east of Dali that Maitreya is expected to appear according to tradition. There we find a mountain of the cock that bears different names. So he is not awaited in France as the Korean website asserts. The mountain of the future Buddha Maitreya also bears the following names: Jizushan, The Chicken Foot Mountain, Mount Tali, Mount Gurupadaka (the Honoured Foot Mountain ), Chicken Leg Mountain, Foot Mountain, Rooster’s Feet Mount, and finally Kukkutapada Mount. A temple was built there.

Ketumati (Benares, Uttar Pradesh, India)
A collection of Buddhist tales informs us that «Metteyya» (Maitreya) will be reborn... in the park of the Isapatana Gazelles near Ketumati (city in the North of India),... he will approach the Bodhi tree,… He will spend seven weeks there and… in the midst of the assembly…, he will set the Wheel of Law in motion in the presence of the king Sankha. And finally, as a last source, it was written that «Maitreya will descend from the heaven of Tusita to return to his Garden of Eden of Ketumati» (city in the North of India). As far as the tales are concerned, they have been invented by Buddhist monks to motivate the secular to act in the direction that they wished with the goal of recruiting more followers and also to illustrate certain words of the Buddha.  


« KING of the COCK » or BIRD’S FLIGHT? 
The only reference to Maitreya in the Pali Canon is found in the sutra under the name: Cakkavatti-sihanada-suttanta. It is also only there that we find mention of the cock in relation with Maitreya so important to the heart of the Korean Raelians who have elaborated the website on Maitreya.

The citation given by the Korean website comes from a Sanskrit text translated in Chinese written later in the history of Buddhism. The original text can be found in a much more ancient document and part of the Pali Canon (The Long discourses of the Buddha). You will discover that there was no question in the more ancient text of a «King of the Cock» but rather of the distance of a bird's flight between the cities and villages of India, at the time when Maitreya is awaited. A revealing abstract from the Pali Canon is as follows:

(Sutra 26, 23-25) In the time of those people this continent of Jambudipa (India) will be powerful and prosperous, and villages, towns and cities will be but a cock’s flight one from the next. This Jambudipa, will be as thick with people as the jungle is… At that time the Varanasi (now Benares) of today will be a royal city called Ketumati…and in the time of the people with an eighty thousand-year life-span, there will arise in the world a Blessed Lord, an Arahant fully-enlightened Buddha named Metteyya(Maitreya in Sanskrit).  

Therefore, the only place where there is talk of Maitreya in the Buddhism canonical Pali scriptures, there is no mention of a country governed by the «King of the cock», but of a cock's flight.

It should be noted that the writing of the Pali Canon was spaced over three periods. The first period of writing is marked by a simple teaching of the Buddha. In those days he was seen as what he really was: a human being. By the 3rd period during the writing of the Pali Canon (and so, much later), it is said the Buddha made miracles (which was not the case in the older texts). It is at this period that there is finally mention of the Buddha Metteyya (Maitreya). More recent texts are therefore considered fables. What is already considered a fable basically (in the Pali Canon), becomes a fairy tale yet more colorful when written in Sanskrit and later in Chinese. The Korean Raelian site cited their "prophecy" from Chinese translations.


THE FALSE CALENDER OF BUDDHIST YEAR 3000
If 1973 CE corresponds to the 3000 years after the death of Buddha [1], then he would have had to have died in 1027 BCE, the same year of the claimed birth of Beddou (Fot), who, according to Chinese legend, was a “god” of a virgin. ».

Beddou and Sakyamuni: the same Buddha? Wow! What is Beddou doing here in regards with THE Buddha whom we all heard of? Is this here mentioned Beddou the one and only person with « our » Buddha Sakyamuni, the Buddha who had an impact on the whole world, the Buddha who gave out his speeches in Northern India? The answer is: NO!! It is not the same person!!

The following is a list of some of Sakyamuni Buddha's most notable contemporaries that place his death circa 500 BCE:

«  Gosala died in the year 484 B.C., one year before the Buddha.» 
« Mahavira lived until 467  BCE». (21) « He was a contemporary of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha » 
« Mahavira was older than the Buddha and died two years earlier. » 
« Ajita Kesakambali, … 6th century BCE. He was mentioned in the Pitakas (part of the Pali Canon) as being contemporaneous with the Buddha ». 
« The Buddha…could be seen in Magadha approximately in the year 500 BCE » 
« Ajatashatru , King of Northern India, ruled: 491-461 BCE. His father, Bimbisara (558-49B BCE) was a king from 543 BCE to his death and was a contemporary of Gautama the BuddhaThe Buddha is thought to have died in the 8th year of Ajatasatru’s reign. » 
In the Buddhist Pali Canon (the Nikayas) only 2 names of persons appear as having taught the Buddha. They are Alara Kalama (died on december 1st 531 BCE.) and Uddaka (or Rudraka) Ramaputta. 
During the 5th century BCE, Anathapindika was one of the best known secular disciples of the Buddha.


[1] The Buddhist calendar begins at the death of the Buddha... not birth.

References to all facts above can be found at the bottom of Claire Labrie's original expose: https://web.archive.org/web/20141114160735/http://raelmaitreya.clairelabrie.com:80/dossiers/dossiers/maitreya_eng.html

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[Notes by Advocatus Diaboli: The Korean site also states: « The Buddhist Year, according to Buddhist writings was different between the Southern Branch and the Northern Branch. The Buddhists held a world convention in 1962 to discuss this problem. In this convention the argument of the Southern Branch was adopted, and after it, the official Buddhist year became unified. For example, the Christian year 2003 becomes the Buddhist year 2546. However, if we interpret the monument of India's King Asoka, the argument of the Northern Branch according to them, the Christian year 2003 becomes the Buddhist year 3030.»  

The problem is, according to the Northern Branch (Mahayana Buddhism), year 2003 corresponds to Buddhist year 2485 (death of Buddha thought to be in 483 BCE). Therefore, year 1973 is NOT Buddhist year 3000 in NEITHER the Southern Branch (Theravada Buddism - death of Buddha thought to be in 544 BCE) NOR the Northern Branch. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_calendar#Year_numbering

The character Beddou, believed to be from Kashmir, can be considered another iteration of the Jesus Christ/Buddha myth. While the myth of "The Buddha" known as Siddhārtha Gautama or Sakyamuni took root in Nepal, the older myths of Beddau and other "buddhas" formed its basis. Mythicist scholar Acharya S. shows how ALL savior myths relate the SAME astrotheological myth of the Sun. Therefore, the birth year of 1027 BCE cannot be attributed to Sakyamuni who prophesized the coming of the 6th Buddha named Maitreya 3000 years after his death although Beddou is essentially Sakyamuni... both solar dieties. More information about Beddou can be found here http://www.truthbeknown.com/beddru.html ]

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