Now Is The Time For the Media to Meet Maitreya

Over the coming weeks economic experts will continue presenting ideas on how to resolve the global financial crisis, but not many seem to be thinking about the future.

Proof that the city dealers haven’t learnt from this disaster came with the news that billions of pounds have been lost by hedge funds short-selling shares in German car maker VW

(VW goes from the Beetle to the world's most valuable company, The Guardian)

Even after all of their losses the city hasn’t learnt and their mistakes threaten our way of life.

There can’t be many people in this world who haven’t noticed the recent injustice of our financial institutions receiving billions of dollars in aid, while millions of Zimbabweans are on the brink of starvation.

This planetary imbalance of fortune needs to be addressed and there is one person who has consistently provided a blueprint to a better future for everyone.

His name is Maitreya and His plan for humanity includes: the end of starvation and war, Peace and Justice for all, with adequate food, housing, health and education as a basic right.

Maitreya not only sees our problems as easily solvable but also predicts that by following His plan we can expect this to be achieved within 25 years. All we need to do is see the earth as belonging to everyone and share its resources.

He has been generally ignored by the media for the past thirty years but now, with our economies on their knees, is the ideal time to test Maitreya’s ideas face-to-face and see if they stand up to intense scrutiny. We have nothing to loose and everything to gain.

However the media have always had a problem with who Maitreya is claimed to be and maybe that is why He isn’t a household name by now.

Since May 1975 Maitreya’s plans have been presented by Benjamin Creme during his monthly lectures at Friend’s Meeting House in Euston, London.

Along with annual talks in Europe, Japan and America, Creme says he has been “preparing the way” for Maitreya, once describing his role as a bit like John the Baptist but without any baptising.

Creme is also editor of Share International, a magazine in its 27th year of publication and in that time it has never taken an advert.

As you would expect the ‘share’ in this case is “Share and Save the World” and for Maitreya this is the only way forward for humanity.

In a series of messages given to Benjamin Creme, by Maitreya between September 1977 and June 1982, the idea of sharing was a regular topic:

"The answers to your problems are simple indeed. Many times have I told you that the will to share must govern your lives. Once again, I repeat: without Sharing and Justice, My brothers and sisters, man will know no peace."

(Message No. 133 December 16, 1981)

So who is Maitreya? And what is His background? On Share International’s web site they claim this about Him:

“He has been expected for generations by all of the major religions. Christians know him as the Christ, and expect his imminent return. Jews await him as the Messiah; Hindus look for the coming of Krishna; Buddhists expect him as Maitreya Buddha; and Muslims anticipate the Imam Mahdi or Messiah.

Although the names are different, many believe that they all refer to the same individual: the World Teacher, whose personal name is Maitreya.”

(Who is Maitreya? Share International)

If true this would be the biggest news story the planet has witnessed but maybe a claim the media have found impossible to stake their reputations on with an in-depth investigation.

They might have also had a problem with the notion that they need to invite Maitreya forward. Creme says Maitreya can’t just materialise on TV sets around the world as that action would infringe humanity’s Free Will, something a person of Maitreya’s standing sees as sacrosanct.

The media are also seen as the people’s true representatives. It is them and not politicians or religious leaders who are needed to put Maitreya’s plans forward but only after thorough testing and questioning of His qualifications.

Creme’s first attempt at bringing Maitreya and the media together was a major press conference in Los Angeles on 14th May 1982.

After placing full page adverts in newspapers around the world, ninety journalists from the main news outlets gathered to hear Benjamin Creme announce that Maitreya, The Christ and World Teacher, was living as an ordinary member of the Asian community in London, ready and willing to help humanity.

All the media had to do was go through the motions of looking for Maitreya and He would be able to start His emergence. In a Share International pamphlet Creme explained:

“A well-known journalist would need to be assigned to the task, so that on meeting Maitreya they would have sufficient professional standing to be believed by their fellow journalists.”

Unfortunately no one came forward. And in some respects you can’t blame them as the Share International adverts had proclaimed “The Christ Is Now Here”.

Now from Creme’s point of view he is telling the absolute truth but it must have seemed a very difficult task for the journalists, returning to their editors with the news: “Well, Christ wasn’t there, but Benjamin Creme says we’ve got to go and look for Him and then he will come forward.”

However the story did inspire some freelance journalists and twenty-two gathered at a curry house in Brick Lane, London on 31st July 1985 with the hope of meeting Maitreya, or an envoy.

A humorous account of the evening was written by Alan Rusbridger, the current editor of the Guardian newspaper, who since hasn’t written anything about Maitreya.

No one put in an appearance that evening and enthusiasm for the story diminished but, according to Creme, enough of an attempt had been made to begin the process.

In the September, 1985 issue of Share International he writes:

“Of course, all of us who have worked so hard to bring this gathering of journalists about were disappointed. From the viewpoint of the Christ, however, the evening was a great success. For the first time, a truly representative group of the world's media, East and West, made themselves available to be contacted. This represents a symbolic invitation from humanity to come forward and immeasurably frees Maitreya's hand to act directly Himself.

In the long run, the media have still to make Maitreya known to the world but the work of getting them involved is done. We can now await Maitreya's direct action with added confidence and faith.”

Twenty-two years later and with the same optimism and hope for the future Benjamin Creme is still giving lectures in Friend’s Meeting House and at the most recent (7th October 2008) he said Maitreya’s first TV interview was very close. It will be in the United States, He won’t be called Maitreya but he will put forward His views and ideas.

Creme even gave the audience a time frame in which this would happen and the details have been printed in Share International (November 2008).

Apparently this August, Maitreya gave a bottle of hair conditioner to a woman stall holder the Esoteric fair in Magdeburg in Germany. He told her that: “If you are very sparing, the event will happen before this bottle is finished.”

Maitreya also gave her another sign that the moment was near: “The event will be announced by a bright star in the sky, which will be visible for everybody.”

Familiarity Breeds Yet Again

Since Original 106fm stopped broadcasting I’ve been giving this expression a fair amount of use: "When one studio door shuts, another opens".

Although when it comes to continuing the Showcase, which puts unsigned and independent music on the radio, people seem to be cowering behind the studio door, fingers in ears, exclaiming the idea to be “dangerous”.

Well, dangerous might be a small exaggeration, but what I’m finding is that playing "new music" on commercial radio is seen as a bad idea because, the theory goes, listeners want familiar songs. Songs that they know and love and have heard many times before.

If they don’t hear a familiar song they’ll change channel.

And that’s even with the new music put into a “new music show” with a presenter telling you that there is “new music” about to come on.

It’s surprising the ‘familiar’ theory is so prevalent because pop radio has been with us for over 40 years and by now we should be used to hearing the occasionally different song.

The only person widely associated with broadcasting new music the late BBC broadcaster John Peel and bizarrely enough he became popular before joining the BBC playing new and different music on a pirate radio station.

So even in the late 60’s pirate radio fell into the trap of playing safe.

The message is loud and clear: commercial radio plays music you already know and new music is the BBC’s remit.

Commercial television doesn’t have a problem with untried talent. If you went to ITV chief Michael Grade and suggested he should drop “The X Factor” and “Britain’s Got Talent” I am sure he’d suggest you did something unprintable.

These two shows are their biggest ratings winners and although the format maybe familiar the acts aren’t. It is a sure bet that radio wouldn’t have discovered Leona Lewis or Will Young.

I’ve recently been reminded that “radio is a village”. A great analogy to be sure but, to my eye, commercial radio’s current attitude appears more like local gentry, living on a big hill near the village, with a loud speaker on the turret, expecting everyone to love them because of the familiar songs they broadcast.

The only time these gentry visit the village is to collect money from traders, or hand out prizes when ratings are being counted.

If, on these rare visits, they were to collect a few new songs from the village and then expand on that interaction, they might engender some respect, loyalty and more importantly for the traders - show they have a connection with the community.

Advertiser’s current worry is their message falling upon deaf ears because, if people are listening to familiar songs on the radio, are they really “listening”? Are they just treating it as background music?

Of course the other question radio should be asking is “How many times do people switch when they hear a song they are familiar with?”

Commercial radio is an excellent medium for musicians, listeners and advertisers to co-exist but for me the current trend of safety will widen the distance between the station and the community.