The Bible teaches that there are twelve gates into the City, metaphorically meaning that there are many paths back home to God. Drawing strongly from both Eastern and Western religious and spiritual traditions, this series offers some of the many perspectives on how to approach enlightenment.
Enter the 4th gate into the city through the connection between Christ and Buddha and becoming one with them.
4th Gate Chapters — (Click to jump to a topic)
> The Historical Gautama Buddha and the Historical Jesus Christ
> The Way of the Buddha
> Putting on the Christ Consciousness
> Videos on Personal Christhood
> Jesus was a Student of the Buddha
> Jesus Quote and Buddhist Scripture Compared
The Historical Gautama Buddha and the Historical Jesus Christ
“Gautama came in an hour when Hinduism was at its worst state of decadence. The priesthood was involved in favoritism and guarding the great secrets, the real mysteries of God, from the people, thus keeping the masses in ignorance.
The caste system had become a means of imprisonment of the soul instead of a means of liberation through dharma. And so there arose Gautama Buddha. Born as Prince Siddhartha, he left palace, power, wife and son to gain that enlightenment whereby he could give back to the people that which the interlopers had taken from them.
Jesus did exactly the same thing through the same power—the power of the eternal Christ. Jesus came in an hour when Judaism was entrenched with the activities of the Sadducees, the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin. He came to give back to the people their understanding.“
~ Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Inner Perspectives
The Way of the Buddha
The term ‘buddha’ is from Sanskrit and means ‘awake’, ‘know’, or ‘perceive’. It is also often translated as “the enlightened one”. Siddhartha Gautama in his final incarnation (c. 563-483 BC) achieved enlightenment and became known as Gautama Buddha. For forty-five years after his enlightenment, he taught the path of the Four Noble Truths and the Eight-Fold Path, which are the tenets today of Buddhism, the religion he is accredited with founding.
The Four Noble Truths are from the first sermon that Buddha taught after his enlightenment. The Truths are the following:
- Life is dukkha (suffering).
- The cause of suffering is tanya (desire or craving).
- Suffering will disappear when the craving that causes it is overcome.
- Once freed from suffering (nirvana), the way to a soul’s liberation is through the Eight-fold path, sometimes called The Middle Way.
The Eight-fold Path consists of eight right actions that an enlightened being will live by.
- Right understanding or right views – Being centered neither to the left nor the right in relative thinking but being centered in God.
- Right aspiration, right thought, or right resolve – The soul’s aspiration or right attitude must be centered in God—in having right thought, right contemplation upon the law of God and the right resolve to accomplish her mission in life.
- Right speech – Right speech is speech that is kindly, open and truthful.
- Right action or right conduct – Right action and right conduct are the physical outpicturing of all that we contain in our heart, in our mind, in our soul, in our desires, and in our being.
- Right livelihood – Right livelihood is choosing a profession that does not harm any living thing and not choosing an occupation that is not conducive to spiritual progress.
- Right effort – We must make an effort to end existing evil, to prevent new evil, to make an effort to cause new virtue, and to make an effort to increase existing virtue.
- Right mindfulness – Right mindfulness is being in control of one’s life.
- Right concentration or right absorption – It is mental tranquility and the absence of distraction. Through meditation and proper breathing this step is achieved.
Each one of these steps of the Eightfold Path can also be found in Christianity. The Eightfold Path is the teaching of all of the great gurus in the lineage of Sanat Kumara. The lineage extends from Sanat Kumara (The Ancient of Days) to Gautama Buddha to Lord Maitreya to Jesus Christ to Padma Sambhava, and finally to Guru Ma (Elizabeth Clare Prophet). (From Path to Attainment, Climb the Highest Mountain Series, Volume 9, by Mark and Elizabeth Clare Prophet.)
‘Buddha’ is an office in spiritual hierarchy and means that the soul has attained Buddhic Consciousness, which is the full integration with her three higher bodies called the Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, and Nirmanakaya. To become a Buddha, one must pass certain initiations of the sacred fire, including those of the Seven Rays of the Holy Spirit and of the Five Secret rays, the raising of the sacred fire of the Kundalini (the Mother Light), and the “mastery of the seven in the seven multiplied by the power of the ten.” (See Djwal Kul, Intermediate Studies of the Human Aura, chap. 10; also published in The Human Aura.)
One Buddhist text says: “The road of Buddhahood is open to all. At all times have all living beings the germ of Buddhahood in them.”
Putting on the Christ Consciousness
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. ~ Matthew 5:14-16
The name ‘Christ’ comes from the Greek word “christos” which means “anointed”. The Ascended Masters teach that there is not just one son of God, but that we are all meant to become the “Christ”, an anointed one. Spiritual seekers who pursue the path of personal Christhood understand that the only begotten son of God refers to the Christ consciousness, not to Jesus the person.
In Galatians 4:5, Saint Paul teaches that Jesus came as the “firstborn” to “enable us to be adopted as sons. Revelation 21:7 declares, “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.”
There is a spark of divinity within us that is called the three-fold flame. The three-fold flame is usually less than a sixteenth of an inch and is located in the secret chamber of our hearts. This spiritual flame has three “plumes” which embody the primary attributes of God: Love, Wisdom and Power. This flame is what Jesus was referring to when he declared the “kingdom of Heaven is within”.
Mystics and sacred scriptures have alluded to this flame in the heart. Referring to this flame, Symeon, the New Theologian, an eleventh-century Byzantine saint said: “What words can describe this! . . . I see a light which the world does not possess. Sitting in the cell I see within me the Creator of the world.”
The attainment of Christ Consciousness is the level of consciousness that was realized by Jesus the Christ. It is the attainment of the balanced action of Power, Wisdom, and Love (of Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and of the Mother) through the balanced threefold flame within the heart.
A basic principle of the teachings of the Ascended Masters is that all of God’s children are innately divine. Prior to the passing of certain initiations of discipleship, a spiritual seeker is referred to as a Child of God. When the individual passes specific initiations on the path of Christhood, he or she earns the right to be called a Christed One and gains the title of Son or Daughter of God, which denotes full Christhood as in Jesus the Christ.
The Ascended Masters teach that there are many stages to attaining Christhood or the Christ Consciousness. The Path to Christhood, the putting on of the Christ Consciousness, involves the mastering of the Seven Rays and of the Seven Chakras by the raising of the kundalini (See The 7th Gate), and by the balancing of the three-fold flame so that all the plumes are equal, meaning that one has attained equal portions of God-Love, God-Wisdom, and God-Power.
To put on the Christ Consciousness, Elizabeth Clare Prophet states, “You don’t have to let go of anything except it comes under the headings of such things as incorrect livelihood and those points of the Eightfold Path of the Buddha. Whatever is lawful in the purity of the Christ and the Holy Christ Self, whatever is lawful for the Buddhic manifestation within you, which is love and joy and the givingness of self, whatever that is, that can become a part of your Christhood…There is a personal mystical path that leads to Christhood. It is a path of letting go of all that is unreal; a path that affirms our true being.”
Videos on Personal Christhood
VIDEO – The Path of Personal Christhood – Part I – Your personal mystical path leading to your Christhood, a path of letting go of all that is unreal; a path that affirms your Holy Christ Self.
VIDEO – The Path of Personal Christhood – Part II – One individual who knows his Christhood is more valuable on Earth than any other individual of any other capacity. Developing your Christhood – it is your right and divine plan!
VIDEO – The Lost Teachings of Jesus Christ – The personal mystical path of union with God is taught by the Ascended Masters.
Jesus was a Student of the Buddha
“The inner Self has been revealed in many forms to those who have sought it. And the forms that the Self has taken have determined the course of the world’s major religions. Gautama discovered that Self to be the Buddha. Jesus discovered that Self to be the Christ.” ~ Elizabeth Clare Prophet
Buddha achieved enlightenment at the age of 35. He experienced his liberation, nirvana, through the raising of the sacred energy of the kundalini, which is anchored in the base chakra, raising it through each of the chakras until it “merged in the heart as the Christ and flowered in the crown as the Buddhic enlightenment of the thousand petaled lotus.” (Dwjal Kul, Pearls of Wisdom, Vol 17. No. 42.)
Jesus began his ministry at the age of 30. The Bible does not reference Jesus’ life between the ages of 13 to 30, however, in her book, The Lost Years of Jesus, Elizabeth Clare Prophet presents evidence that during Jesus’ “lost years”, he traveled to, and studied in, Egypt, India, Tibet and Nepal.
Mrs. Prophet says that Buddhist scholars documented the life of “Saint Issa”, as he was called, showing that Jesus was a student of the Buddha. Jesus had journeyed to the birthplace of Gautama Buddha in Nepal, in the Himalayan foothills, where he studied Buddha’s teachings and became an expert on Buddhist sacred writings.
When Jesus began his ministry, based on his studies in the east, he taught about karma and reincarnation, and those beliefs and teachings on this subject are recorded in Reincarnation: The Missing Link in Christianity by Elizabeth Clare Prophet.
Jesus also used parables to teach about the path of “Buddhahood”, which develops the crown chakra, and the path of “Christhood”, which develops the heart chakra. Jesus taught that it is our destiny and our dharma to attain to Buddhic or Christ Consciousness.
“Let the mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus”
~ Philippians 2:5
“I think that people have an idolatrous sense of Jesus. They worship their own concept of what Jesus was. He is seen as the perfect Master, and he was indeed the perfect Master. But he is depicted in people’s minds as someone robotlike, perfected in the flesh, so far above everyone else that no matter how well people do in their daily lives they can never come close to approximating the life of Jesus Christ.
And yet the saints have told us that we must imitate Christ. The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis is an important Christian work because it tells us that we must try to imitate Jesus’ life. Jesus told us, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
Now, many think that it is blasphemy to try to become like Christ. They believe that there was only one Son of God and that no one else can be like him because we are all sinners. It is this concept of original sin carried on and on generation after generation that makes people not even try to master the basic principles of life that Jesus taught. I believe this to be error and to be anti-Christ, and I believe that it deprives Christians, Jews, Muslims and the whole world of the very essence of the life that Jesus lived.
This essence is expressed in Jesus’ statement: “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do because I go unto my Father.” This statement is the promise of the LORD Christ himself, and our assignment is to work with him and with the Father and to be an imitator of his work.” ~ Elizabeth Clare Prophet (Inner Perspectives: Your Divine Blueprint)
From the Bible: “Jesus spoke unto them saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me
will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
John 8:12
From Buddhist Scripture: “When a Bodhisattva descends from heaven, there appears in this world an immeasurable, splendid light surpassing the glory of the most powerful glow. And whatever dark spaces lie beyond the world’s end will be illuminated by this light.”
Digha Nikaya 14:1:7
Additional Resources for Learning
The Threefold Flame
Book: The Human Aura by Kuthumi and Dwjal Kul (Included: Intermediate Studies of the Human Aura)
Book: The Path of Attainment
Book: The Lost Years of Jesus
Book: Inner Perspectives: A Guidebook for the Spiritual Journey
Book: Reincarnation: The Missing Link in Christianity
Book: Quietly Comes the Buddha: Awakening Your Inner Buddha Nature
Books: The Lost Teachings of Jesus Series
- Keys to Spiritual Progress
- Finding God Within
- Lost Teachings on Your Higher Self
- Missing Text – Karma & Reincarnation
Video – The Gnostic Teachings
*All materials published with permission from The Summit Lighthouse® and Summit Publications, Inc.
