Love Serve Transform: March 2022

How would I know a trip to Zerzevan castle/Mithras temple in Diyarbakir, southeast corner of Turkey, would trigger so many connections and open doors in my mind. First and foremost, connections on evolution of faith that took me on a journey from Vedas, to Upanishads, to Advaita, to Sufism to esoteric Buddhism to Reiki. Looks complex, right? Let me explain…

Zerzevan Castle is a recently excavated archeological site and one of the best-preserved Roman military settlements in the world. So what? There are many castles around the world. Well, this castle also hosts a Mithras temple, a temple used by the Mithraic cult prior to Christianity. For that reason, the castle gives clues not only about the life in the ancient world but also give hints about history of faith and religion and how beliefs are transformed over centuries.

Why is this important? For me it helps to bring the pieces of the puzzle to see the bigger picture, to create connections between past and present, history and how faith systems evolved and eventually how the consciousness of humanity evolved (and evolving). For me it’s a roadmap of a journey of humanity from a hostile, fearful environment to self-realization of its Divine power.

This castle took me back to Vedas. Vedas are the heartfelt prayers of ancient humans for forces of nature. We can only anticipate how powerless they must have felt against forces of nature. As a way to cope with unknowns of the environment they live in, tit’s understandable that they created deities/semi-gods that they identified with various forces of nature and worshipped them. Vedas are hymns of Aryans in Sanskrit and captured in writing in 1500 BC but who knows how old they really are. Some say even 10,000 years old. We know major deities of Vedas are Indra, god of Heavens associated with thunder and lightning and oceans; Agni, god of Fire, Vaju, god of air/wind. One of these gods in the Vedas is Mitra, god of Sun, or as depicted in Vedas, as adorable, auspicious friend who sustains the Earth and Heavens. Destroying our impurities, Mitra purifies our Intelligence. Mitra is the kinda friend /god you need by your side.

It’s amazing to watch Vedas turn to Upanishads where the dualistic view of fearful Gods transform as Rishis (enlightened ones) had ecstatic experiences and shared in the wisdom in the Upanishads. This is where the humans start recognizing their power but it’s not yet until Advaita Vedanta (non-dualistic belief) that these texts claim, in fact God and the Humanity is one and the same.

In the thousands of years of journey of recognition of our own divine power, one of the steps was the proto- Indo-Aryan civilization in Persia, or today’s Iran, where the friendly god of Son, Mithra, turned to be the protector of the word, sanctifier of contracts and meetings, extending its honesty and fraternity to state affairs.

In 1st century CE, during expeditions to the east, Roman soldiers adapted Mithra belief, called him Mithras, as the God of their monotheist religion. This time Mithras depicted as a bull slayer, ending the age of Taurus, and promising a safe passage to Heavens by bringing the age of Wisdom. Yet, Romans created a cult that one can enter only with invitation, where secret initiation rites were performed. There was one underlying promise: Immortality.

The cult members went even through torments and torture to be accepted and initiated into the secret teachings. Even after acceptance, they had to progress through stages to become the Pater/Father.

THE WORLD WOULD HAVE BEEN MITHRAIC IF THE GROWTH OF CHRISTIANITY HAD BEEN ARRESTED BY SOME MORTAL MALADY”

– 19th century orientalist Ernest Renan –

Zerzevan castle has one of these caves where the secret Mithraic ceremonies are conducted.

Later, with Christianity, after the pagan rituals were banned, these caves were filled up with soil and symbols on the walls were destroyed by their own cult members. This way the secrets were protected and symbols not revealed.. It’s speculated that the cult went underground and continued their rituals.

Though, that’s not the end. Interestingly, some researchers claim that esoteric buddhism is the perfected form of Mithraism.

There is a theory that, at some point, early Buddhists interacted with Mithras belief in Central Asia and in fact the ancient Aryan beliefs in the Vedas, carried by Iranian religion impacted the concept of Maitreya Buddha.

Maitreya Buddha is the enlightened being that, it is believed to incarnate in future, when all Buddhist teachings are forgotten. At that time, it is believed that the Future Buddha, Maitreya will come to the world and teach the pure teachings again. This is the same concept as second coming of Christ in Christianity or the return of the Mehdi in Islam.

The name Maitreya is derived from the Sanskrit word maitrī "friendship", which is in turn derived from the noun mitra"friend". It’s a small world after all ,isn’t it?

Could our friendly god Mitra as mentioned in the Vedas, evolved into Maitreya in Buddhism? I guess we’ll never know, but there seems to be good evidence from Japanese dance theaters to architecture that links Japan to the impacts of the Iranian culture and religion. In Japan it is widely shared that Japanese Buddhism (Mahayana) was formed under the strong influence of Iranian religion.

In Japan, Maitreya Buddha is called Miroku Bosatu. Maitreya lives in Tushta Heaven (the Sun sphere) like Mitra does.

There is one particular researcher who put a lot of effort to investigate these connections, Masato Tojo. I’ve shared some of his articles in below links.

Tojo suggests that , Mithra became Miroku, then developed to be Mahâvairocana whose Japanese name is Dainichi (The Great Sun God). Tojo claims, “ In China, the name of Mithra was represented by these Chinese characters: Mi 密, Mi 蜜 and Milo 弥勒. Mi 密 means both secret (esoteric) and closeness (friendship). Mi 蜜 means honey (sacred food of Persians). Mi-jiao/Mikkyô means both secret teaching and Mithra’s teaching. Therefore, they used this term to represent that Esoteric Buddhism is the perfected form of Eastern Mithraism itself. Mahâvairocana-Miroku is Mithra. Tojo claims “This view has gained much popularity and supports among Buddhists, Shugen-dô-ists and occultists of Japan today. “

What does this have to do with Reiki? For me, the goal of Reiki practice is to be Reiki, which is represented by Dai Ko Myo, The Great Bright Light. This concept represents our true nature, the luminous light that we are. In practical sense, to be the Great Bright light means, non-duality; not being impacted by judgments or attachments, to live in harmony and peace within and with everything around. It means to manifest one’s highest potential in life, have gratitude and love the self and all living beings with infinite compassion.

This is no surprise, whether in Central Asia, Iran, Japan or anywhere on earth, there is only one Great Bright Light. Whether represented by the Sun or Dai Ko Myo.

Regardless what the practice, the end goal is the same, to be the Great bright light, the luminous light that we are and have only One Vision when we get there.

ONE VISION

Day and night, no difference.

The sun *is* the moon: An amalgam.

Their gold and silver melt together.

This is the season when

the dead branch and the green branch

are the same branch.

Nightmares fill with light like a holiday.

Humans and angels speak one language.

The elusive ones finally meet.

Good and evil, dead and alive,

everything blooms