Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Was Scientology's founder a Buddha?

Eds., Wisdom Quarterly EDITORIAL; Prof. Stephen A. Kent (University of Alberta, Canada)
We know believers who have invested too much time and money to leave (60 Minutes)
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Scientology is a money-making enterprise registered as a "church," perhaps to avoid paying taxes on profits and "donations" like some "prosperity doctrine" mega-church televangelists (Last Week Tonight).

Its founder was sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard, who bragged to fellow Pasadena Satanist/occultist the weapons developer Jack Parsons (founder of JPL, aka "Jack Parsons' Lab," the Jet Propulsion Lab) that he could start his own religion.
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He then claimed or very strongly suggested he was the redhaired Buddhist Messiah prophesied by many Tibetan Buddhists. The Future Buddha is the world-system's heartfelt "Friend" (Pali Metteya or Sanskrit Maitreya).

Hubbard did not know much about Eastern religions and made his self-aggrandizing claims in a poetry book he published as Hymn of Asia An Eastern Poem. His text explores several themes.

See here, I'm Buddha-come-again. That's it, yeah
According to Prof. Stephen A. Kent, the first line of Hubbard's extended poetic hymn asks, "Am I Metteyya? [sic]." Hubbard quickly followed this question with the statement, "I come to bring you all that Lord Buddha would have you know of life, Earth, and Man"* (Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol. 11, No. 1, 1996, p. 21).
  • *The original text contains very short lines of verse, and in this quote and others I have compressed them into prose and bracketed appropriate punctuation. I left alone, however, Hubbard's capitalization, which may appear serendipitous.
God damnit, Buddhists! Are you f'n listening!?
Hubbard, Prof. Kent continues, made a fundamental error in Buddhist soteriology... More

Hubbard started an all-business quasi-religion, and its current guru is controversial possible wife-murderer David Miscavige.

If anyone expects to get involved with Scientology and its many arms in Hollywood and the world, be prepared to spend a lot of money. Bring credit cards. They will take much more than money, but first they get all the money they can. More

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