This is quite strange. Scientology no longer publishes Hubbard’s Hymn of Asia for obvious reasons…
Hubbard was never one to hide his light under a bushel. Pronouncing himself a doctor, nuclear physicist, war hero, master mariner, great philosopher, musician, photographer, cinematographer and more, he also claimed he was the second coming of the Buddha.
He wrote a poem called Hymn of Asia supposedly to be presented to a Buddhist convention in the mid 50’s. In this book he claims the Buddha is to be reincarnated in 1950 as a golden/red-haired Westerner. Wonder who that could be?
The book was published in 1974 and the blurb (provided by scientology) that you find on Amazon tells the story of this “magnificent work”:
Man has long dreamed of solving the riddle of his own existence and achieving personal freedom. This has been the great hope of man through the millennia of his histories–both East and West. Now at last, in the 1046 lines of this poem, is the statement that this hope has been achieved — You can be free. This moving hymn was written for a Buddhist Convention in about 1955 or ’56, coincident with the celebrations in the Buddhist world of the 2,500th year of the Buddhist era. Later, typed copies of this magnificent work, many in altered versions, were widely circulated from hand to hand in various countries of the world. The public demand for its publication grew enormous. Then in late 1973 its author directed its publication and subsequently personally supervised the collaboration of a talented artist, designer and calligrapher in the final preparation of the book. Thus here we have a beautiful edition which presents the fully correct original text of the poem, one surely destined to become a major document of Man’s spiritual history.
A device Hubbard used on more than one occasion to promote himself and his accomplishments was an Introduction by unnamed “Editors.” There was one in All About Radiation (another book no longer distributed) and there is still a “Foreword” unattributed to anyone but referring to Hubbard in the third person in Fundamentals of Thought. There may be others I have forgotten, but when the claims were too outlandish even for Hubbard, this was his solution.
Hymn of Asia is perhaps the most blatant. The “Introduction” lays out the “facts” which prove the truth contained in his lengthy poem. And to be sure you REALLY understand what is being said, it has a summary at the end which minces no words. The Metteya is the name supposedly given to the second coming of the Buddha.
SUMMARY OF THE METTEYA LEGEND
Thus, we find these are the most salient details of the Metteya legend.
1. He shall appear in the West. He shall appear at a time when religion shall be waning, when the world is imperiled and convulsed in turmoil.
2. He will have golden hair or red hair.
3. He will complete the work of Gautama Buddha and bring in a new golden age of man by making possible the attainment of spiritual freedom by all beings.
4. Although the date of his advent is variously forecast, the nearest date places it 2,500 years after Gautama Buddha – or roughly 1950 (the date of Gautama’s own life being somewhat of an estimate itself).
5. In one form or another the prophecy of Metteya has been the principal hope that the East has preserved and bequeathed to the world.
The Editors
He wanted to be sure nobody missed the fact that L. Ron Hubbard was the new Buddha — he could not have been more exp0licit.
Of course, the reason this book is no longer available is that Hubbard obviously did NOT fulfill the prophecy. His “teachings” are virtually unknown in China, Southeast Asia and India (see recent post Scientology in India) — the region of the world most influenced by Buddhism.
So, Ron didn’t live up to another of his promises.
What is amazing is that “Ron’s org” (Flag) is promoting this today. As is their practice “Ron said it, so it must be true” — even when the obvious is staring them in the face. Ron came and went. There was no “second Buddha” no matter how much he wanted it to be true…
Hubbard needed Humanity. Humanity didn’t need Hubbard.
I think, Ron has lived as a rebirth of Jesus, and the real leader of the cosmic fleet of space warriors in our cosmos.
I had read anything about him, from Captain Bill Roberts, as Ron has shipped in front of north africa, and high from alcohol, pain killer pills, and heavy mariehuuna. High like a hippie!
i definitely cringed when i read that when i was a true believer. lol megalomaniac!
I had a series of online exchanges with someone who claimed to be a Scientologist in the far east. He claimed to be doing extension courses and said he never saw the abuses like disconnection and the horrors of the RPF and many other abuses and crimes that I have described online numerous times.
One sad reality is that a person who only hears positive things about Scientology from family or sees the image of Scientology as a philosophy that is presented by the basic extension courses never really sees the Scientology that the vast majority of us experience.
One good thing is that the abuses and crimes of Scientology are limited by the fact that it continues to shrink.
Maybe some day, possibly even in our lifetime, Scientology may become like Christian Science with reading rooms that are empty and a handful of die hard members running extension courses.
Imagine Flag in Clearwater unable to find customers and only a couple thousand people around the world in empty ideal orgs just grading extension courses and running Duanetics seminars on the weekend and most weeks they get zero attendees.
“Imagine Flag in Clearwater unable to find customers…”
Mockingbird, at the time I left, around 12 years ago, Flag was already ripping off customers from my then little, shrunken org (even smaller now) and the staff were already resigned to it.
At the time, to a long term staff member in Qual I professed astonishment that one of our public was going to FLAG for her lower Bridge!
“Isn’t Flag only supposed to be for going OT? Why isn’t she doing her Grades HERE?”
This staff member in Qual’s answer? A sad smile and a shrug, and what I thought was a sigh.
But I persisted…”Why is Flag PROMOTING lower Bridge services to OUR public? That’s OFF POLICY!”
THEN I got a REAL smile and a definite nod; “You’re right. They shouldn’t be doing that”.
Now I was fired up: “You should write this up!”. (Again, keep in mind that I was clueless in general about out-tech going on right under my nose back then and so hearing about this actually SHOCKED me, lol.
Another smile and nod from this staff member, but no answer. And then she was distracted by the phone or something so I let it drop. Mentally I wrote it off as something that “hardly ever happens”.
Point being: If what occurred at my teeny tiny org 12 years ago was any indication, Flag has been ripping off Class V orgs for a long time, for all KINDS of what should per Hubbard policy be strictly lower bridge services delivered at Class V orgs and missions.
In other words, eating its own. Cannibilizing. Call it what you will, Flag has been doing it. Obiviously there are no where NEAR enough Clears to shunt over to Flag.
Good point. I had heard the story that Flag in desperation had been stealing public from the lower orgs because David Miscavige wanted the wealthy and famous people who do Flag to believe that Scientology is booming, even if their local org is not doing well.
I think that a great project for a Scientology historian or investigative journalist would be to get the facts on the history of Dianetics and Scientology particularly regarding the expansion and eventual shrinkage of membership.
I don’t know how many of the die hard members are going to leave if they see this. I know that some under the radar types know this but sharing the facts with strong documentation can convince some people to finally take a good hard look at Scientology and some will leave.
Interesting. Flag’s Potemkin Village thriving, chock full of public ripped off from skeleton – staffed Class V orgs so empty that whatever voices can be heard echo in the hallways. Yes, that sounds one of Miscavige’s supreme Command Intentions, alright!
As to Scientology becoming like Christian Science, bear in mind that the Mother Church of Christ, Scientist has sold off many of its prominent buildings in major cities like New York. They are also combining church buildings with reading rooms, closing the stand alone rooms that often were a person’s introduction to Christian Science. When we see Miscavige closing down his Ideal Orgs is when we begin to really see the demise of Scientology.
Very good points.
You highlight what is a vital key to understanding cults and abusive groups in my opinion. The parallel paths of other groups are essential for this endeavor.
I have looked at other groups and human predators, criminals and so on to see the underlying and reoccurring aspects of the psychology of individuals and how relationships are the n different circumstances.
We can learn a lot by examining the various things that these groups do and that individuals go through in every role in these relationships from cult leader to inner circle members to family members to devoted fanatics to the people who barely interact with the group and usually do not have a true cultic relationship with the leader or group and may just purchase a basic book or course.
Christian Science in their long history of decline and their other similarities to Scientology may be showing us a glimpse of a possible, even potentially likely, future for Scientology.
In the mid 70s, on scn magazines like Advance or the one published on apollo (the name of which escapes me now) the Buddha or Metteya often appeared on the covers with the round face of hubbard. Just to give a message to those who read and ride the pop culture wave of the period.
Metteya means ‘the benevolent’ which did not fit perfectly to someone like hubbard.
Furthermore, the prophecy (in my opinion the Buddha never prophesied his return) says that he would reach enlightenment in 7 days, while hubbard until his end was still trying to unnail few BTs left who instead absolutely didn’t want to hear about leaving.
It would great be if someone could locate a copy of that. I was never a very good student of Buddhism but Hubbard as Buddha would have either made me laugh or cringe. Perhaps both.
Sure. Try google ‘Advance! scientology magazine 27’. And also #30. Check for pictures.
Then tell me.
Thank you. I was almost tempted to buy a copy of these but will donate what I would have spent to the Aftermath Foundation. There are a very Buddhists who have inspired me with their compassion and dedication up peace. If Hubbard had pretensions opfor even rising to the level of a bodhisattva he set a poor example.
One zen teacher I knew described enlightenment as taking a small piece of cloth and cleaning a spot in a window. If Hubbard could have achieved that I would give him credit. But perhaps it’s enough to say that clearing even a small part is not something to advertise with a certificate.
Thank you and I agree with you.
hubbard was as enlightened as a weak led dot, as long as there was some electricity feeding it.
He stayed well away from meditation or anything else that could be buddhist. In fact he always criticized it.
Also the concept of ‘past lives’ is perhaps broader than what he simply wanted to represent for his purposes and does not capture or convey the sense, but actually It builds a trap in the person’s mind.
In my humble opinion the best explanation of what meditation really is (and all that comes with it) was described by Jiddu Krishnamurti.
All VERY well away from the ‘acrobatic spirituality’ of scn.
What would it be like if Siddhartha Gautama himself were to meet LRH? Talk about a clash of personalities! Yet what we have is Buddha in an enlightened afterlife and LRH somewhere on Target Two.
Sure, it would be interesting. On one side, someone who has defeated his ego and on the other, someone who has instead exalted it.
‘Hymn of Asia’ is truly a cringe worthy “poem”. Even when I was in guzzling the kult Kool-Aid I thought so.
“…this magnificent work, many in altered versions, were widely circulated from hand to hand in various countries of the world. The public demand for its publication grew enormous.”
Translation: Bookstore Officers were hard selling the drivel just like anything else that was written by Hubbard. None of his books have done well on their own except for the initial publication of DMSMH, and that was very short lived.
One would be hard pressed to even call ‘Hymn of Asia’ a poem. It’s ackward, clumsy and boring as hell. This poem compares to Hubbard’s “crooning” when he belts out ‘Thank You For Listening’ on one of his “musical” albums. My head hurts just recalling this.
Yes! L. Ron Blowhard: a shitty writer; a shitty poet; too shitty at music to even be labeled a “bad musician”; a shitty commode door(😉); a shitty lecturer; a shitty administrator…and a consistently evil, shitty human being.
He gets full marks for consistency, I’ll acknowledge that…
In a word: Shitty.
Yes!