Paper 94 Overview: The Melchizedek Teachings in the Orient

The Salem missionaries traveled across Asia spreading Machiventa's teachings about faith in one God. They set up training centers and taught native converts who then shared these teachings with their own people. These missionaries faced many challenges as they tried to spread their message of monotheism to different cultures and regions throughout the Eastern Hemisphere.

The Salem teachings influenced many Eastern religions but were often changed as they mixed with local beliefs. Teachers like Lao-tse, Confucius, and Gautama Siddhartha helped preserve parts of these teachings in China and India. These spiritual leaders appeared at important times to renew the truth about God when Salem's original message was being lost.

The Salem teachers traveled to remote areas of Africa and Eurasia, teaching about faith in one universal God. They were recruited from many peoples and races, and they spread their teachings through native converts. They established training centers where they taught locals about the Salem religion, then sent these students to teach among their own people.

In Melchizedek's time, India was home to many different peoples under the influence of Aryan-Andite invaders. These Vedic newcomers brought many tribal gods with them, and the Brahman priests were gaining control over religious practices. The Salem missionaries found it difficult to spread their message of one God in this environment.

The Brahmans rejected the Melchizedek gospel of faith in God and salvation through simple belief. They created sacred writings, including the Rig-Veda, to fight against the Salem teachers. While these writings contain some high concepts of Deity, they also include many superstitions as they became mixed with the cults and rituals of southern India.

As Salem missionaries moved into southern India, they faced the Aryan caste system led by Brahman priests. This system made it hard to spread their message of equality and one God. The Brahman priests made themselves more important than even their gods and claimed special powers.

The rejection of Salem's teachings led to harmful beliefs, like reincarnation, which came from the Dravidians. This belief took away hope for spiritual growth after death. Many new cults developed in India that were openly against the idea of God, but remnants of Melchizedek's and Adam's teachings could still be found within them.

The highest level of Brahmanism was more philosophy than religion. Indian thinkers tried to find ultimate reality and created many ideas about theology. However, they missed the dual concept of the Universal Father and the possibility of mortals ascending to reach him.

The concept of Brahman came close to the idea of an all-pervading Absolute but lacked personality attributes that would make it accessible to religious followers. Brahmanic philosophy included ideas similar to the Universal Oversoul and indwelling Thought Adjusters, but their understanding was incomplete and didn't allow for human individuality or survival after death.

Over time, Indians returned to ancient rituals modified by Melchizedek's teachings and organized by Brahman priests. Hinduism changed further when influenced by Buddhism, Jainism, Islam, and Christianity. By the time Jesus' teachings arrived, they seemed too foreign for the Hindu mind.

Hindu theology recognizes four levels of deity: the Brahman (the Infinite), the Trimurti (Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu), Vedic gods, and demigods. Hinduism survived because it was flexible and became part of India's social structure. It adapted to changing conditions and accepted many other religions, even claiming Buddha and Christ as incarnations of Vishnu.

Salem missionaries traveled throughout Asia and reached China during the second millennium before Christ. They maintained headquarters at See Fuch for over a hundred years, training Chinese teachers to spread their message. Their teachings led to the earliest form of Taoism, which was very different from modern Taoism.

Early Taoism combined three main elements: teachings about Shang-ti (the God of Heaven), the Salem religion of a Most High Creator, and the Indian concept of the Brahman-Absolute. This belief spread through China and Japan, where it was known as Shinto. In Japan, people even learned about Machiventa Melchizedek dwelling on earth.

About six hundred years before Christ, Melchizedek saw that his teachings on earth were being lost. Through spiritual means, several great teachers appeared around the world at the same time. In China, the two most important were Lao-tse and Confucius.

Lao-tse built on Salem traditions and taught about Tao as the First Cause of creation. He had a clear understanding of ultimate causation and taught concepts like returning good for evil. Confucius focused on moral traditions and compiled wise sayings from ancient philosophers. Though rejected during his lifetime, his writings greatly influenced China and Japan afterward.

In the sixth century before Christ, Gautama Siddhartha was born in Nepal, north India. He came from a ruling family of a small mountain valley. After six years practicing Yoga without success, he developed the ideas that grew into Buddhism.

Gautama fought against the caste system and taught a simpler path that appealed to many people. He denounced gods, priests, and sacrifices but did not understand the concept of a personal Universal God. A hermit named Godad, who knew of Melchizedek's teachings, tried to help him, but Gautama didn't fully grasp the idea of the Universal Father.

To become a Buddhist, one simply had to recite: "I take my refuge in the Buddha; I take my refuge in the Doctrine; I take my refuge in the Brotherhood." Gautama's followers called him Sasta (teacher) and later the enlightened one (Buddha).

The original gospel of Gautama was based on four noble truths about suffering and the Eightfold Path to overcome it. His moral commandments were five: do not kill, do not steal, do not be unchaste, do not lie, and do not drink intoxicating liquors. Gautama taught that salvation came through human effort alone, without divine help or prayer to superhuman powers.

Buddhism spread because it offered salvation through belief in Buddha, the enlightened one. It became widespread when King Asoka supported it and sent out more than seventeen thousand missionaries to spread the teaching. In one generation, Buddhism became the dominant religion in half the world.

As Buddhism spread from India to other parts of Asia, it changed and became less like Gautama's original teaching. It was influenced by Taoism in China and Shinto in Japan. In India, Buddhism eventually disappeared, while in other places it split into two main divisions: Hinayana in the south and Mahayana in the north.

In Tibet, the Salem teachings combined with Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Christianity. The missionaries found a primitive society similar to what early Christian missionaries found in northern Europe. The simple Tibetans would not give up their magic and charms.

Today's Tibetan religion has complex rituals with bells, chants, incense, rosaries, and prayer wheels. They believe these ceremonies bring salvation. The Tibetans have elements from all major world religions except the simple teachings of Jesus about being children of God and brothers to all men.

Buddhism fit well with Chinese culture and merged with Taoism's rituals. This new religion, with temples and ceremonies, became popular in China, Korea, and Japan. Later followers taught that Buddha's spirit returned to earth repeatedly, leading to many Buddha images and living imposters.

Buddhist philosophy recognized that truth is relative – small truth for small minds and large truth for great minds. The teaching that Buddha nature lives in all people was close to the truth about indwelling Adjusters. Despite its flaws, Buddhism remained a living religion that promoted good values like calmness, self-control, and happiness.

Buddhism's weakness was that it absorbed many superstitions and made Gautama first an enlightened one, then an Eternal Buddha. But for enlightened Buddhists, Buddha is not the same as the human Gautama, just as Jehovah is not the same as the spirit of Horeb for enlightened Christians.

The concept of God in Buddhism gradually evolved, especially in Japan through teachers like Ryonin, Honen Shonin, and Shinran. They developed the concept of Amida Buddha and taught that souls could enjoy Paradise before entering Nirvana. Buddhism's greatest strength is that followers can choose truth from all religions, making it progressive and open to new ideas.