at kind of birth is to take
place, they know what is involved. They know that they have to do with
a Divine man; they know beforehand what kind of personality it is who
is appearing. And therefore his course of life can only correspond
with what they know about the life of a Divine man. In the wisdom of
their Mysteries such a life is traced out for all eternity. It _can_
only be as it _must_ be; it comes into manifestation like an eternal
law of nature. Just as a chemical substance can only behave in a
certain definite way, so a Buddha or a Christ can only live in a
certain definite way. His life is not described merely by writing a
casual biography; it is much better described by giving the typical
features which are contained for all time in the wisdom of the
Mysteries. The Buddha legend is no more a biography in the ordinary
sense than the Gospels are meant to be a biography in the ordinary
sense of the Christ Jesus. In neither is the merely accidental given;
both relate the course of life marked out for a world-redeemer. The
source of the two accounts is to be found in the mystery traditions
and not in outer physical history. Jesus and Buddha are, to those who
have recognised their Divine nature, initiates in the most eminent
sense. Hence their lives are lifted out of things transitory, and what
is known about initiates applies to them.[4] The casual incidents in
their lives are not narrated. Of such it might be announced "In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a
God and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us."

But the life of Jesus contains more than that of Buddha. Buddha's ends
with the Transfiguration; the most momentous part of the life of Jesus
begins after the Transfiguration. In the language of initiates this
means that Buddha reached the point at which divine light begins to
shine in men. He faces mortal death. He becomes the light of the
world. Jesus goes farther. He does not physically die at the moment
when the light of the world shines through him. At that moment he is a
Buddha. But at that very moment he enters upon a stage which finds
expression in a higher degree of initiation. He suffers and dies. What
is earthly disappears. But the spiritual element, the light of the
world, does not. His resurrection follows. He is revealed to his
followers as Christ. Buddha, at the moment of his Transfiguration,
flows into the blissful life of the Universal Spirit. Christ J