New Scifi: A Buddha Is Born (On Another Planet)

I will transport you to the source dimension, the veritable fountainhead of a beautiful, evolving cosmos, the hosting platform for the manifestations of lifeforms across the stars, among them many kinds of beings sharing certain common characteristics that could be described as human-like experiences.

I’ve written a visionary scifi/fantasy e-novel The Waker: Portal of Perfect Light. It’s inspired by my lifetime of research into the Buddha’s cosmic visions. You might say it’s the first of a kind—an original work of fiction both in content and style.

Inspired by my in-depth research published in The Buddha from Babylon, in my novel I’ve projected the historical experiences and profound enlightenment of Siddhartha Gautama, the man who became the Buddha, onto a character who is born on another planet. This scenario mirrors the Buddha’s own contention that myriad other Buddhas and aspirants to enlightenment appeared in worlds beyond ours.

Is Anybody Else Out There?

Linking myth and vision is a common attribute of today’s future-space literature. The late great mythologist Joseph Campbell provided the “galaxy far, far away” storylines for Star Wars. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings evoked the fairy worlds of Europe. Marvel’s Thor was derived from Norse myth. Stargate borrowed from Egyptian mythics. Dune and Prometheus revisited Greek mythology.

It’s important to understand that ancient mythologies are not simply imagined fables. Myth is actually a language. Like the language of dreams, it contains profound insights.

The Waker is a new entry into the sci-fi/fantasy mythos as it reveals the grand and boundless infrastructure of Existence described in the cosmic visions of the Buddha.

Perhaps The Waker will be appreciated as a testament to a newly trending interest in ancient Asian mythos, and the overdue recognition of Buddhist literature in the west, or it may itself be recognized for its revelations of the unseen beyond, an echo of ancient sacred literature. In any case, I turned to fiction because I wanted to leave behind the usual framework of historical, cultural and religious argumentation that tends to subsume or cloud the magnificent arrival of the human species in the Universe whose scope, scale and mystery we recently began to appreciate.

Possibly the first genuinely original Buddhist sci-fi novel, The Waker evokes visionary scope, scientific unknowns, psychological issues, beliefs, and sociological dilemmas.

I have invoked the Buddha as a person who is determined to seek an answer to the Truth of Existence. Similarly, on the planet Sana, orbiting a golden star and surrounded by six moons, a young prince becomes an epic hero who strives tenaciously against all odds to learn the secrets of life. If only he could pierce the veil of ultimate Truth, he could liberate the minds of humoids in his world.

Underlying his quest is a profound question for us living today on Earth: "Can our world become enlightened? How?"

Our own history offers the story of a Buddha who recognized this challenge as well. He concluded that to create peace and harmony, we humans first must evolve our awareness that we are all part of the grand adventure of life on a scale that is beyond our experience as inhabitants of Earth.

When he described a range of sentient beings inhabiting other worlds, he reflected the notion of “beingness” as defined by the underlying conditional states of consciousness, rather than physical attributes. Thus, he suggested that human qualities may be commonly displayed across the Universe among alien entities.

In The Waker this attribute is referred to as humoid. This mnemonic extrapolation honors the notion that experiential attributes ranging from delusional rage to pervasive suffering and from inspired aspirations to enlightened wisdom may be reflected in lifeforms across space, time and dimension. 

“ Phase/Zone: The Sana world enters EvoPhase 10, the fork in the road of evolutionary development, designated as the Domination-Liberation Nexus Zone, the state in-between fear and freedom…

Alerts: Crisis signal detects an impending threat requiring a planetary reboot, a setback that would erase millions of years of evolutionary progress.

Diagnosis: The minds of the Sana populations have accumulated a large deposit of higher consciousness seeds! The Waker’s revelations would germinate them releasing their full potential. This phase is ideal for the insertion of the Waker.”

-- Quote from The Waker: Portal of Perfect Light by Harvey Kraft. Available now on Amazon, iBooks, B&N, Kobo, and GooglePlay - https://lnkd.in/bvdga9B

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The Universe Is An Integrated and Evolving System

The grand scope of the Buddha’s vision of Existence featured: (1) the equivalent of a Big Bang Creation Theory of the Universe in the Flower Garland sutra; (2) described communications signals at various frequencies able to reach across vast space; (3) conversed telepathically with highly developed conscious beings in other worlds; and, (4) offered an integrated system of Existence governed by the law of cause and effect operating extensively across a multiverse of populations.

No wonder that sometimes the surreal and always resplendent cosmic visions of the Buddha, as captured millennia ago in Buddhist literature, is increasingly appreciated today for being far ahead of its time, although much of it remains unknown to the popular modern culture because it is deemed to be a religious matter.

But any human being, regardless of their beliefs, can look at the cosmic visions of Buddhist literature and be awed by its visionary scope of a vast Universe populated by a host of beings among whom we earthlings are but one.

"At their busy center numerous Changers monitored the memory gardens....Here all the memories from all the minds in all the worlds of Univa were stored in colossal flowers of innumerable varieties—reduced to scents and embedded into fragrance data packets. Each garden was a “brain” containing the memories of a galactic system…"

When the historical Buddha, a man who lived on Earth some 2,500 years ago, described the presence of beings in other worlds, a most striking feature of his scenario was that evolution has a universal scope. Long before the Darwinian discovery of biological evolution, the Buddha espoused the view of a cosmic evolution that transcended time, space, scale, even the boundaries of mortal life. Accordingly, all sentient beings shared the common attribute of sentience, which we all use to evolve, thus connecting one’s state of awareness with spirituality and the quest for enlightened wisdom.

Sentience, in the Buddhist sense, is equal to consciousness. In other words, sentience was the essential component of life that drives the expansion of consciousness. Sentience, in that regard, constituted an evolving toolkit endowed without exception to all sentient beings across the Universe. With it living entities can expand their consciousness, whose application and direction defines our sense of Reality.

Consciousness operates like a sixth sense along with our five senses to define our Reality. It explores. It perceives. It can either be passive and sedentary, or directed. It is always activated and energized by potentials and desires.

Looking through the Buddha’s eye into this profoundly deep and telescopic mechanism in our life, we are led to appreciate that life is universally and unconsciously embedded with an ontological operating system. One of the reasons for his espousal of meditation skills aimed at mounting the sensory system. By dispassionately observing its output in our own minds, mindfulness, we could begin to deal with the causes for our issues and free ourselves from personal engrossements and distractions, a step forward in our own transformative evolution.

“The Kee, capable of replication at will, fused into a ball of light resting above his head and turned on innumerable neurons in his brain. He could feel the Portal of Perfect Light open but this time it was inside him. Innumerable currents of light streamed in from countless galaxies through its triangle gate activating every dormant proto in his brain.”

-- Quote from The Waker: Portal of Perfect Light by Harvey Kraft. Available now on Amazon, iBooks, B&N, Kobo, and GooglePlay - https://lnkd.in/bvdga9B

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What’s Old Is New Again

From the earliest days of mythological literature, conceived by various seers, we have inherited examples of other worldly beings. During my lifetime of research on the ancient roots of divine beliefs, and, especially, my breakthrough accounting of the Buddha’s cosmic visions, I learned about the earliest notions of transcendent aliens. In these mythological scenarios, the aliens were spiritual entities, divinely assigned to help our world.

Angels in the Bible, Yazata in Zoroastrian scriptures, celestial Bodhisattva in Buddhist literature, among others, were dutifully invested with personalities and divine powers. The belief that we have been or still are visited by spiritual beings, or that we can communicate with them through spiritual telepathy or prayer is found in nearly all religions.

Recently, stories proposed by so-called ancient alien theorists have reduced the spirit beings appearing in ancient scriptures to reflect advanced alien races visiting us a few thousand years ago. The notion of alien visitation did not occur to me as a real possibility until I saw von D?niken's documentary Chariot of the Gods. I remember going to see it in a movie theater in New York City in 1970. I came out of there spellbound by the hinting at archaeological evidence of extraterrestrials landing on Earth.

Derived from this mystery, popularized by television, history and cosmology have been reinterpreted to suit this rendition claiming to discover clues of celestial visitors across our world.

Whether or not you choose to buy into the alien visitation scenario in one form or another, it appears reasonable to assume that the existence of life somewhere else other than on Earth is not only possible, but is probable, maybe even likely.

The deeper I probed the celestial messaging of ancient literature, the more obvious it became that visitors did not have to be here physically for us to reach them. The Buddha spoke of beings living across the Universe in innumerable worlds all too far apart from one another to ever physically touch. In his view all sentient lifeforms were precious and relatively rare, and yet, ironically, mortal and ubiquitous.

As Carl Sagan said, “We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.”

Exploring the idea that aliens originated somewhere far, some of our most wonderful movies in the past 75 years or so, from Star Wars to Interstellar, have tapped into our collective fascination with the notion that “advanced, intelligent beings” may live in other places in the Universe.

This popular concept exploited in modern books and films all to often reflects the fear that alien lifeforms from advanced cultures are likely to pose a danger to us. They may be brutal. They may have engineered us. They may want to enslave us, or eat us.

Where Do They Come From?

One of the missions of sci-fi/fantasy literature has been to show us possible futures. From Jules Verne to Brave New World and 1984 this form of storytelling has awakened us to the nexus of weapons, genetic manipulation and totalitarianism. The connection between obsessions and chaos is explored in the Lord of the Rings wherein we are warned of the seductive power of evil. From the cyborgs of Terminator to the alien predators in the Invasion of the Body Snatchers our stories of survival are replete with ill-intentioned creatures who seek to destroy our human characteristics.

Not surprisingly, how we picture aliens popular in the sci-fi/fantasy genre tends to reflect our recent technological advances, expanding cosmological views, and sociological conflicts. Moreover, our notion of where aliens might come from is furthered by the flood of science news stories from space observers seeking potentially water-bearing exoplanets beyond our solar system.

While we live in an age of unprecedented exploration, life on this planet is in crisis. War. Greed. Murder. Deception. Where are we heading? Will our world get better or worse? Are we nearing an end, or are we on the verge of a new start?

Despite our technological and scientific prowess, the health of Nature is under siege. Billions of people in the world suffer from the concatenating influences of authoritarian institutions. The internet may be disrupting some of the old power structures, but will that result in freedom and progress, or will the thought-police eventually take charge? Anyone who wishes for a better world going forward must confront the all too real dilemmas of politically-, socially-, militarily-, intellectually-, economically- and religiously-dominant power structures whose agendas appear to be so entrenched as to be seemingly impossible to challenge.

“Storytellers remembered Rapahara as a divine paradise. The Luma built it, they said, and entrusted it to the femoid. In the early years of the Sana faiths, the seers of the time held the femoid from Rapahara in high regard. The Luma temples across the western kingdoms recruited them to serve as hymn writers, artisans and priestesses.”

-- Quote from The Waker: Portal of Perfect Light by Harvey Kraft. Available now on Amazon, iBooks, B&N, Kobo, and GooglePlay - https://lnkd.in/bvdga9B

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We’re All Looking for Answers

The Waker will take you to the planet Sana, which, like our own world, is at a fork in the road. Facing both an existential and sociological threat, they seek a leader who will help them survive and leap forward toward greater knowing. But, the problem is too big for any one person to undertake. Even the Waker of Sana will need help to liberate the humoid.

While most humoid in Sana appear to be either ignorant or unappreciative of the larger scope of things, they believe in a legend about the coming of a messianic figure, known as The Waker. The candidate for such an exalted role must first locate and enter the Portal of Perfect of Light. If he re-emerges from it, he will know all that is unknown. While the world of the humoids has many religious faiths, each espousing a point of view, everyone hopes that the Waker will be able to unite them and lift their minds to see the unseen.

Is it possible for wisdom and kindness to be the forces that can change our world for the good of us all?

Recently, the reading of our genetic markers has allowed us humans to explore the evolution of life on Earth. Often ignored is the lightening fast pace of evolution on this planet starting from an inexplicable spark of life to the seemingly inexpressible manifestation of a super-sensory brain-mind. Compare that timeline to the fact that it takes the Earth 250 million years to circle the galactic center just once.

Does it make sense to believe that humanistic and compassionate qualities, such as those espoused by the Buddha thousands of years ago, might be the instruments that can overcome our historical penchant for conflict and chaos? The Waker tells us that pacifism is not weakness. When coupled with cosmic awakening it is strong enough to challenge the forces of domination. In this novel, he must face just such a nemesis, a brutal and powerful sovereign who wants his god to rule the world.

Humoids had evolved physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Their bodies were fused of organic parts and light wave technology. Both beautiful and unique every one felt loved. In a society built on harmony and creativity each had a purpose they wished to share with others."

 -- Quote from The Waker: Portal of Perfect Light by Harvey Kraft. Available now on Amazon, iBooks, B&N, Kobo, and GooglePlay - https://lnkd.in/bvdga9B

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We all have an ultimate story within us

Art is most relevant when it evokes a universal message that resonates deep within us all, the more profound the better. Ancient seers understood this point which is why they used the language of mythology embedded with themes and theories about the grandest and deepest Truths of Existence.

Sacred literature, like all great artworks, conveyed profound visionary wisdom using dream-images (symbols, shapes, parables, historicity, visionary exploration) to penetrate and influence the human mind at every level…unconscious, conscious and super-conscious.

That’s very advanced stuff that psychologists today are just beginning to study. Any modern person ought to marvel at this legacy considering that it is present in the oldest type of literature we have…and still forms the roots of our stories today.

Everyone has a life story. We all live our stories, tell stories to ourselves, to others, make up stories, listen to them, or participate in them. We crave stories.

Our stories change based on what we know, because the more we know the more we can extrapolate from it, but certain themes that resonate in our deepest essence continue to attract us.

We tend to regard the human species in terms of form and appearance, but recognizing ourselves to be one among the many evolving humoid species of the Universe, we may be able to discover who we really are.

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Harvey Kraft is the author of the award-winning epic The Buddha from Babylon and the recent visionary sci-fi/fantasy e-novel The Waker: Portal of Perfect Light.

For more information visit the book website.