Teaser trailer

"The Master Speaks" is a book containing lectures by Peter Deunov, a Bulgarian spiritual teacher who is relatively unknown outside his native land. His followers, the Universal White Brotherhood, refer to Deunov as "Master Beinsa Douno", a name supposedly based on an unknown form of proto-Sanskrit. Deunov had contacts with the Theosophists, and his teachings are similar to those of Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophists. Indeed, some of Deunov's supporters claim that he is the Boddhisattva Maitreya mentioned in some of Steiner's writings. This book, "The Master Speaks" is available for free at the website of the White Brotherhood Society. It doesn't contain all of the Master's teachings, however, and should rather be seen as a kind of teaser trailer. Deunov isn't hard to read (in sharp contrast to Steiner), but without a more detailed context, it's nevertheless difficult to grasp all of his ideas.

Although Deunov constantly refers to God and Christ, his view of God seems to be impersonal. Christ manifests God and exists in three different forms: the historical Christ, the cosmic Christ and the mystic Christ. The historical Christ is Jesus, who died and rose again not to "save the world", but rather to show the path to mankind's future evolution. However, his sacrificial death did have some kind of beneficial effect on earthly evolution. The cosmic Christ is a kind of world-spirit which unites all of the ascended Masters and their respective energies. I take it that the cosmic Christ united itself with the perfect man Jesus at some point during the latter's life-time. The mystical Christ is the Christ within us. "The second coming" is not an actual physical event, but rather the awakening of the Christ within. This is somehow connected to "the sacred fire", but in this particular book, this concept is not explained in detail. Is the sacred fire similar to kundalini? Is it a mystical experience?

Love, Wisdom and Truth are central concepts in Deunov's teachings. I still don't understand their full meaning, but it's clear that the terms are used as technical designations for certain spiritual states or levels. "Love" is the first stage, and is connected to the pupil or disciple. "Wisdom" is the next stage, and seems to be connected to the Master or Masters. (In another book, Deunov defines Love as feminine, and Wisdom as masculine.) "Freedom" is the last stage, and seems to imply an ontological unity of the soul with God. God represents the ultimate freedom, and when the initiate becomes one with him, he too becomes free. Interestingly, Deunov doesn't describe this final state of mystical union as a loss of identity or destruction of personality (although this is surely involved). Rather, he emphasizes the positive aspects, including an absolute expansion of consciousness.

Deunov further states that Nature is alive and punishes whoever lives in unbalance with it. Good and evil are both necessary for evolution, and both are ultimately controlled by God. There are two spiritual hierarchies, called the White Brotherhood (which seem to reside on the sun) and the Black Brotherhood. While the latter is evil, it turns out that both are controlled by an even higher brotherhood, which uses them both to further the ultimately good ends of evolution. While not identical, this idea does sound strikingly similar to Steiner's notion of Lucifer and Ahriman being balanced by the Christ. A subtle difference with Steiner is that the angelic beings in Deunov's system aren't necessarily ascended humans, but products of a different and less destructive evolutionary path. Some ideas not mentioned in "The Master Speaks" include the notion that the Slavic "race" is the highest, and will lead mankind's evolution (Bulgarians speak a Slavic language).

"The Master Speaks" is probably mostly of interest to Anthroposophists, Theosophists and their fellow travellers. I don't have this edition, but I assume it's the same book which is available on-line, since no other publication with this title seems to exist.

Three stars for the teasers.