Maitreya Adhyatma Bhagavan Sri Babajhan Al-Kahlil The Friend was known to many as Bhagavan and to others as Reverend Friend. He was born John Lee Douglas in Des Moines, Iowa on March 29, 1943 to Maynard and Marian Douglas. We know him lovingly as Maitreya.

His father, Maynard Douglas, was a musician who played piano with some of the big bands when they came to Des Moines such as the Dorsey Brothers and Glenn Miller. Maitreya’s younger brother Dave and his younger sister Darlene pre-deceased him many years ago. His father died at 64. His mother lived to be 87 years old and died as a Maitreyian.

From the time he was born into this world Maitreya always had a natural tendency to sacrifice himself for the sake of others. One day when he was eight years old, while standing at the top of the stairway, watching his father work in the basement below, his brother Dave crept up behind him and grabbed him around the waist as a joke. When he felt himself and his brother falling off the stairs, Maitreya grabbed Dave and held him to his chest so that Dave would land on top of him to protect his brother from getting hurt. As Divine Destiny would Will, Dave landed on top of him unhurt, and Maitreya was knocked unconscious and badly injured and for a moment died to this world. When he died, by the Grace of The One Universal God, Maitreya was taken into Perfect Final Union with God. Again, as it was his nature to sacrifice himself for the sake of others, Maitreya gave up that Perfect Final Union with God, to come back to the world and regain what he had lost of his own doing and find The Way back Home to Oneness that all Souls could travel. Thus, August 7, 1951 marked the beginning of his spiritual journey and the day of the birth of God’s Eternal Universal Religion in this world.

After returning to the world, his life went on. He was always seeking something but didn’t know what he was seeking. All he knew was that he had an important and urgent Mission to accomplish. Urgent to himself and to the whole world.

When Maitreya was 12, his family moved to Westchester, California. He attended Cowan Avenue Elementary School and he graduated from Westchester High School in 1961. During this time, Maitreya met his worldly Guardian and mentor, Henry D. Frazier, a man that God had shown to Maitreya during his first Awakening at 8 years old. The bond between them was inseparable. While Hank (as he was called) taught Maitreya all worldly matters, Maitreya taught Hank matters of the Spirit and of God. Together they founded General Psionics in 1971, an organization dedicated to helping people both spiritually and psychologically.

Shortly after graduation from high school, Maitreya married his sweetheart Linda Lee Love and in 1963 they had a son, John Lee Douglas, Jr. His son was the love of his life. But they were very young and their lives were filled with difficulties. Their marriage lasted only three years. Then it was torn apart. Linda’s parents took their son and disappeared. Blessedly, some 25 years later, Maitreya was reunited with his son.

The Sixties Revolution was emerging and the world changed for a short time. It was a time of brotherly and sisterly peace and love and Maitreya embodied that Spirit. He organized many Love-Ins in Griffith Park. It was also a time of protest and civil unrest. And though Maitreya protested America’s involvement in the Vietnam war, he always respected and honored the brave soldiers. In fact, his childhood dream was to be a Marine. The first song that his father taught him to play on the piano was the Marine’s Hymn. Maitreya was not drafted as he was married with a child, but when he was single again, he wrote the Selective Service to tell them he was eligible. They wrote back telling him that they would decide his status, not him! He never was drafted.

Maitreya was the first person in his family to get a college degree. In the early 1970’s he went back to college. He attended El Camino College and then California State University Dominguez Hills where he obtained a B.A. in Psychology, and a Master’s Degree in Behavioral Science. He earned his Marriage, Family Therapy license in 1976.

In 1971 Maitreya rented a house at 204 North Catalina, Redondo Beach, California. On March 12, 1977, sitting outside of this house in his Volkswagen van, Maitreya found the Way back Home to God and attained his second Self-Realization and Perfect Final Union with God. After this, Maitreya gave up his profession as a Marriage, Family Therapist and all that he had worked so hard for, to follow God’s Guidance – to take up a Holy Mission that God had given him. From that time on, Maitreya put his life in the total service of God.

Maitreya lived, taught and preached his Religion on North Catalina until 1984 when the property was sold and the house was set to be torn down for condominiums. But the House was the birthplace of Maitreya’s Religion, God’s Eternal Universal Religion. He was adamant that it be preserved. Through great efforts, he convinced the Redondo Beach Historical Society to save his house, which now resides in Dominguez Historical Park in Redondo Beach, commonly known as the Morrell House. To Maitreyians it will always be known as the Catalina Ashram and it is a Sacred Shrine to all Maitreyians everywhere.

In 1984, Maitreya moved with some of his Maitreyians to a large house on Hillcrest Avenue in Lomita, California. He continued his Religious work there and was loved and respected by his neighbors and people all over the city of Lomita. With the assistance of the Lomita Sheriff Department, he cleaned up a drug house at the end of his street and in countless ways he protected his household and his neighbors. The Sheriff’s Department even recruited him to help them in their protest to save their funding, called "Save Our Streets." As the deputies were floundering in their attempt to protest, one deputy came up to Maitreya and said, "You look like you know how to lead a protest." Maitreya grabbed a bullhorn, leapt up on a picnic table and led the protest. The Sheriffs ultimately won that battle.

Maitreya was always looking out for his Maitreyians. He wanted to secure a safe home for them and by the Grace of God he found the right place. He and his three most dedicated Maitreyians moved to a perfect location in South Redondo Beach, where he lived for the last 16 years of his life and carried on his Spiritual work. He also dedicated himself to make Redondo a city that honored its veterans and America’s Fallen Heroes.

In 2003, after hearing of the first American soldier being killed in Iraq, Maitreya said "There’s going to be a Memorial Day Parade and Tribute in this City if I have to walk down the street with a flag and drum myself to honor those who died for our freedom." In less than three months Maitreya pulled together a community of people and held the very first Redondo Beach Memorial Day Parade and Tribute. For the next year’s parade and tribute, Maitreya brought the USS Sacramento to port and put Redondo Beach on the map. The captain of the ship told the U.S. Navy Public Affairs office that Maitreya’s reception and port call that year was the best that they had ever had.

Maitreya was also the originator of the Redondo Beach Veterans Memorial. One day in 2003, while walking through Veteran’s Park with a few of his Maitreyians, he pointed out the bedraggled Memorial with a tattered flag set in an obscure part of the park. He vowed that he would ensure that a new Memorial was built and placed in a prominent place. He went home that very day and created a sketch, which became the foundation for the current Memorial as it sits today.

Maitreya lived his Principles to the fullest in his worldly life every minute. He always put his Principles and Divine Guidance into action for the betterment of others and the world. He teaches us to do everything we do "with harm to none and benefit to all." In February of 2005, he was Guided by the One Universal God to build his Empty Chair Memorial to honor all of America’s Fallen Heroes of all times. His vision inspired many people who stepped up to help build the Memorial, which stands in the front yard of his house in South Redondo, and has become a shrine and place of consolation and comfort for many veterans and for the families and friends of America’s Fallen Heroes.

Maitreya did so much for his neighbors, both close by and around the world, as he loved all people in spirit. He saw God in All and All in God, and lived that to the fullest. As he often said, "No man is my enemy. Ignorance and darkness alone are my enemy." And he lived by that credo.

Many people expect a Holy Man to be a pacifist in the sense of never confronting things or getting angry. Some people said, "But you shouldn’t be angry, you’re supposed to be for peace and love!" Maitreya taught that "Truth is the Highest Religion." His motto was, "The Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth, for better or worse, so help me God." So when he was angry at darkness and ignorance he spoke the Truth boldly and unabashedly.

Maitreya was also a humble man. He struggled with his role as God’s Awakened One in this Age. You may not have known his real Purpose in this world, as he had a very hard time exalting himself to so high a place. He appeared to many as a very ordinary man, which is what he wanted. As he said so many times, "I am an ordinary man with an extraordinary Mission."

During the time of his worldly death at eight years old, he had many amazing experiences culminating in God taking him into Perfect Final Union with Himself "as a drop of water falling into the sea becomes Sea." The One Universal God then asked him to return to this earth to do a wondrous work, which he did.

For more than twenty years Maitreya wandered in the wilderness of this world, alternately seeking and running away from his Destiny. Finally in 1977, he died in the Spirit and found The Way back Home into Perfect Final Union with God by his own Works. God again asked him to return to this world to finish The Work God had given him at eight years old. Maitreya accepted and made a Sacred Vow directly to The One Universal God that he would never again enter into Perfect Final Union with Him until he had seen every last Soul Home into Perfect Final Union with God before him.

Because of Maitreya’s Vow of Compassion, God made a New Covenant with all Souls that "Whosoever will receive The Friend’s Holy Initiation and follow him to the end of this life, I will give unto that Soul the very Perfect Final Union with Me that The Friend has sacrificed for the sake of all Souls." By this, God’s Eternal Universal Religion became a living Reality in our Time through the Supreme Self-Sacrifice of Maitreya The Friend of All Souls.

And The One Universal God also gave Humanity a Supreme Promise:

"I say unto you that when your Maitreyians have given my Supreme Promise to the Souls of this world such that the Sun never sets upon the Maitreyians and there are enough of The Faithful who have received your Holy Initiation and who give heed to the letter of your teachings and instructions and examples in their lives and are following you Home to Perfect Final Union with Me in True Faith and Devotion in Spirit, they will form a Divine Critical Mass; and in that moment, I will spread My Supreme Promise and Gift of Perfect Final Union with that I AM THAT I AM, to all Souls. And no Soul shall be left behind."

- The Holy Book of Destiny

Maitreya’s Love for Freedom was supreme. Maitreya taught us that Freedom and Free Will are the Highest Qualities of The Soul. He taught us how to turn within and Seek the Inner Divine Inspiration, Insight, Guidance and Revelation of The One Universal God and Maitreya within our Hearts, to exercise our Divine Intelligence on that Guidance, and to make Free Choices for which we can and will be personally responsible.

He entrusted us with his Religion - God’s Eternal Universal Religion - born in America. Fortunately for us, before he died, he allowed us to publish some of his writings in a book called The Holy Book of Destiny. This book is the Bible of God’s Eternal Universal Religion. It is the first Holy Book in the world to be written, directly, by one of God’s Mercies to mankind. In it Maitreya relates much of his personal life story, his Awakening, his Journey, and the Religion that God gave to him to give to us.

Many years earlier Maitreya put his most Essential Teachings in the world’s first all metal Holy Book, called "Destiny." The metal Destiny book can be found in the The American History Rare Book Collection at the Smithsonian Institute, the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, and in the hands of twenty of his most devoted Followers and Friends.

Maitreya’s wish was to see his Purpose and Mission and Divine Critical Mass fulfilled before he died. While not yet fulfilled, Maitreya gave us everything that we need to build God’s Eternal Universal Religion in the world. In addition to our Holy Book of Destiny, we have at least 2,000 audio tapes and CD’s of Maitreya’s talks and sermons, tens of thousands of pages of his writings, and hundreds of videos of him preaching and teaching. We are blessed with countless examples of how he lived his Religion in his life. The most precious Gift that he has given us is His Holy Initiation and His Living Presence within each of our Hearts. Every person who receives Maitreya’s Holy Initiation, also Receives Him and His Inner Divine Inspiration, Insight, Guidance and Revelation and can call upon Him in Spirit at any time for any reason, and He will be there. And we never walk alone.

We pledge our lives to fulfill Maitreya’s Purpose and Mission in this world, to save Humanity from Suffering, Sorrow, Death and Rebirth and to ensure the continued Survival of Humanity. We are small, but Maitreya has made us very strong, and with the help of the good people who are Called to join us and help Maitreya carry out his Work in the world, we will prevail and achieve Victory for him for the sake of the world and this suffering Humanity.

May the Blessings of The One Universal God and Reverend Maitreya The Friend be with you. May you never thirst for the Holy Water of Life.

The Spiritually Ignorant who are shrouded in darkness have argued and fought and killed, for countless thousand of years over God - That One I Am That I Am which you are. But, I say unto you that no man and no words can say who or what God is, for That I Am That I Am is beyond The Beyond. Whosoever would try to capture God in words, may as well try to capture the sea in a teacup. Let not, therefore, your words be a net in which you seek to snare God. Neither let your words be as shackles that imprison men’s Souls. But let your words be like unto fingers pointing toward a distant mountain. No one can capture God in words, ever! Yet, the Wise know the expressions of God. I say unto you:

God Loves! God Cares! God Forgives all! God Gives All without thought of return!

When you Love - you are in Oneness with God!

When you Care - you are in Oneness with God!

When you Forgive - you are in Oneness with God!

When you Give of yourself, your possessions, and your wealth without thought of return - you are in Oneness with God!

Not for the sake of the husband is the husband loved, but for the sake of The Spirit of God within.

Not for the sake of the wife is the wife loved, but for the sake of the Spirit of God within.

Not for the sake of the children are the children loved, but for the sake of The Spirit of God within.

Not for the sake of the father is the father loved, but for the sake of The Spirit of God within.

Not for the sake of the mother is the mother loved, but for the sake of The Spirit of God within.

Not for the sake of the brother is the brother loved, but for the sake of The Spirit of God within.

Not for the sake of the sister is the sister loved, but for the sake of The Spirit of God within.

Not for the sake of friends are friends loved, but for the sake of The Spirit of God within.

Not for the sake of the Teacher is the Teacher loved, but for the sake of The Spirit of God within.

Not for the sake of the Prophet is the Prophet loved, but for the sake of The Spirit of God within.

Not for the sake of the Buddha is the Buddha loved, but for the sake of The Spirit of God within.

Not for the sake of the Messiah is the Messiah loved, but for the sake of The Spirit of God within.

Not for the sake of The Friend is The Friend loved, but for the sake of The Spirit of God within.

Not for the sake of the body or the thoughts or the personality are any loved, but for the sake of The Spirit of God which is within all, one and the same.

For the body passes away and the thoughts and personality change as the tides. But The Divine Spirit of God that is the True Self of all, endures forever!

Fire cannot burn it! Cold cannot freeze it! Sword and bullet cannot pierce it!

Hunger cannot starve it! Sickness cannot sicken it! Pain cannot disturb it!

Suffering cannot reach it! And Death is no more to it than the taking off of one suit of worn out clothing and, the putting on of another which is new!

Forever! Forever Free! Forever Blissful! Forever Happy! Forever One with Universal God and no other!

It is The Spirit within you alone which loves. And, it is The Spirit alone which is loved in all that you love. For The Spirit alone knows. And The Spirit alone loves. And, as a new born babe knows and loves its mother; even so does The Spirit in you know and love The Spirit alone in all that you know and love.

Grieve not, therefore, for those that you love who pass out of this world before you. Neither fear for your own passing. For, as all that is thrown into the air falls to earth; and as all that is put together must someday come apart; all that is born is born of the flesh and must also pass away.

But I tell you that you have no need to fear. For you are not of the flesh, but of The Spirit. And death is no more to The Spirit, than the rain returning to the Sea from which it has arisen. Never was there a time when I or you or those that you love were not. And never will there come a time when I or you or those that you love shall cease to be. For, though body and personality come and go as the day and the night, you shall endure Forever. For you are that One Eternal Spirit of which I have spoken this day, and no other!

Many are there who would have you to believe that you possess a Soul and a Spirit as a man possesses a house or a car or a piece of clothing. And, that this Soul and Spirit are somehow other than you and that you are somehow other than this Soul and Spirit. But I say unto you that you do not possess a Soul or a Spirit, but that you are a Soul which is Spirit. And, it is as a Soul and Spirit that you possess this body, these thoughts, this personality, and all else.

And so it is with all those that you know and love.

Others are there, who would have you believe that Soul and Spirit are somehow separate and divided apart from That One Universal Spirit which men call God and Allah and Brahman and Jehovah and three thousand and thirty other names, and which I call simply Universal Spirit. But I say unto you that this Soul which is Spirit and which you truly are, is not separate or divided apart from The One Universal Spirit of God which is your One True Source and Self and Home! Neither has it ever been separate or divided apart from The One Universal Spirit of God. Neither shall it ever be separate or divided apart from God. For this Soul and Spirit which you truly are and which all that you know and love truly are, Is, has Always been, and will always Be One with That One Universal Spirit which men call God and so many other names.

Some others are there who would have you to believe that God is like unto a potter and you are nothing but an empty pot which is made of earth and water by God’s hands. But I say unto you that the earth and the water are here for the earthly potter. But this whole world and all Creation were brought forth by God from His own Being and Substance alone. For there was naught else from which it could be made. And, therefore, you and this Creation are all of the One Spirit and Substance and Being of Universal God and no other.

Yes, truly, even the earth and the water from which the potter makes his pots is That alone. And you are Forever and Free and Safe. For what is there that can harm The Universal Spirit of God?

Therefore, be at Peace. And do not cling to today or the things of today. For as the day must surely pass into the night, the things of today belong only to today and, must pass away with its passing. But The Real endures beyond all change and beyond all passing.

Do not fear for tomorrow. For nothing that it can bring can touch or harm The Spirit of God which is The Real you; nor The Spirit of God which is The Real in those you know and love. And, as the day passes into the night and the night again, passes into the day, whatsoever tomorrow may bring will also pass.

Learn from your mistakes and your errors, but carry them not upon your back as a great weight. And, feel neither sorrow nor guilt nor regret for what has been. For, as today becomes yesterday and tomorrow becomes today and, as today’s Sun regrets not that upon which yesterday’s light has fallen; you should shine for today and not leave your Divine Light wasting upon yesterdays which are no more. For Yesterday is but a trace left in the sands of time and tomorrow is but a dream which is yet to be fulfilled. But today well lived makes every yesterday a memory of happiness and every tomorrow a dream of joy. And the trees and flowers in your fields and the birds of the air grow and thrive not upon yesterday’s sunlight, but upon the light of the day and the moment in which they live. Be, then, like unto the trees and the flowers in your fields and the birds of the air. And be at Peace.

From the earth, the sea, and the sky these bodies and personalities have come. And, unto the earth, the sea, and the sky they must return. But The Spirit of God within you which knows and loves and, The Spirit of God which we know and love within one another, lasts Forever and is never lost. That You Are! And no other.

Take, therefore, your Courage, your Peace, and your Comfort in this Ancient and Holy Truth of God’s Eternal Universal Religion of Holy Adhyatma-Yoga-Dharma which Universal God has given and I have spoken unto you this day. And fear no more.