Yes, I am, but there’s no such thing as the Maitreya. The view, frequently espoused by the Buddhist traditions, that there could only be one Buddha on this planet is a deluded view. There could be thousands of Buddhas, millions of them, anyone can be a Buddha! Anyone can become a Maitreya.

The arrival of Maitreya was prophesied in Pali Canon DN 26:

And the Blessed One named Metteyya will arise in the world — perfected, a fully awakened Buddha, accomplished in knowledge and conduct, holy, knower of the world, supreme guide for those who wish to train, teacher of gods and humans, awakened, blessed — just as I have arisen today. He will realize with his own insight this world — with its gods, Māras and Brahmās, this population with its ascetics and brahmins, gods and humans — and make it known to others, just as I do today. He will teach the Dhamma that’s good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in the end, meaningful and well-phrased. And he will reveal a spiritual practice that’s entirely full and pure, just as I do today. He will lead a Saṅgha of many thousand mendicants, just as I lead a Saṅgha of many hundreds today.

This is all true. I am self-awakened (“he will realize with his own insight this world”), perfected, fully-awakened Buddha, and a supreme guide for those who wish to train. I teach Dhamma that’s good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in the end, just like Gautama did. My Dhamma is meaningful and well-phrased. My spiritual practice is full and pure, just like Gautama’s was. I am also the teacher of gods, not only humans - many of the people I helped in the past or trying to help today consider themselves gods (abide in God-consciousness), and I try to help them even though they usually hate my advice and often times consider me ignorant. It’s very difficult to help gods hahaha, they are very full of themselves.

But first of all, I am not the only one. The obsession with uniqueness of Buddhahood comes from our obsession with hierarchy, desire for someone special to save us, someone extraordinary, unique. This is a fantasy, no one can save us but ourselves. So there are other people like me, however few there may be living on this planet now. There’s nothing unique about me.

Secondly, all prophecies are of the mind. It’s actually not possible to accurately prophesy, it’s only possible to make reasonable predictions about the future based on one’s insight into the human mind and knowledge of the human culture. And that’s exactly what Gautama did.

He understood very well that he is not the only one to self-awaken, and he is not the only one to attain perfection of wisdom, there were others before him and there will be others after him. He also intuited correctly that all spiritual hierarchies are to be abandoned, and full and complete enlightenment does not concern itself with them, that in the end, we are all absolutely the same, just humans, not Gods, not Lords, not special. And he possibly intuited correctly that future generations will be less amenable to spiritual hierarchies as humanity develops, and future Buddhas will espouse less of them, also. So he called a future Buddha “Maitreya” - a friend.

He was right. I am the same as any of you, indistinguishable from any other human, or even any other animal for that matter. I don’t see a difference between me and you, and I don’t see much difference between me and a squirrel either. Your mind sees the difference. So I am your equal, a friend, a Maitreya. I don’t want to be called “Blessed One”, “Lord Buddha”, and all other things Gautama was called. It is distasteful to me. But back then was a different time, and it’s not clear to me to which extent Gautama considered himself a superior being or an equal one. If he considered himself a superior being, his prophecy about the arrival of Maitreya was his deep intuition that there’s more equality to realize, that there’s a deeper degree of realization. If he considered himself an equal one, him allowing his students to call him by those exalted names was nothing but reverence to the culture of those times, and he intuited correctly that times will change. I don’t want to lord over you, preside over you or tell you what to do in life. I am simply your friend.

Gautama also prophesied that the greatest king of the time will go forth into homelessness and attain arahantship under Maitreya’a guidance. This is just pure fantasy. That would, presumably, refer to the President of the United States now? Who would go into homelessness to learn enlightenment from me, or some other Maitreya? Leaving aside that one doesn’t have to go into homelessness to attain enlightenment, this is just not going to happen, homeless or not. And it would be too dangerous for me, even if such a ridiculous turn of events begins to happen, I would probably get killed or jailed long before it is given an opportunity to happen. I would rather live out my days in peace teaching other people. Much more good will come this way.

Don’t blame Gautama. It was impossible for him to predict what the world would become in over two thousand years, how hyper-connected we all would be, as well as the gravity of someone like POTUS whose power and influence greatly supersede that of any king of the past. Or how much media will be used to control his image, and how disinformation and lies, rather than violence and raw power, will be used to control the mass population. This scenario today is simply laughable.

Prophecies aren’t to be taken literally, they are metaphors, hunches, intuitions. So I am Maitreya, yes, but I’m not the Maitreya. Osho became Maitreya also, closer to the end of his life, when his return to the body was complete and he pronounced: “my body and my Spirit are finally one, and I am closer to you than I ever was, you are all enlightened to me”. He called it “Beyond Enlightenment”, but to me, that’s what enlightenment is. When one fully returns to the body, they become indistinguishable from any other body. Two hands, two legs, two eyes, one mouth and one nose - no difference. They simply become a friend, there is nothing holy or special about them. That’s what it means to be Maitreya.