A. No; we will wait for ever for that to happen. Few rich and powerful people will give up their power or riches unless they have to. The mechanics of the change is a world stock market crash. Maitreya has predicted many, many things which have come true. He has also predicted a world stock market crash which He said would begin in Japan. He made that prediction in 1988, and immediately the stock market of Japan began to collapse. As far as Japan is concerned, everyone knows that the 'bubble', as He called it, has burst. This stock market crash will end the present distorted and unjust economic structures. Speculation is seen by Hierarchy as a disease. At present, over 90 per cent of all stock market transactions are currency speculations. The markets have become what Maitreya calls 'gambling casinos'; they have no part to play in a rational economic structure based on justice.

Q. Is Maitreya going to inspire us to action, such as with sharing, based on experience He will give us of our oneness? Otherwise, will humanity be motivated to share? 

A. The answer to that is yes and no. Maitreya is not going to force anyone to share, but He is going to talk about the necessity of sharing as the only way to produce a rational economic system which will create justice. It is the injustice of the present system which is bringing it to its knees. It is ending because the age which brought it into being has ended. It is a decaying, corrupt, crystallized form which does good to a few and to the many a great deal of harm. Of course it also does harm to the few to whom it seems to be doing good. It is poisoning, dividing, and threatening the world, so it has to go. All of this will be spelled out by Maitreya. If that does not inspire us with the idea of sharing, then nothing will.

Maitreya will also release His energy - the Christ Principle - in tremendous potency. As Maitreya Himself has said: 'It will be as if I embrace the world. People will feel it even physically.' If that energy flowing through us, plus the words of Maitreya analyzing the economic situation and the harm which it is doing to planetary life, do not motivate us to share, then nothing else will. If it does not motivate humanity, then we will not learn to share and we will destroy the world. We have it in our own hands.

This questioner obviously does not have too much faith in the rest of humanity. 'Otherwise, will humanity be motivated to share?' Humanity will be motivated to share by the analysis by Maitreya of what will happen if we do not, and also by the experience of the Christ Principle. That is the experience which He will give us. The Christ Principle embodies the sense of oneness. It is the magnetic energy of love whose nature is oneness. Love is, above all, the inclusive energy. It is that which unites, draws together, the building blocks of creation and holds them magnetically in oneness.

Q. How will sharing work in practice?  

A. The UN will become the major debating chamber of the world. All world problems will be debated there and resolutions passed which will implement the new system. An entirely new UN agency will be set up specifically to oversee the process of sharing the world's resources. But I must emphasize that we have free will; nothing will be forced on humanity. When humanity of its own free will accepts the principle of sharing and asks Maitreya and His group of Masters, how do we do this, how do we set about sharing, then we will find that the plan is already there. There is a group of high initiates who have worked out with the Masters over many years a whole series of interrelated plans which will solve the redistribution problems which today are at the heart of the economic problems. It is really a problem of redistribution of resources.

Q. In this new civilization, are we talking about the Third World coming up Western European and North American standards of living, or are we talking about the planet generally having a simpler, more sustainable lifestyle? 

A. What we will have to aim at is a simpler and sustainable economy, based on need. Today the economies are based on the pressures of commercialization, of market forces. All the developed countries are producing - and over-producing - goods that they cannot sell, because each has and creates the same things. The only people who could really buy the produce of the developed world as it exists today are the people in the Third World, but they cannot because we do not pay fair prices for their produce and rig the markets against them. The Masters will show that a satisfying and creative life can be lived which will be full and rich but on a simpler level, using the resources of the world in a sustainable way.

Q. The idea of sharing is a two-way thing. What will the 'haves' gain by giving to the 'have nots'? Will the pleasure received by giving in itself be enough in the new world society?

A. (1) Not only the 'haves' but the whole world will gain by sharing. In this way - the only way - will be created justice, and, following from that, world peace. Without sharing, there is no safe future for anyone. (2) It is not a question of receiving pleasure by giving - that is open to anyone at any time - but the creation of economic structures that will ensure peace between all peoples.

Q. Are the people ready for all that this means? Will they really want sharing?

A. The Hierarchy, through the Master D.K., has said that the hearts of men are sound, especially the ordinary people. They are ready for peace, justice and sharing. They long for peace. Already the peoples of the world march and demonstrate for peace. Soon they will march calling for justice and sharing. Maitreya Himself said, in Message No. 135: 'Forming themselves into groups, men of goodwill will brandish aloft their hopes and dreams of justice and peace. This clamour will light the torch of truth among the nations and at its centre shall I be found.' That is exactly what is happening now, in the USA and in Europe, with the Peace Marches. This, to me, shows that the people are ready for sharing and for the Christ. It shows that they are ready for His words. In this way, as He speaks, He will focus and evoke that demand and aspiration. There is no government on earth that can withstand the focused, determined will of educated world public opinion.