He has never left the world, but for 2,000 years has waited and planned for this immediate future time, training His disciples, and preparing Himself… - Benjamin Creme

The Mystery Schools are the schools in which the training and disciplines for initiation are received... The Mystery Schools themselves will be of two categories: preparatory and advanced... There will be a preparatory school in Japan, an advanced one in China; a preparatory one in Scotland, an advanced one in Ireland; a preparatory one in the American Midwest, an advanced one in California; a preparatory one in New Zealand, and advanced one in Australia; a preparatory one in Greece, an advanced one in Egypt; a preparatory one in Sweden, an advanced one in Russia; a preparatory one in France, an advanced one in Italy. Thus, the world as a whole will be covered to give precise teaching to those disciples who are ready for preparation for initiation. p. 181

An immediate collapse of the economic structures, a stock-exchange crash in Europe and America, would bring Maitreya forward right away. That would bring us into reality. That is one of the factors that He is waiting for, that sense of reality which it would bring about. We would see that it does not work. We thought it was working, it seemed to work for some of us, but through our complacency we did not even think of those for whom it does not work. One of Maitreya's major tasks is to throw cold water on this complacency, make it very uncomfortable to be complacent. I can remember people coming to a meeting of mine and saying: “I thought this was going to be a message of hope, but I feel awful. I feel so unhappy. I feel so guilty and horrible.” I said: “Jolly good. That is what we call love.” You have to cut through that complacency. If people only want to be, “Ah, lovely”, it is not going to change the world. It is important that they know that the Christ is in the world and not alone, and that the world is ready for change and will change. But if they only want to be made to feel good, it is not going to help the world because they are not the people who are actually working in the world.

Part One, ‘Life Ahead for Humanity’, provides an overview of the background and history of the Masters and Their return to the everyday world. In particular, it focuses on the events leading to the gradual emergence of Maitreya and to the Day of His Declaration. This will be an extraordinary ‘Pentecostal’ experience for humanity, and the start of the gradual transformation of all our structures and institutions... Preface, p. ix