AtDTDA (27) 766: The Way to Shambhala

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

http://tinyurl.com/2p4cvd

          . . . .Directions for journeying to Shambhala are addressed by 
          the author to a Yogi, who is sort of fictional character, though 
          at the same time real---a figure in a vision and also Rinpungpa 
          himself. I do know of a variant currently for sale, which contains 
          lines that do not appear in other versions. Notably, 'Even if you 
          forget everything else,' Rinpunga instructs the Yogi, 'remember 
          one thing---when you come to a fork in the road, take it.' 
          Easy for him to say, of course, being to people at once. . . .


Several guides to Shambhala were written over the centuries. 
There was a thousand-year-old passage in the Tengyur, part 
of the Tibetan canon of holy books; an account by a 13th-century 
lama named Manlungpa ending in the almost casual mention 
that he'd been there himself; and a florid 1770s description by 
Palden Yeshe, the third of the Panchen Lamas, said to be 
pre-incarnations of Shambhala's future king. But the most 
affecting was a desperate plea for help, a letter called 
"The Knowledge-Bearing Messenger," written around 1560 
by a Tibetan prince named Rinpungpa. . . .

. . . ..Rinpungpa was surrounded by enemies, his world 
collapsing. Buddhism was no longer practiced in India, its 
land of birth, and Islam had conquered Afghanistan to the 
west and the Central Asian steppe to the north. Rinpungpa's 
own clan had ruled brutally, and the prince correctly surmised 
that his days were limited. Seeking help, he summoned a spirit 
messenger to reach the enlightened kingdom, where his own 
father would be waiting, reborn in paradise.

Take this message and go to my father in Shambhala. May 
my words of truth, conquering the mountains of dualism, guide 
you along the way and help you to overcome the obstacles 
that lie before you.

Rinpungpa filled long passages with colorful accounts of the 
route across Tibet and Central Asia, warning of everything 
from starvation to forests made of knives to rivers so cold they 
killed you at first touch. Adding in the Tengyur and the other 
ancient texts, the directions pretty much boiled down to this: 
Go from the lowland Indian river valleys where the Lord 
Buddha lived, up to Kathmandu's ancient kingdoms, and climb 
onto the roof of the world, crossing Tibet westward, via its 
greatest monasteries and the sacred mountain of Kailas. Then 
head north, over an "outer ring" of sky-high ice mountains, 
across a vicious desert, past jade city-states, into unknown 
vistas. All the while you must appease dozens of gods, 
accumulate merit and fend off monsters, suppress the demons 
of delusion and transcend mere xistence, recite 99 million 
mantras and fly through the sky on a fire chariot, only to reach 
an "inner ring" of snowy mountains so high that even an eagle 
cannot cross. Beyond there, you must choose rightly among 
high valleys and low cities, having the good sense to know 
Shambhala when you reach it.

http://outside.away.com/outside/destinations/200710/shambhala-2.html

Shambhala is the oldest Asian vision of enlightenment. First 
mentioned in the Mahabharata, picked up and transformed by 
Tibetans, Chinese and Mongolians, the story always tells of a 
great and just principality, lost somewhere in the northern 
mountains of Asia. Shambhala is hidden in plain sight, invisible 
to ordinary people, yet reachable by supreme effort and various 
methods. The greatest Bodhisattvas of Tibetan Buddhism, the 
Taoist Immortals, the 30 wisest Hindu princes, are all said to 
be alive in Shambhala today, waiting for a great king on a white 
horse to defeat materialism and selfishness, creating an 
apocalypse - the 'Age of Kalki' - and, simultaneously, the birth 
of a new golden era. Shambhala, in that sense, is the story 
human beings need to tell themselves: that beyond this world, 
there is another, a paradise of eternal life and the restoration 
of hope.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/12/15/sm_shambhala.xml
&page=2

According to tradition, the Shambhala King Manjushri-Yashas 
composed the Abridged Kalachakra Tantra or Kalachakra 
Laghutantra (Skt.), bsDus-rgyud (Tib.), it is also called 'the' 
Kalachakratantra or Shri Kalachakra, as for us it fulfills the 
function of the main tantric root text, although it is about one 
quarter the length of the original Mulatantra. Together with the 
Stainless Light Commentary, Vimalaprabha (Skt.), or 
Dri-med ‘od (Tib.) written by Shambhala King Pundarika 
(see right), these two texts form the basis of the Kalachakra practice.

http://kalachakranet.org/kalachakra_tantra_introduction.html