Mutants & Mystics

[Dave Monroe]

Shambhala

248; 259; 435; In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Shambhala (also spelled
Shambala or Shamballa) is a mystical kingdom hidden somewhere beyond
the snowpeaks of the Himalayas; 441; 609; "An ancient metropolis of
the spiritual, some say inhabited by the living, others say empty, in
ruins, buried someplace beneath the desert sands of Inner Asia. And of
course there are always those who'll tell you that the true Shambhala
lies within."" 628; 631; "the Pure Land" 686; 718; and secular
European politics, 748; and Rinpungpa, 750; "north of the Taklamakan"
767; Kit's vision of, 770; Khocho, 772; post-Tunguska, 793; "not a
goal, but an absence" 975; album of Shambhala postage stamps, 1081

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=S
http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Shambhala

... from Jeffrey J. Kripal,  Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction,
Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2011),
Ch. 1, "Orientation: From India to the Planet Mars," pp. 31-69:

... the status of Shambhala cannot be slotted into any simplistic
Western categories of "real" or "imaginary." Joscelyn Godwin is well
worth quoting on this subtle idea ...

The mediator may summon up such places in all their detail, and endow
them with a sense of reality that may even become palpable to
others....  but the practitioner also knows that, however realistic
the visionary experience, it is not ultimately real.  If success is
reached in the meditative creation of cities and landscapes, gods and
demons, then the practitioner gains the  corresponding capacity for
the 'de-creation' of the material, everyday world, that is, for the
awareness that earthly cities, like shambhala, are mind-created
illusions. [Godwin, Arktos, p. 10]

In short, if one can realize that visionary landscapes and paranormal
realities, however convincing, are ultimately authored by oneself and
one's culture, then one can also realize that things like "society,"
"religion," "self," and "other," even physical reality itself, are
equally authored, and so also illusory.  In short, the fantastic,
handled properly, might help us to realize the true nature of the
real, which is fantastic. (p. 38)

http://books.google.com/books?id=8kNjcn8KsuUC&pg=PA38#v=onepage&q&f=false
http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo5892347.html

Godwin, Jocelyn.  Arktos: The Polar Myth in Science, Symbolism, and
Nazi Survival.
   Kempton, IL: Adventures Unlimited Press, 1996.

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