The Shambhala Myth and Mystery Babylon

[Noah's Dove]

The following two articles will look into the Shambhala Myth and it's
links to the Dalai Lama and Tibetian Buddhism. To-day there is great
deal of interest among mystics, new age followers, and followers of the
Dalai Lama in the promise and symbolism of Shambhala. The question is
why?

In book of Revelations Chapter 17, many researchers have noticed
a sobering reference to an mystical universal unity or spirituality
which will deceive the world. Is the promise of Shambhala, one of
many streams which will lead to the establishment of the prophecy
related to Mystery Babylon? Please read the following and judge for
yourself. For for follow up there are excellent research articles @

http://www.trimondi.de/SDLE/Part-2-09.htm

"I believe the idea of Shambhala has not yet come to full flower, but
that when it does it will have enormous power to reshape civilisation.
It is the sign of the future. The search for a new unifying principle
that our civilisation must now undertake will, I am convinced, lead it
to this source of higher energies, and Shambhala will become the great
icon of the new millennium."
‹ Victoria LePage, Shambhala

As Victoria LePage puts it in her book Shambhala:

Roerich was a man of unimpeachable credentials: a famous collaborator
in Stravinskyąs Rite of Spring, a colleague of the impresario Diaghilev
and a highly talented and respected member of the League of Nations.11

He was also influential in the Franklin Delano Roosevelt United States
administration, and was the pivotal force behind placing the Great Seal
of the United States on the dollar bill.

"Roerich believed in the transcendental unity of religions ­ in the
notion that one day the Buddhist, the Muslim, and the Christian would
realise their separate dogmas were husks obscuring the kernel of truth
within. All his works embraced the belief that all faiths awaited a
new age in which this chaff of dogma would be stripped away, humanity
would toss aside its discords, and all would come together in a
paradise of universal brotherhood. His symbol for the coming paradise
was Shambhala."

http://www.trimondi.de/SDLE/Part-2-11.htm

The Shadow of the Dalai Lama ­ Part II ­ 11. The Shambhala Myth and
the west

© Victor & Victoria Trimondi

 
11. THE SHAMBHALA MYTH AND THE WEST

 

The spread of the Shambhala myth and the Kalachakra Tantra in the West
has a history of its own. It does definitely not first begin with the
expulsion of the lamas from Tibet (in 1959) and their diaspora across
the whole world, but rather commences at the beginning of the
twentieth century in Russia with the religious political activity of an
ethnic Buriat by the name of Agvan Dorjiev.

 

The Shambhala missionary Agvan Dorjiev

Even in his youth, Agvan Dorjiev (1854­1938), who trained as a monk in
Tibet, was already a very promising individual. For this reason he was
as a young man entrusted with caring for the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. The
duties of the Buriat included among other things the ritual cleansing
of the body and bedroom of the god-king, which implies quite an
intimate degree of contact. Later he was to be at times the closest
political adviser of His Holiness.

 

Dorjiev was convinced that the union of Tibet with Russia would
provide the Highlands with an extremely favorable future, and was
likewise able to convince the hierarch upon the Lion Throne of the
merits of his political vision for a number of years. He thus advanced
to the post of Tibetan envoy in St. Petersburg and at the Russian
court. His work in the capital was extremely active and varied. In 1898
he had his first audience with Tsar Nicholas II, which was supposed to
be followed by others. The Russian government was opening up with
greater tolerance towards the Asian minorities among whom the Buriats
were also to be counted, and was attempting to integrate them more
into the Empire whilst still respecting their religious and cultural
autonomy, instead of missionizing them as they had still done at the
outset of the 19th century.

 

Even as a boy, Nicholas II had been fascinated by Tibet and the
łyellow pontiff˛ from Lhasa. The famous explorer, Nikolai Przhevalsky,
introduced the 13-year-old Tsarevitch to the history and geopolitics of
Central Asia. Przhevalsky described the Dalai Lama as a “powerful
Oriental pope with dominion over some 250 million Asiatic souls˛ and
believed that a Russian influence in Tibet would lead to control of
the entire continent and that this must be the first goal of Tsarist
foreign policy (Schimmelpennink, 1994, p. 16). Prince Esper Esperovich
Ukhtomsky, influential at court and deeply impressed by the Buddhist
teachings, also dreamed of a greater Asian Empire under the leadership
of the łWhite Tsars˛.

 

Since the end of the 19th century Buddhism had become a real fashion
among the Russian high society, comparable only to what is currently
happening in Hollywood, where more and more stars profess to the
doctrine of the Dalai Lama. It was considered stylish to appeal to
Russiaąs Asiatic inheritance and to invoke the Mongolian blood which
flowed in the veins of every Russian with emotional phrases. The poet,
Vladimir Solovjov declaimed, łPan-Mongolism ‹ this word: barbaric,
yes! Yet a sweet sound˛ (Block, n.d., p. 247).

 

Agvan Dorjiev

 

The mysto-political influences upon the court of the Tsar of the naďve
demonic village magician, Rasputin, are common knowledge. Yet the
power-political intrigues of an intelligent Asian doctor by the name
of Peter Badmajev ought to have been of far greater consequence. Like
Dorjiev, whom he knew well, he was a Buriat and originally a Buddhist,
but he had then converted to Russian Orthodox. His change of faith was
never really bought by those around him, who frequented him above all
as a mighty shaman that was łsupposed to be initiated into all the
secrets of Asia˛ (Golowin, 1977, p. 219).

 

Badmajev was head of the most famous private hospital in St.
Petersburg. There the cabinet lists for the respective members of
government were put together under his direction. R. Fülöp-Miller has
vividly described the doctorąs power-political activities: łIn the
course of time medicine and politics, ministerial appointments and
'lotus essences' became more and more mingled, and a fantastic
political magic character arose, which emanated from Badmajevąs
sanatorium and determined the fate of all Russia. The miracle-working
doctor owed this influence especially to his successful
medical-political treatment of the Tsar. ... Badmajevąs mixtures,
potions, and powders brewed from mysterious herbs from the steppes
served not just to remedy patientąs metabolic disturbances; anyone who
took these medicaments ensured himself an important office in the
state at the same time˛ (Fülöp-Miller, 1927, pp. 112, 148). For this
łwise and crafty Asian˛ too, the guiding idea was the establishment of
an Asian empire with the łWhite Tsar˛ at its helm.

 

In this overheated pro-Asian climate, Dorjiev believed, probably
somewhat rashly, that the Tsar had a genuine personal interest in
being initiated into the secrets of Buddhism. The Buriatąs goal was to
establish a mchod-yon relationship between Nicholas II and the
god-king from Lhasa, that is, Russian state patronage of Lamaism.
Hence a trip to Russia by the Dalai Lama was prepared which, however,
never eventuated.

 

Bolshevik Buddhism

One would think that Dorjiev had a compassionate heart for the tragic
fate of the Tsarist family. At least, Nicholas II had supported him
and the Thirteenth Dalai Lama had even declared the Russian heir to
the throne to be a Bodhisattva because a number of attempts to give
him a Christian baptism mysteriously failed. At Dorjievąs behest,
pictures of the Romanovs adorned the Buddhist temple in St.
Petersburg.

 

Hence, it is extremely surprising that the Buriat greeted the Russian
October Revolution and the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks with
great emotion. What stood behind this about-face, a change of attitude
or understandable opportunism? More likely the former, then at the
outset of the twenties Dorjiev, along with many famous Russian
orientalists, was convinced that Communism and Buddhism were
compatible. He publicly proclaimed that the teaching of Shakyamuni was
an łatheistic religion˛ and that it would be wrong to describe it as
łunscientific˛. Men in his immediate neighborhood even went so far as
to celebrate the historical Buddha as the original founder of Communism
and to glorify Lenin as an incarnation of the Enlightened One. There
are reliable rumors that Dorjiev and Lenin had met.

 

Initially the Bolsheviks appreciated such currying of favor and made
use of it to win Buddhist Russians over to their ideas. Already in
1919, the second year of the Revolution, an exhibition of Buddhist art
was permitted and encouraged amidst extreme social turmoil. The
teachings of Shakyamuni lived through a golden era, lectures about the
Sutras were held, numerous Buddhist books were published, contacts
were established with Mongolian and Tibetan scholars. Even the ideas
of pan-Mongolism were reawakened and people began to dream of
blood-filled scenes. In the same year, in his famous poem of hate Die
Skythen [The Scythians], Alexander Block prophesied the fall of Europe
through the combined assault of the Russians and the Mongolians. In it
we can read that

 

We shall see through the slits of our eyes

How the Huns fight over your flesh,

How your cities collapse

And your horses graze between the ruins.

(Block, n.d., p. 249)

 

Even the Soviet Unionąs highest-ranking cultural official of the time,
Anatoli Vassilievich Lunacharski, praised Asia as a pure source of
inexhaustible reserves of strength: łWe need the Revolution to toss
aside the power of the bourgeoisie and the power of rationality at the
same time so as to regain the great power of elementary life, so as to
dissolve the world in the real music of intense being. We respect and
honor Asia as an area which until now draws its life energy from
exactly these right sources and which is not poisoned by European
reason˛ (Trotzkij, 1968, p. 55).

 

Yet the Buddhist, pan-Asian El Dorado of Leningrad transformed itself
in 1929 into a hell, as the Stalinist secret service began with a
campaign to eradicate all religious currents. Some years later Dorjiev
was arrested as a counterrevolutionary and then put on trial for
treason and terrorism. On January 29, 1938 the łfriend of the Dalai
Lama˛ died in a prison hospital.

 

The Kalachakra temple in St. Petersburg

There is a simple reason for Dorjievąs enthusiasm for Russia. He was
convinced that the Kalachakra system and the Shambhala myth had their
origins in the Empire of the Tsar and would return via it. In 1901 the
Buriat had received initiations into the Time Tantra from the Ninth
Panchen Lama which were supposed to have been of central significance
for his future vision. Ekai Kawaguchi, a Buddhist monk from Japan who
visited Tibet at the turn of the last century, claims to have heard of
a pamphlet in which Dorjiev wrote łShambhala was Russia. The Emperor,
moreover, was an incarnation of Tsongkhapa, and would sooner or later
subdue the whole world and found a gigantic Buddhist empire˛
(Snelling, 1993, p. 79). Although it is not certain whether the lama
really did write this document, it fits in with his
religious-political ideas. Additionally, the historians are agreed: łIn
my opinion,˛ W.A. Unkrig writes, łthe religiously-based purpose of
Agvan Dorjiev was the foundation of a Lamaist-oriented kingdom of the
Tibetans and Mongols as a theocracy under the Dalai Lama ... [and]
under the protection of Tsarist Russia ... In addition, among the
Lamaists there existed the religiously grounded hope for help from a
ŚMessianic Kingdomą in the North ... called 'Northern Shambhalaą˛
(quoted by Snelling, 1993, p. 79).

 

At the center of Dorjievąs activities in Russia stood the construction
of a three-dimensional mandala ‹ the Buddhist temple in St.
Petersburg. The shrine was dedicated to the Kalachakra deity. The Dalai
Lamaąs envoy succeeded in bringing together a respectable number of
prominent Russians who approved of and supported the project. The
architects came from the West. A painter by the name of Nicholas
Roerich, who later became a fanatic propagandist for Kalachakra
doctrine, produced the designs for the stained-glass windows. Work
commenced in 1909. In the central hall various main gods from the
Tibetan pantheon were represented with statues and pictures, including
among others Dorjievąs wrathful initiation deity, Vajrabhairava.
Regarding the décor, it is perhaps also of interest that there was a
swastika motif which the Bolsheviks knocked out during the Second World
War. There was sufficient room for several lamas, who looked after the
ritual life, to live on the grounds. Dorjiev had originally intended to
triple the staffing and to construct not just a temple but also a whole
monastery. This was prevented, however, by the intervention of the
Russian Orthodox Church.

 

The inauguration took place in 1915, an important social event with
numerous figures from public life and the official representatives of
various Asian countries. The Dalai Lama sent a powerful delegation, łto
represent the Buddhist Papacy and assist the Tibetan Envoy Dorjiev˛
(Snelling, 1993, p. 159). Nicholas II had already viewed the
Kalachakra temple privately together with members of his family
several days before the official occasion.

 

Officially, the shrine was declared to be a place for the needs of the
Buriat and Kalmyk minorities in the capital. With regard to its occult
functions it was undoubtedly a tantric mandala with which the
Kalachakra system was to be transplanted into the West. Then, as we
have already explained, from the lamasą traditional point of view
founding a temple is seen as an act of spiritual occupation of a
territory. The legends about the construction of first Buddhist
monastery (Samye) on Tibetan soil show that it is a matter of a
symbolic deed with which the victory of Buddhism over the native gods
(or demons) is celebrated. Such sacred buildings as the Kalachakra
temple in St. Petersburg are cosmograms which are ‹ in their own way
of seeing things ‹ employed by the lamas as magic seals in order to
spiritually subjugate countries and peoples. It is in this sense that
the Italian, Fosco Maraini, has also described the monasteries in his
poetic travelogue about Tibet as łfactories of a holy technology or
laboratories of spiritual science˛ (Maraini, 1952, p. 172). In our
opinion this approximates very closely the Lamaist self-concept.
Perhaps it is also the reason why the Bolsheviks later housed an
evolutionary technology laboratory in the confiscated Kalachakra shrine
of St. Petersburg and performed genetic experiments before the eyes of
the tantric terror gods.

 

The temple was first returned to the Buddhists in June 1991. In the
same year, a few days before his own death, the English expert on
Buddhism, John Snelling, completed his biography of the god-kingąs
Buriat envoy. In it he poses the following possibility: łWho knows then
but what I call Dorjiev's Shambhala Project for a great Buddhist
confederation stretching from Tibet to Siberia, but now with
connections across to Western Europe and even internationally, may
well become a very real possibility˛ (Snelling, 1993, xii). Here,
Snelling can only mean the explosive spread of Tantric Buddhism across
the whole world.

 

If we take account of the changes that time brings with it, then today
the Kalachakra temple in Petersburg would be comparable with the Tibet
House in New York. Both institutions function(ed) as semi-occult
centers outwardly disguised as cultural institutions. In both instances
the spread of the Kalachakra idea is/was central as well. But there is
also a much closer connection: Robert Alexander Farrar Thurman, the
founder and current leader of the Tibet House, went to Dharamsala at
the beginning of the sixties. There he was ordained by the Dalai Lama
in person. Subsequently, the Kalmyk, Geshe Wangyal (1901-1983), was
appointed to teach the American, who today proclaims that he shall
experience the Buddhization of the USA in this lifetime. Thurman thus
received his tantric initiations from Wangyal.

 

This guru lineage establishes a direct connection to Agvan Dorjiev.
Namely, that as a 19-year-old novice Lama Wangyal accompanied the
Buriat to St. Petersburg and was initiated by him. Thus, Robert
Thurmanąs łline guru˛ is, via Wangyal, the old master Dorjiev. Dorjiev
‹ Wangyal ‹ Thurman form a chain of initiations. From a tantric
viewpoint the spirit of the master live on in the figure of the pupil.
It can thus be assumed that as Dorjievąs łsuccessor˛ Thurman
represents an emanation of the extremely aggressive protective deity,
Vajrabhairava, who had incarnated himself in the Buriat. At any rate,
Thurman has to be associated with Dorjievąs global Shambhala utopia.
His close interconnection with the Kalachakra Tantra is additionally a
result of his spending several months in Dharamsala under the
supervision of Namgyal monks, who are specialized in the time
doctrine.

 

Madame Blavatsky and the Shambhala myth

 

Yet, as the real pioneering deed in the spread of the Shambhala myth
in the West we have to present the life and work of a woman. Helena
Petrovna Blavatsky (1831­1891), the influential founder of Theosophy,
possibly contributed more to the globalization of a warlike Buddhism
than she was aware of. The noble-born Russian is supposed to have
already been a gifted medium as a child. After an adventurous life
(among other things she worked as a rider in a circus) her spiritual
career as such began in the 1870s in the USA. At first she tried her
hand at all kinds of spiritualist séances. Then she wrote her first
occult book, later world famous, Isis Unveiled (first published in
1875). As the title reveals, at this stage she oriented herself to
secret Egyptian teachings. There is almost no trace of Buddhist
thought to be found in this work. In 1879 together with her most loyal
follower, Colonel Henry Steele Olcott, Blavatsky made a journey to
Bombay and to the teachings of Buddha Gautama. There too, the doctrine
of the łgreat White Brotherhood of Tibet˛ and the mysterious spiritual
masters who determine the fate of humanity was invented, or rather, in
Blavatskyąs terms, łreceived˛ from the higher realms.

 

Tibet, which, her own claims to the contrary, she had probably never
visited, was a grand obsession for the occultist. She liked to
describe her own facial characteristics as łKalmyk-Buddhist-Tatar˛.
Even though her esoteric system is syncretized out of all religions,
since her work on the Secret Doctrine Tibetan/Tantric Buddhism takes
pride of place among them.

 

A detailed comparison of the later work of the Theosophist with the
Shambhala myth and the Kalachakra Tantra would reveal astounding
similarities. Admittedly she only knew the Time Tantra from the brief
comments of the first western Tibetologist, the Hungarian, Csoma de
Körös, but her writings are permeated by the same spirit which also
animates the łHighest Tantra of all˛. The mystic Secret Book of Dzyan,
which the Russian claimed to have łreceived˛ from a Tibetan master and
which she wrote her Secret Doctrine as a commentary upon, is central to
her doctrine. It is supposed to be the first volume of the 21 Books of
Kiu te, in which all the esoteric doctrines of our universe are
encoded according to Blavatsky. What are we dealing with here? The
historian David Reigle suspects that by the mysterious Books of Kiu te
she means the tantra section of the Tibetan Tanjur and Kanjur, the
officially codified Tibetan collections of Buddhist doctrinal
writings, about which only little was known at the time. But this is
not certain. There is also supposed to be a Tibetan tradition which
claims that the Books of Kiu te were all to be found in the kingdom of
Shambhala (Reigle, 1983, p. 3). Following such opinions Madame
Blavatskyąs secret directions would have been drawn directly from the
kingdom.

 

In her philosophy the ADI BUDDHA system is of central importance, and
likewise the fivefold group of the Dhyani (or meditation) Buddhas and
the glorification of Amitabha as the supreme god of light, whom she
compares with the łAncient of Days˛ of the Jewish Cabala. Astutely,
she recognizes the Chinese goddess Guanyin as the łgenius of water˛
(Spierenburg, 1991, p. 13). But as łmother, wife, and daughter˛ she is
subordinate to the łFirst Word˛, the Tibetan fire god Avalokiteshvara.
The result is ‹ as in the Kalachakra Tantra ‹ an obsessive solar and
fire cult. Her fire worship exhibits an original development in the
principal deity of our age, Fohat by name. Among other things he is
said to emanate in all forms of electricity.

 

Madame Blavatsky was not informed about the sexual magic practices in
the tantras. She herself supported sexual abstinence as łoccult
hygiene of mind and body˛ (Meade, 1987, p. 398). She claimed to be a
virgin all her life, but a report from her doctors reveals this was
not the truth. łTo Hades with the sex love!˛, she cursed, łIt is a
beastly appetite that should be starved into submission˛ (Symonds,
1959, p. 64). When the sexes first appeared ‹ we learn from the Secret
Book of Dzyan ‹ they brought disaster to the world. The decline into
the material began with a sexual indiscretion of the gods: łThey took
wives fair to look upon. Wives from the mindless, the narrow-headed. Š
Then the third eye acted no longer˛ (Blavatsky, 1888, vol. 2, p. 13).

 

Blavatsky was probably convinced that her female body was being
borrowed by a male Tibetan yogi. At any rate her closest co-worker,
Henry Steele Olcott, who so admired her works that he could not
believe they could be the work of a woman, suspected this. Hence,
thinking of Madame, he asked an Indian guru, łBut can the atman
[higher self] of a yogi be transferred into the body of a woman?˛. The
Indian replied, łHe can clothe his soul in her physical form with as
much ease as he can put on a woman's dress. In every physical aspect
and relation he would then be like a woman; internally he would remain
himself˛ (Symonds, 1959, p. 142). As in the Kalachakra Tantra,
androgyny is also considered the supreme goal along the path to
enlightenment in Theosophy. The gods are simultaneously łmale-female˛.
Their bisexuality is concentrated in the figure of Avalokiteshvara, the
cosmic Adam.

 

Through her equation of the ADI BUDDHA with the Bodhisattva
Avalokiteshvara Madame Blavatsky clears the way for a cosmologization
of the latterąs earthly embodiment, the Dalai Lama. For her, the
Bodhisattva is łthe powerful and all-seeing˛, the łsavior of humanity˛
and we learn that as łthe most perfect Buddha˛ he will incarnate in
the Dalai Lama or the Panchen Lama in order to redeem the whole world
(Blavatsky, 1888, vol. 2, p. 178).

 

As in the Shambhala myth, the Russian presumes that a secret world
government exists, whose members, the Mahatmas, were brought together
in an esoteric society in the 14

th century by the founder of the Gelugpa order, Tsongkhapa. The łWhite
Brotherhood˛, as this secret federation is known, still exists in
Tibet, even if hidden from view, and influences the fate of humanity.
It consists of superhumans who watch over the evolution of the
citizens of the earth.

 

Likewise, the catastrophic destruction of the old eon and the creation
of a new paradisiacal realm are part of the Theosophical world view.
Here, Blavatsky quotes the same Indian source from which the
Kalachakra Tantra is also nourished, the Vishnu Purana. There it says
of the doomsday ruler that, łHe ... shall descend on Earth as an
outstanding Brahman from Shambhala ... endowed with the eight
superhuman faculties. Through his irresistible power he will ...
destroy all whose hearts have been relinquished to evil. He will
re-establish righteousness on earth˛ (Blavatsky, 1888, vol. 1, p.
378).

 

Of course, the Russian was able to read much into the Tibetan Buddhist
doctrine, since in her time only a few of the original texts had been
translated into a western language. But it is definitely wrong to
dismiss her numerous theses as pure fantasy, as her speculative world
brings her closer to the imagination and occult ambience of Lamaism
than some philologically accurate translations of Sanskrit writings.
With an unerring instinct and a visionary mastery she discovered many
of the ideas and forces which are at work in the tantric teachings. In
that she attained these insights more through intuition and mediumism
than through scientific research, she can be regarded as the
semi-aware instrument of a Buddhist-Tibetan world conquest. At any
rate, of all the western łbelievers in Tibet˛ she contributed the most
to the spread of the idea of the Land of Snows as a unfathomable
mystery. Without the occult veil which Madame Blavatsky cast over
Tibet and its clergy, Tantric Buddhism would only be half as
attractive in the West. The Fourteenth Dalai Lama is also aware of the
great importance of such female allies and has hence frequently
praised Blavatskyąs pioneering work.

 

Nicholas Roerich and the Kalachakra Tantra

A further two individuals who won the most respect for the Shambhala
myth in the West before the flight of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, were
also Russians, Nicholas Roerich (1874­1947) and his wife Helena
Ivanovna (1879­1955). Roerich was a lifelong painter, influenced by
the late art nouveau movement. He believed himself to be a
reincarnation of Leonardo da Vinci. Via his paintings, of which the
majority featured Asian subjects, especially the mountainous landscapes
of the Himalayas, he attempted to spread his religious message. He
became interested in the ideas of Theosophy very early on; his wife
translated Madame Blavatskyąs Secret Doctrine into Russian. The
occultist led him to Buddhism, which was as we have said en vogue in
the society of St. Petersburg at the time. We have already briefly
encountered him as a designer of Agvan Dorjievąs Kalachakra temple.
He was a close friend of the Buriat. In contrast, he hated Albert
Grünwedel and regarded his work with deep mistrust. Between the years
of 1924 and 1928 he wandered throughout Central Asia in search of the
kingdom of  Shambhala and subsequently published a travel diary.

 

In 1929 he began a very successful international action, the Roerich
Banner of Peace and the Peace Pact, in which warring nations were
supposed to commit themselves to protecting each otherąs cultural
assets from destruction. In the White House in 1935 the Roerich Pact
was signed by 21 nations in the presence of President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt. The migrant Russian succeeded in gaining constant access to
circles of government, especially since the American agricultural
minister, Henry Wallace, had adopted him as his guru. In 1947 the
painter died in the Himalayan foothills of northern India.

 

With great zeal his wife continued her husbandąs religious work up
until the nineteen-fifties. Helena Ivanovna had from the outset
actively participated in the formation of her husbandąs ideas. Above
all it is to her that we owe the numerous writings about Agni Yoga, the
core of their mutual teachings. Roerich saw her as something like his
shakti, and openly admitted to her contribution to the development of
his vision. He said in one statement that in his understanding of the
world łthe duty of the woman [is] to lead her male partner to the
highest and most beautiful, and then to inspire him to open himself up
to the higher world of the spirit and to import both valuable and
beautiful aspects and ethical and social ones into life˛ (Augustat,
1993, p. 50). In his otherwise Indian Buddhist doctrinal system there
was a revering of the łmother the world˛ that probably came from the
Russian Orthodox Church.

 

Roerich first learned about the Kalachakra Tantra from Agvan Dorjiev
during his work on the temple in St. Petersburg. Later, in Darjeeling,
he had contact to the lama Ngawang Kalzang, who was also the teacher
of the German, Lama Govinda, and was well versed in the time
teachings. It is, however, most unlikely that Roerich received
specific initiations from him or others, as his statements about the
Kalachakra Tantra do not display a great deal of expertise. Perhaps it
was precisely because of this that he saw in it the łhappy news ł of
the new eon to come. He thus took up exactly the opposite position to
his contemporary and acquaintance, Albert Grünwedel, who fanatically
denounced the supreme Buddhist doctrinal system as a work of the
devil. łKalachakra˛, Roerich wrote, łis the doctrine which is
attributed to the numerous rulers of Shambhala. ... But in reality this
doctrine is the great revelation brought to humankind ... by the lords
of fire, the sons of reason who are and were the lords of Shambhala˛
(Schule der Lebensweisheit, 1990, pp. 79, 81).

 

According to Roerich, the łfiery doctrine was covered in dust ł up
until the twentieth century. (Schule der Lebensweisheit, 1990, p.
122). But now the time had come in which it would spread all over the
world. As far as their essential core was concerned, all other
religions were supposed to be included in the Time Tantra already:
łThere are now so many teachers ‹ so different and so hostile to one
another; and nonetheless so many speak of the One, and the Kalachakra
expresses this One˛, the Russian has a Tibetan lama say. łOne of your
priests once asked me: Are the Cabala and Shambhala not parts of the
one teaching? He asked: Is the great Moses not a initiate of the same
doctrine and a servant of its laws?˛ (Schule der Lebensweisheit, 1990,
p. 78).

 

Agni yoga

For Roerich and his wife the Time Tantra contains a sparkling fire
philosophy: “This Teaching of Kalachakra, this utilization of the
primary energy, has been called the Teaching of Fire. The Hindu
peoples know the great Agni ‹ ancient teaching though it be, it shall
be the new teaching for the New Era. We must think of the future; and
in the teaching of Kalachakra we know there lies all the material 
which may be applied for greatest use. [Š] Kalachakra is the Teaching
ascribed to the various Lords of Shambhala [Š] But in reality this
Teaching is the Great Revelation brought to humanity at the dawn of
its conscious evolution in the third race of the fourth cycle of Earth
by the Lords of Fire, the Sons of reason who were an are the Lords of
Shambhala˛ (Reigle, 1986, p. 38). The interpretation which the
Russian couple give to the Kalachakra Tantra in their numerous
publications may be described without any exaggeration as a
łpyromaniac obsession˛. For them, fire becomes an autocratic primary
substance that dissolves all in its flames. It functions as the sole
creative universal principle. All the other elements, out of the
various admixtures of which the variety of  life arises, disappear in
the flaming process of creation: łDo not seek the creative fire in the
inertia of earth, in the seething waves of water, in the storms of the
air (H. I. Roerich, 1980, vol. I, p. 5). Keep away from the other
łelements˛ as łthey do not love fire˛ (H. I. Roerich, 1980, vol. I, p.
7). Only the łfiery world˛ brings blessing. Everyone carries the
łsparks of the fiery world in their hearts˛ (H. I. Roerich, 1980, vol.
II, p. 8). This announces itself through łfiery signs˛. łRainbow
flames˛ confirm the endeavors of the spirit. But only after a łbaptism
of fire˛ do all the righteous proceed with łflaming hearts˛ to the
łempire of the fiery world˛ in which there are no shadows. They are
welcomed by łfire angels˛. łThe luminosity of every part of the fiery
world generates an everlasting radiance˛ (H. I. Roerich, 1980, vol. II,
p. 8). The łsong of fire sounds like the music of the spheres˛ (H. I.
Roerich, 1980, vol. II, p. 8). At the center of this world lies the
łsupreme fire˛. Since the small and the large cosmos are one, the
łfiery chakras˛ of the individual humans correspond to łthe fiery
structures of space˛ (H. I. Roerich, 1980, vol. I, p. 240).

 

This fire cult is supposed to be ancient and in the dim and distant
past its shrines already stood in the Himalayas: “Beyond the
Kanchenjunga are old menhirs of the great sun cult. Beyond the
Kanchenjunga is the birthplace of the sacred Swastika, sign of fire.
Now in the day of Agni Yoga, the element of fire is again entering the
spirit.˛ (N. Roerich, 1985, p. 36, 37). Madame Blavatskyąs
above-mentioned god of electricity, Fohat, is also highly honored by
the Roerichs.

 

The Roerichsą fiery philosophy is put into practice through a
particular sacred system which is called Agni Yoga. We were unable to
determine the degree to which it follows the traditions of the already
described Sadanga Yoga, practiced in the Kalachakra Tantra. Agni Yoga
gives the impression that is conducted more ethically and with
feelings than technically and with method. Admittedly the Roerich texts
also talk of an unchaining of the kundalini (fire serpent), but
nowhere is there discussion of sexual practices. In contrast -the
philosophy of the two Russians requires strict abstinence and is
antagonistic to everything erotic.

 

In 1920 the first Agni Yoga group was founded by the married couple.
The teachings, we learn, come from the East , indeed direct from the
mythical kingdom: “And Asia when she speaks the Blessed Shambhala,
about Agni Yoga, about the Teaching of Flame, knows that the holy
spirit of flame can unite the human hearts in a resplendent evolution˛
(N. Roerich, 1985, p. 294). Agni Yoga is supposed to join the great
world religions together and serve as a common basis for them.

 

With great regret the Roerichs discover that the people do not listen
to the łfiery tongues˛ that speak to them and want to initiate them
into the secrets of the flames. They appropriated only the external
appearances of the force of fire, like electricity, and otherwise
feared the element. Yet the łspace fire demands revelation˛ and
whoever closes out its voice will perish in the flames (H. I. Roerich,
1980, p. 30).

 

Even if it is predicted in the cosmic plan, the destruction of all
dark and ignorant powers does not happen by itself. It needs to be
accelerated by the forces of good. It is a matter of victory and
defeat, of heroic courage and sacrificial death. Here is the moment in
which the figure of the Shambhala warriors steps into the plan and
battles with the inexorably advancing Evil which wants to extinguish
Holy Flame: łThey shall come ‹ the extinguishers; they shall come ‹
the destroyers; they shall come ‹ the powers of darkness. Corrosion
that has already begun cannot be checked˛ (H. I. Roerich, 1980, vol.
I, p. 124).

 

Shambhala

We hear from Helena Ivanova Roerich that łthe term Shambhala truly is
inseparably linked to fiery apparitions˛ (H. I. Roerich, 1980, vol. I,
p. 26). łFire signs introduce the epoch of Shambhala˛, writes her
spouse (Schule der Lebensweisheit, 1990, p. 29). It is not surprising
that the Russian visionaries imagined the temple of Shambhala as an
łalchemic laboratory˛, then a fire oven, the athanor, also stood at the
heart of the hermetic art, as western alchemy was known.

 

The couple consider Shambhala, the łcity of happiness˛, to be the
łgeographic residence or workplace of the brotherhood and seat of the
interplanetary government in the trans-Himalaya˛ (Augustat, 1993, p.
153). In an official fundamental declaration of the two it says: łThe
brotherhood is the spiritual union of highly developed entities from
other planets or hierarchs, which as a cosmic institution is
responsible to a higher institution for the entire evolution of the
planet Earth. The interplanetary government consists of cosmic
offices, which are occupied by the hierarch depending on the task and
the age˛ (Augustat, 1993, p. 149). The Mahatmas, as these hierarchs
are called in reference to Madame Blavatsky, have practical political
power interests and are in direct contact with certain heads of state
of our world, even if the ordinary mortals have no inkling of this.

 

Then it is impossible for normal humans to discover the main lodge of
the secret society: łHow can one find the way to our laboratories?
Without being called no-one will get to us˛, Roerich proclaims (Schule
der Lebensweisheit, 1990, p. 9). From there the Mahatmas coordinate an
army of in part paid agents, who operate here on Earth in the name of
the hidden kingdom. In the meantime the whole planet is covered by a
net of members, assistants, contacts, and spies of the łinternational
government˛ who are only waiting for the sign from their command center
in Shambhala in order to step into the light and reveal themselves to
humanity.

 

Likewise, the activities and resolutions of the łinvisible
international government˛ are all but impenetrable for an outsider.
There is a law which states that each earthly nation will only be
visited and łwarned˛ by an envoy from Shambhala once in a century. An
exception was probably made during the French Revolution, then
łhierarchs˛ like the Comte de Saint Germain for example were extremely
active at this troubled time. Sadly he died in the year 1784 łas a
result of the undisciplined thinking of one of his assistants˛.
(Schule der Lebensweisheit, 1990, p. 117). The dissolute life of his
sadhaka (pupil), Cagliostro, was probably to blame for his not being
able to participate in the great events of 1789 (the storming of the
Bastille).

 

According to Roerich the members of the government of Shambhala have
the ability to telepathically penetrate into the consciousness of the
citizens of Earth without them realizing where particular ideas come
from: łLike arrows the transmissions of the community bore into the
brains of humanity˛ (Schule der Lebensweisheit, 1990, p. 10).
Sometimes this takes place using apparatuses especially constructed
for this purpose. But they are not permitted to openly reveal their
amazing magical abilities: łWho can exist without food? Who can get by
without sleep? Who is immune to heat and cold? Who can heal wounds?
Truly only one who has studied Kalachakra˛ (Schule der Lebensweisheit,
1990, p. 77).

 

Tableau of N. Roerich: łThe command of Rigden-jyepo˛

 

For the Russian couple all the interventions of the governing yogi
caste have just one goal, to prepare for the coming of the future
Buddha Maitreya Morya or Rigden-jyepo, who shall then make all
important decisions. According to the Roerichs both names are synonyms
for the Rudra Chakrin, the łwrathful wheel turner˛ and doomsday ruler
of the Kalachakra Tantra. We thus await a fairytale oriental despot
who cares about his subjects: łJust like a diamond the light shines
from the tower of Shambhala. He is there ‹ Rigden-jyepo, untiring,
ever watchful for the sake of humanity. His eyes never close. In his
magic mirror he sees everything which happens on Earth. And the power
of his thoughts penetrates through to the distant countries. ... His
immeasurable riches lay waiting to help all the needy who offer to
serve the cause of uprightness˛ (Augustat, 1993, p. 11).

 

In passing, this doomsday emperor from Shambhala also reveals himself
to be the western king of the Holy Grail, who holds the Holy Stone in
his hands and who emigrated to Tibet under cover centuries ago. He is
returning now, messengers announce him. True Knights of the Holy Grail
are already incarnated on Earth, unrecognized . The followers of the
Roerichs even believe that their master himself protected the grail
for a time and then returned it to Shambhala on his trip to Asia
(Augustat, 1993, p. 114).

 

Apocalypse now

"Why do clouds gather when the Stone [the Grail] becomes dull? If the
Stone becomes heavy, blood shall be spilled˛, we learn mysteriously
(Schule der Lebensweisheit, 1990, p. 88). Behind this secret of the
grail lies the apodictic statement known from almost all religions
that total war, indeed the destruction of the world, is necessary in
order to attain paradise. It is essential because in a good dualist
cliché the łbrotherhood of Good˛ is always counterposed by the
łbrotherhood of Evil˛. The łsons of darkness˛ have succeeded in
severing humanityąs connection to the łhigher world˛, the łbright
hierarchy˛. The forces of the depths lurk everywhere. Extreme caution
is required since an ordinary mortal can barely distinguish the Evil
from the Good, and further, łthe brotherhood of Evil attempts to
imitate the Goodąs method of action˛ (Schule der Lebensweisheit, 1990,
p. 126).

 

The final battle between Light and Darkness is ‹ the Roerichs say-
presaged in the prophecies of the ancestors and the writings of the
wise and must therefore take place. When natural disasters and crimes
begin to pile up on Earth, the warriors from Shambhala will appear. At
the head of their army stands the Buddha Maitreya Morya, who ł
[combats] the prince of darkness himself. This struggle primarily
takes place in the subtle spheres, whereas here [on earth] the ruler
of Shambhala operates through his earthly warriors. He himself can
only be seen under the most exceptional circumstances and would never
appear in a crowd or among the curious. His appearance in fiery form
would be disastrous for everybody and everything since his aura is
loaded with energies of immense strength˛ (Schule der Lebensweisheit,
1990, p. 152). It could be thought that this concerned an atomic bomb.
At any rate the battle will be conducted with a fire and explosive
power which allows of comparison only to the atomic detonations in
Hiroshima and Nagasaki:

 

Fiery the battle

with blazing torches,

Blood red the arrows

against the shining shield

(Schule der Lebensweisheit, 1990, p. 110)

 

Thus the armies of Shambhala storm forth. “Space is filled with fire.
The lightning of the Kalki avatar [Rudra Chakrin] ‹ the preordained
Maitreya ‹ flashes upon the˛ (N. Roerich, 1985, p. 76). Even if Kalki
also goes by the epithet of łLord of Compassion˛, with his enemies he
knows no mercy. Accompanied by Gesar, the mythic war hero of the
Tibetans, he will storm forward mounted on a łwhite horse˛ and with a
łcomet-like, fiery sword˛ in his hand. Iron snakes will consume outer
space with fire and frenzy (N. Roerich, 1988 p. 12). łThe Lord˛, we
read, ł strikes the people with fire. The same fiery element presides
over the Day of Judgment. The purification of evil is performed by
fire. Misfortunes are accompanied by fires˛ (H. I. Roerich, 1980, vol.
I, 46).

 

Those who fight for Shambhala are the precursors of a new race who
take control of the universe after Armageddon, after the łwheat has
been separated from the chaff˛ (Augustat,1993, p. 98). That is, to put
it plainly, after all the inferior races have been eradicated in a
holocaust.

 

Distribution in the west

As far as the fate of Tibet is concerned, the prophecies that Roerich
made at the end of the twenties have in fact been fulfilled: “We must
accept it simply, as it is: the fact that the true teaching shall
leave Tibet˛, he has a lama announce, “and shall again appear in the
South. In all countries, the covenants of Buddha shall be manifested.
Really, great things are coming.˛ (N. Roerich, 1985, p. 3) In 1959 the
Fourteenth Dalai Lama fled to India in the south and from this point
in time onwards Tibetan Buddhism began to be spread all around the
world.

 

Roerich and his wife saw themselves as agents of Shambhala who were
supposed to make contact with those governing our world in order to
warn them. They could at any rate appeal to a meeting with Franklin
Delano Roosevelt. Their followers, however, believe that they were
higher up in the hierarchy and that they were incarnated Mahatmas from
the kingdom.

 

In the meantime the Roerich cult is most popular in Eastern Europe,
where even before the fall of Communism it had penetrated the highest
circles of government. The former Bulgarian Minister for Culture,
Ludmilla Shiffkova, daughter of the Communist head of state Todor
Shiffkov, was almost fanatically obsessed with the Agni masterąs
philosophy, so that she planned to introduce his teachings as part of
the official school curriculum. For a whole year, cultural policy was
conducted under the motto łN. K. Roerich ‹ A cultural world citizen˛,
and she also organized several overseas exhibitions including works by
her spiritual model as well.

 

Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife also supported numerous Roerich
initiatives. In Russia, the renaissance of the visionary painter was
heralded for years in advance in elaborate symposia and exhibitions, in
order to then fully blossom in the post-Communist era. In Alma Ata in
October 1992, a major ecumenical event was organized by the
international Roerich groups under the patronage of the president of
Kazakhstan, at the geographical gateway, so to speak, behind which the
land of Shambhala is widely believed to have once lain. The
Fourteenth Dalai Lama hesitated as to whether he ought to visit the
Congress before deciding for scheduling reasons to send a telegram of
greeting and a high-ranking representative.

 

The łShambhala warrior˛ Chögyam Trungpa

In 1975 the Tibetan, Chögyam Trungpa (1940­1987), gathered several of
his western pupils around himself and began to initiate them into a
special spiritual discipline which he referred to as łShambhala
Training˛. As a thirteen-month-old infant the Rinpoche from the
Tibetan province of Kham was recognized as the tenth reincarnation of
the Trungpa and accepted into the Kagyupa order. In 1959 he had to flee
from the Chinese. In 1963 he traveled to England and studied western
philosophy and comparative religion at Oxford. Like no other Tibetan
lama of his time, he understood how to make his own contribution to
western civilization and culture. As a brilliant rhetorician, poet,
and exotic free spirit he soon found numerous enthusiastic listeners
and followers. In 1967 he founded the first European tantric monastery
in Scotland. He gave it the name and the ground-plan of Samye Ling ‹ in
remembrance of the inaugural Tibetan shrine of the same name that
Padmasambhava erected at the end of the 8th century despite resistance
from countless demons.

 

In the opinion of Trungpaąs followers the demonic resistance was
enormous in Scotland too: In 1969 the young lama was the victim of a
serious car accident which left him with a permanent limp. There is an
ambiguous anecdote about this unfortunate event. Trungpa had reached a
fork in the road in his car ‹ to the right the road led in the
direction of his monastery, the road to the left to the house in which
his future wife lived. But he continued to drive straight ahead,
plowing right into a shop selling magic and joke articles.
Nevertheless, his meteoric rise had begun. In 1970 he went to the
United States.

 

Trungpaąs charming and initially anarchic manner, his humor and
loyalty, his lack of respect and his laugh magnetically attracted many
young people from the sixties generation. They believed that here the
sweet but dangerous mixture of the exotic, social critique, free love,
mind-expanding drugs, spirituality, political activism and
self-discovery, which they had tasted in the revolutionary years of
their youth, could be rediscovered. Trungpaąs friendship with the
radical beatnik poet Allan Ginsberg and other well-known American
poets further enhanced his image as a łwild boy˛ from the roof of
world. Even the first monastery he founded, Samye Ling, was renowned
for the permissive łspiritual˛ parties which were held there and for
the liberal sex and drug consumption.

 

But such excesses are only one side of things. Via the tantric law of
inversion Trungpa intended to ultimately transform all this abandon
(his own and that of his pupils) into discipline, goodness, and
enlightened consciousness. The success of the guru was boundless. Many
thousands cam to him as pilgrims. All over America and Europe
spiritual centers (dharmadhatus) were created. The Naropa Institute
(near Denver, Colorado) was established as a private university, where
alongside various Buddhist disciplines fine arts could also be
studied.

 

The Shambhala warrior

Trungpa had told one of his pupils that during deep meditation he was
able to espy Shambhala. He also said he had obtained the teachings for
the łShambhala training˛ directly from the kingdom. The program
consists of five levels: 1. The art of being human; 2. Birth of the
warrior; 3. Warrior in the world; 4. Awakened heart; 5. Open sky: The
big bang. Anyone who had completed all the stages was considered a
perfect łShambhala warrior˛. As a spiritual hero he is freed from the
repulsiveness which the military trade otherwise implies. His
characteristics are kindness, an open heart, dignity, elegance,
precision, modesty, attentiveness, fearlessness, equanimity,
concentration, and confidence of victory. To be a warrior, one of
Trungpaąs pupils writes, irrespective of whether as a man or a woman,
means to live honestly, also in regard to fear, doubt, depression, and
aggression which comes from outside. To be a warrior does not mean to
conduct wars. Rather, to be a warrior means to have the courage to
completely fathom oneself (Hayward, 1997, p. 11). This
subjectification of the warrior ethos brings with it that the weapons
employed first of all represent purely psycho-physical states:
controlled breathing, the strict stance, walking upright, clear sight.

 

The first basic demand of the training is, as in every tantric
practice, a state of “egolessness˛. This is of great importance in the
Shambhala teachings, writes Trungpa. It is impossible to be a warrior
if you have not experienced egolessness. Without egolessness, your
consciousness is always filled with your ego, your personal plans and
intentions (Hayward, 1997, p. 247). Hence the individual ego is not
changed through the exercises, rather the pupil tries solely to create
an inner emptiness. Through this he allows himself to be transformed
into a vessel into which the cult figures of the Tibetan pantheon can
flow. According to Trungpa these are called dralas. Translated
literally, that means łto climb out over the enemy˛ or in an further
sense, energy, line of force, or łgods˛.

 

The łempty˛ pupils thus become occupied by tantric deities. As
potential łwarriors˛ they naturally attract all possible forms of
eager to fight dharmapalas (tutelary gods). Thus a wrathful Tibetan
łprotector of the faith˛ steps in to replace the sadhaka and his
previous western identity. This personal transformation takes place
through a ritual which in Trungpaąs Shambhala tradition is known as
łcalling the gods˛. The supernatural beings are summoned with spells
and burning incense. When the thick, sweet-smelling white smoke
ascends, the pupils sing a long incantation, which summons the dralas.
At the end of the song the warrior pupils circle the smoke in a
clockwise direction and constantly emit the victory call of the
warrior (Hayward, 1997, p. 275). This latter is łLha Gyelo ‹ victory
to the gods˛ ‹ the same call which the Dalai Lama cried out as he
crossed the Tibetan border on his flight in 1959.

 

Trungpa was even more fascinated by the ancient national hero, Gesar,
whose barbaric daredevilry we have already sketched in detail, than he
was by the dharmapalas. The guru recommended the atavistic war hero to
his followers as an example to imitate. Time and again he proudly
indicated that his family belonged to the belligerent nomadic tribe of
the łMukpo˛, from whose ranks Gesar also came. For this reason he
ennobled his pupils as the łMukpo family˛ and thus proclaimed them to
be comrades-in-arms of Gesar. The latter ‹ said Trungpa ‹ would
return from Shambhala, łleading an army to conquer the forces of
darkness in the world˛ (Trungpa, 1986, p. 7).

 

But Trungpa did not just summon up Tibetan dharmapalas and heroes
with his magic, rather he also invoked the deceased spirits of an
international, on closer examination extremely problematic, warrior
caste: the Japanese samurai, the North American plains Indians, the
Jewish King David, and the British King Arthur with his round table ‹
all archetypal leading figures who believed that justice could only be
achieved with a sword in the hand, who were all absolutely ruthless in
creating peace. These łholy warriors˛ always stood opposed to the
łbarbarians˛ of another religion who had to be exterminated. The
non-dualist world view which many of the original Buddhist texts so
forcefully demand is completely cancelled out in the mythic histories
of these warlike models.

 

Trungpa led his courses under the name of łDorje Dradul˛ which means
łinvincible warrior˛. Completely in accord with an atavistic fighter
tradition only beasts of prey were accepted as totem animals for his
pupils: the snow lion, the tiger, the dragon. Dorje Dradul was
especially enthusiastic about the mythic sun bird, the garuda, about
its fiery redness, wildness, and its piercing cry commanding the
cessation of thought like a lightning bolt (Hayward, 197, p. 251).
Garuda is the sun bird par excellence, and since time immemorial the
followers of the warrior caste have also been worshippers of  the
sun. Thus in the center of Trungpaąs Shambhala mission a solar cult is
fostered. But it is not the natural sun which lights up all, but
rather the łGreat Eastern Sun˛ which rises at the beginning of a new
world era when the Shambhala warriors seize power over the world. It
sinks as a mighty cult symbol into the hearts of his pupils: łSo, we
begin to appreciate the Great Eastern Sun, not as something outside
from us, like the sun in the sky, but as the Great Eastern Sun in our
head and shoulders, in our face, our hair, our lips, our chest˛
(Trungpa, 1986, p. 39). Why of all people it was the chairman of the
Communist Party of China, Mao Zedong, who was worshipped by the Red
Guard as the Great Eastern Sun is a topic to which we shall return.

The basic ideology of the Shambhala program divides the world into
two visions: Great Eastern Sun, which corresponds to enlightenment in
the Buddhist path, and setting sun, which corresponds to samsara.
[...] Great Eastern Sun is cheering up; setting sun is complaining and
criticizing. Great Eastern sun ist elegant und rich; setting sun is
sloppy and poor. To paraphrase George Orwell: łGreat Eastern Sun good,
setting sun bad.˛ (Butterfield, 1994, p. 96).

From anarchy to despotism

Trungpa played brilliantly with the interchangeability of reality and
non-reality, even regarding his own person, he was especially a master
of the tantric law of inversion. He thus simply declared his excessive
alcoholism and his sexual cravings to be the practicing of the tantra
path. Whether alcohol is a poison or a medicine depends on oneąs own
attentiveness. Conscious drinking ‹ that is when the drinker remains
self-aware ‹ changes the effect of the alcohol. Here the system is
steeled through attentiveness. Alcohol becomes an intelligent
protective mechanism. But it has a destructive effect if one abandons
oneself to comfort (Hayward, 1997, pp. 306­307). Yet Dorje Dradul was
not free of the aggressive moods which normally occur in heavy
alcoholics. He thus spread fear and horror through his frequent angry
outbursts. But his pupils forgave him everything, proclaimed him a
łholy fool˛ and praised his excesses as the expression of a łcrazy
wisdom˛. They often attempted to emulate his alcoholism: I think there
is a message for us in his drinking, Dennis Ann Roberts believed, łI
know his drinking has certainly encouraged all of us to drink more˛
(Boucher, 1985, p. 243). Another pupil enthusiastically wrote: łHe's
great. I love the fact that he works on his problems the way he does.
He doesn't hide it. He drinks, and it's almost killed him. So he is
working on it. I find that great˛ (Boucher, 1985, p. 243).

 

Similar reasons are offered for his sexual escapades. In 1970 he
abandoned his vow of celibacy and married a young British aristocrat.
His bride is said to have been thirteen years old in 1969 (Tibetan
Review, August 1987, p. 21). In addition he had a considerable number
of yoginis, who were obviously uninformed about the andocentric
manipulations of Tantrism. There was admittedly a minor rebellion
among the female followers when the Karmapa insisted on talking only
with the men during his visit to a Trungpa center, but essentially the
western karma mudras occupied by Tibetan deities behaved loyally
towards their lord and master. A lot of women have been consorts of
Rinpoche ‹ one of them tells that łThe Tibetans are into passion, they
think sexuality is an essential energy to work with. You don't reject
it. So it's a whole other perception of sexuality anyway˛ (Boucher,
1985, p. 244).

 

Such affirmations of tantric practice by the female pupils are
definitely not exceptions and they most clearly testify to the
charisma which the tantra master projects. Thus we learn from another
of Trungpaąs lovers, łMy first meeting with him was a real turn-off. I
mean, I didn't want a guru who did things like that. The irony was
that I had left my other Tibetan Buddhist teacher partly because he was
coming on to me. And I just couldn't handle it. And Rinpoche is very
much into alcohol and having girl friends. Now it makes total sense to
me˛ (Boucher, 1985, p. 241).

 

Chögyam Trungpa has obviously succeeded in keeping his western karma
mudras under control. This was much more difficult for the Tibetan
Tantric, Gedun Chöpel, who died in 1951. He left behind an amusing
estimation of the łwomen of the west˛ from the thirties which shows
how much has changed in the meantime: łIn general a girl of the west
is beautiful, splendorous, and more courageous than others. Her
behavior is coarse, and her face is like a man's. There is even hair
around her mouth. Fearless and terrifying, she can be tamed only by
passion. Able to suck the phallus at the time of play, the girl of the
west is known to drink regenerative fluid. She does it even with dogs,
bulls and any other animals and with father and son, etc. She goes
without hesitation with whoever can give the enjoyment of sex˛
(Chöpel, 1992, p. 163).

 

Towards the end of his life, Trungpa the łindestructible warrior˛
moved further and further away from his Hippie past. As the head of
his lineage the Karmapa is said to have not been at all pleased to
observe the permissive practices in the łwild˛ guruąs centers.
However, in accordance with the tantric łlaw of inversion˛, after a
few years the pendulum swung from anarchy to the other pole of
despotism and all at once Trungpa abandoned himself to his fascistoid
dreams. His protective troops, Dorje Kasung, initially a kind of
bodyguard composed of volunteers was transformed within a short period
into a paramilitary unit in khaki uniforms. The guru himself put aside
his civilian clothing for a time and appeared in high-ranking military
dress as a łShambhala general˛. We do not know whether, alongside the
warlike ethos of the tantric tradition, the physical handicap which he
sustained in his car accident in England did not also trigger his
unusual interest in military things as a counter-reaction. At any rate
his łmilitary parades˛ became a fixed part of the Shambhala training.

 

On other occasions the former łfreak˛ donned a pinstripe suit with a
colorful tie and looked like nothing more than an Asian film gangster.
Thus he really did play brilliantly through the ambivalent spectrum
completely laid out in the tantric repertoire, from poetic anarchist
and flower power dancer to saber-rattling dictator and underworld
boss. In 1987 the master warrior died and his body was committed to
the flames in Vermont (USA).

łąMay I shrivel up instantly and rot,ą we vowed, Śif I ever discuss
these theachings with anyone who has not been initiated into them by a
qualified master.ą As if this were not enough, Trungpa told us that if
we ever tried to leave Vajrayana, we would suffer unbearable, subtle,
continuous anguish, and disasters would pursue us like furies. Heresy
had real meaning in this religion, and real consequences. Doubting the
dharma or the guru and associating with heretics were causes for
downfall. In Tibetan literature, breaking faith with the guru must be
atoned by such drastic measures as cutting off your arms and offering
it at the door of his cave in hopes that he might take you back.˛ ­
łTo be part of Trungpaąs inner circle, you had to take a vow never to
reveal or even discuss some of the things he did. This personal
secrecy is common with gurus, especially in Vajrayana Buddhism. It is
also common in the dysfunctional family system of alcoholics and
sexual abusers. This inner circle secrecy puts up an almost
insurmountable barrier of a healthily skeptical mind.˛ (Butterfield,
1994, p. 11, 100)  Trungpaąs Shambhala Warriors see:
http://sealevel.ns.ca/ctr/photo01.html and
http://www.shambhalashop.com/archives/junephoto/june12.html

The inheritance

The immediate inheritance which Trungpa left behind him was
catastrophic. Completely in the spirit of his Tibetan guru, the
American, Thomas Rich, who succeeded him under the name of łVajra
Regent Ösel Tendzin˛, continued the carefree permissiveness of his
master with a tantric justification. However, in 1988 there was a
scandal from which the organization has not fully recovered to this
day. The łVajra Regent˛ had been HIV positive for three years and had
infected numerous members with the AIDS virus in the meantime. He died
in 1991. Trungpaąs son, Sawang Ösel Rangdroel, then took over the
leadership.

łFrom Vajrayana point of view, passion, aggression, and ignorance, the
sources of human suffering, are also the well-spring of enlightenment.
Afflictions like AIDS are not merely disasters, but accelrations
toward wisdom, and opportunities to wake up. They can be transformed
into buddha-mind. Trungpa was a Vajra master who had empowered Tendzin
to guide students on this path˛ (Butterfield, 1994, p. 7).

Even if Trungpaąs Shambhala warriors have forfeited quite a deal of
their attractiveness in recent years, thousands still revere the
master as the łholy fool˛ and łindestructible warrior˛, who brought the
łEastern sun˛ to the West. For this reason he is said to also be
prayed to in the whole of Asia as a great Bodhisattva and Maha Siddha
(Hayward, 1997, p. 319). łFor ten years he presented the Shambhala
Teachings˛, summarizes one of his sadhakas, łIn terms of time and
history, that seems insignificant; however in that short span he set in
motion the powerful force of goodness that can actually change the
world˛ (Trungpa, 1986, p. 157). Only rarely does a łdeserter˛ go
public, like P. Marin for example, a strong critic of the Naropa
Institute, for whom this western Tibetan Buddhist organization is ła
feudal, priestly tradition transplanted to a capitalist setting˛
(quoted by Bishop, 1993, p. 101).

 

On the other hand it goes without saying that the Tantric Trungpa time
and again draws attention to the fact that the warlike figures he
invokes are illusionary reflections of the human ego and that even the
Shambhala kings are projections of oneąs own consciousness. But if
everything really can be reduced to forms of consciousness, then it
remains totally unclear why it is time and again the phantoms of a
destructive black-and-white mode of thought which are summoned up to
serve as examples along the personal initiation path. Wouldnąt it make
more sense, indeed be more logical, to directly conjure up those
łpeace gods˛ who have surmounted such dualist thought patterns? What
is the reason for this glorification of an atavistic warrior caste?

 

It goes without saying that in Trungpaąs system no-one is entitled to
even dream of critically examining the dralas (gods). Although only
projections of oneąs own consciousness according to the doctrine, they
are considered sacrosanct. They are pure, good, and exemplary. Since
Trungpaąs Shambhala Training unquestioningly incorporates all of the
established tantric deities, the entire martial field of Tibetan
Buddhism with its entrenched concept of łthe enemy˛ and its repellant
daemonic power is adopted by people who naively and obligingly set out
to attain personal enlightenment.

 

We thus have the impression that the pupils of the tantra masters are
exposed to a hypnotic suggestion so as to make them believe that their
own spiritual development was the agenda whereas they have long since
become the pawns of Tibetan occultism in whose unfathomable net of
regulations (tantra means Śnetą) they have become entrapped. Once
their personal ambitions have been dissolved into nothingness they can
be enslaved as the loyal lackeys of a spiritual power politics which
no longer sees the łhigher self˛ in the łuniversal monarch˛ but rather
a real political łwrathful wheel turner˛ (Rudra Chakrin) who lays
waste to the world with his armies from Shambhala so as to then
establish a global Buddhocracy.

 

Other Western Shambhala visions

James Hilton's novella, Lost Horizon, published in 1933, counts among
the best-sellers of the last century. It tells of a monastery in the
Land of Snows whose name, Shangri-La, is reminiscent of the kingdom of
Shambhala. The term has in the meantime become a synonym for leisure,
refinement, and taste, at least in the English-speaking world, and is
employed by an Asian luxury hotel chain. The idyll described in the
book concerns people who had retreated from the hustle and bustle of
the modern world to the Himalayas and now devote themselves to
exclusively spiritual enjoyments. It is, however, no Tibetan tulku but
rather a Catholic missionary who collects together those tired of
civilization in a hidden valley in the Land of Snows so as to share
with them a study of the fine arts and an extended lifespan. The
łmonks˛ from the West do not even need to do without European bathtubs
‹ otherwise unknown in the Tibet of the thirties. The essence of the
Shangri- La myth ultimately consists in the transportation of łreal˛
products of European culture and civilization to the łroof of the
world˛.

 

The most recent western attempt at spreading the Tibetan myth is
Victoria LePage's book, Shambhala. The author presents the secret
kingdom as an overarching mystery school, whose high priests are
active as łan invisible, scientific and philosophical society which
pursues its studies in the majestic isolation of the Himalayas˛
(LePage, 1996, p. 13). For LePage Shambhala is the esoteric center of
all religions, the secret location from which every significant occult,
and hence also religious, current of the world has emanated. Esoteric
Buddhism, and likewise the ancient Egyptian priestly schools, the
Pythagoreans, Sufism, the Knights Templar, alchemy, the Cabala,
Freemasonry, Theosophy ‹ yes even the witches cults ‹ all originated
here. Accordingly, the Kalachakra Tantra is the overarching łsecret
doctrine˛ from which all other mystery doctrines may be derived
(LePage, 1996, p. 8).

 

The mythic kingdom, which is governed by a sun ruler, is to be found
in Central Asia, there where the axis of the world, Mount Meru, is
also to be sought. This carefree adoption of Buddhist cosmology does
not present the author with any difficulties since the axis mundi is
said to only be visible to the initiated. In accordance with the
mandala principle her Shambhala has distributed numerous copies of
itself all over the world ‹ the Pyramids of Giza, the monastery at
Athos, Kailash, the holy mountain. Sites of the Grail like Glastonbury
and Rennes le Chateau are such łoffshoots˛ of the hidden imperium ‹
likewise only perceivable through initiated eyes. Together they form
the acupuncture points of a cosmic body which corresponds to the
mystic body of the Kalachakra master (i.e., taken literally, in the
energy body of the Dalai Lama). LePage too, sees a great łmystic
clock˛ in the Time Tantra. The segments of this time machine record
the cyclical periods of the course of the world. A łhidden
directorate˛, a mysterious brotherhood of immortal beings in the
Himalayas, ensures that the cosmic hours marked on the clockface are
adhered to.

 

The Fourteenth Dalai Lama and the Shambhala myth

LePage's global monopolization of the entire cultic life of our planet
by the Kalachakra Tantra could be regarded as an important step in a
worldwide Shambhalization plan of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.
Nonetheless, the Kundun deliberately prefers to leave such esoteric
speculations (which are in no way at odds with his doctrine) to
others, best of all łhobby Buddhists˛ like the author. So as not to
lose political respectability, the Kundun keeps his statements about
the Shambhala question enigmatic: łEven for me Shambhala remains a
puzzling, even paradox country˛, the highest Kalachakra master
reassures his listeners (Levenson, 1992, p. 305). All that we hear
from him concretely is the statement that łthe kingdom of Shambhala
does indeed exist, but not in the usual sense˛ (Dalai Lama Fourteenth,
1993a, p. 307).

 

Can we expect a total world war in circa 300 years in accordance with
the prophecy? His Holiness has no doubts about this either: łThat lies
in the logic of circulation!˛ (Levenson, 1992, p. 305). But then he
modifies his statement again and speculates about whether the final
battle is not to be interpreted as a psychological process within the
individual. For dreamers for whom such a psychological interpretation
is too dry, however, the Kundun subsequently hints that Shambhala
could perhaps concern another planet and the soldiers of the kingdom
could be extraterrestrials (Levenson, 1992, p. 305).

 

He understands how to rapidly switch between various levels of reality
like a juggler and thus further enhance the occult ambience which
already surrounds the Shambhala myth anyway. “Secrets partly revealed
are powerful˛, writes Christiaan Klieger, and continues, “The ability
of the Dalai Lama to skillfully manipulate a complex of  meaning and
to present appropriate segments of this to his people and the world is
part of his success as a leader˛ (Klieger, 1991, p. 76). Ultimately,
everything is possible in this deliberate confusion, for example that
the Shambhala king in person stands before us in the figure of His
Holiness as some worshippers believe, or that Lhasa is the capital of
the mythic country of łKalapa˛ albeit not visible to mortal eyes.
Should the Kundun some day return to Tibet as a savior ‹ some people
believe ‹ then the veil would be lifted and the earthly/supernatural
kingdom (Shambhala) would reveal itself to the world.

 

Similar speculations are in fact very popular in the Buddhist scene.
On the official (!) homepage of the Kalachakra Tantra the łdharma
master˛, Khamtrul Rinpoche, explains to his readers that the current
Dalai Lama is an incarnation of Kulika Pundarika, the eighth Shambhala
king famed as the first commentator on the Time Tantra. But it gets
better: łMy companion [the goddess Tara, who led him through Shambhala
in a dream]", Khamtrul writes, łtold me that the last Kulika King will
be called Rudra with a wheel, 'the powerful and ferocious king who
holds an iron wheel in his hand' ... and he will be none other than
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who will subdue everything evil in the
universe˛ (Khamtrul, HPI 005). Following this revelation, which
prophecies the Kundun as the military commander of an apocalyptic
army, Rinpoche worries whether the Shambhala army is a match for the
modern armaments industry with its missiles and nuclear bombs. Here the
kindly Tara comforts and reassures him that no matter what weapons of
mass destruction may be produced in our world, a superior
counter-weapon would automatically be created by Shambhalaąs magic
armaments industry (Khamtrul, HPI 005).

 

In the words of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama łworld peace˛ is supposed to
be strengthened with every Kalachakra ritual. He repeats this again
and again! But is this really his intention?

 

With an ironic undertone, the Tibetologist Donald L. Lopez (formerly
one of the closest followers of the Kundun), writes in the final
section of his book, Prisoners of Shangri-La, that łthis peace may
have a special meaning, however, for those who take the initiation are
planting the seeds to be reborn in their next lifetime in Shambhala,
the Buddhist pure land across the mountains dedicated to the
preservation of Buddhism. In the year 2245 [?], the army of the king
will sweep out of Shambhala and defeat the barbarians in a Buddhist
Armageddon,[!] restoring Buddhism to India and to the world and
ushering in a reign of peace˛ (Lopez, 1998, p. 207).

 

Next Chapter:

12. FASCISM AND ITąS CLOSE RELATIONSHIP TO BUDDHIST TANTRISM

 

 

Index | Contents | References | Buddhism Debate | Glossary | Home 
The Shadow of the Dalai Lama ­ Part II ­ 9. The war gods behind the
mask of peace

© Victor & Victoria Trimondi

http://www.gnosticliberationfront.org/mystery_of_shambhala.htm

             Mystery of Shambhala

                             Part One

             By JASON JEFFREY

I believe the idea of Shambhala has not yet come to full flower, but
that when it does it will have enormous power to reshape civilisation.
It is the sign of the future. The search for a new unifying principle
that our civilisation must now undertake will, I am convinced, lead it
to this source of higher energies, and Shambhala will become the great
icon of the new millennium.
‹ Victoria LePage, Shambhala

For thousands of years rumours and reports have circulated that
somewhere beyond Tibet, among the icy peaks and secluded valleys of
Eurasia, there lies an inaccessible paradise, a place of universal
wisdom and ineffable peace called Shambhala ­ although it is also
known by other names.

James Hilton wrote about it in the 1933 book Lost Horizon, Hollywood
portrayed it in the 1960s film ŚShangri-laą, and recent films such as
ŚKunduną, ŚLittle Buddhaą and ŚSeven Years in Tibetą allude to the
magical utopia. Even author James Redfield, noted for his New Age best
seller The Celestine Prophecy, has written a book called The Secret of
Shambhala: In Search of the Eleventh Insight.

Shambhala, which in Sanskrit means łplace of peace, of tranquillity,˛
is thought of in Tibet as a community where perfect and semi-perfect
beings live and are guiding the evolution of humanity. Shambhala is
considered to be the source of the Kalachakra, which is the highest
and most esoteric branch of Tibetan mysticism.

Legends say that only the pure of heart can live in Shambhala,
enjoying perfect ease and happiness and never knowing suffering, want
or old age. Love and wisdom reign and injustice is unknown. The
inhabitants are long-lived, wear beautiful and perfect bodies and
possess supernatural powers; their spiritual knowledge is deep, their
technological level highly advanced, their laws mild and their study
of the arts and sciences covers the full spectrum of cultural
achievement, but on a far higher level than anything the outside world
has attained.

By definition Shambhala is hidden. Of the numerous explorers and
seekers of spiritual wisdom who attempt to locate Shambhala, none can
pinpoint its physical location on a map, although all say it exists in
the mountainous regions of Eurasia. Many have also returned believing
that Shambhala lies on the very edge of physical reality, as a bridge
connecting this world to one beyond it.

The Sanskrit and Tibetan Shambhala has also been identified by no less
an authority than Alexandra David-Neel, who spent years in Tibet, with
Balkh ­ in the far north of Afghanistan ­ the ancient settlement known
as "the mother of cities". Present day folklore in Afghanistan asserts
that after the Muslim conquest, Balkh was known as the "Elevated
Candle" ("Sham-i-Bala"), a Persianisation of the Sanskrit Shambhala.

Tibetan lamas spend a great deal of their lives in spiritual
development before attempting the journey to Shambhala. Perhaps
deliberately, the guidebooks to Shambhala describe the route in terms
so vague that only those already initiated into the teachings of the
Kalachakra can understand them.

As Edwin Bernbaum says in The Way to Shambhala:

As the traveller draws near the kingdom, their directions become
increasingly mystical and difficult to correlate with the physical
world. At least one lama has written that the vagueness of these books
is deliberate and intended to keep Shambhala concealed from the
barbarians who will take over the world.1

The lamaąs reference to the barbarians łwho will take over the world˛
is directly connected to the prophecy of Shambhala. This prophecy
tells of the gradual deterioration of mankind as the ideology of
materialism spreads over the earth. When the łbarbarians˛ who follow
this ideology are united under an evil king and think there is nothing
left to conquer, the mists will lift to reveal the snowy mountains of
Shambhala. The barbarians will attack Shambhala with a huge army
equipped with terrible weapons. Then the 32nd king of Shambhala, Rudra
Cakrin, will lead a mighty host against the invaders. In a last great
battle, the evil king and his followers will be destroyed.

As the cultures of the East and West collide, the myth of Shambhala
rises out of the mists of time. We now have access to numerous
Buddhist texts on the subject, along with reports by Western explorers
who set out on the arduous journey in search of Shambhala. There is
much we can learn for our own individual journey of spiritual
understanding.

           The Lost World of Agharta

The idea of a hidden world beneath the surface of the planet is a very
ancient one indeed. There are innumerable folk tales and oral
traditions found throughout many countries speaking of subterranean
people who have created a kingdom of harmony, contentment and
spiritual power.

The early European travellers to Tibet consistently told the same tale
of a hidden spiritual centre of power. Adventurers recounted fantastic
tales of a hidden kingdom near Tibet. This special place is known by
numerous local and regional names, which no doubt caused much
confusion among early travellers as to the kingdomąs true identity.
These early travellers knew it as Agharta (sometimes spelt Agharti,
Asgartha or Agarttha), although it is now commonly known as Shambhala.

Taking the legend in its most basic form, Agharta is said to be a
mysterious underground kingdom situated somewhere beneath Asia and
linked to the other continents of the world by a gigantic network of
tunnels. These passageways, partly natural formations and partly the
handiwork of the race which created the subterranean nation, provide a
means of communication between all points, and have done so since time
immemorial. According to the legend, vast lengths of the tunnels still
exist today; the rest have been destroyed by cataclysms. The exact
location of these passages, and the means of entry, are said to be
known only to certain high initiates, and the details are most
carefully guarded because the kingdom itself is a vast storehouse of
secret knowledge. Some claim that the stored knowledge is derived from
the lost Atlantean civilisation and of even earlier people who were
the first intelligent beings to inhabit the earth.

The first Westerner to popularise the legend of Agharta was a gifted
French writer named Joseph-Alexandre Saint-Yves (1842-1910).
Saint-Yves was a self-educated occultist and political philosopher who
promoted in his books the establishment of a form of government called
ŚSynarchyą. He taught that the body politic should be treated like a
living creature, with a ruling spiritual and intellectual elite as its
brain.

In his quest for universal understanding, he decided in 1885 to take
lessons in Sanskrit, the classical and philosophical language of
India. He learnt far more than he expected. Saint-Yvesąs tutor was a
certain Haji Sharif, who was believed to be an Afghan prince. Through
this mysterious personage, Saint-Yves learnt a good deal about
Oriental traditions including Agharta.

The manuscripts of Saint-Yvesą Sanskrit lessons are preserved in the
library of the Sorbonne, written in exquisite script by Haji.
According to Joscelyn Godwin, writing in Arktos:

Haji signed his name with a cryptic symbol and styled himself łGuru
Pandit of the Great Agarthian School.˛ Elsewhere he refers to the
łHoly Land of Agarttha˛Š In due course he informed Saint-Yves that
this school preserves the original language of mankind and its
22-lettered alphabet: it is called Vattan, or Vattanian.2

Saint-Yves soon discovered his training enabled him to receive
telepathic messages from the Dalai Lama in Tibet, as well as make
astral journeys to Agharta. The detailed reports of what he found
there became the crowning volume of his series of politico-hermetic
łMissions˛: Mission des Souverains, Mission des Ouvriers, Mission de
Juifs, and finally Mission de ląInde (The Mission of India).

In The Mission of India we learn that Agharta is a hidden land
somewhere in the East, below the surface of the earth, where a
population of millions is ruled by a łSovereign Pontiff˛, who is
assisted by two colleagues, the łMahatma˛ and the łMahanga˛. His
realm, Saint-Yves explains, was transferred underground and concealed
from the surface-dwellers at the start of the Kali Yuga, which he dates
around 3200 BCE. According to Saint-Yves, the łmages of Agarttha˛ had
to descend into the infernal regions below them in order to work at
bringing the earthąs chaos and negative energy to an end. łEach of
these sages,˛ Saint-Yves wrote, łaccomplishes his work in solitude,
far from any light, under the cities, under deserts, under plains or
under mountains.˛3 Now and then Agharta sends emissaries to the upper
world, of which it has perfect knowledge.

Agharta also enjoys the benefits of a technology advanced far beyond
our own. Not only the latest discoveries of modern man, but the whole
wisdom of the ages is enshrined in its libraries. Among its many
secrets are those of the relationship of soul to body, and of the
means to keep departed souls in communication with incarnate ones. 

To Saint-Yves, these superior beings were the true authors of
Synarchy, and for thousands of years Agharta had łradiated˛ Synarchy
to the rest of the world, which in modern times has chosen foolishly
to ignore it. When the world adopts Synarchical government the time
will be ripe for Agharta to reveal itself.

Much of what Saint-Yves reveals in his books about Agharta, to the
modern reader, appears of a bizarre nature. His writings are in a
similar vein to the reports of strange worlds visited by numerous
out-of-body explorers over the ages. After his own investigation of
Saint-Yves, the respected historian of esotericism Joscelyn Godwin
wrote:

I believe Saint-Yves did Śseeą what he described, and that he did not
consider himself, to the slightest degree, to be writing fiction or
deriving anything from anyone else. The proof is in his utter
seriousness of character, and in the publications and correspondence
of the rest of his life, which take AgarthaŠ for unquestionable
realities. But it is quite another matter to accept his Agartha in all
the actuality and physicality that he attributed to it.4

Until the start of the twentieth century, the legend of Agharta
remained very muchŠ a legend. Stories of Agharta had widely spread in
Europe since the publication of Saint-Yvesąs books, but evidence to
support the claims remained as elusive as ever. Indeed, it might well
have been expected that in the rational and materialistic new century,
such stories would finally be confined to the realms of fantasy: a
colourful tradition to be ranked alongside other ancient mysteries
such as the lost continents of Atlantis and Mu.

But such a supposition did not allow for the remarkable discoveries of
two intrepid explorers who in the 1920s went into the vastness of Asia
and there unearthed evidence about Agharta which far exceeded that of
any previous reports. Their accounts, indeed, became the cornerstone
of our present knowledge of the secret kingdom.

Strangely, neither man knew each other, yet both were of Russian
extraction. One made his discoveries about Agharta while fleeing for
his life from the Bolsheviks in Russia; the other came shortly after
from self-imposed exile in America, seeking to penetrate the mysteries
of Tibet. Their names were Ferdinand Ossendowski and Nicholas Roerich.

          The King of the World

Writing in the early part of last century, Russian traveller Ferdinand
Ossendowski said he noticed there were times in his Mongolian travels
when men and beasts paused, silent and immobile, as though listening.
The herds of horses, the sheep and cattle, stood fixed to attention or
crouched close to the ground. The birds did not fly, and marmots did
not run and the dogs did not bark. łEarth and sky ceased breathing.
The wind did not blow and the sun did not moveŠ. All living beings in
fear were involuntarily thrown into prayer and waiting for their
fate.˛5

łThus it has always been,˛ explained an old Mongol shepherd and
hunter, łwhenever the King of the World in his subterranean palace
prays and searches out the destiny of all peoples on the earth.˛6 For
in Agharta, he said, łlive the invisible rulers of all pious people,
the King of the World or Brahatma, who can speak with God as I speak
with you, and his two assistants: Mahatma, knowing the purposes of
future events, and Mahinga, ruling the causes of those eventsŠ. He
knows all the forces of the world and reads all the souls of mankind
and the great book of their destiny.˛7

Ferdinand Ossendowski (1876-1945), a polish scientist who spent most
of his life in Russia, was as intrigued with legends and with the
occult as he was with politics. As he fled through łMysterious
MongoliaŠ the Land of Demons,˛ he paused frequently to speak with
Buddhist monks and lamas about the traditions associated with lakes,
caves and monasteries. There was one story he said he encountered
everywhere in Eurasia: he called it the łKingdom of Agharti˛, regarding
it as nothing less than łthe mystery of mysteries.˛8

Ossendowskiąs knowledge of the hidden kingdom came about after he fell
into the company of a remarkable fellow Russian speaker, a priest
named Tushegoun Lama, who had also fled the Russian Revolution, and
could claim personal friendship with the Dalai Lama, then the supreme
ruler of Tibet.

It was from Tushegoun Lama that Ossendowski heard the first hints
about Agharta and be inspired to investigate the stories and
ultimately produce the first detailed modern report on the
subterranean kingdom. He called this report, Beasts, Men and Gods
(1922), and it is now a rare and much sought-after book.

During their journeying, Tushegoun Lama told Ossendowski of the
miraculous powers of the Tibetan monks, and the Dalai Lama in
particular ­ powers, he said, that foreigners could scarcely begin to
appreciate. Then, he went on: łBut there also exists a still more
powerful and more holy manŠ The King of the World in Agharti.˛9

At that point, according to Ossendowskiąs account, the Lama did not
wait around to answer questions, but rode off on his horse. The poor
Russian was left standing in the settling dust with a series of
whirling questions rushing through his head. He had to wait several
months before he began to get any answers to these questions.

Later, another Tibetan called Prince Chultun Beyli told Ossendowski
that sixty thousand years ago a holy man had led a tribe of his
followers deep into the earth. They settled there, beneath Central
Asia, and through the use of the holy manąs incredible wisdom and
power, and the labours of his people, Agharta became a paradise. Its
population now numbered in the millions, and all were happy and
prosperous.

The Prince also added the following details:

The kingdom is called Agharti. It extends throughout all the
subterranean passages of the whole worldŠ. These subterranean peoples
and spaces are governed by rulers owing allegiance to the ŚKing of the
WorldąŠ You know that in the two greatest oceans of the east and the
west there were formerly two continents. They disappeared under the
water but their people went into the subterranean kingdom. In
underground caves there exists a peculiar light which affords growth
to the grains and vegetables and long life without disease to the
people.10

Ossendowski, understandably, found much that was puzzling as well as
confusing in these accounts. Nonetheless he was convinced that he had
come across something more than just a legend ­ or even an example of
hypnosis or mass vision ­ but more likely a powerful Śforceą of some
kind, evidently capable of influencing the course of life on planet
earth.

Interestingly, Ossendowski reports that the enormous powers the people
of Agharta were believed to control could be used to destroy whole
areas of the planet, but equally could be harnessed as the means of
propulsion of the most amazing vehicles of transport. It has been
suggested that this could be a prediction of nuclear energy and flying
saucers! (Beasts, Men and Gods was, of course, published in 1922, long
before such topics were even being discussed).

Ossendowski closes off his book with the prophecy of the King of the
World (see łA Prophecy From the Inner Earth!˛, page 33), in which it
is stated materialism will devastate the earth, terrible battles will
engulf the nations of the world, and at the climax of the bloodshed in
2029, the people of Agharta will rise out of their cavern world.

          Emissary of Shambhala

It would be easy to dismiss Agharta/Shambhala as pure fantasy, were it
not for a very credible explorer who searched for, found and returned
to tell us something about his experiences.

Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947), a Russian born artist, poet, writer,
mystic and distinguished member of the Theosophical Society, led an
expedition across the Gobi Desert to the Altai mountain range from
1923 to 1928, a journey which covered 15,500 miles across thirty-five
of the worldąs highest mountain passes.

As Victoria LePage puts it in her book Shambhala:

Roerich was a man of unimpeachable credentials: a famous collaborator
in Stravinskyąs Rite of Spring, a colleague of the impresario Diaghilev
and a highly talented and respected member of the League of Nations.11

He was also influential in the Franklin Delano Roosevelt United States
administration, and was the pivotal force behind placing the Great Seal
of the United States on the dollar bill.

Nicholas Roerich was first exposed to Buddhism and heard of Shambhala
in St. Petersburg, Russia during his involvement with the construction
of the Buddhist temple under the guidance of Lama Agvan Dordgiev.12

One of the reasons for Roerichąs expedition may have been to return a
stone said to be part of a much larger meteorite possessing occult
properties called the Chintamani Stone, alleged to have come from a
solar system in the constellation of Orion. The stone, says LePage,
łwas capable of giving telepathic inner guidance and effecting a
transformation of consciousness to those in contact with it.˛13 

According to Lamaist legend, a fragment of this Chintamani Stone is
sent forth to help establish spiritual missions vital to humanity, and
is returned, when missions are completed, to its rightful home in the
Kingąs Tower in the centre of Shambhala.14 Such a stone was said to
be in the possession of the failed League of Nations, its return being
entrusted to Roerich. Though it is not known whether he was able to
return the fragment or not, his expedition helped those who believed
that Shambhala was more than a myth.

Roerich believed in the transcendental unity of religions ­ in the
notion that one day the Buddhist, the Muslim, and the Christian would
realise their separate dogmas were husks obscuring the kernel of truth
within. All his works embraced the belief that all faiths awaited a
new age in which this chaff of dogma would be stripped away, humanity
would toss aside its discords, and all would come together in a
paradise of universal brotherhood. His symbol for the coming paradise
was Shambhala.

Roerich kept a diary during the trip (published as Altai-Himalaya: A
Travel Diary)15 and, while in Mongolia, noted that, łbelief in the
imminence of the era of Shambhala was very strong.˛ In his book, Heart
of Asia, Roerich describes both his scientific observations and his
personal spiritual quest. Although he was ready to listen to tales of
underground cities as part of the adventure, his main interest centred
on the spiritual dynamics of Shambhala and its importance as a symbol
of the coming age of peace and enlightenment. This blending of the
scientific and the spiritual is also present in the hundreds of
paintings Roerich made throughout the expedition.

łHis eye captured the shapes and colours of the mountains,
monasteries, rock carvings, stupas, cities and peoples of Asia,˛
writes Jaqueline Decter in Nicholas Roerich. łHis soul understood
their spirit; and his brush forged a synthesis of beauty.˛ Throughout
his life, Roerich strove to link all scientific and creative
disciplines to advance true culture and international peace, citing
the power of art and beauty to accomplish such a feat.

The Roerich Peace Pact, which obligated nations to respect museums,
cathedrals, universities and libraries as they did hospitals, was
established in 1935 and became part of the United Nations
organisational charter. The connection between Shambhala and the Peace
Pact is clearly evident in the following speech given at the Third
International Roerich Peace Banner Convention in 1933:

The East has said that when the Banner of Shambhala would encircle the
world, verily the New Dawn would follow. Borrowing this Legend of Asia,
let us determine that the Banner of Peace shall encircle the world,
carrying its word of Light, and presaging a New Morning of human
brotherhood.16

łToday,˛ notes LePage, łevery major Russian city has a Roerich
organisation that expresses his ideas for a new type of enlightened
civilisation based on the utopian principles of Shambhala.˛17

          The Sign of Shambhala

Shambhala itself is the Holy Place, where the earthly world links with
the highest states of consciousness. In the East they know that there
exists two Shambhalas ­ an earthly and an invisible one.
­ Nicholas Roerich, The Heart of Asia

Nicholas Roerich and party set out in 1924 to explore India, Mongolia
and Tibet. Like Ossendowski before him, Roerich soon encountered
stories about a secret underground kingdom. He jotted down his
thoughts on this hidden kingdom and these notes were later published
in a remarkable record of the expedition entitled Altai-Himalaya: A
Travel Diary.18

In the summer of 1926, Roerich reported a strange event in his travel
diary. He was encamped with his son, Dr. George Roerich, and a retinue
of Mongolian guides in the Sharagol valley near the Humboldt mountain
chain between Mongolia and Tibet. At the time of the event in
question, Roerich had returned from a trip to Altai and built a stupa,
ła stately white structure,˛ dedicated to Shambhala.

In August the shrine was consecrated in a solemn ceremony by a number
of notable lamas invited to the site for the purpose, and after the
event, writes Roerich, the Buriat guides forecast something auspicious
impending. A day or two later, a large black bird was observed flying
over the party. Beyond it, moving high in the cloudless sky, a huge,
golden, spheroid body, whirling and shining brilliantly in the sun,
was suddenly espied. Through three pairs of binoculars the travellers
saw it fly rapidly from the north, from the direction of Altai, then
veer sharply and vanish towards the southwest, behind the Humboldt
mountains.

One of the lamas told Roerich that what he had seen was łthe sign of
Shambhala,˛ signifying that his mission had been blessed by the Great
Ones of Altai, the lords of Shambhala. They had also been witness to a
classic UFO, twenty years before the łofficial˛ beginning of the
phenomenon with Kenneth Arnoldąs sighting in 1947.

Roerichąs account of such a sighting aroused great interest in Europe
and, corroborated as it was by George Roerich, brought to the West the
first concrete evidence that there might be something present in
Eurasia that defied understanding. Victoria LePage describes its
significance as such:

In its vivid colour and factuality, its bizarre but unarguable
reference to an unknown golden aircraft that behaved as no ordinary
airplane could, the Roerich story could rightly be called the first
reliable intimation that the kingdom of Chang Shambhala was perhaps
knowable as more than an intellectual curiosity, a popular Asian
fableŠ and from about 1927 onward the world centre in the northern
mountains exerted on Western occult circles the fascination of an idea
whose time has come.19

Which brings us to the very nature of reality. Paranormal experiences,
including UFO sightings, are always indicative of an altered state of
consciousness that allows the witness to see other realities. Often
the experience is similar to a lucid dream, where ordinary space-time
physics no longer applies.

The Eastern mystical view of the world can be quite different from the
Western scientific view of it. It maybe that the guidebooks to
Shambhala are describing a landscape transformed by the visions of a
yogi taking the journey there: Where we would see a mountaintop
gleaming with snow, he would see a golden temple with a shining god.
In that case, we might be able to travel the same path, but with a
different view of reality.

To travel to Shambhala, as Nicholas Roerich journeyed, is to undertake
at one and the same time an inner mystical journey and an outer
physical one through desolate and mountainous territory to a cosmic
powerhouse.

An old Tibetan story tells of a young man who set off on the quest for
Shambhala. After crossing many mountains, he came to the cave of an
old hermit, who asked him, łWhere are you going across these wastes of
snow?˛

łTo find Shambhala,˛ the youth replied.

łAh, well then, you need not travel far,˛ the hermit said. łThe
kingdom of Shambhala is in your own heart.˛20

The second part of this article looks at the Buddhist conception of
Shambhala and its esoteric meaning.

Footnotes:

1. Edwin Bernbaum, The Way to Shambhala: A Search for the Mythical
Kingdom Beyond the Himalayas, 2001, p.25.
2. Joscelyn Godwin, Arktos: The Polar Myth in Science, Symbolism and
Nazi Survival, 1993, p.83.
3. Subterranean Worlds: 100,000 Years of Dragons, Dwarfs, the Dead,
Lost Races & UFOs from Inside the Earth, Walter Kafton-Minkel, 1989,
p.188.
4. Joscelyn Godwin, Arktos: The Polar Myth in Science, Symbolism and
Nazi Survival, 1993, p.85.
5. Ferdinand Ossendowski, Beast, Men and Gods, 1922, p.300.
6. Ibid, p.300.
7. Ibid, p.303.
8. Ibid, p.300.
9. Ibid, p.118.
10. Alec Maclellan, The Lost World of Agharti, The Mystery of Vril
Power, 1982, p. 66.
11. Victoria LePage, Shambhala: The Fascinating Truth Behind the Myth
of Shangri-la, 1996, p.11.
12. See New Dawn No. 68, p. 85.
13. Victoria LePage, Shambhala: The Fascinating Truth Behind the Myth
of Shangri-la, 1996, p.10.
14. Andrew Tomas, Shambhala: Oasis of Light, 1976, p.32.
15. Nicholas Roerich, Altai-Himalaya: A Travel Diary (1929); Other
books by Roerich: The Heart of Asia (1930); Shambhala (1930)
16. Speech by Francis Grant in The Roerich Pact and Banner of Peace,
1947
17. Victoria LePage, Shambhala: The Fascinating Truth Behind the Myth
of Shangri-la, 1996, p.12.
18. Nicholas Roerich, Altai-Himalaya: A Travel Diary (1929).
19. Victoria LePage, Shambhala: The Fascinating Truth Behind the Myth
of Shangri-la, 1996, p.12.
20. As quoted in Edwin Bernbaum, The Way to Shambhala: Jacques Bacot,
Introduction a ląhistoire du Tibet, 1962, p.92N. 

 

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Permission to re-send, post and place on web sites for non-commercial
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http://www.expeditioncompany.net/upcoming_trip.htm?trip_id=67

> On Steve Curry's recent expedition through the Tsangpo gorge in Tibet, a
> hidden falls was discovered behind which the Tibetans say a cavern
> leads into the Hollow Earth, which they call Agharta, wherefrom
> years ago, their legends relate, the King of the (Inner) World
> emerged with a message of peace for our outer world, saying his
> Kingdom some day will emerge to help establish world peace. All
> the Tibetan faithful want to go there to die, Steve learned.
>
> ......The word "Agharta" is of Buddhist origin. It refers to the
> Subterranean World or Empire in whose existence all true Buddhists
> fervently believe. They also believe that this Subterranean World
> has millions of inhabitants and many cities, all under the supreme
> domination of the subterranean world capital, Shaballah, where
> dwells the Supreme Ruler of this Empire, known in the Orient as
> the King of the World. It is believed that he gave his orders to
> the Dalai Lama of Tibet, who was his terrestrial representative,
> his messages being transmitted through certain secret tunnels
> connecting the Subterranean World with Tibet.
>

Biblical References KJV

Rev.17
[1] And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials,
and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee
the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
[2] With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and
the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her
fornication.
[3] So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw
a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy,
having seven heads and ten horns.
[4] And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked
with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her
hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
[5] And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE
GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
[6] And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with
the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with
great admiration.
[7] And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will
tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her,
which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
[8] The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of
the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the
earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life
from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was,
and is not, and yet is.
[9] And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven
mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
[10] And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the
other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short
space.
[11] And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is
of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
[12] And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have
received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with
the beast.
[13] These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto
the beast.
[14] These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome
them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are
with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
[15] And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the
whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
[16] And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall
hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat
her flesh, and burn her with fire.
[17] For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree,
and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be
fulfilled.
[18] And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth
over the kings of the earth.

Rev.9
1. [1] And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from
heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless
pit.
2. [2] And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke
out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the
air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
3. [11] And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the
bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the
Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

Rev.11
1. [7] And when they shall have finished their testimony, the
beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against
them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

Rev.17
1. [8] The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall
ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that
dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the
book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the
beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

Rev.20
1. [1] And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key
of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
2. [3] And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and
set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till
the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be
loosed a little sea