t ANDREW TOM A :1S •J. SHAMBHALA: OASIS OF LIGHT Also by Andrew Tomas in Sphere Books Shambhala WE ARE NOT THE FIRST ATLANTIS: FROM LEGEND TO DISCOVERY BEYOND THE TIME BARRIER Oasis of Light ON THE SHORES OF ENDLESS WORLDS ANDREW TOMAS i SPHERE BOOKS LIMITED 30/32 Gray’s Inn Road, London WCIX 8JL First published in Great Britain by Sphere Hooks Ltd To the illustrious MORYA, a sage of 1977 Shambhala Copyright® Andrew Tomas 1977 TRADE MARK This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser, FUmset in Photon Times Printed m Great Britain by C. Nicholls & Company Ltd The Philips Park Press. Manchester Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I gratefully acknowledge permission to reproduce photographs granted by Mu sec Guimet (M usees Nationaux). Paris, and Theosophical Publishing House, Preface Adyar. India. Introduction 1 The Ancient Mysteries . 15 My thanks arc also due to Mary Ann Dc Willis of Prescott. Arizona for checking the manuscript. 2 The Valley of the Immortals ... ... ... 24 3 The Isle of Shambhala ... ... ... ... 31 4 Across Asia ... ... ... ... ... 57 5 Kalachakra, the Science of the Bodhisattvas ... 68 6 The Land of While Waters . 76 7 The Light-Bearers. 82 8 Apollonius in Tibet ... ... ... ... 92 9 Prcster John's Kingdom ... ... ... ... 99 10 The Fraternities of World Reformation. 103 1 1 Saint Germain’s Mission. 115 12 Historical Interventions. 124 13 Temple Dialogues... ... ... ... ... 138 14 So the Scriptures Affirm ... ... ... ... 153 15 On the Threshold of the Cosmic Epoch. 162 Conclusion Appendix Sources 7 This literary exposition rests mainly on the scriptures of Tibetan Buddhism which provide the most reliable source of information regarding the legend of Shambhala. Nevertheless numerous other books were also consulted with the purpose of finding parallel traditions which would corroborate this Tibetan belief. Naturally the first question to be raised concerns the origin of the name Shambhala and the date of its first appearance. In Sanskrit ‘Sham' means ‘tranquillity’ and that is probably the root of the word Shambhala. Puranic litera¬ ture speaks of Shambhala Island with its blessed groves which stands in a lake of nectar. The Puranas of India can be dated to about the time of the compilation of the New Testament. In Buddhist books of Tibet the name Shambhala is mentioned on many pages. Even before the introduction of Buddhism into Tibet in the seventh century of our era, the Land of Shambhala was shown on a geographical map in a Bon book of Tibet which is estimated to be about two thousand years old. The voluminous Katyour and I'uitjour. the White VaicJurya, the Blue Annals (Deb-iher Snon-po), the Route to Shambhala {Lam-yig) works, the Sphere of Shambhala (,Shambhala Sinbkod pa) and other Tibetan writings furnish enough basic material for a brief outline of Shambhala. In the Mahavana system Shambhala is regarded as a wonderland similar to Thomas More's Utopia, New Atlantis of Francis Bacon or City of the Sun of Campanella, where virtue and wisdom create an ideal community. To write of Chang Shambhala without a study of the 9 ■ t ibetan books mentioned above and they arc only a small portion of Tibetan religious literature, is to create mis¬ understandings and confusion. A long life in the Far East has helped the author to avoid misconceptions common to Westerners, and thus to grasp the spirit of Shambhala doctrine. Introduction Hardly anything had been known about Shambhala in the Wum before H P. Blavatsky who presented the Ancient A different theme demands an unconventional approach in the Wisdom of the East to an unprepared European and method of research, hence our choice of the aphorism of American public in the Victorian era. However, it was not Pythagoras, ‘walk in unfrequented paths’. A new idea, no Hlavatsky but the Catholic missionaries Stephen Cacclla and matter Mow unusual, must be a contribution to the already John Cabral who were the first Europeans in modern history accumulated pool of knowledge. It must be validated by fact so to give an account of Shambhala about three hundred and as not to remain for ever in the realm of pure speculation, and 1:1 ty years ago. On the other hand, Shambhala may have also have some pragmatic value, otherwise it would be useless. been known in Europe much earlier but under another garb, During Krishna’s times the pundit Narada warned about as strong arguments are available to link the tradition with the danger of a hasty condemnation of fresh thoughts: 'Never tin; mediaeval legends of the Holy Grail and Prester John. utter these words - I do not know this, therefore it is false According to a custom established on behalf of one must study to know, know to understand, understand to Shambhala six hundred years ago by the pillar of Tibetan judge.’ The intolerance amidst which modern science was Buddhism, I song Khapa, an appeal for peace and tolerance born can serve as an example of the fallacy of rejecting novel is made at the opening ol the last quarter of each century. concepts and untried methods. I lie aim of this book is to contribute a small share to this In an atmosphere of narrow-mindedness and persecution humanitarian project in the twentieth century. during Cromwell’s reign, progressive scholars of England founded the Invisible College which has eventually become the highest scientific institution of the kingdom, the Royal Society. Hardly anything is known of the activities of another ‘invisible’ scientific and philosophic society which pursues its studies in the majestic isolation of the Himalayas. These savants possess the answers to the most abstruse questions of science. The traces of this philanthropic and philosophic fraternity are found in historical records from the most ancient limes to our contemporary period. The evidence demonstrating the actual existence of these sublime men in the past, as well as in the present, is sufficient, yet the information as to their way of life and the location of their abodes is far from being adequate. 11 I Scepticism lias acted as a double-edged sword. On the one or not present-day society would follow their beacon in this hand it destroyed worthless theories, on the other it has cut critical epoch, lies in the future. up many a sane, though premature, hypothesis. This sword There arc two kinds of people - those who recognise a should not be used to murder concepts that would be truth first and the ones who admit it last. It is the pioneers lamented a few decades hence. The history of science who have always advanced culture and civilisation as the abounds in tragic accidents of this kind. history of science, art and philosophy can demonstrate. In 1838 a physician tried to convince a lady that her There are no rolls of honour anywhere for those who husband’s hobby of catching human shadows on copper rejected the spherical shape of the earth, the Theory of plates was a certain sign of his insanity. The doctor gravely Relativity, steamships, aeroplanes or spaceships, but there advised the lady, whose name was Daguerre, to take are monuments to the creators of bold ideas. Monsieur Daguerre to the Bicetre Mental Asylum in Paris. As yet the thesis of a hidden community of perfect beings Fortunately for Louis Daguerre the Academic des Sciences guiding the evolution of mankind belongs to the realm of of France soon saved the inventor from this sad fate by speculation, but like the conquest of space, which most endorsing his discovery of photography. people ridiculed until the launching of Sputnik I, it may What is reality? Is air a bit of nothing? Yet when this air eventually be shown to be true. In the meantime, let the is pumped into a tyre, it becomes as hard as wood. There is reader peruse these pages with a mind ready to accept the one reality for playing children and another for adults: one logic they may contain. for a nuclear physicist occupied with the infinitely small world of the atom, and another for a layman who is touching solid objects around him; one for an astronomer studying stellar systems of giant proportions, and another for a simple mind observing those ‘little stars’ in the sky; one for an historian who sees the How of events and the development of society in the course of centuries, and another for a man in the street who lives only in the present and is incapable of perceiving the life of mankind as a whole. In this relativist century reality depends on the observer. This book examines one facet of what may be termed ‘non-ordinary reality’. What is truth to one is not truth to another. Since there are many truths in this vast universe, we should respect each other and mutually benefit from the exchange of ideas, even though they might seem strange. This work propounds that there is an oasis of cosmic culture on earth, the representatives of which have, like a guiding star, led humanity through the centuries towards a greater stage of understanding, higher morals and a keener realisation of the brotherhood of man. The answer to whether 12 13 1 The Ancient Mysteries In the Far Hast there is an ancient and widely spread belief in a galaxy of illumined minds living in seclusion in inaccessible parts of Asia.