Monday, April 06, 2009

The Key to The Gate of the Road to Shambhala

I’ve known about Shambhala for a long time. I’ve had information about Shambhala for a short time. I always thought it was one of those mystical lands populated by high beings that found their way out of here and now live there and... well; that’s where my information pretty much stopped. I’ve been finding out more about Shambhala lately. That’s a very brief synopsis. I had something far more detailed and thought I had bookmarked it but... alas... no longer to be found. There’s some interesting history available for those able to find it.

Most of us who read here have heard about the great separating out that is to take place during the transition period of the coming and going 25,000 year cycle. You might imagine a series of invisible highways, weaving their way toward some unknown location. These highways pass near one another at times and we can see those who are on the different highways. Sometimes they might bisect for a brief period and conversation and experience may pass between those headed in their particular directions and then there’s the bellow of the fog horn as they pass like ships in the night.

I make no judgment on the paths chosen by anyone. The value of decisions made concerning one’s direction must rest within the heart of those so affected by their choices. I cannot know the hearts of others and what inclined them toward the place where they are bound. I do not even know my own heart entirely. I believe that my direction is partly due to what I seek and partly due to what is seeking me. It could be that all of these highways lead to a version of the divine, acceptable to the traveler. It is fairly certain that these highways lead to the treasures of their heart, Jesus Christ said something about how where your treasures are, there your heart is also.

One person’s Heaven may well be another person’s Hell. Highways lead in all directions, out and up and down. Some are steep and graded and some are gradual. Some are narrow and relatively untraveled and some are near gridlocked with the crowds. Again, I can pass no judgment on this. People will find what they are looking for. They will find it here, if it is here and they will find it elsewhere if it is elsewhere. There is a mysterious magnetism within us that connects to the object of the yearning of the heart. It knows the way regardless of whatever we may think we know.

It’s in the blood, after a fashion. The love of spiritual things and material things is in the blood. Why some are made, or fashion themselves, to long after material things and some after spiritual things is a mystery. To me it seems like degrees of blindness. We all hunger after something and that would have to be something we are capable of seeing or imagining to exist. We have the natural affliction of appetite and then there are those things desired that are not as inherent as the need to feed and reproduce.

It has been said that we are all fallen. It has been said that we bind ourselves with Karma through our actions in the fascination for coagulated dust of one kind or another. It has been said that life is an illusion play for the entertainment of an unseen audience, as well as whatever other audience there may be. People say a lot of things. It is very difficult to know anything but it doesn’t seem to stop us.

I can only speak for my own experience and what is obvious to me through my observations. With the latter, I can only expect agreement or understanding from those equipped to make the same observations. There’s something you eventually learn in the process of living and that is to be able to see when it is okay to share your observations. I find very little of value to be had in manifest life, so this puts me outside the general mindset of most everyone else. I do value whatever it is I may have learned and realized because- I am led to believe- I get to take this with me when I go; wherever that may be.

I’ve come to realize that some sort of Shambhala waits for me... or something more of what I am already going through; or something else, more or less attractive, more or less substantial, more or less dense, lighter or darker. I suspect it is a matter of attraction. If you are attracted to the light then you seek it out. The same would apply to darkness. Sometimes it is hard to know what is, or is not, darkness or light... because darkness has its own form of light. I have heard that light can appear to be darkness because it can be too bright to see and one is made blind from it.

I cannot imagine that the short time I have been here in this go around has equipped me with any encompassing understanding of what is going on. I don’t know how long one would have to live to gain this but I believe it is greater than any single life is capable of. It seems to me that I live in a world of assumptions and presumptions and camaraderie can be gained or lost by one’s ability to adapt to the presence of these in others.

If I set out today for Shambhala or The Western Pure Land or Shangri-La, I have some idea of their general location and those locations are all in the same general area; according to what’s been said about them by those presuming and assuming. I think these places are like camouflaging life forms that adapt to the coloration of their surroundings. You might be looking right at it and still not see it. I like to think I am on the road to Shambhala, no matter what direction I may be headed in.

In the process of my heading to Shambhala on foot, or in my mind, I find that the world is not cooperative in my efforts. Even those closest to me are not cooperative unless I disguise my pursuit in such a way that it appears to them as something they can integrate with their own interests. Kalil Gibran wrote a book about Jesus Christ in which 77 people who met him describe him. They were people of all types. Some were enemies and some were friends. It is called, “Jesus the Son of Man”. If you haven’t read it you might find it an interesting read. I lived with an ancient Archbishop of the Old Roman Catholic Church for a couple of years when I was very young. Gibran had come to visit him once. He said to me, “He was a lovely man but he drank too much wine.”

It’s been said that Shambhala is very hard to find and there are indications that people have perished in the attempt. The latter doesn’t bother me much. People generally perish in much more foolish pursuits so... that wouldn’t be a bad way to go and might be a way of finding it as well. It seems like something one might need to keep to themselves because of the injury done to ones determination by the commentary of those you encounter on the way.

When I was in the restaurant/catering/food preparation business, I used to tell people I was in the music business because I looked at everything I did as being part of the journey to my songs being heard by whatever audience was going to hear them. That’s of no concern to me now because it’s of no importance. None of the things I am engaged in are of any importance to me now. I continue to do them and with no less industry and focus but... they don’t really matter at all.

Shambhala, or whatever it represents to me, is important. Walking through this world is like walking naked through nettles or... barefoot through the desert. There’s a consistency of wounding that is the operative theme of every culture under the imprint of civilization. Some are indifferent to it due to the thickness of their skin and the absence of love. It seems to me that love is one of the keys to the gate of the road to Shambhala and one of the keys to love is vulnerability so... there you are aren’t you?

Somehow we must become impervious to this world while maintaining our precious vulnerability at the same time. We have to appear to be engaged here on our way there. It’s another one of those circumstances where words are not going to do what is required of them and where a great many more words are required even though they will not accomplish the task either and now we have come to the end of the usual stream of words to be found here.

Visible sings: Color Ball by Les Visible♫ I'm Coming Back ♫
'I'm Coming Back' is track no. 4 of 12 on Visible's 2007 album 'Color Ball'
Lyrics (pops up)

Color Ball by Les Visible

11 comments:

Zoner said...

A toast to you all and fond wishes for all of our journeys regardless of the path chosen. Words are, indeed, inadequate to express this sentiment, but hopefully the spirit of the sentiment comes through.

Z

c.j said...

Thank you fellow traveller for allowing me to know that I am not alone on the journey my soul too yearns for Shambhala.
Thank you for saying what I can not express but feel with my entire being.
cj

nina said...

A thoughtful and very welcome post and while thinking on it, I received your and Z's messages. The one mind at work...
All the situations that come about that we label "bad" or "negatively entangling" turn out to be unavoidable detours on the road to locating that key to the Gate. This happens over and over again in our immediate day dream. Sometimes, the road is out. However, it is true and you have said so often yourself, if we were seriously traveling to begin with, we are going to get there, detours or not. I have noticed being fearless does not include the fear of losing one's way. Or hurrying something along so we can get back on the road again. The only negativity I ever experience is due to those two elements because eventually we discover the road waits for us, its always there with entrance ramps available whenever one is ready to go on.

I don't have any links to back this up, just a map inside my head with signs behind and signs up ahead that confirm this direction is where I am supposed to be. I pull over to this rest stop and gather your beautiful brochures always showing the truth within.
Ever grateful,
nina

Anonymous said...

The great balancing act depends on the imbalance of the one perceiving, or rather not trying to perceive at all--"trying" throws us off balance-

When we attempt to perceive, we throw the balance from the weightlessness of the spiritual to the heaviness of the physical--happens every time--

Is "there" wherever we are when this journey ends?
Mine will be--yours may be somewhere else--just across the meadow--or maybe we are the meadow--sweet!!

Jj

Anonymous said...

Les,
The road is long, but I will walk it!!

"I suspect it is a matter of attraction" - here it is!!!!

"Things" group by attration and yes we will seek things that lead to real feelings and ideas, we hold true. The end isnt but the starting of new attractions.

Many old ones have spoken of a "place" where that stops, but Im not sure we, in human form, have any idea what they're talking about. You see and feel as a body and mind but you are so much more. What is the rest of you doing, walking too?
I feel that "shambhala" is very dangerous. You may choose to not return to this earth if you wish, but to Shambhala can you really choose?
Les, thanks for sharing something real and with love for others do you do this. May I suggest we look down at the path and the ground under our feet and not worry about the next fork in the road or the day we stop walking?
Yes, a great and wondering time is before us now, and few will be walking with this gathering love. But those seeing this light have start with love and light and thus will bring with them and group together this growing power. No places or times will be needed for this, just walking with a big smile.

Matt durkeematthew@hotmail.com

Wakien said...

"There is a secret garden, the way is hard to find. The only way to travel there is to journey through your mind.
Listen to the secret, whispered in the wind. Looking deep within our hearts, we find our way again.
The road is hard to travel, we search to find the way. The journey takes a million years or just a single day."
~Omenz
We are all going home. We cannot help but become what we are.
No one can hold back the dawn. We will become what we are just as a rose must open to become a rose.
I know who you are but my telling you wont help you. I can tell you where to look for your answers however.
The Kingdom of "Heaven". is within. It is a state of consciousness.
peace to all my fellow travelers...

sounder said...

Les wrote...
Somehow we must become impervious to this world while maintaining our precious vulnerability at the same time. We have to appear to be engaged here on our way there.

This reminds me of a question asked by a woman with the handle ‘surrender’ on another blog. She asked; ‘What is your dream?’ A day later the response found was; ‘To appear normal and to not be normal.’ (Otherwise, attempts to communicate novel ideas can be somewhat useless.)

Anonymous said...

Kalki: The Next Avatar of God
and the End of Kali-yuga

by Stephen Knapp (Sri Nandanandana dasa)

(excerpts from The Vedic Prophecies)

"Lord Kalki will appear in the home of the most eminent brahmana of Shambhala village, the great soul Vishnuyasha." (Bhag.12.2.18)

He will be born in the family of Vishnuyasha, an eminent brahmana of Shambhala village, as Kalki, endowed with eight superhuman faculties." Vishnu Purana (Book Four, Chapter 24)

In this connection we find in the Padma Purana (6.242.8-12) the prediction that Lord Kalki will be born in the town of Shambala near the end of Kali-yuga from a brahmana who is actually an incarnation of Svayambhuva Manu.
No one knows where this village of Shambala is located. Some feel that it is yet to manifest, or that it will be a hidden underground community from which Lord Kalki will appear.

Anonymous said...

If interested, here is a link to Stephen's site..

http://www.stephen-knapp.com/

Anonymous said...

Les,

Thank you for this peace on a night when my soul is feeling afraid and alone. When you talk about Love you elevate yourself and all of us with you. I will sleep soundly tonight because of your words.

Peace and Love to all-C

Anonymous said...

The pebble that you tossed in the visible pond joined the ripples from the High Sierra’s as more came laughing up from South Africa and washed over me—a wave of welcome—so familiarly inviting-- perceived by some—yet not a wave in the sense of sound and power— a wave of greeting, within and without--
Not the fake video fireplace on the TV screen but the warmth and crackling calling of real wood burning and releasing energy perceived by all the senses—and then some

The ripples were warmed by the sun and turned to vapor that I breathed in along with the now vibrationaly alive oxygen, different, yet the same source—joined together in the order of the maelstrom under the waters, coming forth and receding all in the same motion, within the motion of life—no longer swimming against the current but going joyfully along with it when you realize there is no choice to be made—it is the way it is—

Sweet

I got off my ship and left it behind—the waters too inviting, calling me to join—leaving the perceived safety of the shoreline with no charts needed—no destination in mind

Don’t go down below in your ship—keep your eyes on the horizon and hear the sounds of the calling—feel them—know them—allow them—

There is a convergence taking place that in it’s washing away is bringing a peace and beauty—as it should be—

Jj

This was my post to an older Origami--one that certainly had an impression on me--thanks Les





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