Secret of Shambhala

By James Redfield,

The quote to intrigue and compel you to read this book:   “You must understand that inside you is a great power that can be cultivated and extended, a mental energy that has always been called a prayer field.” The term prayer field in this setting is in no way tangled up in the religious connotations, of kneeling down to prayer.  As Chauncey Gardner said in the great movie starring Peter Sellers Being There, coincidentally a very intuitive person, “you must learn to tend your garden.”  This book, in an entertaining novel way, begins to shine the light on how to do that.  While it seems to be a Secret to too many folks, it’s is my belief that really it’s an intuitive reality that only needs to be, as I write in my book ‘Love is a Blooming Rose’ awakened to. 

This book takes James Redfield’s points from his books Celestine Prophecy and Tenth Insight and adds to them in what I would call an ‘adstory’, a Murphyism that can be associated with the term adverb.  Adstory more appropriately applies to this book than sequel, because while Redfield takes the same adventurer approach he continues to add to his moral message.  In Celestine and the Tenth Insight he describes how we come to a worldview understanding of a new spiritual awareness.  In Shambhala he elaborates on what you do when you realize that you have it THE SECRET, the title of another intriguing book, and are part of it. 

This adventure takes the reader trekking through the Tibetan Himalayas to a place called Shambhala.  To give the book a sense of adventure and intrigue, trekking may not be the best word.  The main character of the book is actually being chased through Tibet by the Chinese military looking to squelch the secret in the war over people’s minds.  He gets caught and then interacts with his enemy, only to find out that there are no enemies. Upon arrival, the reader comes to learn that Shambhala is a mythical place that only has a geographical location because you are trekking there.  And that trek has a physical journey and a spiritual journey.  Shambala is a place in your mind.

Says Redfield: “On the world view spectrum there are doomsday voices showing us that that our Western lifestyle is not sustainable.  These folks are countered by technologists who invent there way to the next unsustainable plateau.  Which over the history of man is a very short step to the next break through, giving us the impression that time is speeding up.”  But then I ask what is time?  (see my many reviews on this subject…space and time) This book proposes a sustainable future for mankind. It’s somewhat of a paradigm shift for those who have not awakened to the Secret. 

So to navigate the poles of this spectrum, Redfield offers sustainable growth along with humane technology growth.  It is an evolution of slowly turning pages.  This is Redfield thesis in a entertaining venue.  What I hear in those words is: A growth in technology that takes a look at the ‘whole of our social being before it introduces scientific break-thru’s to society.  I call it science with a conscience.  I have been pleading for this for years.  Is there a law of attraction that finally has me read this book?  Imagine, science not conned by the need to push through for the sake of pure science.  Imagine an intuitive move toward the sacred, and optimism based on a spiritual vision of where the world can go.  Spiritual intuition is a metaphor that comes out of the book. So what is that?  It is the subtle turning of pages in your life that embrace synchronicity; those mysterious coincidences that could pop up in a second that makes a page turn on to a new chapter in your life.

Where the book goes beyond previous Redfield books in this area is the subject of prayer.  Not payers that start with “bless me father.”  Not prayers that start with “Dear God I need…”  But prayer that begins with the revealing of your sub-conscience and human nature to be good, do good deeds and have good outcomes in the world around you.  Your intentions!!!  I am talking about a conscience that is a collective conscience that spans not just current/living man, but the history of all man.  This includes the dark chapters.  Why? … Because man survived those chapters.   Good prevails.  This conscience is projected not just outward across the plane of man but upward to the cosmos.  When you come to realize that the light of a star you see at any current moment is a light that is “light-years” old it dawns on you that that all thought, being of the same energy of that star is capable of spanning time and therefore cosmic.  So to spin off of Dave Matthew Band’s song; there is no space between us.  And to John Lennon I say Imagine all the People.

I strayed from my normal review in the previous two paragraphs.  But coincidently and or intuitively perhaps divine order compelled me.  “just sayin.” Perhaps this book along with others I’ve read, the life I lead, and the church I attended while living in Boulder Colorado (2005) converges upon my take of this book. If you can resonate with any of the above, you’ll like the book.

By the way Unity of Boulder is where my yet to be published book Love is a Blooming Rose was conceived.  There is a divine order; even though it seems random…it’s divine.

Bibliography:

Page 14.  If prayer is an affirmation based on our expectations, our faith, then all of our expectations have a prayer effect.  We are, in fact, praying all of the time for some kind of future for ourselves and others.  We just aren’t fully aware of it.

Page 18:  …you must realize that you are already influencing other people with your energy, whether you know it or not..  The important thing is how you set your …field of…intention…”your prayer field.

Page 19:  Shambhala was of great significance to the Tibetan Buddhists, whose ancient writings described it as a holy city of diamonds and gold, filled with adepts and lamas – and hidden somewhere in the vast uninhabitable regions of Tibet of China.

Page 24:  You must understand what Shambhala is.  The people thre aer live human beings, born into this holy place, but they aer of a higher evolutionary state.  The help hold energy and vision for the whole world.

They aren’t like family members or other souls in the afterlife that might be helping us from that dimension.  They are human beings who live right here on East.  Those in Shambhala have extraordinary community and live at a higher level of development.  They model what the rest of the world will ultimately achieve.

Page 36: We are a special sect here in Tibet.  Not Typical.  For many centuries we have held the belief that Shambhala is a real place.  We also hold the knowledge of the legends, verbal wisdom as old as the Kalachakra, which is devoted to the integration of all religious truth.

Many of our lamas are in touch with Shambhala through their dreams.

Page 39:  “You mean to try to fight them [the pursuing Chinese] I asked.  “Yin, you know you can’t win that.”

“I know, I know” he said.  “I just get angry when I think of what they are doing.  Someday the warriors of Shambhala will ride out and defeat these monsters of evil”.

“It’s a prophecy among my people.”  He looked at me and shook his head”  “I know I must control my anger.  It collapses my prayer field.”

Page 42:  “Why has no one ever discovered where it is?  And why do so many prominent Buddhists speak of Shambhala as a way of life, a mentality?”

“Because Shambhala does represent a way of being and living.  It can be spoken of accurately in that manner.  But it is also an actual location where real people have achieved this way of being in community and with each other..”

Page 45:  You must understand that inside you is a great power that can be cultivated and extended, a mental energy that has always been called a prayer field.”

Page 47:  What are dakini”  “They are from the spirit world.  They usually appear as females, but they can take any form they wish.  In the West they are known as angels, but they are even more mysterious than most people think.  I’m afraid they are truly known by those in Shambhala.  The legends say that they move with the light of Shambhala.”

Later in the book:  “No the daklini are other beings who actto awaken and guard humans.  They are and never were human.”

Page 47:  Prayer is not a power that is realized only when we sit down and pray in a particular situation.  Prayer works at these times, of course but prayer is also working at other times.

Everything we expect, good or bad, conscious or unconscious, we are helping to bring into being.  Our prayer is an energy or power that emanates out from us in all directions.  In most people, who think in ordinary ways, this power is very weak and contridictary.  But in others who seem to achieve a lot in life, and who are very creative and successful, this field of energy is strong, although it is still usually unconscious.  Most of those in this group have a strong field because they grew up in an environment where they learned to expect success and more or less take it for granted.  They had strong role models whom they emulated.  But the legends say that soon all people will learn about this power and understand our ability to use this energy can be strengthened and extended.

Page 48:  To find this holy place, you must systematically extend your energy until you emulate enough creative strength to go there.  The procedure for doing this is set forth in the legends and involves three important steps..  There is a forth step but it is known in its completeness only to those in Shambhala.

Page 49:  “Just know that the integration of all all religious truth is important if the force of prayer-energy is to grow large enough to resolve the dangers posed by those who fear.  Also remember the dakini are real.”

Pages 53 – 57:  “What did he mead by mastering the force of my expectations?...”you know that you have an energy field, correct?  A prayer-field flowing out from you at all time.” … “you know that this field has an effect on the world, on what happens?  You know it can be either small and weak or extensive and strong.” … You must first cultivate and then stabilize your energy.” … “the more energy one has, the more others feel that person’s presence.” 

Page 57:  All of a sudden I was imbued with an unusual cal, euphoria, and; rightness.  It was the first time I had experienced what the mystics of various religions have called a transformative state. 

It seemed to come up my spine and out through the top of my head, lifting my body upward.  I felt as if there was a string pulling me upward from the top of my head.”

Page 58 – 60:  “maintaining higher energy within oneself is impossible if one consumes dead matter as food.” … We must assess all the energies we routinely allow into our own energy fields, especially food, and avoid all but the best if our fields are to stay strong.

…  We look like we are material stuff, flsh and blood, but we are atoms!  Pure energy!.  Your science has proved this fact.  When we look deeper into atoms, we first see particles, and then, at deeper levels, the particles themselves disappear into patterns of energy, vibrating at a certain level.  And if we look at the very way we eat from this perspective, we see that what we put in our bodies as food affects our vibrational state.  Certain foods increase our energy and vibration and others diminish it.  The truth is as simple as that.

Page 61:  “  when our bodies drop in energy because of the kinds of foods we are eating, it makes us susceptible to disease. Her eis how it works.  When we eat foods, they are metabolized and leave a waste or ash in our bodies.  This ash is either acidic in nature or alkaline, depending on the food.  If it is alkaline, then it can be quickly extracted from our bodies with little energy,  However, if thes waste products are acid, they are very bad for the blood and lymph system to eliminate and they are stored in our organs and tissues as solids – low vibrational crystalline forms that create blocks or disruptions in the vibratory levels of our cells.  The more such acid by-product are stored, the more generally acid these tissues become, and guess what?

“  A microbe of one type or another appears and senses all this acid and says, “Oh this body is ready to be decomposed.”… When any organism dies, its body changes to a highly acid environment and is consumed by microbes very quickly. If we begin to reassemble this very acid. Or death state, then w begin to come under attack of microbes.  All human disease are the result of such an attack.”

Page 64:  After sleep one must wake up one’s body and begin to accept the energy before he does anything else.”  He was standing with his legs apart and his hands on his hips. As I watched, he slid his feel ytogether and lifted his arms.  His body rose up in one motion until he was standing on his tiptoes with his palms pressed directly over his head.

I blinked.  There was something unusual about the way his body moved and I couldn’t focus on it exactly.  He seemed to float upward rather than use his muscled.  When I could focus again, he was beaming a broad smile.   Just as quickly, his body moved from there into a graceful walk toward me.  I blinked again.

Page 65  “You must make sure your body is open everywhere in order to receive all the energy that is available.  You do this by moving every muscle, every morning, from your center.”   He pointed to a place just below the navel.  “ If you concentrate on moving from this area, then your muscles will be free to operate at their highest level of coordination.  It is the central principle of all the martial arts and dance disciplines.  You can invent your own movements.”

Page 66:  “I began slowly and remembered the basic principle. If you move from your  center and expect the energy to flow into you, you will move in a lighter and lighter manner.  Of course, to perfect this you must be able to open up to all the divine energy that is available from within.”