The Way to Shambhala : A Search for the Mythical Kingdom Beyond the Himalayas

Rating:
Summary: Classic Shambhalism
Review: First published in 1980, this classic by ur-Shambhalist Edwin Bernbaum is now thankfully back in print. In the first couple of chapters Bernbaum covers the background of the Legend of Shambhala without the sensationalism and dubious scholarship which hovers like a miasma around many other Shambhalists. Some may object, however, when he goes on to equate the journey to Shambhala with an interior mental road of self-discovery. As another noted Shambhalist, John Newman, has pointed out, "Bernbaum's analysis of the journey to Shambhala in terms of three levels of consciousness - surface consciousness, subconscious, and superconsciousness - seems to owe more to Freudian psychoanalysis than to Buddhism." Also, despite what is said in perhaps a dozen other books, Bernbaum does not, repeat does not, include here extensive excerpts from the Third Panchen Lama's "Guidebook to Shambhala"; what he does include is a translation of the Kalapavatara, another guidebook to Shambhala on which the Panchen Lama's book is based, and also translations of excerpts from several other Tibetan guidebooks to the storied kingdom, all of which will be of extreme interest to dedicated Shambhalists. This book deserves a place alongside Andrade's "Novo Descobrimento do gram Cathayo, ou Reinos de Tibet, pello Padre Antonio de Andrade da Companhia de Jesu, Portuguez, no anno de 1626" on the shelf of any armchair Shambhalist's library, or in the portmanteau of any Shambhalic sojourner.

Rating:
Summary: The Way to Shambhala
Review: I loved the first 100 pages of this reading. It dealt mostly with the geography and mystical aspects of the region. After that it became a repetitive series of pages involving a look at the superstition of the mythical kingdom. I would only suggest this book to the advanced reader with a real passion for the stories of the ancient aspects of the search for the kingdom.