Customer Reviews

Shambhala: The Fascinating Truth behind the Myth of Shangri-la

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There are no coincidences in life. I believe that all we read, we read for a purpose of which we are generally not aware and messages to us are interlaced within. The question becomes, 'Do we recognize the messages?' And if you are blessed with the 'coincidences' that I have experienced in leading up to this book, or decipher the messages there for you, it's rewards can propel you far in your pursuit of the understanding of life and your place in it. As the title suggests, the book is fascinating. And if you believe in or have a fascination with Eastern philosophy and/or religion, this book will heighten that fascination. For me it has been an amazing personal and life-altering journey. This isn't to say that everyone will experience the same. But I can only hope that all who read it have a comparable experience. Shambhala does indeed exist and the sooner 'society' realizes it, the sooner we can all change the disasterous course that the world seems headed towards.

The author has taken a great deal of trouble to research out what myths lie behind Shambala, and to point in some very interesting directions. However, do not confuse this book as having anything to do with the book by Chogyam Trungpa with a similar title.

"Shambhala" is great fodder for fantasy, and provides an interesting overview of the many, many religious and folk myths about this hidden kingdom, but it does not provide much real analysis of the empirical evidence. Critical thinkers will soon be skimming to the end and pursing the index before hanging on every word of the text. LePage methodically identifies each and every sociological, religious, spiritual, etc. thread that could relate to Shambalha, but assumes, without much support, that every other mythical kingdom somehow relates to Shambhala, sort of like Joseph Campbell, but with less reason. Fun for fantasy and speculation, but not enough to sustain a spiritual diet.

It is clear from many glaring factual errors that the author has only the most superficial familiarity with the Kalachakra and Tibetan Buddhism. She states "the terma tradition points the way to Shambhala." It seems that she only mentions terma because it is another exotic facet of Tibetan Buddhism with which she can tantalize readers. The reality is, the Kalachakra is a Sarma tradition, not terma, and the percentage of termas that relate to Shambhala is minuscule, if there even are any other than Chogyam Trungpa's recent ones.

I am not familiar enough with Hinduism to assess her assertions about it, but I expect she has little command of that material either.

A really fascinating Truth! You trust it because you feel the author's profound personal spiritual experience and deep research behind the book.Though unbelievable from the current materialistic point of view, nevertheless, this book provides a reliable explanation of what is going on with our planet Earth, and of what we can expect in the very near future, when the energy axis - the bridge connecting the Earth to the Cosmos - will come into harmony with the geagraphical and magnetic ones. It is in fact a book of synthesis of the understandings on energy in its different forms, history in its different times and even time systems, geography in different planes of our planet, and human properties and capabilities including those we don't yet fully understand and expect to have. This is one of those still rear books that take the reader into the dimensions we usually don't visit, but can and will in our common future.

Roza Riaikkenen, author "The Laws of Life"

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In the local Natural Foods market yesterday I saw a canned soft drink with the 'Tibetan Root Beer' flavor. If you are the kind of person who would eagerly buy such a drink, then this book is for you. If, however, you have a practical interest in the spritual path, I recommend you read instead "Shambhala, the Sacred Path of the Warrior", by Chogyam Trungp