Without beginning and without end,
Human society became manifest.
At that time liberation and confusion arose.
When fear and doubt occurred
Towards the confidence which is primordially free,
Countless multitudes of cowards arose.
When the confidence which is primordially free
Was followed and delighted in,
Countless multitudes of warriors arose.
Those countless multitudes of cowards
Hid themselves in caves and jungles.
They killed their brothers and sisters and ate their flesh,
They followed the example of beasts,
They provoked terror in each other;
Thus they took their own lives.
They kindled a great fire of hatred,
They constantly roiled the river of lust,
They wallowed in the mud of laziness:
The age of famine and plague arose.
Of those who were dedicated to the primordial confidence,
The many hosts of warriors,
Some went to highland mountains
And erected beautiful castles of crystal.
Some went to the lands of beautiful lakes ans islands
And erected lovely palaces.
And sowed fields of barley, rice and wheat.
They were without quarrel,
Ever loving and very generous.
Without encouragement, through their self-existing
inscrutability,
They were always devoted to the Imperial Rigden
(from Shambhala 1984 Chogyam Trungpa)
Chogyam Trungpa proposed that while it is easy to dismiss this Tibetan legend as pure fiction, it expresses a deep rooted "and very real human desire for a good and fulfilling life. In fact , among Tibetan Buddhist teachers, there has been a tradition that regards the kingdom of Shambhala, not as an external place, but as the ground or root of wakefulness and sanity that exists as a potential within every human being. From that point of view, it is not important to determine whether the kingdom of Shambhala is fact or fiction. Instead, we should appreciate and emulate the ideal of an enlightened society that it represents."
May all sentient beings, to the most recently born, be free of fear, free of pain. May all beings heal into their true nature. May all beings know the absolute joy of absolute being