There is a prophecy that emerged from Tibetan Buddhism about 12 hundred years ago. The signs it predicted are recognizable today… in our time. There are several interpretations of this prophecy. Some portray the coming of the kingdom of Shambhala as an internal event, a metaphor for one’s inner spiritual journey.  Others present it as a transformation of the human social system that will occur at the just right time.

The Shambhala Prophecy says… there will come a time when all life on Earth is in danger. In this era, great barbarian forces will have arisen which have unfathomable destructive power. New and unforeseen technologies will appear during this time, with the potential to lay waste to the world. In this era, when the future of sentient life seems to hang by the frailest of threads, the kingdom of Shambhala will appear.

The kingdom of Shambhala is not a geopolitical place, but a place that exists in the hearts and minds of the Shambhala worker. These workers wear no special uniform, nor do they have titles or ranks. They have no particular workplace, as their work is everywhere. In fact, they look just like the barbarians on the outside, but they hold the kingdom of Shambhala on the inside.

Now the time comes when great courage, intellectual, moral and spiritual, is required of the Shambhala workers who must go into the very heart of the barbarian power, into the tall buildings, offices, factories and citadels of learning where the weapons of destruction are made – to dismantle them.

The Shambhala workers have the courage to do this because they know that these weapons are “mind-made”. That is, they are created by the human mind, and they can be unmade by the human mind. The barbarian lie that these weapons are the inevitable result of progress must be exposed by the Shambhala workers. Shambhala workers know the dangers that threaten life on Earth are not visited upon us by any extraterrestrial powers, satanic deities, or preordained fate. They arise from our own decisions, our own lifestyles, and our own thinking. They arise from within us all.

The Shambhala workers go into the corridors of power armed with the only tools that the barbarians don’t understand, and for which there is no defense. The tools of the Shambhala workers are compassion for all, and knowledge of the connectedness of all things. Both are necessary. They have to have compassion to do this work, because this is the source of their the power, the passion to act with and for others.  It is said that when you open your own heart to the pain of the world you can move, you can act.  Th

But that tool by itself is not enough. Compassion alone can burn you out, so you need the other tool – you need insight into the radical interdependence of all things. With that wisdom you know that the work is not a battle between good guy and bad guys, because the line between good and bad runs through the landscape of every human heart. With insight into our profound interconnectedness, you know that actions undertaken with pure intent have repercussions throughout the web of life, beyond what you can measure or discern. By itself, that knowledge may be too conceptual to sustain you and keep you moving, so you need the energy that comes of compassion as well.

Within each Shambhala worker these two tools, compassion and insight, can sustain you as agents of  change. They are gifts for you to claim and share now in healing our world.  My wish is that you may  hold the kingdom of Shambhala in your hearts as you face all of the institutions of power and sources of oppression that you will meet in the future.

For those of you who feel paralyzed by the power of the systems of domination that appear so entrenched in our society today, I’d offer you a few words from Arthur Ashe, the great African-American tennis player who spent a lifetime fighting racial discrimination in his sport and in society.   When asked how did he get continue the struggle for social justice when everything seemed to be moving the other direction, Ashe replied:

· You start where you’re at,

· You use what you’ve got,

· And you do what you can…

Joanna Macy tells us that the Great Turning is inevitable.  The only question is how long we will remain asleep to the pain and suffering created by institutions of power before we choose the path of the Shambhala Worker.

The story above was adopted and adapted with permission from author Joanna Macy (see; http://www.joannamacy.net/). She writes about the Shambhala Warrior. I decided to change it to the Shambhala Worker. I don’t think the Buddha would mind.

Namaste….

John M. Gerber