What does it mean to grow old in an enlightened society? This is the fundamental contemplation that this blog will attempt to address.
Shambhala is the name of an ancient enlightened society that was said to have existed somewhere in the Himalayas. The Tibetan Buddhist teacher and master warrior, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, brought the concept of Shambhala, of an enlightened society, to western civilization over thirty years ago. (Link to Shambhala: Sacred Path of the Warrior).
Trungpa Rinpoche emphasized that enlightened society was not a utopian fantasy or a long lost myth, but a way of working with the world on a moment- to-moment basis.
His son and heir, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, in his recent book, Ruling Your World, (link to book) describes how Shambhala (enlightened society), can appear in our day-to-day lives:
“Just as in the context of Buddhism we are all already Buddha –“awake’- the world is already Shambhala. It is only because we are roaming in the kingdom of doubt and anger, jealousy and pride, that we cannot see it right now. When we see through our perpetual agitation and relax into basic goodness, the enlightened world of Shambhala begins to appear. Enlightenment is things as they are before we color them with our projections” – Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, Ruling Your World, pp190-191
In offering this blog we recognize that some readers will be students of Shambhala who have adopted the vision of enlightened society as the basis for their life and have pursued meditation and contemplative practices to enhance the likelihood that they will, in any moment, ‘relax into basic goodness’. Other readers may be engaged in other disciplines that are intended to uncover the inherent wakefulness of the human mind. Some readers may be less interested in individual ‘enlightenment’ and more interested in how social systems can be organized so as to bring out the best in human behaviour and experience.
We welcome all readers to contemplate the simple question: what does it mean to grow old in an enlightened society?
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