Unbound

David Barnes   January 8, 2016

I am reading a book about a journey into the labyrinth of the Tsangpo River gorge in eastern Tibet—three times the depth of the Grand Canyon—the story of a search  for a mythic and mystical earthly paradise called Beyul Pemako: the Secret Land Shaped Like a Lotus. It is a quest for Chimé Yangsang Né, the innermost secret place of immortality—a paradise realm known also as Shambala. Many have made a pilgrimage searching for a majestic waterfall, said to be a doorway to this innermost secret place. This search was the source for James Hilton’s book Lost Horizon and the mythic paradise Shangri-La. Here are some words spoken by the High Lama, in the epic 1937 Frank Capra movie Lost Horizon.

“It came to me in a vision, long, long ago. I saw all the nations strengthening, not in wisdom, but in the vulgar passions and the will to destroy. I saw the machine power multiplying, until a single weaponed man might match a whole army. I foresaw a time when man, exalting in the technique of murder, would rage so hotly over the world, that every book, every treasure, would be doomed to destruction. This vision was so vivid and so moving, that I determined to gather together all things of beauty and of culture that I could, and preserve them here, against the doom toward which the world is rushing. Look at the world today. Is there anything more pitiful? What madness there is! What blindness! What unintelligent leadership! A scurrying mass of bewildered humanity, crashing headlong against each other, propelled by an orgy of greed and brutality. A time must come my friend, when this orgy will spend itself. When brutality and the lust for power must perish by its own sword. Against that time, is why I avoided death, and am here. And why you were brought here. For when that day comes, the world must begin to look for a new life. And it is our hope that they may find it here. For here, we shall be with their books and their music, and a way of life based on one simple rule: Be Kind! When that day comes, it is our hope that the brotherly love of Shangri-La will spread throughout the world. Yes, my son. When the strong have devoured each other, the Christian ethic may at last be fulfilled and the meek shall inherit the earth. My friend, it is not an arduous task that I bequeath, for our order knows only silken bonds. To be gentle and patient, to care for the riches of the mind, to preside in wisdom while the storm rages without. You, my son, will live through the storm. You will preserve the fragrance of our history and add to it a touch of your own mind. Beyond that, my vision weakens but I see at a great distance a new world stirring in the ruins, stirring clumsily but in hopefulness, seeking its lost and legendary treasures, and they will all be here, my son, hidden behind the mountains in the Valley of the Blue Moon preserved as by a miracle.”

Beautiful words from the High Lama. I am sure we feel moved by them, and feel a resonance with their application to our own spiritual quest to create a sanctuary space, both in form and in heavenly or vibrational reality; and like the High Lama we have had a vision of the formation of a nucleus body composed of many lamas, many angels playing many roles, who extend the radiance, the power, and the substance of spiritual security in the midst of a world gone mad. This is spiritual work that all of us have been engaged in for many years; some were born into it, and others were re-born out of an old life into this new life expression. It takes sustained, undeviating passion to express the differentiated qualities of my own Being accurately in daily living, in a world where passion is largely directed outward, and where interests are frequently so self-serving and of the lowest common denominator. We all share a cosmic commission, which is birthing the emergence of a focal nucleus and a new humanity. Like the High Lama, beyond this our vision perhaps weakens, but we can sense something from a distance—a new world stirring in the midst of a passing order.

The dedication in the book I am reading says, “For the Unbound”—and this reminds me of words from Matthew 18:18: “Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” There is a work of loosing to be done in the affairs and habits of daily living, so that the innermost secret place of immortality can be freed-up and revealed in fitting ways. People say things like, “I feel stuck; I feel blocked, restricted; I am in a bind.” When we feel unnaturally bound we must make changes to free things up. Each of us can think of many areas where one may feel bound—the High Lama did a good job of naming most of them.

It might be well to consider the avenues, or vehicles, through which our spirit is flowing, and wherever we are bound or loosed with regard to the use of that vehicle, so will be the factual vibrational message that extends beyond us in radiation. We might each consider how free we are to move easily in the current context of the creative process, because the freedom will be what extends the quality of welcome. Over many months, I have been examining into and asking myself certain of these questions. Looking back to the time since my own, your own, awakening was initiated, has spiritual passion diminished or increased over these fulfilling years? It should be greatly increased if we have continued to accumulate a substantial body of personal and collective life substance, life plasma. I am not talking so much about forms as the quality and intensity of the substance and the passion. In the midst of the wonder of what has occurred, I know it is necessary to let an expansion take place in me, and in the development of a nucleus body—which is actually larger than the sum of the parts assembled at any time, or with regard to any configuration given to this fine work.

A caution was issued many years ago: no settling down, into the illusory comforts of self-satisfaction. What is pressing to come forth right now? You know how it goes, “I’ve been at it for over 50 years you know; I don’t have to do this anymore; let someone else do it.” And changes do come; forms change; specific vehicles for service change—but no settling down!—just changing forms. All this has to do with passion, interest, purified desire. Is this not what our incarnation is all about? Is this not a time of fruition for each of us—for some the capstone of a life of spiritual passion in radiant service. It is in fact a time of new birth, new beginning. Relative to the binding and the loosing, I was reminded of Job 38:31. Binding the sweet influences of Pleiades: the passionate, controlled radiance of the seven spirits of my Being. Loosing the bands of Orion: the focused creative action of love made visible. Bring forth Mazzaroth in his season: life on the move in the rhythms of the cosmic creative process right now. There is so much theory, speculation, philosophy, religion, dogma—when right at hand living may reveal the weight, the gravity of embodied knowing.

This is what Jesus brought, and it didn’t fit any conventional paradigm. The term “I” abounded in His discourses. “I know whence I came." “I am the light of the world.” “I and my Father are one.” “Before Abraham was, I am.” All of it was seen as threatening to conventional religious authority—and it was! His authority was perceived as arrogance and blasphemy. Few have been able to receive the evidence of eternal identity. Plato and Aristotle came a few hundred years before him, postulating a realm of pure Ideas, First Principles, the Abstract, but they never had the audacity to identify with that realm, saying, “I am that.” Jesus did! And He challenged others to assume the same eternal identity, reminding them, “Ye are the light of the world.” “Ye are gods.” In the synagogue of His home city, Jesus delivered the first message of His public ministry. Here are a few words from Luke 4:18-21: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord... This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” Shortly after He spoke these words He had to escape because there were people present who wanted to kill Him—and that was at the beginning of His ministry.

Authentic expression is powerfully disturbing of the status quo, but it is exquisite and wonderful, silken and fragrant, as the High Lama said, and not an arduous task at all to those whose hearts are open, who are hungry and want to eat nourishing food. The implications of authentic expression are apocalyptic. The weight of embodied personal knowing—that is something to think about! It is not an arduous task at all. This is what I was called into many years ago, and I suspect it is the same with you too. And so together we can say, this is the acceptable day, this is the acceptable year of the Lord—for my coming forth with increased passion for the spirit, for the Word. The door to the hidden waterfall is open and anyone who is well prepared may walk through.

Here are some words which speak to these things most beautifully, from the poem Little Gidding by T.S. Eliot

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring 

Will be to arrive where we started 

And know the place for the first time. 

Through the unknown, remembered gate 

When the last of earth left to discover 

Is that which was the beginning; 

At the source of the longest river 

The voice of the hidden waterfall

And the children in the apple-tree

Not known, because not looked for 

But heard, half-heard, in the stillness

Between two waves of the sea.

Quick now, here, now, always— 

A condition of complete simplicity

(Costing not less than everything)

And all shall be well and

All manner of thing shall be well

When the tongues of flames are in-folded 

Into the crowned knot of fire

And the fire and the rose are one.