I have just been reading Edwin Bernbaums book the Way to Shambhala which details the shambhala ‘concept’ as being present in all religions in the modern age and in the religions that pre-date it.

Myself I explored Christianity before I got into Buddhism -re some religious experiences I had I visited many Christian churches for about a year every Sunday. I nearly became a methodist -primarily thinking back this was because of the sense of community, the openness of the place and the people and perhaps the connection to reformist politics.

My mother was a Catholic but I was not brought up in the faith but looking back I can see some of my ideals are based on Catholic theology such as the concern for others. There does need to be more debate happening between these two great religions in the future I agree with you on that. My ‘conception’ of Shambhala is that still the teachings should be open to everyone of every faith as the Vidyadhara wanted so the Sakyong’s present position does indeed highlight a crisis for a lot of people

‘Rancour’ in the discussion about the future of Shambhala – I would not call the present discussion going on on rfs of this flavour -its merely a discussion of what is coming up in peoples minds about the Shambhalian teachings which we all care about.

A split – there is indeed splits and splits re the Orthodox Church splitting off from the catholic church in 1054 but in that time there have always been discussions going on between the two churches of Christianity. For example the present Archbishop of Canterbury thinks highly of the Orthodox Church and has ecumenical gatherings with them. If there was indeed though a split in Shambhala we could still have a sense of ecumenism and meet together to discuss our differences and similarities.

Best

Rita Ashworth
Stockport UK

Best,

Ed Michalik
Roman Catholic
KSS member