Episode Transcript
This time the physical location is the Gobi Desert, a mostly uninhabited area spanning the border between Mongolia and China. But no need to go there in your physical body. You’d find nothing but cold desert winds, dust in the air and harsh, barren wilderness. Instead, take your time at night with your prayers and meditation. Relax, let your physical body go to sleep and let’s go tour the etheric location, which is very old and very beautiful and really different from what we’d see there on the physical level.
A long time ago, as we see time, but recently in geological history, the Gobi Desert used to be the Gobi Sea. On an island in the Gobi Sea there was paradise known as Shamballa. Its center was called the City of White, and it was the spiritual capital of the world. Tibetan Buddhism still has its traditions about Shamballa, which we read today as myths and legends about “a mystical kingdom hidden behind snow peaks somewhere north of Tibet.” The texts warn that only those who are called and have the necessary spiritual preparation will be able to get to Shamballa; others will find only blinding storms and empty mountains – or even death. It’s interesting to note how ambiguous the directions are for an expedition so don’t get on a plane, there’s no physical paradise in the wilderness there now.
The actual reality, which took place long before recorded history, is a non-fiction drama that now can be found underpinning most of our fictional drama – the journey of the hero. It’s worth pausing to understand this before we go there so that you can appreciate the long-term heroism that endured in Shamballa for eons.
The setting for this actual journey of the hero is described in the events in Revelation, where you may remember it reads, “And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought, and the dragon fought, and his place was no longer found in heaven.” This is about the rebellion long ago, of Lucifer and others of high angelic rank who had free will, like man and woman. The rebels took the position that they had no need to serve us as our teachers because we, in their opinion, would never grow to be Christlike. They thought we just didn’t have the potential in us. A third of the lower angels, who didn’t have free will, obediently followed the high-ranking rebels away from their service to God in the high etheric.
The consequence of losing the war to Archangel Michael was that the rebels found themselves with negative karma in our physical level, where subatomic activity moves so slowly. Instead of fire bodies they had flesh bodies. For former angels the physical level was a prison, unless they turned themselves around and taught virtue to man and woman. But most didn’t. Revelation continues, “And the devil is come down unto you having great wrath. Woe unto to the inhabitants of the Earth and the sea.” This warning was for real. It was real because every man, woman and child maturing on Earth and other planets at the time were corrupted – absolutely. They were unable to fend off enormously powerful and angry former angels who had become unstoppable physical warlords.
The end result of the wars and decadence in our prehistory was that this planet lost all semblance of civilization and life descended to the caveman level, a whole world of the living dead. When all light and love had gone out in the hearts of everyone inhabiting Earth there was no reason for the planet to exist. It’s cosmic law that under those conditions the dissolution of a planet is decreed. It breaks apart and becomes an asteroid belt. Opportunity ends for every soul on that planet. So it was to be for Earth.
The major religions on Earth have different names for the hero, a volunteer, who recognized the just reasoning of the law for dissolution but, exercising the quality of mercy he stepped in front of Earth’s fate. His name was and is Sanat Kumara, known to Zoroastrians as Ahura Mazda, to Hindus as Skanda or Karttikeya, to Buddhists as Dipamkara and to Jews and Christians as the Ancient of Days. This merciful hero petitioned to stand in front of a cosmic council known as the Council of the One Hundred and Forty and Four, knowing what the requirement of the Law would be for saving Earth from a unanimous decree for dissolution. The requirement was that if there was just one soul of light who was qualified to be the Lamb of God, who would be present in the physical octave, in perpetual meditation on the Eternal Christos, then that one would count for the many, until the many once again became accountable for their words and their works. Hundreds of thousands of years ago Sanat Kumara chose to be that one. Revelation, describing these events in pre-history, doesn’t offer a lot of detail.
The cosmic council deliberated at great length and eventually approved the petition for mercy. Sanat Kumara was not native to Earth. He was one of seven brothers who were rulers in the etheric octave of our neighboring planet, Venus. There may have been no life then on the physical level of Venus but there was caveman life on Earth and for Sanat Kumara the downward adjustment in vibration was likely to be brutal, for an indefinite term. The description in Sanat Kumara’s own words, on Page 324 of The Masters and Their Retreats, explains the prospects as he returned to his twin flame, Lady Master Venus and a formal reception on the etheric level of Venus. There, everyone knew what he’d promised for neighboring Earth.
Quote. “That evening, the joy of opportunity was mingled with the sorrow that the sense of separation brings. I had chosen a voluntary exile upon a dark star. And though it was destined to be Freedom’s Star, all knew it would be for me a long dark night of the soul.
“Then all at once from the valleys and the mountains there appeared a great gathering of my children. It was the souls of the hundred and forty and four thousand approaching our palace of light. They spiraled nearer and nearer as twelve companies singing the song of freedom, of love and of victory. Their mighty chorusing echoed throughout elemental life, and angelic choirs hovered nigh. As we watched from our balcony, Venus and I, we saw the thirteenth company robed in white. It was the royal priesthood of the Order of Melchizedek, the anointed ones who kept the flame and the Law in the center of this hierarchical unit.
“When all of their numbers had assembled, ring upon ring upon ring surrounding our home, and their hymn of praise and adoration to me was concluded, their spokesman stood before the balcony to address us on behalf of the great multitude. It was the soul of the one you know and love today as the Lord of the World, Gautama Buddha. And he addressed us, saying, ‘O, Ancient of Days, we have heard of the covenant that God hath made with thee this day and of thy commitment to keep the flame of life until some among Earth’s evolutions should be quickened and once again renew their vow to be bearers of the flame. O Ancient of Days, thou art to us our Guru, our very life, our God. We will not leave thee comfortless. We will go with thee. We will not leave thee for one moment without the ring upon ring of our chelaship. We will come to Earth. We will prepare the way. We will keep the flame in thy name.’
“And so, as the LORD God directed me, I chose from among them four hundred servant sons and daughters who would precede the hundred and forty-four thousand to prepare for their coming. For though they knew the darkness of the darkest star, in reality they did not know, as I knew, the real meaning of the sacrifice that they were now offering to make in the name of their Guru.” Unquote.
Sanat Kumara knew it was a descent into hell. The builders, the four hundred, built the City of White on the island in the beautiful blue Gobi Sea, patterned after the city of the Kumaras on Venus. Sanat Kumara established the focus of the threefold flame for Earth in the retreat at Shamballa, which was visible in the physical octave for many centuries. Sanat Kumara lived in the physical retreat but didn’t wear a physical body at all times like we do, probably because Earth was one very dangerous and rebellious planet. War with the principalities of darkness was perpetual. He could see the physical without being seen, when necessary.
The danger to Shamballa increased and in time the beauty, service and goodwill coming from the physical retreat was reviled by infiltrators in the surrounding populations. In order to prevent the retreat from being overrun and destroyed by angry mobs the entire region of Shamballa was quickened in the resurrection flame and raised in vibration to the etheric octave. The beautiful azure-blue Gobi Sea and the City of White were no longer visible in the physical octave. Instead, all that was left was windswept desert and legends of a paradise no human could find.
For hundreds of thousands of years in pre-history, and down through our recorded history, Sanat Kumara continued his service to humanity. This service from the etheric Shamballa involved anchoring millions and then billions of specific rays of light in his heart and extending them to each individual evolving on Earth - to nourish and encourage the tiny flame of latent Christ consciousness to grow, lifetime after lifetime. This is the perpetual caregiving role of the impersonal Divine Mother, personified in Sanat Kumara, and also as we saw in Jesus. Without this perpetual lifeline of divine fire, or heart to heart resuscitation, mankind en masse would have been wiped out when the planet was destroyed under cosmic law.
Sanat Kumara, the Ancient of Days, the long-term volunteer hero, kept these perpetual rays of divine assistance going to billions of hearts on Earth until January 1, 1956 when he awarded the office of Lord of the World to his most capable disciple Gautama Buddha. Sanat Kumara returned to etheric Venus after a heroic, seriously long-term stand against never-ending war on Earth. Even as the Cold War began in the mid-20th century the long dark night of rebellion was shifting gradually toward victory for the light. Freedom from the global mindset of fear, greed, anger and oppression was dimly on the horizon.
And Gautama Buddha, once the apprentice, now capably extends a sustaining ray of divine light simultaneously to everyone on Earth, as Sanat Kumara did for so long. No favoritism – the sun shines on the just and the unjust so that all have opportunity to choose to love. The impersonal love of God the Father as Spirit, for God the Mother as the nurturer of material form, appears through the perfect love of the archetypal Son of God. Representing the archetypal Son, Gautama also has his eye on that term, ‘shifting gradually toward victory.’ You, your children and grandchildren will see that needle move on Earth, in this lifetime.
But take a second to imagine how anyone could possibly have enough love to know everyone on this planet and extend a ray of love to them, perpetually, without blinking. That’s mastery, and it’s why we turn our thoughts to heaven with some reverence and appreciation. It’s also why we can’t wait to visit heaven in our etheric bodies.
So, Shamballa, the etheric retreat we’re about to visit, is led by Gautama Buddha, who knows what’s going on with everyone on Earth and yet maintains his state of perfect peace. He’s unmoved by all our mistakes. Stay alert though, during our visit, and don’t expect for a minute that Sanat Kumara and Lady Venus, who put everything on the line for Earth for so long, aren’t still keeping an eye on us in a big way. You can think of Sanat Kumara every time you hear his keynote, Finlandia, the fervor for freedom, by Sibelius.
But just before we set off on this tour, a quick note in case this is the first episode you’ve heard. It might help to understand the context better if you skip back to the Intro episode, so you know what I mean by ‘touring heaven.’ If you’re driving it might be easier to concentrate if you’re parked.
We’re on our way and just as we did on our visits to the Royal Teton and the Arabian retreats we approach the etheric location of Shamballa with our blue angel escorts, spiraling in toward it from a great height, while our physical bodies are tucked in and fast asleep at home. Our spiral approach gives us plenty of time to look down and marvel at the beauty of Shamballa. In the physical there’s only rocky desert but in the higher vibration the Gobi Sea twinkles and glitters like white diamonds scattered across the azure blue water around the island. The island itself is approached from the mainland by a wide marble causeway, leading to rings of temples, terraces, broad avenues, shrines, fountains, public gardens, walking paths and many homes overlooking the sea.
The City of White is white because so much of it is built with marble. In sunlight it’s dazzling. But remember what we thought were Grecian columns, three-hundred feet high around the interior of the Arabian Retreat and we were wondering where ancient Greek architects got their inspiration? For now, let’s just say the original influence here in Shamballa was Venusian etheric, patterned after the city of the Kumaras. Where the Kumaras got their inspiration from would involve a tour to far-off worlds, another time.
Right now, before we meet the master who’ll be our guide, we can see looking down from above, that the largest temple in Shamballa is in the center of the island. It too is made of marble with a golden dome. A wide, tree-lined avenue links the causeway to the central temple. For a comparison in our physical world, think of the Champs-Elysees in Paris for a sense of the grandeur of the avenue in length and breadth. And then add seven more temples in landscaped garden settings along the avenue. Now, where did the architect who redesigned Paris get his inspiration?
On the ground, as we greet our guiding master and walk along the sidewalk on the avenue toward the central temple we notice that the fountains set on flower terraces around the seven temples are not water fountains – they’re elegant flame fountains – in radiating rays of blue, yellow, pink, white, green, purple and violet. Above us, angels of various hues spiral into Shamballa, accompanying students like us in their etheric bodies to their halls of learning, or to temples and garden shrines for prayer. On the avenue, masters and students are walking in each direction and there’s a sense of buoyancy and joy in the air. So, as we walk, a thought comes to mind: I’m walking in a city in heaven. It’s been here on Earth for a long time and a lot of pre-history, including lost civilizations, have come and gone during its time. This Shamballa has, for spiritual purposes, been the capital of the planet far back into time and except for quaint legends and a few movies our mental awareness never seriously thought it existed.
But we’re here on this beautiful avenue. We notice the birds in the fruit trees throughout the gardens are chirping at the top of their voices as our guiding master welcomes us and leads us up the grand stairway to the golden doors of the main temple. Inside, it’s suddenly hushed, except for the soft sounds of choral voices in a neighboring chamber and the little wave sounds of flame fountains in alcoves along the walls.
“We’re going to see the main altar,” the master says quietly, indicating the way we should go. As we move along a marble-lined hallway he explains that for aeons this altar has been and remains the principal focus of the threefold flame of God’s love, wisdom and power for the planet. The comforting light from this central altar radiates around and through our Earth. From a wide doorway we look in and hold our breath. Above the altar, a bright star-like form draws our attention and we shade our eyes. There’s also a glowing feeling in the heart. The master tells us that through this star Sanat Kumara connected a ray of love from his heart to everyone evolving on Earth, perpetually assisting them to raise their awareness of the laws of self-mastery. The concept of ‘perpetually’ stands out for a moment and then the thought moves on to, ‘Greater love hath no man than that he lay down his life for his friends.’
If you think of these masters like Sanat Kumara and Gautama Buddha, as long-term friends, people you’d trust with your life, instead of formal religious icons, you begin to realize that the presence of God in them that works these marvelous works is also latent in you. That presence is meant to grow. The design for your marvelous works is already written in your soul memory. These universities of the spirit are where you can develop the design.
A quiet thought forms: what design do I really have that’s worth developing? The master, standing with us in the doorway to the main altar, seems to pick up on that and reminds us of what it must have been like here a quarter of a million years ago.
“The volunteers who came here with Sanat Kumara weren’t just anyone,” the master says. “They were one hundred and forty-four thousand advanced souls who were specialists, living exemplars of one of the hundred and forty-four virtues. They were teachers and leaders. Now, the question is, what are the hundred and forty-four virtues and which one is your specialty? That is what’s worth knowing and developing.”
Then the master does something unexpected. He goes to a nearby alcove and picks up a short log, ordinary-looking firewood, from a neat stack. Firewood, we’re thinking, what is that doing here?
“Think of the conditions on Earth hundreds of thousands of years ago,” the master says. “The great temple cities had been destroyed in wars and humanity had devolved to caveman level. To the people, Shamballa, the City of White, was a place of awe, a shining wonder to the hunters and gatherers of the region. Sanat Kumara would give simple firewood logs, consecrated at the altar, like these, to the families and pilgrims who would travel here once a year, to receive a holy Christmas present, if you will. Fire was important to these people who had let the inner fire go out, because of the wars. A consecrated log like this would be a token of commemoration that was used to light their cooking fires through the coming year. This was the beginning of the Yule log tradition worldwide, the return to the inner fire of Christhood. This was a symbol that had meaning to them – the way back up from darkness was through light.”
Then, as the master carefully places the log back on the stack, recorded history comes to mind: war after war, empires and dynasties rising and falling in a procession of repetitive cycles. The way back up from darkness was a slow, endless roller-coaster of emperors, invasions and rebellions - not much better even now. How long will this go on?
“You wonder if God is infinitely patient?” the master asks. “And the LORD said, my Spirit shall not always strive with man,” he responds from Genesis, turning to us and pausing. “I would show you a mystery. Walk with me.”
As he turns, we’re right behind him in the hallway in the central temple until suddenly we’re walking along in a tunnel of light, similar to the way we went from the Arabian Retreat to the Temple of the Resurrection. Except this time, we step out into cool air and very bright sunlight, on a pathway to a gold-domed temple. We look around and see we’re high up on a grassy alpine plateau. There are rings of mountains around us in every direction, some forested, some snowcapped. The air is clean and still with tiny crystals of ice floating in the air above us.
“We’re in what you know as the United States,” the master says, looking around. “The Gallatin Range in Montana, north of Yellowstone Park. The Royal Teton Retreat is about 80 miles to the south.”
The sudden change has made us speechless. We walk to a marble balustrade and look down about two-thousand feet to the valley floor below. The forested sides of this alpine valley are dotted with villas and domed mansions, like jewels enhancing the natural beauty of the slopes. Grassy meadows and walking trails appear here and there through the forests and a creek flows under marble bridges and around domed temples and halls of learning along the valley floor. Someone is singing in the temple nearby. It’s so perfect, so exhilarating and comforting at the same time and yet so mystifying we turn to our guide, the master, for an explanation.
“This is the mystery,” the master says. “We speak of a tide. In the year 1976 Gautama Buddha prophesied the future transfer of the retreat of Shamballa to America, as the place chosen where all shall return to the teaching and community. He said, ‘For here we will transfer Shamballa, here we will transfer that City of Light one day.’ Five years later, on this ground, he said, ‘From Shamballa I arc a light. I would establish the ground of the Ancient of Days. In this hour I contemplate – note it well – the arcing of the flame of Shamballa to the Inner Retreat as the Western abode of the Buddhas and the bodhisattvas and the bodhisattvas-to-be, who are the devotees of the Mother light.’”
The master is silent for a moment, looking out over the valley. “For now,” he begins, “Gautama maintains a portion of his presence at that point of Shamballa in the East and a portion here in the West. Contemplate, if you choose, the meaning and purpose of the transfer of Shamballa to these mountains, which were sacred of old. Contemplate the gathering and the return of the one hundred and forty-four thousand and the lights of the East who were once lost, returning as community, remembering their sacred vows. They take them up again, here in the Western Shamballa, in America. This is the mystery.”
The beauty everywhere around us, the crisp, cool air, brings back the same mysterious idea we heard from Confucius in the Royal Teton Retreat. The steady movement of the ancient lights from the East. If the monasteries and temples and holy culture of Tibet and China are destroyed where do those lights go? They embody where there is more freedom.
Now, in the physical octave we know there are no crowds in this alpine area, just north of Yellowstone Park, in Montana. Away from the one highway it’s mostly quiet wilderness. But in the etheric a great gathering and realignment of light on the planet is occurring. There’s a vast City of Light filling these mountain valleys and it radiates the mercy of a coming golden age, beyond the United States, across the whole planet.
“Yet, there is more to know,” the master adds. “These mountains have long been sacred, the place where the archangels taught the first root-races of Earth, long before the Fall. And while Sanat Kumara in Shamballa held the light in the hearts of the people, his twin flame, Lady Master Venus founded this City of Light in these mountains, ages ago. It is known as the Retreat of the Divine Mother, extending for many for miles, in all directions through these valleys. Gautama Buddha, Sanat Kumara’s successor, brings the beginning of the transfer of Shamballa to an established city of heaven. The light in your world must have freedom, in order to draw heaven on Earth together.”
We look down at the ponds and gardens and temples of the City of Light two-thousand feet below us, filling the valley and stretching along the ridges.
“There are healing waters in this area,” the master muses, “which were spoken of by Sanat Kumara. If the interdisciplinary arts of healing were to make friends with one another, to unite around these healing waters, around a center for healing then the world, your world, would come to this wilderness not only as tourists but as pilgrims.”
The master looks at us thoughtfully and then takes out a small book from inside his robe.
“It may be possible that you have a role in this,” he says, “I read the words of the Ancient of Days, for your consideration, for you to weigh. Consider then the weight of heaven’s determination that this be restored: “I come with a vision. I come that you might see that when such a center is established again (as these remained from the golden ages down to the hour of the sinking of continents) and the sacred fire tended in the center of the center, people will come from all over the world as pilgrims today go to Lourdes and Fatima. And I tell you, the prophecy will be fulfilled that many more pilgrims will come to this place of Light than have ever gone to any other. Such is our capacity and the dispensation of the Great Central Sun to endow it with Light.”
There’s a long pause as the master appears to assess our comprehension of the words of the Ancient of Days. And then he tests us again.
“The question is, what is your capacity for God-mastery – your hands, your heart, your mind perceiving the wholeness? Is there a reason for the transfer of the Light to the Western Shamballa?” Then, with a knowing smile, the master turns and gestures toward the temple behind us.
“Now, then, your presence is requested,” he says, and invites us to go on ahead of him.
At the top of the stairs another master, more formally dressed in gold silk, opens golden double doors and asks us to go with him into an ornate reception area. On the far side the large glass windows look out over forested mountains ranging in snow-capped lines to the horizon.
The master bows to us and says, “It is my pleasure to introduce you to the Lord of the World, the Ascended Master, Gautama Buddha.”
We hear pure laughter behind us and turn to see a handsome young man in a gold silk robe, evidently amused at the thoughtforms in our minds of what Gautama Buddha should look like. He holds our hands warmly and assures us no, he doesn’t look like the statues we were seeing in our mind’s eye, though he could appear that way if it was absolutely necessary.
“I am very observant,” Gautama says, still lighthearted. “I observe you by the contact of my flame through the thread-contact I maintain to the threefold flame of your heart. Acts of love and valor and honor and selflessness surely contribute to this flame. But a higher power and a higher Source does keep that flame until you, yourself, are one with that higher power – your own Christ Self.”
Gautama invites us to be seated in the reception area, continuing his point with the familiarity of an old friend.
“Therefore, all receive the boost of my heart flame and impetus. And as that light passes through me from the Godhead, I therefore perceive many things about you and your everyday life that you might think beyond mention or notice of a Lord of the World, who must be, indeed, very busy.”
“Well, indeed, I am!” he says, laughing again. “But I am never too busy to notice the elements of the Path presented by parents and communities and in the schoolrooms of life everywhere. For I make it my business to see to it that some element of the path of initiation, moving toward the heart of Jesus and Maitreya, is a part of the life of every growing child.”
His joy is evident, but he also conveys innocence, purity and a radiance of wisdom. We sense he’s simultaneously fully aware of every event, light and dark, going on across the planet while giving us his full attention. We can only wonder what love or valor or honor or selflessness we’ve offered to life to have deserved even a moment of his time. And then the instant prompt comes to mind that he gives us all of his time, whether we’re aware of it or not.
Gautama then suggests it’s possible we’ll be back in the near future, when we may be offered a measure of responsibility related to our tours. There is a tunnel of light, he informs us, between the Western Shamballa and the Arabian Retreat, a straight line, which we might want to keep in mind, should we find ourselves with an opportunity to work with Jesus in the Middle East.
And with this, there’s also a thought left in our etheric awareness of a particular goal, uniquely our own, that must be addressed by our physical self in the near future. A decision to act. The level of urgency will be conveyed by intuition at a suitable moment.
And then the tour is over, we’re on our way back to the cool, still air outside and our waiting angels. But the twinkle in Gautama’s eye also had a touch of sternness that suggested he’s counting on us to get the goal completed. As in, remember this.
For those of us who live in the physical United States it’s a relatively short, weightless trip back from Montana to our sleeping body, unconcerned that there will likely be no mental recollection of any part of this tour when we wake up. No problem. Intuition works.
A little hint or a reminder about Gautama’s good nature. If you’ve ever heard the Ode To Joy from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony listen to it again and know that that exuberance connects you right away with the one who intimately knows you’re gradually becoming God and are well worth his care.
The reference source or encyclopedia for each of our tours of heaven is, The Masters and Their Retreats. You can browse or buy the book on ascendedmastersspiritualretreats.com.
Next tour, we’re back in China, in the etheric foothills outside Beijing, to visit our most gracious lady of mercy, Kuan Yin, in the Temple of Mercy.
Thanks for taking this really interesting tour of heaven and a look back into more history than we’re used to. Looking forward, I can only say, Always Victory!
