Neither shall they say: Behold here, or behold there. For lo, the kingdom of God is within you.
Utopia revealed to the readers of James Hilton's "Lost Horizon" is not a new idea knowing that for centuries spiritual sages of all traditions have attempted to explain to their followers the benefits that accrue to them living the Utopian life when surrendering their life into the care of their/our hidden resource...known to us here as The Spirit of God...alive in the life of every human person.
Hilton's attempt to describe his understandings may be based on traditions long current in the Far East of a hidden paradise. Early Buddhist writings call it Chang Shambhala and describe it as a source of ancient wisdom. Belief in it was once wide-spread in China, the Kun Lun Mountains were rumoured to contain a valley where immortals live in perfect harmony, while in Indian tradition there was a place called Kalapa, north of the Himalayas, where lived "perfect people." Shambhala, another name for Shangri-La, was reputed to lie in or north of Tibet, where seemingly impassable mountains enclosed secret valleys that were both fertile and life enhancing.
The Russian-born traveller Nicholas Roerich records in his Shambhala (1930) several visits to Tibet. In 1928 he asked a lama whether Shambhala was a real place. The lama answered: "It is the mighty heavenly domain. It has nothing to do with our earth . . . "
The question still remains: Does this hidden paradise actually exist or is its reality a matter for the spiritually mature person?
Here's my hope that we all find our Shangri-La.
If we have not found the heaven within,we have not found the heaven without~Lost Horizon, James Hilton
end
Responses