The Secret Of Shambhala: In Search Of The Eleventh Insight (2001) - Plot & Excerpts
Why I read it:My interest in themes of spiritual import has lead me to read the Celestine Prophecy series. I am very interested in understanding the design of the universe, and aligning my energies towards achieving the greatest, most attractive and pivotal outcomes that my life is capable of fulfilling. This book is an excellent tool for helping to conceptualise an ideal, appropriate, and attractive story of my life.How it is written:The novel is an adventure story that follows a man as he leaves his home in America to search for answers and insights in Tibet.The underlying purpose of the novel is to share themes, "insights", as the author calls them, that help facilitate the reader to discover or decide on an appropriate destiny for themselves, as well as to raise up for the reader an attractive vision to work towards, of how humankind could one day live on Earth - given that humanity is able to align to an appropriate path of progress and development.The way that Redfield presents his message is through the novel's dialogue. Basically, Redfield has explained the concepts he wishes to convey to readers by inserting them into quotation marks which actually serve as the dialogue that the characters of his story engage in as they attempt to progress through the trials, twists and turns of their journey.It is interesting to note that the level of detail he uses to describe the environmental setting is not highly descriptive or complex, so there is a certain amount of freedom provided in leaving it up to the reader to imagine and construct gaps in the description for themselves. Building on that, Redfield uses simple descriptions for his environment. This seems like a straightforward technique that would be easy to emulate for newby writers that are looking to develop their talent from basic capabilities, or writers that only wish to convey a story through a simplistic medium.Personal reflection:Considering the diversity of paths that one might conceive that humanity will take, in addition to the path presented by Redfield, it is probably inevitable that humanity will achieve visions that are synonymous or 'metaphorically identical' to the one shared by Redfield in due course.According to my logic and knowledge base, it will only occur on the condition (founded on a basis of upholding human rights and creating global prosperity) that humanity does develop processes and utilise systems that evolve, generate, retain, diffuse, and apply knowledge to every human being and aspires to include every human being.
This book contains some awesome ideas about the power of our minds being much more than we think it is...energy that actually extends beyond what most people think they are (the body, rather than the True Self, the Mindstream). The Buddha said that "we create our reality with our thoughts" and this book elaborates on that, discussing how we can learn to turn the world towards a higher plane using thoughts focused on positivity. Although it is couched in a fictional setting, the ideas are from the mystical traditions of Buddhism as well as other ancient eastern faiths and philosophies. It definitely give us something to consider with regards to becoming more aware of our thoughts and how they might affect the world more than we consciously realize.
What do You think about The Secret Of Shambhala: In Search Of The Eleventh Insight (2001)?
Redfield's books are to spiritual seekers what the romance novel is to single women. They're so fun to read, even if they're a little over the top. This one is infinitely better than the 10th Insight. I love the idea of the prayer field, although I don't care for the terminology, and how we must deal with our negative emotions or else we'll be running into our projections of them all over the "real world." The idea of paradise presented in this novel is exciting, creative, and inspiring. That alone makes it worth digging into.
—Jordan
I liked it a lot. Lots of great ideas and thoughts about energy and how we affect our environment and life paths. Something that i am curious about.Sad to say though that 15 years later Tibet is not saved as predicted! and the world religions seem to have grown further apart and further consumed with hate for one another. Materialism has even greater appeal and power.Has the new age energy been hijacked?! Maybe been tricked by great advertising campaigns and must have products from the likes of Nike, Apple & Nespresso!
—Nicola
"You will learn that at these higher levels of energy, our fields of prayer act very quickly to bring to us exactly what we expect. If we fear, it brings to us what we fear. If we hate, it brings us more of what we hate.""You see, the energy fields of all of us mix together out there, and the strongest ones prevail. That’s the unconscious dynamic that characterizes the human world. The state of our energy, our prevailing expectations, no matter what they are, go out and influence everyone else’s mood and attitude. The level of awareness between humans, and all the expectations that go with it, are contagious. "
—A. Gulden
