So much has happened since last I wrote.  Most recently, a very well-respected television journalist in Mongolia came to the Roerich Museum & Shambhala Center here in Ulaanbaatar and interviewed our founder, the world’s preeminent Mongolist Dr. Shagdaryn Bira.  Khishigsuren Sharkhuu is the general director of Enlightenment TV, which is widely watched and includes in its fan base all of Mongolia’s intelligentsia as well as all former presidents and prime ministers.  “Soyongegeeruulegh” means enlightenment in Mongolian and it was indeed an honor and, I believe, a very positive omen to be covered by such an outlet.  And Khishigsuren is an extraordinarily capable and insightful interviewer, determined to wring from her subjects the most meaning, relevance and depth of content.  She interviewed Dr. Bira for nearly two hours and it was wonderful to see the interview gather energy and clarity.  Truly, she managed to convey to her respected audience a remarkably articulated and inspiring vision of Tenggerism, Shambhala and the Roerich legacy.  For us at the Roerich-Bira Foundation, the interview was a kind of cosmic gift.  It not only gave us the publicity we have very much needed, but it did so in an ideal fashion and we are very grateful.  I was also interviewed and spoke on camera for perhaps ten minutes.  My message was relatively simple: Shambhala is created by the attentiveness and good will of persons who care for one another and for our earth, sky and cosmos.  It is not a mystery.  It is here, now.  We are bringing it into being.  And we are doing so by leaving nothing out of our vision: we encourage cultural awareness and achievement, a reevaluation and reinvention of civil society according to harmonious principles, and full appreciation of the absolute priority of the well-being of all life and the intrinsic principle of development.  We leave nothing out!  Scientific achievement, economic fairness, social harmony, cultural vitality and physical health: nothing essential to the fulfillment of life can be omitted from a true understanding of Shambhala.  And no one must be left behind. 

I returned to Ulanbaatar on 24 May with a great sense of relief.  New York was shaking off its bitter winter and it had been a productive few weeks for me intellectually.  The 80th Anniversary celebration of the Roerich Pact at the UN was exciting and provided important opportunities to reconnect with my Russian colleagues.  The most important thing I took away from that experience was the confirmation that culture is more important than ever. So, feeling renewed in my sense of purpose, it was with high hopes and impatient enthusiasm that I made my trek back to Mongolia where I would pick up my work with the Roerich-Bira Foundation.

It is said that there are three ways to create new wealth: banking, agriculture and mining.  Each of these has been  corrupted by their perverted forms in the course of the past few decades: over-financialization, GMOS and environmental destruction.  I assert that the fourth way to create new wealth is through culture.  Aristocrats in centuries past used to diversify their wealth thusly: one-third gold, one-third land and one-third art!  Indeed, there is no denying the wealth potential represented by culture.  But its value extends beyond the monetary to include the deeper psychological dimensions.  I have long felt that culture gives the collective the same essential benefits as sleep does to the individual. 

It has been shown that sleep deprivation–more specifically, the deprivation of deep sleep, where dreams occur– inevitably leads to psychotic symptoms.  Without dreams, the psyche begins to dissociate, to break down.  Inevitably, death will result.  I believe it is the same with culture.  Culture is the dreaming process of the collective.  It allows reflection, respite, metaphorical representation, illumination and the integration of experience.  Thus, attacks on true culture by propaganda, mass disinformation and heartless media (that glorify violence, objectification and mindless obedience) are attacks on the health of society and, by extension, the lives of every individual. 

The creation of false culture is part of the effort to replace true culture.  But also the wanton destruction of true culture is also in evidence: the recent assault by “ISIS” on Palmyra represents an assault on culture on a truly metahistorical scale.  Even the agents of destruction themselves, “ISIS”, are artiticial.  They are hardly Islamic and are indeed the creations of Western intelligence and Mossad.  The attack on Palmyra is only another example of the fascist effort to destroy the natural heritage of the human species in order to replace it with a system of control.  Even to say “fascist” is a bit inexact and even primitive.  More precisely, it is probably true that we are witnessing a Freemasonic project to seize utterly the dreams of the human race and to disempower with empty spectacle that bears unmistakably psychotic aspects.  In short,  Goldman Sachs, Monsanto and Ivanhoe Mines have been joined by the very artifical ISIS who indeed are corporatist dream killers.  Together, their aim is to deprive the human race of free access to its sacred birthright–natural wealth. 

Summer has come to Ulaanbaatar.  The mild heat and dry air is soothing after the long winter and a changeable spring.  It feels good to be back the Roerich Museum, working hard.  A few days following my return, we had a stupa renovation ceremony, led by a remarkable lama, a Rinpoche.  He is a very young man of sixteen, but his dignity and palpable benevolence conform his calling and his abilities.  Dandar Lhaaran Rinpoche presided over our renovation and pledged to return and to guide our subsequent work.  He is a committed Shambhala agent and his kindness and encouragement has already brought the Roerich-Bira Foundation many remarkable and unexpected blessings.  Dr. Bira and I have agreed to collaborate on a writing project which will posit Shambhala as the antidote to the encroaching control measures being desperately imposed by a clique that seems to have lost its direction and whose increasingly violent means threatens the survival of the planet.  We work joyously, without hesitation, without hatred.  We invite full participation. 

The summer will be full of exciting discoveries.  The international symposium that we had planned for June needed to be postponed until October.  We were not too dismayed.  We believe there is a reason for everything and we believe in our ultimate success.  We are planning a cultural event at the museum on 4 July.  I look forward to reporting on what promising to be a richly rewarding afternoon!  Please keep following us.  Many thanks and blessings.