When was the last time you came across a story that so totally captivated your imagination that you put aside doing anything else, while you leaned in, nose in the spine, turning page after page and all the while travelling to lands far, far away? And more than a page-turner, a story that sparked your imagination and faith, your wonderings about the possibility of a real heaven on earth? A story that questioned your conviction and willingness to go on a true quest for a grail that can be found, for a land that holds all the auspiciousness to become the center of a sacred effort to rebuild the world anew with wisdom and great Love? And what if that quest was not only real but had been pursued in our own lifetime, and written about just a few short years ago? 

I don’t quite know how I came across the book A Step Away from Paradise: the true story of a Tibetan Lama’s Journey to a Land of Immortality. It’s one of those serendipitous events where an article leads to a little research leads to a headline leads to a book and that book opens up a world that touches threads I have long held dear.

I have always believed in and aspired to create heaven on earth. I have always pondered the structures needed from philosophical tenets of freedom to urban planning and biophilic design to personal transformation and spiritual illumination. I have always loved to read about visionaries with burning eyes, bright with inner knowledge and an energy to bring about an exalted world we’d all want to live in. And my heart has always lifted when I think of the snow mountains of the Himalayas, those high and rugged sacred ranges, inhabited by yaks and leopards, yogis and cave dwellers, described in legend and myth. I spent over a year walking in the high mountains, valleys and stretches around Langtang and Pokara, Dhauladar and Almora, Zabarwan and Garwhal, Zanskar and Ladakh. I was always in search of great meditators enveloped in their practice, revealing the way to make the most out of this one precious birth, and a way to bring an enlightened context into the very world we inhabit. My own adventures are subject for another time. At the moment, I am compelled to share with you this extraordinary fairy tale of a real world attempt to open the way to a sacred land that the Tibetans have long held aspirations for. This land is not forever locked within meditative visualizations, it is said to be tangible, physical, and accessible from the remotest reaches of Sikkim. 

If you think this is the stuff that long tales by firelight are made of, that lead one fantastical event to the next you are right. And yet, this account is not from hundreds or thousands of years ago. This story—so colorful and illustrative Joseph Campbell would have thrown his head back in sheer delight had he been able to read it—has been researched, investigated, corroborated, and reported on all with the modern convenience of air travel and internet. Thomas Shor is our journalist and guide. The larger-than-life mischievous and magical Tibetan yogi Tulshik Lingpa is at the heart of it.

Tulshik Lingpa was, as is known in Tibetan Buddhism, a terton. He was not just an incarnated lama born with realization developed and acquired in previous lifetimes, but one who is able to find and release hidden spiritual scriptures. These treasures or ter are said to have been planted by the great master Padmasambhava, who lived in the 9th century and is credited for bringing the wisdom of the Buddha into Tibet. Now, hidden is not exactly what we would think. Not hidden like the Dead Sea Scrolls, in a long-forgotten jar buried under a rock on some mountain cliff. Hidden ter means invisible to the eye, often embedded in stone, in such a way that it can only be “revealed” by a terma. By one such as Tulshik Lingpa who has the good karma, the good fortune, preconditions, right intention, and the spiritual knowledge to be able to divine the location of these hidden sacred texts, make them appear, and then decipher their encoded wisdom. A few scratches on a stone once transcribed could become a 300-page text. The unbelievable part of this is that this terton and the ter Tulshik Lingpa has uncovered is from our times. The great adventures described in this wild book took place in the autumn of 1962.

Tulshik was born in the early part of this century in Golok, eastern Tibet. The photos we have of him show a dashing young man. Lithe body and handsome face so delicate he seems androgynous, a feminine beauty in a masculine form. Like the deities painted in Tibetan tangkas, his captivating eyes speak of eternity and his mouth betrays laughter and power at the same time. As deep as he seems from his photos, the accounts from his son and a couple dozen others who knew him describe a “wild man,” who would “say one thing and do another,” who was not bound by convention and was “crazy enough” to dare to take a group of believers with him, up a high mountain pass, at risk of their lives, to attempt to open the way to this hidden, albeit manifest, holy land. 

Thomas Shor takes us on a pilgrimage that is part investigative reporting, part historical validation and explanation, and part spiritual biography. He travels with Tulshik’s son Kunsung and grandson Wangchuk as translators, guides, and lucky charms—their presence an authentication to the interviewees of Shor’s mission and good intention. The desire of those interviewed to transmit their love and faith in Tulshik Lingpa’s attainment to his son and grandson colored every aspect of their memories with a wash of reverence and respect. And so they freely shared their deepest convictions, their firsthand experiences, their hopes and harsh challenges, and also some of their most closely guarded secrets. This story, several years in the making is a once in a lifetime opportunity, one that it seems Thomas Shor was destined to reveal.

The reading of the book is spellbinding. A fast-paced “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and a profound peek behind the walls of hidden monasteries, we follow Tulshik Lingpa’s life and journey and the elements that brought him to his heralded attempt to open the doors to mythical Beyul Demoshong. We see him as he heals lepers with pujas and prayers, and hold our breath as the king’s emissaries threaten his wellbeing. We learn about fantastical contortions he effects to protect secret meetings with sacred consorts and shake our heads as he retires to live and meditate in a mountainside cliff dwelling with his wife and small children. A Step Away from Paradise delivers in spades all that could possibly be included in an authentic Tibetan quest for the holy grail. 

I couldn’t put the book down. It made me smile the whole while I was reading it. It gently blew on the embers of my own willingness to quest and leave everything behind for a great spiritual possibility and revelation. It filled me with hope and faith, even as I wondered whether one had to be from the same culture to truly be able to follow this mythical and mystical contemporary sage.