Shoko Asahara, once the leader of the leader of the 40,000 member-strong Aum Shinrikyo Cult in Japan, has a Date with a Noose:
TOKYO — Japan's top court rejected an appeal by doomsday cult founder Shoko Asahara, a court official said Friday, reportedly finalizing his death sentence for the 1995 nerve-gas attack on Tokyo's subways. Mr. Asahara was convicted in 2004 of masterminding the attack, in which his followers released sarin nerve gas on crowded commuter trains in Tokyo's government district, killing 12 and injuring thousands.The Supreme Court voted to reject the appeal, said Naoki Katayama, a court spokesman. He refused to say, however, whether the decision would definitely lead to Mr. Asahara's execution. Deputy chief cabinet secretary Jinen Nagase called the decision “appropriate.”Asahara
Asahara is one of many down through the ages who have sought to co-opt the Legend for Shambhala for their own purposes, usually nefarious. Excerpt from the book The End of Time by Damian Thompson:
According to his own [Asahara’s] account, the moment of transformation occurred while he was performing the role of a homeless monk and prostrating himself on a Japanese beach. Suddenly the figure of Shiva, the Hindu god of opposites—creation and destruction, life and death— materialized in front of him. Shiva told Asahara that he had been chosen to recreate the Kingdom of Shambhala, a mythical hidden valley in Tibetan tradition whose last king will defeat the Muslim infidels in a final war and establish the reign of Buddhism. Asahara would be this messianic figure, and it was consciousness of this which led him to the Himalayas in 1986 to perfect his ascetic practices.
In 1988 Aum [Asahara’ cult] published a pamphlet which revealed for the first time a plan to develop Japan into Shambhala. ‘This plan, unequaled in scope, will extend Aum’s sacred sphere throughout the nation and foster the development of multitudes of holy people, making Japan the base for saving the entire world,’ it announced.
Apparently the 1995 sarin gas attacks were meant to hasten the transformation of Japan into Shambhala.
