Kalachakra: Encyclopedia - Kalachakra

Kalachakra

Kalachakra is a term used in Tantric Buddhism that means "time-wheel" or "time-cycles". It refers both to a Tantric deities (tib. yidam) of Vajrayāna Buddhism and to the philosophies and meditation practices contained the Kālachakra Tantra and its many commentaries. The Kālachakra Tantra is more properly called the Kālachakra Laghutantra, and is said to be an abridged form of an original text, the Kālachakra Mūlatantra. Some Buddhist masters assert that Kālachakra is the most advanced and effective form of Vajrayāna practice

The Kalachakra tradition revolves around the concept of time and cycles: from the cycles of the planets, to the cycles of human breathing, it teaches the practice of controlling the most subtle energies within one's body on the path to enlightenment. The Kalachakra deity represents a Buddha and thus omniscience. Since the Buddha is time and everything is under the influence of time, the Buddha therefore knows all. Similarly, the wheel is without beginning or end.

Kalachakra - The Kālachakra Laghutantra

The Kālachakra Tantra is divided into five chapters, the first two of which are considered the “ground Kālachakra.” The first chapter deals with what is called the “outer Kālachakra”—the physical world, in particular the calculation system for the Kālachakra calendar. It also explicates the basic symbolism of the Kālachakra system

The second chapter deals with the “inner Kālachakra,” and concerns processes of human gestation and birth, the classification of the functions within the human body and experience, and the vajra-kāya—the expression of human physical existence in terms of channels, winds, drops and so forth. Human experience is described as consisting of four mind states: waking, dream, deep sleep, and a fourth state, the experience of sexual orgasm. The potentials (drops) which give rise to these states are described, together with the processes that flow from them.

The last three chapters describe the “other Kālachakra,” and deal with the path and fruition. The third chapter deals with the preparation for the meditation practices of the system, the initiations of Kālachakra. The fourth chapter explains the actual meditation practices themselves, both the meditation on the mandala and deity of Kālachakra in the generation process, and the perfection process of the Six Yogas. The fifth and final chapter describes the state of enlightenment that results from the practice.

Kalachakra - Initiation

The Kālachakra initiations empower the disciple to practice the yoga of the Kālachakra tantra in the service of attaining Buddhahood. There are two main sets of initiations in Kālachakra, eleven in all. The first of these two sets concerns preparation for the generation stage meditations of Kālachakra and requires the use of the a Kālachakra powder mandala. The second concerns preparation for the completion stage meditations known as the Six Yogas of Kālachakra. Attendees who don’t intend to carry out the practice are generally only given the lower seven initiations.

Kalachakra - History

According to the Kālachakra legend, King Suchandra (Tib. Dawa Sangpo) of the northeastern Indian Kingdom of Shambhala requested teaching from the Buddha that would allow him to practice the dharma without renouncing his worldly enjoyments and responsibilities. In response to his request, the Buddha gave the first Kālachakra root tantra in Dhanyakataka (present day Amravati), a small town in Andhra Pradesh in southeastern India, supposedly emanating at the same time he was also delivering the Prajna Paramita sutras at Vulture Peak Mountain. Along with King Suchandra, ninety-six minor kings and emissaries from Shambhala were also said to have received the teachings. The Kālachakra thus passed directly to the Shambhala, where it was held exclusively for hundreds of years. Later Shambhalian kings, Manjushrikirti and Pundarika, are said to have condensed and simplified the teachings into the "Sri Kālachakra" and commentaries, all of which remain extant today as the heart of the Kālachakra.

There are presently two main traditions of Kālachakra, the Ra lineage (Tib. Rva-lugs) and the Dro lineage (Tib.'Bro-lugs). Although there were many translations of the Kālachakra texts from Sanskrit into Tibetan, the Ra and Dro translations are considered to be the most reliable (more about the two lineages below). The two lineages offer slightly differing accounts of how the Kālachakra teachings returned to India from Shambhala.

In both traditions, the Kālachakra and its related commentaries (sometimes referred to as the Bodhisattvas Corpus) returned to India during in 966 AD by an Indian Pandita. In the Ra tradition this figure is known as Chilupa, and in the Dro tradition as Kālachakrapada the Greater. Scholars such as Helmut Hoffman have suggested they are the same person. The first masters of the tradition disguised themselves with pseudonyms, so the Indian oral traditions recorded by the Tibetans contain a mass of contradictions.

Chilupa/Kālachakrapada is said to have set out to receive the Kālachakra teachings in Shambhala, along the journey to which he encounters the Kulika king Durjaya manifesting as Manjushri, who conferred the Kālachakra initiation on him based on his pure motivation.

Upon returning to India, Chilupa/Kālachakrapada is said to have defeated in debate Nadapada (Tib. [[Naropa]]), the abbot of Nalanda University, a great center of Buddhist thought at that time. Chilupa/Kālachakrapada then initiated Nadapada (who became known as Kālachakrapada the Lesser) into the Kālachakra, and the tradition as it was known thereafter in India and Tibet stemmed from these two. Nadapada established the teachings as legitimate in the eyes of the Nalanda community, and initiated into the Kālachakra such masters as Atisha (who, in turn, initiated the Kālachakra master Pindo Acharya (Tib. Pitopa)).

The Dro lineage was established in Tibet by a Kashmiri disciple of Nalandapa named Pandita Somanatha, who traveled to Tibet in 1027 (or 1064 AD, depending on the calendar used), and his translator Droton Sherab Drak Lotsawa, from which it takes its name. The Ra lineage was brought to Tibet by another Kashmiri disciple of Nadapada named Samantashri, and translated by Ra Choerab Lotsawa (or Ra Dorje Drakpa). The Ra lineage became particularly important in the Sakya order of Tibetan Buddhism, where it was held by such prominent masters as Sakya Pandita (1182-1251), Drogon Chogyal Pagpa (1235-1280), Budon Rinchendrup (1290-1364), and Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen (1292-1361). The later two, both of whom also held the Dro lineage, are particularly well known expositors of the Kālachakra in Tibet, the practice of which is said to have greatly informed Dolpopa’s exposition of the Shentong view.

The Kālachakra tradition, along with all Vajrayana Buddhism, vanished from India in the wake of the Muslim invations, enduring only in Tibet. Today it is practiced by all four Tibetan schools of Buddhism]], although it appears most prominently in the Gelug lineage. It is also very important in the smaller Jonang school founded by Dolpopa and his disciple Taranatha. Khenpo Kunga Sherab Rinpoche is one contemporary Jonangpa master of Kālachakra.

Kalachakra - Kālachakra Practice Today in the Four Tibetan Buddhist Schools

The Jonang sect of Sakya was banned in the 17th cent. by the Fifth Dalai-Lama, forcibly converting it to Gelug. Fighting between the schools also extended to the Jalpo deity of Sakya that was also forcibly converted to a Gelug deity, but that included the Sakya lama-lineage into that demonic deity's lineage. These subjects now have reached a pitch within the Tibetan community, as the fight for supremacy now spills over into both the Kalachakra sphere, the sphere of the banning of Jonang and as well, the sphere of the Jalpo deity. The banning of other ideas than the central ones, is still trying to be enforced, but is finding it more and more difficult in the face of the freedom of speech, ensured by modern society and media. Just banning ideas of others is now no longer possible, without incurring loss and reprimand for it. Totalitarian suppressing of freedom of speech, is no longer possible, as in Tibet, in 2006. Tibetan culture now appears more and more archaic, and out of contact with modern times, in which no one can be banned without having, on the contrary, full right to defend themselves, and the banner there, facing severe judgement and condemnation. The present supressing of all other voices than the central one in Tibetan culture, will be very nefarious for the banning, central power of Tibetan Buddhism, and that central power should think twice before now throwing stones from a glass house. I don't think that modern Buddhists want to see one-way, herd-thinking anymore. Popular favour goes with the oppressed.

Buton had considerable influence on the later development of the Gelug and Sakya traditions of Kālachakra, and Dolpopa on the development of the Jonang tradition on which the Kagyu and Nyingma draw. The Kagyu and Nyingma rely heavily on the extensive, Jonang-influenced Kālachakra commentaries of Ju Mipham and Jamgon Kongtrul the Great, both of whom took a strong interest in the tradition.

It should be noted, however, that there were many other influences and much cross-fertilization between the different traditions, and indeed His Holiness the Dalai Lama has asserted that it is acceptable for those initiated in one Kālachakra tradition to practice in others.

Gelugpa

The Dalai Lamas have had specific interest in the Kālachakra practice, particularly the First, Second, Seventh, Eighth, and the current (Fourteenth) Dalai Lamas. The present Dalai Lama has given thirty Kālachakra initiations all over the world, and is the most prominent Kālachakra lineage holder alive today. Billed as the “Kālachakra for World Peace,” they draw tens of thousands of people. Generally, it is unusual for such advanced teachings to be given to large public assemblages, but the Kālachakra has long been an exception. The initiation is received as a blessing for the vast majority of those attending, although many attendees do subsequently engage in the practice as well.

Kālachakra Initiations given by H.H. XIV Dalai Lama

• 1. Norbu Lingka, Lhasa, Tibet, in May 1954
• 2. Norbu Lingka, Lhasa, Tibet, in April 1956
• 3. Dharamsala, India, in March 1970
• 4. Bylakuppe, South India, in May 1971
• 5. Bodh Gaya, India, in December 1974
• 6. Leh, Ladakh, India, in September 1976
• 7. Madison, USA, in July 1981
• 8. Dirang, Arunachal Pradesh, India, in April 1983
• 9. Lahaul & Spiti, India, in August 1983
• 10. Rikon, Switzerland, in July 1985
• 11. Bodh Gaya, India, in December 1985
• 12. Zanskar, Ladakh, India, in July 1988
• 13. Los Angeles, USA, in July 1989
• 14. Sarnath, India, in December 1990
• 15. New York, USA, in October 1991
• 16. Kalpa, HP, India, in August 1992
• 17. Gangtok, Sikkim, India, in April 1993
• 18. Jispa, HP, India, in August 1994
• 19. Barcelona, Spain, in December 1994
• 20. Mundgod, South India, in January 1995
• 21. Ulanbaator, Mongolia, in August 1995
• 22. Tabo, HP, India, in June 1996
• 23. Sydney, Australia, in September 1996
• 24. Salugara, West Bengal, India, in December 1996.
• 25. Bloomington, Indiana, USA, in August 1999.
• 26. Key Monastery, Spiti, Himachal Pradesh, India, in August 2000.
• 27a. Bodhgaya, Bihar, India, in January 2002 (postponed).
• 27b. Graz, Austria, in October 2002.
• 28. Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India, in January 2003.
• 29. Toronto, Canada, in April 2004.
• 30. Amaravati, Guntur Dt., Andhra Pradesh, India, in January 2006.

The Ninth Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa Rinpoche, H.E. Chogye Trichen Rinpoche, Ven. Jhado Rinpoche, and Ven. Gen Lamrimpa are also among the prominent Kalachakra masters of the Gelug school.

Kagyu

The Kālachakra tradition practiced in the Karma and Shangpa Kagyu schools is derived from the Jonang tradition , and was largely systematized by Jamgon Kongtrul the Great, who wrote the text that is now used for empowerment. The Second and The Third Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche (1954-1992) were also prominent Kālachakra lineage holders.

The chief Kālachakra lineage holder for the Kagyu lineage was Ven. Kalu Rinpoche (1905-1990), who gave the initiation in the United States in 1982 in Boulder, Colorado. Upon his death, this mantle was assumed by his heart son the Ven. Bokar Rinpoche (1940 - 2004), who in turn passed it on to Ven. Khenpo Lodro Donyo Rinpoche. Bokar Monastery, of which Donyo Rinpoche is now the head, features a Kālachakra stupa and is a prominent retreat center for Kālachakra practice in the Kagyu lineage. Ven. Tenga Rinpoche is also a prominent Kagyu holder of the Kālachakra; he gave the initiation in Grabnik, Poland in August, 2005. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, while not a noted Kālachakra master, became increasingly involved later in his life with what he termed Shambhala teachings, derived from the Kālachakra tradition, in particular, the mind terma which he claimed to have received from the Kulikas.

Nyingma

Among the prominent recent and contemporary Nyingma Kalachakra masters are H.H. Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö (1894-1959), H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910-1991), H.H. Penor Rinpoche, and Ven. Orgyen Kusum Lingpa Rinpoche.

Sakya

His Holiness Sakya Trizin, the present head of the Sakya lineage, has given the Kālachakra initiation many times and is a recognized master of the practice.

Kalachakra - Astrology

The phrase "as it is outside, so it is within the body" is often found in the Kalachakra tantra to emphasize the similarities between human beings and the cosmos; This concept is the basis for Kalachakra astrology, but also for even more profound connections and interdependence as taught in the Kalachakra literature.

In Tibet, the Kalachakra astrological system is one of the main building blocks in the composition of Tibetan astrological calendars. The astrology in the Kalachakra is not unlike the Western system, in which complicated calculations are required to determine, for example, the exact location of the planets.

Kalachakra - Controversy

The Kalachakra Tantra has occasionally been the center of controversy because it contains passages which are sometimes seen as demonizing the Abrahamic religions, particularly Islam. Further, it contains the prophecy of a future holy war between Buddhists and so-called "barbarians", which is sometimes interpreted as encouraging inter-religious conflict. An alternate viewpoint believes Buddhism to be a peaceful religion and that this interpretation is probably caused by a much too literal reading of a very complicated text. Rather, the description of a sort of "holy war" may refer to the inner battle which is to be fought by every religious practitioner against one's inner demonic and barbarian tendencies.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Kalachakra", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki