Namo Kalachakraya !

Hail to Kalachakra

ALTERNATIVE KALACHAKRA - The Practice

CONTENTS:

PURIFICATION

All other tantras describe three practices: transforming death into the Dharmakaya, bardo into the Sambhogakaya and rebirth into the Nirmanakaya. In Kalachakra however, there is no description of transforming the bardo into the Sambhogakaya. The bardo is considered similar to rebirth and they are taken as one; so it describes just transforming death into the Dharmakaya and rebirth into the Nirmanakaya. The basis for purification is the form aggregate (or the elements). The Path is the two stages (generation and completion stage). The result is the two bodies of a Buddha: Dharmakaya and Rupakaya. See also #1 for a description of differences in practice between Guhyasamaja and Kalachakra.

INITIATION

A special feature of the Kalachakra tantra is that it is given to large numbers of people, whereas all other initiations are normally given to relatively small groups. Shakyamuni Buddha offered it for the entire country of Shambala and one of the Shambala Kings gave the empowerment to a large group of inhabitants when they intended to leave Shambala. His Holiness the Dalai Lama has commented that due to instant communication and transportation of our time, our community includes the entire planet. Because of this, statements like "Kalachakra for World Peace" appear quite appropriate.

Some general information on the Kalachakra initiation can be found here on the web. If you intend to take the initiation yourself, two books are highly recommended; see references #2 and #3 below.
Free from #2: The complex initiation of the Kalachakra Tantra consists of 15 initiations, divided into three groups. The first seven are "in the pattern of childhood", then there is a set of four high initiations, and a set of four greatly high initiations. Actually, one could speak of 17 initiations: an extra preliminary one and a final one - the initiation of a "Vajra Master Lord". The initial preliminary empowers one to visualise oneself as deity during the rest of the ceremony; the first set of seven empowers one to do the generation stage practices; the two sets of four empower one to do completion stage practices; and the final Vajra Master Lord initiation empowers one to give initiations to others (provided one fulfils the extensive requirements for a tantric Master).
   

INITIATION	CORRESPONDS TO	GIVEN BY	PURIFIES	RELATED TO
water*	first washing	female Tathagatas	aggregates	body
crown	fixing hair	male Tathagatas	elements	body
silk ribbon*	piercing ears &  fixing adornments	Shaktis	10 winds	speech
vajra & bell	laughing & talking	Kalachakra & Vishvamata	left channel	speech
conduct*	enjoying the senses	Bodhisattvas	6 sense powers & objects	mind
name giving	giving name	wrathful deities	6 action faculties & actions	mind
permission*	giving reading	Vajrasattva & Consort	pristine consciousness	aggregate of bliss

 *: Initiations 1, 3, 5, and 7 consist also of an extra "internal initiation": with each internal initiation, the students are reborn in an ideal fashion. The internal initiations purify stages of development in the womb. For example, the first internal (water) initiation purifies the process of the initial development of the student's elements and aggregates in the womb. These four internal initiations purify, or establish potencies for purity, the respective development of the student's body, speech, mind and bliss in the womb state.

The full initiation ritual is quite extensive; as summarised from #7 and #8:
Site rituals like: testing, requesting, purifying, taking possession, protecting and consecrating (elaborate ritual dance).
Preparation rituals like: preparation of: the earth goddess, the five substances, the chalk strings, the deities, marking the mandala.
On the third day, the hard work of drawing the sand mandala begins, after daily elaborate prayers and rituals. At its completion in 6 days, the Vajra Master blesses it again and offering dances are carried out.
On the ninth day, the students firstly are involved in the rituals of preparation, like taking the refuge and Bodhisattva vows.
On the tenth and eleventh day, the actual initiation is given, consisting of a complex succession of rituals.
On the twelfth day, initiates are welcomed to see the mandala, after which the mandala is dismantled. The sand is put into a vase and, with much ceremony, the vase is emptied in a local river, lake or sea.
The last two stages involve the pacification of the mandala site and the dedication of merit.

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GENERATION STAGE

Traditionally, one practices some daily meditations after receiving the Kalachakra initiation. Within the Gelug tradition, one is instructed to practice the "6-Session Guru Yoga" in order to keep to one's daily tantric commitments that come with a highest yoga tantra initiation. This texts for this practice exists in various lengths (even just a four-line version is available when in haste) and some are dedicated to specific tantric deities.
When His Holiness the Dalai Lama gives the initiation to Westerners, he generally does not commit them to do the specific "Kalachakra Six-Session Guru Yoga", although the commitment to do this relatively long practice at least once daily is often given to Tibetans.  The text of this practice can be found in #2 and a beautiful extensive explanation makes up #4. Several other practices or sadhanas can be found in #5. A brief Kalachakra Six-Session Guru Yoga can be found here on the web, look under Initialtion and then Sadhana.

Below explanation refers not specifically to the Six-Session Guru Yoga, but to the main other sadhanas.

#5: When we subdivide the generation stage meditations, they are said to be twofold.
 Firstly there is the process of meditation on how at the time of death the bodily elements withdraw and the clear light of death arises; to symbolise this, one intensifies one's accumulation of meritorious energy and contemplates the four doors of liberation.
Secondly, to symbolise the process of crossing through the intermediate stage and entering into a womb of rebirth, there is the yoga of meditating upon the four branches of approach and accomplishment. This second phase involves the four following (visualised) processes in the sadhana:

1. "Approximation", called the "Supreme Royal Mandala"
2. "Approximating accomplishment", called the "Supreme Royal Actions"
3. "Accomplishment", called the "Drop Yoga"
4. "Subtle Yoga"

These four branches lay the basis for respectively, the Kalachakra Vajra-Body; the Kalachakra Vajra-Speech; the Kalachakra Vajra-Mind and the Kalachakra Vajra-Exalted Wisdom. The first two branches are generation stage practices, the last two are completion stage practices. The contemplation of the four joys in the generation stage is actually a simulation of the genuinely transformative experience of them that will occur on the completion stage. One does not, in the generation stage, actually uproot defilements or directly cognizes emptiness; one does, however, lay a powerful basis for those attainments.

During the meditation on the sadhana, one visualises oneself as both Kalachakra and Vishvamata, surrounded by the mandala as the enlightened aspects of oneself, the universe and the practice. Various different sadhanas of Kalachakra exist, but only the longer ones are suitable for an approximation retreat. The minimum for such a retreat is the Mind Mandala sadhana, which easily takes 2 hours to complete. During an approximation retreat one does daily meditations and the recitation of hundreds of thousands of mantras. When these are completed (possible in about 6 to 8 weeks), a purifying fire puja is to be done to complete a full approximation retreat, which qualifies one to do e.g. self-initiation. Longer retreat versions can be the 3-year retreat, or simply the rest of one's life, until one achieves a very high level of concentration and identification with the deity. It is said that when one can hold the visualisation of the complete mandala including all its 722 deities in all detail for prolonged time in a very small drop, one is ready for the next step; the completion stage.

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COMPLETION STAGE

During the completion stage, the transformation to Buddhahood - which is merely visualised in the generation stage - is actually taking place. Much of the practice revolves around controlling even the most subtle aspects of body and mind.

As the completion stage is only to be cultivated after the completion of generation stage practices in the Kalachakra tradition, it seems inappropriate to explain the actual practices here. This is different from several other practices, like Vajrayogini. However, a short summary of the completion stage practices (free from #5; see also #1 and #4 for elaborate discussion).

The completion stage practices can be divided in six stages:
1. Individual Withdrawal: cutting off the individual vital energies in the 6 sense organs and the spheres of sensory perception. Arisal of "body of empty form".
2. Yoga of Dhyana: essentially samadhi combining insight and shamatha. It establishes divine pride in the empty form body.
3. Yoga of Energy Control: arresting the flow of energies in the right and left channel using vajra recitation and tummo. Gives rise to the four joys descending from above.
4. Yoga of Retention: using vase breathing to blend the main energies, the mind and the empty body at each of the chakras. Achieve the four joys of (the drops) ascending from below.
5. Yoga of Subsequent Mindfulness: practice with a mudra to achieve unchanging bliss. {See below under "immutable bliss"}
6. Yoga of Samadhi: bringing the white and red substances respectively to the tip of the jewel and the crown and retaining them. This causes a flash of stabilised bliss, that causes one of our 21,600 factors responsible for our coarse form to dissolve. Simultaneously, one of the 21,600 karmic energies are halted. Stacking 21,600 of white, male drops in a column from the tip of the jewel to the crown, and similarly stacking 21,600 of red, female drops in a column from the crown to the tip of the jewel causes one to achieve the state of Kalachakra.

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BODY OF EMPTY FORM

The Body of Empty Form is an aspect which only appears in the Kalachakra tantra. Other tantras refer to an "Illusory Body". This Illusory Body is composed from most subtle energy. The Body of Empty Form however, is not physical, but an appearance of the most subtle clear-light mind that appears when the subtle energies are gathering at the central channel. By continuously meditating on the Kalachakra deity, this appearance will take the form of Kalachakra. It is often described as a reflection of the most subtle mind, like the image in a magic mirror. This Body of Empty Form is created during total meditative absorption in emptiness, whereas the Illusory Body is created after the meditation.

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IMMUTABLE BLISS

#6: In the other Highest Yoga Tantras, we have the method of blissful awareness. In Kalachakra we have something called the "unchanging blissful awareness". This unchanging blissful awareness has certain characteristics that make it more stable.
{Free from #5:} One persists in the meditation until the mind spontaneously arises in the empty body form of Kalachakra and Consort. This causes light to emanate forth from one's pores, arousing the desire of the empty body mahamudra deities. One then practices sexual union with these mahamudra empty body deities and achieves the unchanging great bliss.
In general, three types of "mudras" or "seals" are explained (the fourth: samayamudra or commitment seal, is not applicable here):

1. Karmamudra: action seal, an actual woman.
2. Jnanamudra: wisdom seal, a mentally projected woman
3. Mahamudra: great seal, the empty bodies that actually arise from the appearances in one's own mind.

 The "dull" student needs a karmamudra first, lacking the meditation power to direct the vital substances to the tip of the jewel, and to create the "falling bliss". The "middling" student, with greater powers of meditation first uses the jnanamudra to generate a bliss that is not stable. The "sharp" students rely exclusively on the mahamudra, and they are able to experience the unchanging bliss solely through union with her. The other two types of students first need a karma or jnanamudra before they finally proceed to the mahamudra to generate the immutable bliss.
 #1: ..on the difference between the supreme immutable bliss of Kalachakra and the innate bliss of Guhyasamaja; the first Dalai Lama argues that there could be no difference between the two because otherwise at the end of the paths of other tantras one would be required to enter the path of Kalachakra. Rather, the supreme immutable bliss of Kalachakra is given a different name.. to denote its unique mode of production, namely a different method for increasing the drops. In the Kalachakra system it is necessary to rely on a Great Empty Form Seal in order to bring about empty form bodies. The Great Seal of Empty Form is a special type of consort who in some way .. surpasses an Action Seal. .. if one did not use a Great Seal of Empty Form, the drops piling up and down in the central channel at the level of subsequent mindfulness and meditative stabilisation would spread out at the channel-wheels instead of staying in the central channel.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

#1: Highest Yoga Tantra, Daniel Cozort, Snowlion 1986
#2: The Kalachakra Tantra, Rite of Initiation. Tenzin Gyatso the Dalai Lama and Jeffrey Hopkins (Wisdom, 1985)
#3: Taking the Kalachakra Initiation, Alexander Berzin, Snow Lion, 1997 ISBN 1-55939-084-0
#4: Transcending Time An Explanation of the Kalachakra Six-Session Guru Yoga, Gen Lamrimpa and B. Allan Wallace (Wisdom 1999) ISBN 0-86171-152-1
#5: The Practice of Kalachakra by Glen H. Mullin (Snow Lion 1991)
#6: Introduction to Kalachakra, commentary by Dr. Alex Berzin June 28 - 30, 1985 at Institut Vajrayogini, France
#7: Das Mandala by Martin Brauen (Dumont 1992) (Later appeared in many languages.)
#8: The Wheel of Time Sand Mandala, by Barry Bryant, Harper Collins 1995, ISBN 0-06-250088-0

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Last updated: January 26, 2001

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