Kālacakrapāda

དུས་ཞབས་པ་འཇམ་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ

Kālacakrapāda(b. 11th century - ) 

Born in:

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Varendra (a region of northern Bengal) in eastern India

The one known as Kālacakrapāda the Elder (Dus zhabs pa chen po) was born in Varendra (a region of northern Bengal) in eastern India. His father was a Brahmin yogin who practised Black Yamāri (Gshin rje gshed nag po), and his mother was an awareness ḍākinī. They performed a ritual from the Kṛiṣṇayamāri Tantra to ensure the birth of a noble son. The father dreamed of the noble Mañjuśrī entering his wife's belly, and the child was later born together with auspicious signs.

Due to the blessing of noble Mañjuśrī, the child had a bright mind with clear faculties, and took ordination when he was young. He studied many subjects and understanding them all with ease he became a paṇḍita and was known as Cilupa. He heard of Kālacakra from Paṇḍita Ācārya, but was not satisfied, and through the awakening of his previous prayers he developed a powerful wish to go to Sambhala.

As his personal deity Tārā would grant the realization of anything he wished, she prophesied that for the benefit of beings he would gather from Sambhala many tantras and bodhisattva commentaries.

This is a reference to a particular cycle of commentaries, often known as the bodhisattva trilogy (Sems 'grel skor gsum). Said each to have been written by great bodhisattvas, one is the Vimalaprabhā commentary on Kālacakra, and the other two deal with the Cakrasaṃvara and Hevajra tantras. (Source Accessed October 16, 2019)

Mentioned in

Video

Michael Sheehy at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium

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Michael Sheehy explores the “images of emptiness” or expressions of emptiness in the Kālacakra Tantra. He discusses how these were interpreted by Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen (1292-1361) and his immediate disciples to be direct expressions of tathāgatagarbha.

Sheehy, Michael. "Tantric Zhentong Visions of Tathāgatagarbha in Tibetan Kālacakra Yoga Manuals." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 46:01. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm7z5pR1EGA.

Sheehy, Michael. "Tantric Zhentong Visions of Tathāgatagarbha in Tibetan Kālacakra Yoga Manuals." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 46:01. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm7z5pR1EGA.;Michael Sheehy at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium;Dol po pa;Buddha-nature as Emptiness;Zhentong;Jonang;Vajrayana;History of buddha-nature in Tibet;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Tibetan Buddhism;Yu mo mi bskyod rdo rje;Nya dbon kun dga' dpal;Phyogs las rnam rgyal;Tsong kha pa;Vimalaprabhā;Jo nang lo tsA ba blo gros dpal;Jonang Yon tan rgya mtsho;Michael Sheehy;Tantric Zhentong Visions of Tathāgatagarbha in Tibetan Kālacakra Yoga Manuals

Other names

• རྣལ་འབྱོར་པ་དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོའི་ཞབས · other names (Tibetan)
• དུས་ཞབས་པ་ཆེན་པོ · other names (Tibetan)
• Rnal 'byor pa dus kyi 'khor lo'i zhabs · other names (Wylie)
• Dus zhabs pa chen po · other names (Wylie)
• Manyjuvajra · other names
• Cilupa · other names

Affiliations & relations

• Kha che zla ba mgon po · student
• Avadhūtipa · student
• Śrībhadrabodhi · student
• Nālandāpa · student
• Nāropa · student
• Sādhuputra · student
• Ratnakaragupta · student
• Mokṣakaragupta · student
• Vinayākaramati · student
• Siṃhadhvaya · student
• Anantajaya · student