Kālacakra

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GlossaryKālacakra

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Sanskrit Noun

Kālacakra

Wheel of Time
कालचक्र
དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ།
時輪

Basic Meaning

Can refer to either the Kālacakra Tantra and its derivative texts or to the systematic tantric tradition based on these texts, as well as the deity Kālacakra upon which the associated practices are centered.

On this topic
Book
Ornament of Stainless Light
The premiere volume of Thupten Jinpa’s thirty-two-volume Library of Tibetan Classics series, inaugurated to coincide with the Dalai Lama’s conferral of the initiation rite of Kālacakra in Toronto in April 2004.

The Kālacakra, or “wheel of time,” tantra likely entered Indian Mahayana Buddhism around the tenth century. In expounding the root tantra, the Indian master Puṇḍarīka, one of the legendary Kalkī kings of the land of Shambhala, wrote his influential Stainless Light. Ornament of Stainless Light is an authoritative Tibetan exposition of this important text, composed in the fifteenth century by Khedrup Norsang Gyatso, tutor to the Second Dalai Lama.

One of the central projects of Kālacakra literature is a detailed correlation between the human body and the external universe. In working out this complex correspondence, the Kālacakra texts present an amazingly detailed theory of cosmology and astronomy, especially about the movements of the various celestial bodies. The Kālacakra tantra is also a highly complex system of Buddhist theory and practice that employs vital bodily energies, deep meditative mental states, and a penetrative focus on subtle points within the body’s key energy conduits known as channels. Ornament of Stainless Light addresses all these topics, elaborating on the external universe, the inner world of the individual, the Kālacakra initiation rites, and the tantric stages of generation and completion, all in a highly readable English translation. (Source: Wisdom Publications)
Kilty, Gavin, trans. Ornament of Stainless Light: An Exposition of the Kālacakra Tantra. By Khedrup Norsang Gyatso (mkhas grub nor bzang rgya mtsho). Library of Tibetan Classics 14. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2004.
Text
Kalkī Śrī Puṇḍarīka: vimalaprabhānāmamūlatantrānusāriṇīdvādaśasāhasrikālaghukālacakratantrarājaṭīkā
A crucial commentary to the Kālacakra Tantra purported to have been written by Kalkī Śrī Puṇḍarīka, the fabled Second King of Shambhala also known as Kulika Puṇḍarīka, though in the Tibetan tradition the work is sometimes attributed to the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara whom Puṇḍarīka was considered to be an emanation of. In the Tibetan tradition it is counted among the Three Cycles of Bodhisattva Commentaries (Sems 'grel skor gsum), which are a trilogy of canonical commentaries attributed to the transcendent Bodhisattvas Vajrapaṇi, Vajragarbha, and Avalokiteśvara on the Cakrasamvara, Hevajra, and Kālacakra Tantras, respectively.
Text
Tāranātha: Essential Points on the Origins of the Cycle of Teachings on the Kālacakra
Tāranātha's history of the Kālacakra teachings.
Text
Rendawa Zhönu Lodrö: The Jewel Lamp Illuminating the Definitive Meaning of the Glorious Kālacakra
In the Jewel Lamp Illuminating the Definitive Meaning of the Glorious Kālacakra, Rendawa Zhönu Lodrö presents the content of Kālacakra tantra using the scheme of the causal continuum or the ground nature, the method continuum or the path, and the resultant continuum or the all pervading adamantine body of the Buddha. Though not a polemical work, he repeatedly refutes the position holding buddha-nature and resultant Buddha body to be identical, absolute and eternal. He provides a very clear and comprehensive presentation of the causal continuum through conventional and ultimate types of the ground nature, the method or path continuum by discussing the six limbs of yogic applications in Kālacakra, and the resultant state by discussing its nature, cause, duration, forms and qualities.
Term Variations
Key Term Kālacakra
Topic Variation Kālacakra
Tibetan དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ།  ( dukyi khorlo)
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration dus kyi 'khor lo  ( dukyi khorlo)
Devanagari Sanskrit कालचक्र
Chinese 時輪
Chinese Pinyin shí lún
Buddha-nature Site Standard English Wheel of Time
Ives Waldo's English Term Translating from the Tshig mdzod chen mo: anuttara tantra or its yidam whose ground path and fruition presentation have outer, inner, and other (dus sbyor) connections therefore called the wheel of time.
Term Information
Source Language Sanskrit
Basic Meaning Can refer to either the Kālacakra Tantra and its derivative texts or to the systematic tantric tradition based on these texts, as well as the deity Kālacakra upon which the associated practices are centered.
Did you know? The Kālacakra Tantra was the last of the major Tantric works to appear in India, though it is deeply connected with the mythical land of Shambhala.
Term Type Noun
Definitions
Tshig mdzod Chen mo 1) bla med rgyud sde zhig ste gzhi lam 'bras bu'i rnam gzhag thams cad phyi nang gzhan gsum gyi dus sbyor dang 'brel bas dus kyi 'khor lo zhes bya'o/ ... 2) gnyis med rgyud kyi yi dam zhig ... ming gi rnam grangs la khams gsum 'khor los sgyur ba dang/ gnyis su med/ tha ma med/ thabs shes bdag nyid/ thog ma'i mgon po/ dang po'i sangs rgyas/ rdo rje sems dpa'/ sdom pa la 'dus pa/ rnam kun mchog ldan/ rnal 'byor rnam pa/ 'pho med/ byang chub sems/ zhi ba/ rigs kun khyab bdag rigs med pa/ shes dang shes bya'i bdag nyid mchog e waM yi ge bcas so/



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