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1. The Inner Kālacakratantra

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A Buddhist Tantric View of the Individual Vesna A. Wallace

Preface

The Kālacakratantra and its commentarial literature are a rich textual source for the study of diverse but mutually related fields of South Asian studies in general and of South Asian Buddhism in particular.

The works that belong to the Kālacakra literary corpus warrant careful research for several reasons. They express the doctrinal and social theories and the relevant tantric practices that were characteristic of north Indian Buddhism in its final stages.

A study of those theories and practices reveals the ways in which the Indian tantric Buddhists from the early eleventh century on interpreted and further developed earlier Buddhist ideas and their practical applications.

The Kālacakratantra literature also sheds light on the religious and social conditions of eleventh-century India in general and on the social standing and role of Indian tantric Buddhism of that era in particular.

For these reasons, a main focus of this book is on the Kālacakra tradition as an Indian Buddhist tradition.

Although the Kālacakra tradition has been a significant component of Tibetan Buddhism to this day and has produced a large body of tantric literature in Tibet, for a number of reasons the intended task of this book is not to provide a detailed analysis of the Indo-Tibetan Kālacakra tradition as a whole.


The Kālacakra tradition as a whole includes a plurality of texts and interpretative perspectives, some of which are not in agreement with each other; and it deals with an extensive variety of topics, which deserve separate scholarly analyses.

Likewise, the diverse and complex historiographical, textual, and philosophical problems surrounding the Kālacakra literature of both India and Tibet, which should be addressed in great detail, require a collaborative effort of scholars who are willing to undertake such a task.

The central topic of this book is the Kālacakratantra's view of the nature of the individual and one's place in the universe and society. Accordingly, a primary theme of the book is a textual, historical, and philosophical analysis of the second chapter of the Kālacakratantra, called the “Chapter on the Individual” (adhyātma-patala), and its principal commentary, the Vimalaprabhā.


However, since the Kālacakra tradition's theory of the human being permeates all the chapters of the Kālacakratantra, the second chapter of the Kālacakratantra is intimately related to the other chapters of this tantra.

For example, the Kālacakratantra's view of the individual is inseparable from its view of the universe as discussed in the first chapter of the tantra.

Likewise, the purpose of the Kālacakratantra's presentation of the individual's psycho-physiology in the “Chapter on the Individual” becomes clear only when examined in light of the tantric yogic practices described in the third, fourth, and fifth chapters.

Therefore, in this book the topics of the inner Kālacakratantra are dealt with in their relationship to the larger context of the Kālacakratantra's theory and practice. In accordance with the Kālacakratantra's theory of nonduality, this book analyzes the Kālacakra tradition's view of the individual in terms of the individual as cosmos, society, gnosis, and the path of spiritual transformation.

For this reason, the main chapters of this book are entitled the “Gnostic Body, ” the “Cosmic Body, ” the “Social Body, ” and the “Transformative Body. ” Santa Barbara, California August 1999 V. A. W.

-vi-

Acknowledgements

I owe a great debt of gratitude to the Fetzer Institute, and especially to the former director of the research program there, Professor Arthur Zajonc, for its generous financial support, which enabled me to continue the research and writing that I initially started during my graduate studies at the University of California in Berkeley.

My former professors and distinguished scholars in the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies and in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literature at the University of California, Berkeley, prepared me for this work and facilitated my initial research and writing of this book. I am very grateful to Ms. Cynthia Reed, editor at Oxford University Press, who believed in me and in this project long before it was finished. I also wish to express my appreciation to the editors at Oxford University Press, especially to Mr. Robert Milks and Mr. Theodore Calderara, for their meticulous work and graciousness.

I am also greatly indebted to Mr. Calvin Smith for his patience and endurance in the painstaking task of proofreading the manuscript and correcting the awkward expressions to which I as a nonnative English speaker am prone. I thank him for all the hours that he spent in making and adjusting the graphics in the book.

My sincere gratitude also goes to Mr. Brian Bailey for his professional help in creating the graphics for chapter 7 on the “Cosmic Body” and to Mr. David Reigle for his generosity in providing me with copies of the Sanskrit manuscripts.

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my husband, Alan Wallace, for reading the manuscript and offering his useful comments, for supporting me in my work, and bringing light to the darkness of my ruminations.

Finally, I wish to thank my daughter, Sarah, for her enduring love that inspires all my worthy endeavors.


Contents Introduction 3


1 The Broader Theoretical Framework of the Kālacakratantra 6
2 A History of the Ṣaḍ-aṅga-yoga of the Kālacakratantra and Its Relation to Other Religious Traditions of India 25
3 The Nature of Syncretism in the Kālacakratantra 31
4 The Concept of Science in the Kālacakra Tradition 43 5 The Cosmic Body 56
6 The Social Body 109
7 The Gnostic Body 143
8 The Transformative Body 182

Conclusion 215

Notes 217

Bibliography 245


The Inner Kālacakratantra

Introduction


The Kālacakratantra is an early eleventh-century esoteric treatise belonging to the class of unexcelled yoga-tantras (anuttara-yoga-tantra). To the best of our knowledge, it was the last anuttara-yoga-tantra to appear in India.

According to the Kālacakra tradition, the extant version of the Kālacakratantra is an abridged version of the larger original tantra, called the Paramādibuddha, that was taught by the Buddha Śākyamuni to Sucandra, the king of Sambhala and an emanation of Vajrapāṇi, in the Dhānyakaṭaka stūpa, a notable center of Mahāyāna in the vicinity of the present-day village of Amarāvatī in Andhra Pradesh.

Upon receiving instruction on the Paramādibuddhatantra and returning to Sambhala, King Sucandra wrote it down and propagated it throughout his kingdom.

His six successors continued to maintain the inherited tradition, and the eighth king of Sambhala, Mañjuśrī Yaśas, composed the abridged version of the Parāmadibuddhatantra, which is handed down to us as the Sovereign Abridged Kālacakratantra (Laghukālacakratantrarāja).


It is traditionally taught that it is composed of 1,030 verses written in the sradgharā meter. 1


However, various Sanskrit manuscripts and editions of the Laghukālacakratantra contain a somewhat larger number of verses, ranging from 1,037 to 1,047 verses.

The term an “abridged tantra” (laghu-tantra) has a specific meaning in Indian Buddhist tantric tradition.

Its traditional interpretation is given in Naḍapādas (Nāropā) Sekoddeśaṭīkā, which states that in every yoga, yoginī, and other types of tantras, the concise, general explanations (uddeśa) and specific explanations (nirdeśa) make up a tantric discourse (tantra-saṃgīti), and that discourse, which is an exposition (uddeśana) there, is an entire abridged tantra.


2 The tradition tells us that Mañjuśrī Yaśas's successor Puṇḍarīka, who was an emanation of Avalokiteśvara, composed a large commentary on the Kālacakratantra, called the Stainless Light (Vimalaprabhā), which became the most authoritative commentary on the Kālacakratantra and served as the basis for all subsequent commentarial literature of that literary corpus.

The place of the Vimalaprabhā in the Kālacakra literary corpus is of great importance, for in many instances, without the Vimalaprabhā, it would be practically impossible to understand not only the broader implications of the Kālacakratantra' cryptic verses and often grammatically corrupt sentences but their basic meanings.

It has been said that the Kālacakratantra is explicit with regard to the tantric teachings that are often only implied in the other anuttara-yoga-tantras, but this explicitness is actually far more characteristic of the Vimalaprabhā than of the Kālacakratantra itself. According to Tibetan sources, the ācārya Cilupā from Orissa, who lived in the second half of the tenth century, after reading the Kālacakratantra in the monastery in Ratnagiri, undertook a journey to Sambhala in order to receive oral teachings that would illuminate the text.

After his return to southern India, he initially had three students, one of whom was the great paṇḍita Piṇḍo, who was originally from Bengal.

The ācārya Piṇḍo became a teacher of Kālacakrapāda the Senior, who was from northern Bengal (Varendra).

After returning to eastern India, Kālacakrapāda the Se nior taught the Kālacakratantra to his disciples, the most famous of whom was Kālacakrapāda the Junior, who built the Kālacakra temple in Nālanda, believing that the propagation of the Kālacakratantra in Magadha would facilitate its propagation in all directions.

I shall not discuss here all the variants in the accounts given by the Tibetan Rwa and 'Bro traditions of the history of the Kālacakratantra in India, for these accounts have already been narrated in other readily available works by other Western scholars and in English translations of the Tibetan sources. 3

One of the references that seems significant for establishing the period of the propagation of the Kālacakratantra in India is the reference in the Kālacakratantra (Ch. 2, v. 27) and the Vimalaprabhā to the end of the sexagenary cycle that comes 403 years after the Hijrī, or Islamic era (mlecchendra-varṣa), of 622 ce.

Likewise, the same texts assert that the hundred and eighty-second year after the Hijrī era is the period of the eleventh Kalkī, the king Aja, which is corroborated by the Kālacakrānusārigaṇita, 4 which states further that after the time of Kalkī Aja, 221 years passed till the end of the sexagenary cycle.

Thus, adding 221 years to 182, one arrives at the number of 403 years after the Hijrī era. In light of this, I agree with G. Orofino in determining the year to be 1026 ce, relying on the Indian system of reckoning years, in which 623 ce is included in the span of 403 years. 5

This is in contrast to G. Grönbold and D. Schuh, who assumed without substantial evidence that the Kālacakra tradition incorrectly calculated the Hijrī era as beginning at 642 ce and thus determined the year to be 1027 ce by adding the span of 403 years to the year of 624 ce. 6

According to the Vimalaprabhā commentary, the Paramādibuddhatantra was composed of twelve thousand verses, written in the anuṣṭubh meter. 7


However, we cannot determine now with certainty whether the Paramādibuddhatantra ever existed as a single text or as a corpus of mutually related writings, since we know from the Vimalaprabhā 8 that the Sekoddeśa, which circulated as an independent text in early eleventh-century India, has traditionally been considered to be a part of the Paramādibuddhatantra.

Nearly two hundred and ten verses from the Ādibuddhatantra are cited throughout the five chapters of the Vimalaprabhā; and some verses attributed to the Paramādibuddhatantra are also scattered in other writings related to the Kālacakra literary corpus, such as the Sekoddeśaṭippanī 9 and the Paramārthasaṃgraha, 10 which cites the verse from the Paramādibuddhatantra that coincides with the opening verse of the ḍākinīvajrapañjaratantra. 11

Likewise, some citations from the Paramādibuddhatantra are found in the commentarial literature on the Hevajratantra, specifically—in the Hevajrapiṇḍāthaṭīkā 12 and in the Vajrapādasārasaṃgrahapañjikā. 13


In addition to these, there are other pieces of textual evidence found in the Abridged Kālacakratantra and in the Vimalaprabhā, such as the repeated references to the Hevajratantra, the Guhyasamājatantra, the Cakrasaṃvaratantra, and to the Mañjus´rīnāmasaṃgīti, which the Vimalaprabhā identifies as the sixteenth chapter of the Māyājālatantra.

These suggest that the Paramādibuddhatantra must have been composed after these tantric traditions of the seventh and eighth centuries were already well established. The works of the eminent Indian Kālacakratantra adepts, such as those of Dārika, Anupamarakṣita, and Sādhuputra, which are preserved in the different versions of the Tibetan Bstan 'gyur, can be dated to the beginning of the eleventh century.


The writings of the Bengali author Abhayākāragupta, who was a contemporary of the Bengali king Rāmapāla, and the works of Raviśrījñāna from Kaśmīr, can be traced to the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. Likewise, the writings of the Bengali author Vibhūticandra who studied in Magadha, and the works of the Kaśmīr author Śākyasśrībhadra can be dated to the second half of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth centuries.

Some Tibetan authors indicate that although writing on the Kālacakratantra might have ceased in India with the Turkish invasions of Bihar and Bengal at the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Kālacakra tradition did not completely die in India until the fifteenth century. 14

In his History of Indian Buddhism, 15 Tāranātha mentions one of the last of the Indian Buddhist paṇḍitas, Vanaratna, from eastern Bengal, who in 1426 was the last Indian paṇḍita to reach Tibet through Nepal.


Having reached Tibet, he taught and cotranslated several works of the Kālacakra corpus from Sanskrit into Tibetan. According to the Blue Annals, the best of the initiations and precepts of the Kālacakratantra came at that time from Vanaratna. 16

Thus, it seems that the doctrine and practice of the Kālacakratantra were promulgated in India for almost five centuries. It is difficult to determine with certainty the parts of India in which the first authors of the Kālacakra tradition resided.

The Tibetan accounts, however, indicate that even though the Kālacakra tradition initially may have started in south India, the Kālacakratantra's sphere of influence in India was confined to Bengal, Magadha (Bihar), and Kaśmīr, wherefrom it was transmitted to Nepal, Tibet, and eventually to Mongolia, where Kālacakra was instituted as the protective deity of the Mongol nation.


The Broader Theoretical Framework of the Kālacakratantra

The Kālackratantra belongs to the class of the unexcelled yoga-tantras (anuttarayoga- tantra); and together with its most authoritative Indian commentary, the Vimalaprabhā, it stands as the most comprehensive and informative tantra of its class. According to the Kālacakra tradition itself, the Kālacakratantra is the most explicit tantra, which imparts its teaching by revealing the actual meanings; whereas the other anuttara-yoga-tantras, which are regarded as secret, or concealed, tantras, convey their meanings in an implicit manner.

Accordingly, the Vimalaprabhā asserts that in every king of tantras (rāja-tantra)— specifically, in the method tantras such as the Guhyasamājatantra, and in the wisdom tantras such as the Cakrasaṃvaratantra—the Buddha taught the blissful state that arises from sexual union, but concealed it out of his great compassion for the sake of the spiritual maturation of simple-minded people.

For those who seek understanding of other anuttara-yoga-tantras, the Kālacakratantra is of inestimable value for it explains the meanings in detail. 1 In the instances in which other systems of the anuttara-yoga-tantras offer only scant information, the Kālacakratantra system explicates in detail.

For example, the Vimalaprabhā points out that unlike the other tantras of its class, which only suggest that the fourth initiation is like the third, the Kālacakra tradition reveals in full its content and implications. 2

The Kālacakra tradition also gives the most elaborate presentation of the human psycho-physiology and the individual's natural and social environments and their relevance to tantric practices.

With regard to the Kālacakratantra's explicit and elaborate manner of presenting its topics, the Vimalaprabhā, just like the Sekoddeśa, asserts that in the Ādibuddhatantra, the Buddha illuminated the vajra-word by means of general expositions (uddeśa), detailed descriptions (nirdeśa), and repeated references (pratinirdeśa). 3

In light of its explicitness, the Kālacakratantra claims superiority over all other tantras in the following manner: In every king of tantras, the Vajrī concealed the vajra-word, and in the Ādibuddha, he taught it explicitly and in full for the sake of the liberation of living beings.

Therefore, Sucandra, the splendid Ādibuddhatantra, a discourse of the supreme lord of Jinas, is the higher, more comprehensive and complete tantra than the mundane and supramundane tantras. 4


According to the Vimalaprabhā commentary on this verse, the Buddha Śākyamuni, who abides in the vajra of indivisible gnosis, the inconceivable mind-vajra, concealed the supreme, imperishable bliss (paramākṣsukha) in those yoginī and yoga tantras, because otherwise the conceited Buddhist paṇḍitas in the land of the Āryas, who did not wish to listen to the spiritual mentor (guru), would read the book and claim that they understood the vajra-word.


Thus, they would not receive the initiation and would go to hell, due to their self-grasping (ahaṃ-kāra). In contrast, he taught it explicitly in the Ādibuddhatantra, in order to mature those who were born in the land of Sambhala and whose minds were free of self-grasping.

On these grounds, the Vimalaprabhā affirms that the Ādibuddhatantra, which is the discourse of the innate Sahajakālya, is more comprehensive and higher than the kriyā and yoga tantras.

This is one way in which the Kālacakratantra system substantiates its self-designation as unexcelled (anuttara).

Likewise, interpreting yoga as the union, or absorption, of bliss and emptiness, or of method and wisdom, this tantric tradition presents itself as a nondual (advaya) yoga-tantra, which is ultimately neither a wisdom tantra nor a method tantra.


It views its nonduality of wisdom and method as an expression of nondual gnosis, without which Buddhahood could never occur. 5

The Kālacakra tradition also affirms its unexcelled status by claiming that the Ādibuddhatantra does not come from a succession of transmissions of spiritual mentors, nor is it established by means of the spiritual mentor's authority (ājñā). 6

The Vimalaprabhā states that one cannot achieve omniscient Buddhahood and lordship over the three worlds by the mere blessing and authority of a spiritual mentor. 7

The Ādibuddhatantra asserts the same in this manner: The perishable mind, which is stained by attachment and other mental afflictions, is the cause of transmigratory existence. It is pure due to its separation from these impurities.

It is pure and stainless by nature. None [of the impurities can be taken out nor thrown into [the mind by the authority of a spiritual mentor. The sublime, imperishable, pure reality (tattva) cannot be given or taken away.


A spiritual mentor is neither a giver nor a remover of the pure reality. In the case of those who are devoid of the accumulation of merit, the omniscient lord himself [cannot give or remove the pure reality. 8

In light of this, the Vimalaprabhā disparages the Śaiva tantric tradition, which claims that its teaching regarding the supreme Īśvara who brings forth pleasure (bhukti) and liberation (mukti) is handed down by a succession of teachers and through the blessing of the spiritual mentor.

It warns against the dangers of following teachings that come in this way by deprecating the Śaiva tantric teachers on the basis that they have trifling knowledge but have become the spiritual mentors of the childish due to showing a few limited siddhis.

They require trust from their deluded followers, who, thinking that their spiritual mentor is liberated, do everything that he commands.

They kill, speak falsehood, steal, drink liquor, and so on. In this way, they perform the deeds of Māras and do not obtain the bodily siddhis by the blessing and authority of the supreme Īśvara; At death, their bodies are either incinerated by fire or eaten by dogs and birds, and their consciousness does not become Śiva. 9


According to the Vimalaprabhā, one cannot teach the tantra without knowing first the list of the principles of the Buddha Dharma (dharma-saṃgraha) for one who does not know it teaches the evil path. One becomes a knower of the dharmasaṃgraha and a teacher of the three Vehicles—the Vehicles of the Srāvakas, Pratyekabuddhas, and Samyaksambuddhas—only by accomplishing these two:

(1) gnosis (jñāna), which is the apprehending mind (grāhaka-citta) and wisdom (prajñā), and (2) space (ākāśa), or the empty form (sūnya-bimba), which is the apprehended object (grāhya) and method (upāya). 10 The Vimalaprabhā entreats those who desire to enter the Vajrayāna to completely investigate a potential tantric teacher, and it points to the danger of practicing a distorted Dharma and going to hell due to honoring a spiritual mentor who lacks the necessary qualifications. 11

The Kālacakratantra provides a list of the qualifications of a vajrācārya, who must have tantric pledges (samaya).


These qualifications, according to the Vimalaprabhā, are of two kinds—external and internal—and must be understood in terms of their definitive and provisional meanings. Likewise, the tantric teacher is expected to practice meditation on reality, and that meditation is also of two kinds—one which accomplishes mundane siddhis and the other which accomplishes full and perfect awakening (samyaksaṃbodhi).

He must be free of greed, not grasping onto his sons, wife, his own body, or anything else. He must be devoid of all mental afflictions (kleśa). He is to be patient, not having any expectations, and he must follow the path of full and perfect awakening.

The Kālacakratantra asserts that a spiritual mentor who has these qualifications is able to provide his disciples with the path and to remove their fear of death, because as a “celibate” (brahmacārin), meaning, as one who has attained supreme, imperishable bliss (paramākṣara-sukha), he is like a vajra-rod to the four classes of Māras. 12


In contrast to the qualified tantric teacher, a corrupt spiritual mentor is said to be full of conceit, which is of many kinds: conceit in one's own learning, in one's own wealth, seeing others as beneath oneself, and so on.

His absence of humility is seen as an indication of his lack of compassion. Likewise, one is advised to shun a tantric teacher who is overcome by anger, who is devoid of tantric pledges, and who publicly practices the secret pledges that disgust the world. 13

Similarly, a vajrācārya who is greedy and attached to mundane pleasures, or who is an uneducated fool, ignorant of the true path and not initiated into the tantra, or who is fond of liquor or sex, is to be avoided, for he leads his disciples to hell. 14

In light of this, the Vimalaprabhā points out that the well-known saying that one should look for the ācārya's good qualities and never for his faults has been misunderstood in the past and will be in the future by foolish people who have lost the true path.


It suggests that sayings like this should be understood in terms of both ultimate and conventional truths, that is to say, in terms of their definitive and provisional meanings. In terms of the ultimate truth, an ācārya refers to the Buddha Śākyamuni, to “the omnipresent and omniscient vajrācārya, who practices (ācarati) the vajra-word in order to benefit sentient beings within the three realms. ”

Thus, the aforementioned saying is to be understood literally only when examined from this point of view.

Supporting the Kālacakratantra's position that before honoring a spiritual mentor one should investigate his faults and his good qualities, the Vimalaprabhā cites the following verses from the Gurupañcāśikā, which support the Kālacakra tradition's stand on this issue.

An intelligent disciple should not make him who is devoid of compassion, who is angry, cruel, stubborn, unrestrained, and self-aggrandizing his spiritual mentor.

A qualified spiritual mentor is steadfast, disciplined, intelligent, patient, sincere, honest, versed in the tantric practices of mantras, compassionate, a knower of the śāstras, Fully acquainted with the ten principles, 15 a knower of the art of drawing maṇḍalas, an ācārya who explains mantras, who is propitious and has subdued his senses. 16

With regard to the hierarchy of the vajrācāryas, the Kālacakra tradition distinguishes the vajrācārya who is an ordained monk as the highest type of a vajrācārya. 17

It states that ordained monks should only mentally revere the vajrācārya who is a householder in order that they may be free of sloth and pride;

but when there is a vajra- holder who is an ordained monk, then neither the monks nor the king should honor a spiritual mentor who is a householder.

The reason for this injunction is based on the association of the white garment, which is generally worn by householders, with the Barbarian Dharma. The Vimalaprabhā explicitly states that the Buddhist system (bauddha-darśana) is never associated with the white robe.


It asserts that in the land of Mañjuśrī, when a monk or a wandering ascetic is expelled from a Buddhist monastery due to committing a sin of immediate retribution, he is allowed to leave the monastery only after he gives back his red robe and puts on a white robe. In light of this, the author of the Vimalaprabhā abhors the possibility of a householder who wears a white robe being a spiritual mentor to those who wear the red robe or of a householder dwelling in a Buddhist monastery.

He sees it as an insult to the Buddhist monastic community and as a great defect in Buddhists' judgment. 18


Likewise, it asserts that among men who are worthy of veneration, the vajrācārya who is endowed with extrasensory perceptions (abhijñā) and has attained at least the first bodhisattva-bhūmi is to be venerated for his knowledge. Such a man, be he an ordained monk or a householder, is said to be equal to ten respectable monks.

In the absence of this kind of vajrācārya, a monk who is an elder should be venerated for his asceticism by the monks whose ordination was later than his; and he should be venerated by tantric householders, since his initiation was prior to theirs.

The third kind of venerable man is said to be a learned paṇḍita who can illuminate the doctrine and tame the Māras who propound contrary doctrines. 19 In contrast, a householder who is devoid of extrasensory perception is not considered worthy of veneration. 20

Statements such as these reveal the strong monastic orientation of the Kālacakra tradition. With regard to tantric disciples, the Kālacakra tradition distinguishes three kinds of tantric trainees—the superior, the middling, and the inferior.

The superior disciple is one who has his mind set on the deep and profound Dharma that consists of wisdom and compassion, who delights in the ten virtues and has not violated the tantric precepts, who is free of attachment, who does not care about the mundane siddhis but desires a sādhana on the mahāmudrā-siddhi, and who does not associate with evil people such as ācāryas who are greedy householders and ascetics who live off the temples and monasteries.

Such a disciple is considered to be qualified to receive the first seven and the other four higher initiations in order to meditate on the path of emptiness.

The middling disciple is one who is endowed with mediocre qualities and who seeks a sādhana on the mundane siddhis, and he is qualified to receive only the first seven initiations in order to meditate on the maṇḍala, mantras, mudrās, and the like.

Lastly, the disciple of inferior qualities who respects the spiritual mentor is said to be qualified to be a lay practitioner, and he may receive the five Buddhist precepts but not the initiations. 21

In light of this, the Kālacakratantra classifies the Buddhist community at large into two groups—Śrāvakas and Anuttaras—each consisting of four types of Buddhist practitioners.

The four categories of Śrāvakas are the Buddhist nuns (bhikśunī) and monks (bhikṣu) and the great female (mahopāsikā) and male (mahopāsaka) lay disciples.

The group of Anuttaras includes the yoginīs and yogīs who delight in innate bliss—that is to say, those who have received the higher initiations and who practice the stage of completion—and the female (upāsikā) and male (upāsaka) lay tantric practitioners, who have received the first seven initiations and who practice the stage of generation. 22

The Kālacakratantra asserts the superior quality of the Anuttaras on the ground that there is no monk or celibate who can equal one who has taken the tantric vows and precepts and who is self-empowered by means of mantras. 23


The theoretical principles of the Kālacakratantra are imbedded in the conceptual context of Vajrayāna as a whole. Therefore, in order to understand the conceptual framework of the Kālacakra tradition in India, one needs to examine its own interpretation of Vajrayāna.

According to the Kālacakra tradition's explanation of the term Vajrayāna, the word vajra signifies liberation (mokṣa), or the indivisible omniscience that cannot be destroyed by conceptualization; 24 and the word yāna is understood as a vehicle that is of a dual nature.

It is the means by which the tantric adept advances toward liberation and the aim toward which the tantric adept progresses. 25


The Vimalaprabhā also identifies Vajrayāna as Samyaksaṃbuddhayāna (the “Vehicle of a Fully Awakened One”), since it cannot be damaged by the vehicles of heterodox groups (tīrthika), Śrāvakas, or Pratyekabuddhas. 26

The Kālacakra tradition also interprets Vajrayāna as the system of mantras (mantra-naya) and the system of perfections (pāramitā-naya). 27

As the system of mantras, it characterizes itself as the system that includes ideas pertaining to both mundane (laukika) and supramundane (lokottara) truths.

Teachings pertaining to the mundane truth are said to be discussed from the conventional point of view, and teachings pertaining to the supramundane truth are said to be discussed from the ultimate point of view.

Moreover, the ideas that are taught from the mundane, or conventional, point of view are said to have a provisional meaning (neyārtha); and the ideas that are taught from the ultimate point of view are said to have the definitive meaning (nītārtha).

Likewise, the ideas that are discussed from the conventional point of view are regarded as ideations (kalpanā) of one's own mind, which lead to the attainment of mundane siddhis.


They are said to be taught for mediocre Vajrayāna students who seek nothing more than the accomplishment of mundane siddhis. 28


The ideas that are imparted from the ultimate point of view are considered as clear manifestations, or reflections (pratibhāsa), of one's own mind, which are not of the nature of ideations. As such they are believed to lead to the achievement of the supramundane siddhi, called the mahāmudrā-siddhi, or the attainment of supreme and imperishable gnosis (paramākśara-jñāna-siddhi);

and they are said to be taught for superior Vajrayāna students, who aspire to spiritual awakening. Likewise, the Vimalaprabhā views Vajrayāna as a unified system that consists of both the cause and the result. Thus, the system of mantras is said to refer to compassion (karuṇā) and is characterized as the result. 29


In this tantric system, as in the related systems of the anuttara-yoga-tantras, in addition to the standard Mahāyāna practices of developing compassion, the cultivation of compassion also entails seminal nonemission. In this regard, compassion is here also referred to as the gnosis of sublime bliss (mahā-sukha-jñāna).

The system of perfections, on the other hand, refers to the wisdom (prajñā) that cognizes the emptiness (śūnyatā) of inherent existence.

This wisdom is viewed as the cause of the aforementioned result. Although the Kālacakra tradition acknowledges the Mādhyamika view of emptiness as its primary theoretical foundation, it has its own unique interpretation of emptiness, not only as a mere negation of inherent existence (svabhāva), but also as the absence of material constituents of the individual's body and mind.

Hence, this emptiness, which is also called the “aspect of emptiness” (śūnyatākāra), or the “form of emptiness” (śūnyatā-bimba), is a form that is empty of both inherent existence and physical particles.

It is a form that is endowed with all the signs and symbols of the Buddha.


That form of emptiness, also known as the “empty form, ” is also regarded as the “animate emptiness” (ajaḍā-śūnyatā). Due to being animate, this emptiness is the cause of supreme and immutable bliss (paramācala-sukha).

The nonduality of the cause and effect is the essential teaching of this tantra. From that unique view of emptiness stem the Kālacakratantra's unique goal and path to that goal.

The Kālacakratantra's most significant goal is the transformation of one's own gross physical body into a luminous form devoid of both gross matter and the subtle body of prāṇas.

The transformation of one's own mind into the enlightened mind of immutable bliss occurs in direct dependence upon that material transformation.

The actualization of that transformation is believed to be perfect and full Buddhahood in the form of Kālacakra, the Supreme Primordial Buddha (paramādibuddha), who is the omniscient, innate Lord of the Jinas, 30 the true nature of one's own mind and body.

Thus, according to this tantric system, the supreme Ādibuddha refers not only to the Buddha Śākyamuni, who is said to be the first to attain perfect awakening by means of the supreme, imperishable bliss, 31 but also to the innate nature of the mind of every sentient being.

This points to another unique feature of the Kālacakratantra's theory, namely, the assertion that all sentient beings are Buddhas, which will be discussed in greater detail in chapter 7 on the “Gnostic Body”.

The Kālacakratantra's view of the ultimate nature of sentient beings and their environment as blissful is reflected in the Kālacakratantra's explicit usage of sexual tantric practices on the spiritual path.

The generation of sexual bliss without emission of regenerative fluids is regarded in this tantra as the most direct method of generating the mental bliss that refines the mind by diminishing conceptualizations and thus makes it fit for the realization of the empty nature of phenomena.

One who practices the generation of sexual bliss without emission, which is referred to as sublime, imperishable bliss, is considered to be like a young virgin. Such bliss is believed to empower one's mind, just as the mind of a young virgin, who has not experienced sexual bliss with emission, can be empowered by deities and mantras that enable her to see appearances in a prognostic mirror.

Thus, it is thought that the empowerment of the tantric adept's mind, which enables him to perceive the three worlds as mere appearances in space, does not come from some external source such as the blessing or permission of a spiritual mentor, just as a young virgin's ability to see appearances in a prognostic mirror does not come from the blessing or permission of a spiritual mentor.

To those adherents of the Brāhma ic tradition ṇ who claim that many noncelibates who do not practice sexual bliss with nonemission demonstrate isolatory knowledge (kaivalya-jñāna) and predict the future, the Kālacakra tradition responds that their isolatory knowledge is nothing but a branch of astrology, which is common to all people and which enables one to predict the future events by means of calculations. 32


Likewise, it is believed in this tantric tradition that the five extrasensory perceptions (abhijñā) cannot arise without the practice of seminal nonemission. It is said that those Bodhisattvas who have the five extrasensory perceptions despite the fact that they occasionally practiced sexual bliss with seminal emission, should be considered celibate, because their seminal emission is an intentional emission, characterized by the motivation to reenter transmigratory existence for the sake of helping others.


According to the Vimalaprabhā, there are two types of seminal emission—one that is due to the power of wholesome and unwholesome karma, and one that is due to the power of controlling the mind.

Of these two types of emission, the first one, which is characteristic of ordinary human beings, is for the sake of wandering in transmigratory existence, and the other one, which is characteristic of Bodhisattvas, is for the sake of showing the path to those who are driven by karma in the cycle of transmigration. 33

The Classification of the Families in the Kālacakra Tradition The Kālacakra tradition, like the other tantric traditions of the anuttara-yoga class, categorizes the family of its principal deity into three, four, five, and six families (kula).


The Kālacakra tradition's classification and interpretation of the Kālacakra family can be summarized in the following manner. In terms of the individual, the classification into three families corresponds to the classification of the body, speech, and mind, or the left, right, and central nādīs and in terms of the universe, the three families are the three realms—the realms of desire, form, and formlessness.

With regard to ultimate reality, however, the three families are the three bodies of the Buddha—the NirmāṇSaṃbhogakāya, and Dharmakāya. 34

In terms of the individual, the classification into four families corresponds to the classification of uterine blood, semen, mind, and gnosis, or to the classification of the body, speech, mind, and gnosis, which accords with the classification of the four drops (bindu) and with the four states of the mind—namely, waking, dreaming, deep sleep, and the fourth state. In terms of the universe, the four families are the families of the sun, moon, Rāhu, and Agni (Ketu), and in terms of society, they are the four castes.


With regard to ultimate reality, the four families are the four bodies of the Buddha— the aforementioned three bodies and the Jñānakāya. With regard to the individual, the five families are the five psycho-physical aggregates (skandha), and in terms of society, they are the four castes and the outcastes.

With regard to ultimate reality, they are the five types of the Buddha's gnosis manifesting as the five BuddhasAksobhya, Vairocana, ṣ Ratnasambhava, Amitābha, and Amoghasiddhi. 35 In terms of the individual, the six families are the five psycho-physical aggregates and their emptiness;

and in terms of society, they are the four castes and the classes of ḍombas and Caṇḍālas.

With regard to ultimate reality, the six families are the five aforementioned Buddhas and the Svābhāvikakāya. 36


The Mādhyamika Critique of Other Philosophical Systems in the Kālacakratantra

Although it has many unique features, as will be demonstrated in the subsequent chapters of this book, the Kālacakra tradition shares some of its fundamental ideas with other Buddhist systems.

The Kālacakratantra summarizes its fundamental philosophical views in this single verse: Identitylessness, the maturation of karma, the three realms, the six states of existence, the origination due to the twelve-limbed dependence, the Four Truths, the eighteen unique qualities of the Buddha, the five psycho-physical aggregates, the three bodies and the Sahajakāya, and animate emptiness.

The [system] in which these [[[Wikipedia:tenets|tenets]]] are taught is the clear and definite instruction of the Vajrī. 37


Positioning itself in the above-mentioned philosophical views, it criticizes all other philosophical systems, including the Buddhist schools other than Madhayamaka.

Although the Kālacakra tradition's refutation of the non-Buddhist philosophical systems is based on the standard Mādhyamika arguments, at times it uses some new and interesting examples in its logical analysis of other systems.

It regards its critique of certain tenets of other philosophical systems as a means of leading individuals of different mental dispositions to some understanding of emptiness, which would be the foundation of their attainment of mundane siddhis.


The following brief summary of the Kālacakra tradition's rebuttal of the dogmas that in one way or another contradict the view of the absence of inherent existence best demonstrates the degree to which the Kālacakra tradition follows the Mādhyamika mode of investigation.


The Kālacakratantra critiques Viṣṇuism for its view of the Veda as being selfexistent, eternal, and similar to space.

It refutes the notion of the Veda as self-existent and eternal on the basis that the wordVedasignifies a referent that is produced by the activity of the throat, palate, and the like.

It further argues that the Veda is also not identical with the referent, since a word and its referent cannot be identical.

If there were such an identity, then when one utters the wordfire, ” it would burn one's mouth.

Likewise, it repudiates the notion that the Veda is similar to space on the grounds that it is local in usage and recited by the mouth.

It also objects to the notion that the Veda is a standard for learned and knowledgeable men, since low castes such as Śūdras read and write. 38

Furthermore, the Kālacakratantra critiques the Śaiva notion of Īśvara as the creator.

The Kālacakratantra argues that if one asserts Īśvara; as the creator, one implies that Īśvara; is one who experiences karma, since it is never the case that one person eats a salty cake and another person experiences the result and dies from thirst.

An agent is never established without karma.

And if he is not an agent of karma, as Śaivas claim, then it implies that he is dependent on another agent, who is his instigator. This, it says, contradicts the very term “Īśvara;” which implies independence.

Thus, according to the Kālacakratantra, Īśvara; has never been the creator who bestows the results of virtue and sin, disregarding the karma of living beings.

Likewise, if the creator is devoid of the atoms of the elements, then in the absence of matter, he does not create anything; and if he is devoid of the sense-objects, as Śaivas say, then that creator has neither perceptual nor inferential means of valid knowledge. 39

In light of its view of dependent origination, the Kālacakratantra asserts that the efficacy of phenomena is not caused by anyone in the triple world but that the origination of all phenomena takes place due to the conjunction of things.

Thus, due to the conjunction of a moon-stone with moon-rays, water appears from the moonstone, and due to the conjunction of an iron-stick with a lode-stone, the iron stick is set in motion, and so on.

By means of these and other examples, it tries to demonstrate that things never occur by the will of the creator. 40 From the vantage point of identitylessness, the Kālacakratantra critiques the notion of the Self (ātman) as being omnipresent and permanent.


It argues that the Self cannot be omnipresent, since it experiences suffering due to separation from relatives. If it were omnipresent, it would exist as one and would not suffer due to being separated from loved ones.

Likewise, if the Self were omnipresent, then one sentient being would experience the suffering of all sentient beings.

Moreover, it argues that one cannot say that there are many Selves, because that would imply that there is no omnipresence of many Selves.

It refutes the notion of the permanent Self, pointing to its susceptibility to change, as in the case of falling in love. 41

In light of its refutation of the Self, the Kālacakratantra asserts that there is no one who departs to liberation—there is only a collection of phenomena in cessation— and yet there is a departure to liberation. Likewise, there is bondage for originated phenomena, but there is no one who is bound.

The state of the Buddha is identical with existence and nonexistence, and it is without inherent existence, devoid of conceptualizations and matter, and free of momentariness.


Therefore, the teachings of the Buddha, which are free of the demons of conceptualizations, cannot be destroyed by the words of gods and nāgas, which are accompanied by demons, just like a wrestler who is free of demons cannot be killed by a wrestler who is possessed by demons. 42


The Kālacakratantra refutes the teachings of Rahman, or the Dharma of Tājikas, on the basis of their assertion that in this life the individual experiences the result of actions that he performed earlier in this lifetime, and that a person who dies experiences pleasure or suffering in heaven or hell through another human form.

It argues that if it is as the Tājikas teach, then one could not annihilate one's own karma from one birth to another, and consequently, one could not escape transmigratory existence or enter liberation even in the course of an immeasurable number of lives. 43

It critiques the doctrine of the Materialists (Cārvāka), which denies the existence of god and the maturation of karma and claims that one experiences only the amassment of atoms, arguing that this Materialist doctrine destroys the path of liberation for people.

The Kālacakratantra argues that if, just like the power of intoxicating drink, the witnessing mind arises due to configurations of the elements, then trees would also have consciousness due to the agglomeration of the elements.


But if inanimate things lack the efficacy of living beings, then the agglomeration of the elements is inadequate for producing consciousness. 44

The Kālacakra tradition also repudiates the Jaina doctrine, specifically, the Jaina assertion of a permanent soul (jīva) that has the size of the body, and the Jaina view of the permanence of atoms. The Kālacakratantra argues that if the soul would have the size of the body, it would perish after the removal of the arms and legs.

Likewise, it argues that atoms are not permanent, since they are liable to change, as are gross and subtle bodies. The Vimalaprabhā critiques the Jaina argument that the substance of the soul is permanent, as gold is permanent, whereas its modes are impermanent, just as the modes of gold such as earrings are impermanent.


The Vimalaprabhā rejects this argument as invalid, on the basis that if the substance and its mode were identical, then there would be no difference between the two; and if they were different, there could be no mode without the substance; nor can one say that they are both identical and different, because of their mutual exclusion. Likewise, it refutes the Jaina notion that the three worlds are permanent on the basis that whatever is made of atoms never remains permanent.

It also critiques the Jaina view that one soul acquires one body, such that plants and grains are also living beings.


It argues against this view, stating that if a single soul is in a single body, then when one breaks the stem of a sugar cane into pieces, there would not be many pieces. But since there are many pieces, then the soul must have entered one of those pieces due to its karma.

That does not stand up to logical analysis, because a sprout arises from each of the pieces of sugar cane that are replanted in the earth. 45


The Kālacakra tradition also critiques the Vaibhāṣikas, Sautrāntikas, and Yogācārins as simple-minded Buddhist tīrthikas who, grasping onto their own dogmatic positions (pakṣa), grasp onto the dogmatic positions of others and see the similarity or the contrariety with this or that dogmatic position of others.

The Kālacakratantra refutes the Vaibhāṣikas' assertion of the reality of the person (pudgala) endowed with a body at birth as the implication of the inherent existence of the pudgala. It argues that the pudgala cannot be one's inherent nature, because if the pudgala were of the nature of cognition, then it would be impermanent, for the nature of cognition is impermanent;

and if the pudgala were of the nature of noncognition, then it would be unaware of its happiness and suffering. It critiques the Sautrāntikas for asserting objects by means of conventional truth and claims that for this reason they consider the unknown ultimate truth that has the Jñānakāya (“Gnosis-body”) as nonexistent, like the son of a barren woman.


Explaining the basis for the Kālacakratantra's critique of Sautrāntikas, the Vimalaprabhā cites the following verse from Āryadeva's Jñānasārasamuccaya:


Sautrāntikas know this: mental factors (saṃskāras) are not inanimate (jaḍa), there is nothing that proceeds through the three times, and an unimpeded (apratigha) form does not exist. 46


The Vimalaprabhā argues on the part of the Kālacakratantra that if the unimpeded form, that is, the Dharmakāya, does not exist, then the omniscient one would not exist either.

It asserts that nirvāṇa is not the same as the extinction of a lamp, that is to say, it is not the same as the cessation of all awareness. In the absence of the four bodies, there would not be Buddhahood with a localized body.


Without the unimpeded body, there would be no displays of the extraordinary powers of all the forms of the Buddha. The Kālacakratantra refutes the Yogācāra's assertion of the inherent reality of consciousness and its classification of consciousness.


In light of this rejection, the Vimalaprabhā asks the following:

If there is no form of an external object other than consciousness, then why does the external form of visual consciousness as the apprehender manifest itself as being of the nature of the apprehended?

It cannot be due to the power of the habitual propensities of spiritual ignorance, as the Yogācārins say, because spiritual ignorance has the characteristic of the three realms, and the three realms are mere consciousness.

Thus, mere consciousness is of the nature of spiritual ignorance, therefore, spiritual ignorance is not the disappearance of consciousness; but if the three realms are not mere consciousness, then the Yogācārins' position has failed.

The Vimalaprabhā also refutes the Yogācāra's assertion that self-knowing awareness arises and ceases in an instant, resorting to the standard Mādhyamika argument that the origination, cessation, and duration of phenomena do not occur simultaneously, for if they were to exist in a single moment, then due to the fact that time is a moment, birth, old age, and death would be identical.

Moreover, if consciousness were to arise from a consciousness that has ceased, then it would be like the origination of a flame from a flame that has ceased, and this makes no sense.


But if another consciousness were to arise from a consciousness that has not ceased, then it would be like the origination of a flame from a flame that has not ceased, which means that from origination to origination there would be a series of consciousness, like a series of flames.

In this case, one cannot say that after the cessation of an earlier consciousness there is an origination of another consciousness, nor can one say that there is an origination of another consciousness from the earlier unceased consciousness, nor from the combination of the aforementioned two manners of origination, because of their mutual contradiction. 47


However, the Kālacakratantra indicates that the Mādhyamika's negation of the inherent existence of consciousness, which inspired some to say that the Buddha's wisdom is not located anywhere, is a danger for those who, devoid of the self-aware gnosis of imperishable bliss, will grasp onto that emptiness and will thus fall into the trap of a doctrinal view and attain nothing. 48

After refuting the preceding tenets of the Indian systems of thought in the above-demonstrated ways, in order to assure one of the pure motivation behind its criticisms, the Kālacakratantra states that its assertion of the absence of inherent existence is free from mundane concerns and intended to be of service to others. 49

Likewise, in order to establish one's confidence in the supremacy of the source of its teaching and to bring one to final conversion, the Kālacakratantra ends its critique of other philosophical systems with these words of the Buddha to the king Sucandra:

I am Indra, the spiritual mentor of thirty-three men in heaven, the universal monarch (cakravartin) on the earth, the king of nāgas in the underworld, revered by serpents. I am the highest, gnosis, the Buddha, the lord of sages, the imperishable, supreme sovereign, the yogī's vajra-yoga, the Veda, self-awareness, and the purifier (pavitra).


O king, take refuge in me with all your being. 50 With regard to the criticism of one's own or other Buddhist tantric systems, the Kālacakra tradition views this as the major cause of committing the sixth of the fourteen root downfalls (mūlāpatti), which is specified in the Kālacakratantra (Ch. 3, v. 102) and the Vimalaprabhā as reviling the siddhāntas of the system of perfections within the mantra-system.

The Vimalaprabhā indicates that criticism of one's own or other Buddhist tantric systems is often an expression of one's own ignorance with regard to the relation between the subject and predicate in Buddhist tantras, and as such, it leads the faultfinder to hell. 51

The Concept of the Ādibuddha in the Kālacakra Tantric System One of the most important concepts in the Kālacakra system is that of the Ādibuddha.

Even though the concept of the Ādibuddha is not unique to the Ka¯lacakratantra, it is most emphasized and discussed in the Kalacakra literature.


To the best of our knowledge, the earliest reference to the Ādibuddha is found in the >Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra (Ch.9, v.77), which refuses the notion of the Primordial Buddha on the grounds that there is no Buddhahood without the accumulations of merit (puṇnya) and knowledge (jñāna).

Later references to the Ādibuddha are found in the Mañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti (v.100), in the commentarial literature of the Guhyasam¯aja corpus, and in the yoginī-tantras.

The Kālacakra tradition's interpretation of the Adibuddha is primarily based on the Nāsaṃg¯iti's exposition of Vajrasattva, who is Vajradhara.

According to the Kālacakra tradition, the Ādibuddha is called the Primordial Buddha because he was the first to obtain Buddhahood by means of the imperishable bliss characterized by perfect awakening in a single moment. 52


In connection with this interpretation, the Vimalaprabhā asserts that according to the words of the Buddha in the Nāmasaṃgīti (v. 85), which praises Vajradhara as one who is free of mental obscurations, a person who is devoid of merit and knowledge does not in any way become a Buddha. 53


Such an interpretation does not seem to contradict the Mahāyānābhisamayālaṃkāra's assertion that there is no Buddha who has been enlightened since beginningless time. On the other hand, the Vimalaprabhā interprets the word ādi (“primordial”) as meaning “without beginning or end, ” meaning, without the origination and cessation. 54

This interpretation of the word ādi with regard to the Buddha is reiterated by Naḍapāda in his Sekoddes´ạṭīkā, which further interprets the Ādibuddha's freedom from origination and cessation as omniscience. 55

The Kālacakra tradition's interpretation of the word is based on the Nāmasaṃgīti, v. 100, which begins with: “Without beginning or end, he is the Buddha, Ādibuddha …” 56

This interpretation of the word ādi appears to contradict the aforementioned interpretation of the Primordial Buddha. However, analysis of the Kālacakra literature reveals that when the Kālacakra tradition speaks of the Ādibuddha in the sense of a beginningless and endless Buddha, it is referring to the innate gnosis that pervades the minds of all sentient beings and stands as the basis of both saṃsāra and nirvāna.

Whereas, when it speaks of the Ādibuddha as the one who first attained perfect enlightenment by means of imperishable bliss, and when it asserts the necessity of acquiring merit and knowledge in order to attain perfect Buddhahood, it is referring to the actual realization of one's own innate gnosis. Thus, one could say that in the Kālacakra tradition, Ādibuddha refers to the ultimate nature of one's own mind and to the one who has realized the innate nature of one's own mind by means of purificatory practices.

The Kālacakratantra and the Mañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti The Kālacakra tradition views its essential topic, which is the Jñānakāya, or Vajrasattva, as indivisible from that of the Nāmasaṃgīti, which, according to the Vimalaprabhā, makes the Jñānakāya of Vajradhara evident.


The Vimalaprabhā remarks that in every king of tantras, the Buddha described the vajra-word as the imperishable bliss of yogīs;; and in them he designated that vajra-word as the Jñānakāya, which is described by the Nāmasaṃgīti. 57

Accordingly, the Kālacakratantra teaches that one should meditate every day on Kālacakra, the progenitor of all the Buddhas, only after one “has taken apart, ” or investigated, this vajra-word. 58

The Vimalaprabhā comments that the path of purification that brings forth the mahāmudrā-siddhi was written explicitly in the Paramādibuddhatantra only after the Buddha made the Nāmasaṃgīti an authoritative scripture.

Knowing that in the future sentient beings will be free of doubts, the Buddha taught Vajrapāṇi the definitive meaning of all the tantric systems, in accordance with the Nāmasaṃgīti.


In light of this, it affirms that in order to know the Nāmasaṃgīti, one must know the Ādibud dhatantra. If one does not know the Nāmasaṃgīti, one will be ignorant of the Jñānakāya of Vajradhara, and not knowing the Jñānakāya of Vajradhara, one will not know the Mantrayāna.

Being ignorant of the Mantrayāna, one will be devoid of the path of Vajradhara and remain in transmigratory existence. 59

In verses 12–13, the Nāmasaṃgīti asserts its durability, claiming that the Buddhas of the past, present, and future have taught and recited the Nāmasaṃgīti and that innumerable Buddhas have praised it.

On the basis of these verses, the Vimalaprabhā affirms that it is due to Vajrapāṇ requesting the Buddha to teach the Nāmasaṃgīti that all the Tathāgatas taught the Mantra Vehicle. 60


This statement may clarify just why it is that most Buddhist tantric traditions mention Vajrapāṇi as one who both requests the teachings and compiles the tantras such as the Guhyasamāja and the Ādibuddha tantras. Similarly, according to the Vimalaprabhā, the yoga that is the imperishable bliss, the sublime goal (mahārtha) of the Kālacakratantra, has already been declared in the Nāmasaṃgīti by fourteen verses (28–36) in praise of the maṇḍala of the vajra-dhātu.

The Vimalaprabhā remarks that the fully awakened one, who is described by those fourteen verses, is taught in all the tantras, in accordance with the superior, middling, and inferior dispositions of sentient beings. 61

In light of its view of the inseparability of the Kālacakratantra and the Nāmasaṃgīti, throughout its five chapters, the Vimalaprabhā altogether cites sixty-five verses from the Nāmasaṃgīti in order to explain or substantiate the Kālacakratantra's views of Buddhahood and the path of actualizing it.

Thus, the Kālacakra tradition's view of the omniscient Buddha, who stands at the extreme limit of transmigratory existence and is superior to the Hindu gods such as Hari and Hara, who are born in the realm of gods within cyclic existence, is based on the Nāmasaṃgīti's statement in verse 54, which reads: Standing at the far limit of transmigratory existence, having his task accomplished, he rests on the shore.

Having rejected isolatory knowledge, he is a cleaving sword of wisdom. 62 Likewise, the Kālacakratantra's interpretation of the Jñānakāya as the fully awakened one who is imbued with nirvāṇa without remainder (nirupadhi) and transcends the reality of consciousness (vijñāna-dharmatā) is in full accord with that of the Nāmasaṃgīti (vs. 87, 99), according to which, the fully awakened one, being free of all remainders, dwells in the path of space, and transcending the reality of consciousness, is a spontaneous nondual gnosis that is free of conceptualization.


Furthermore, the Kālacakratantra's interpretation of enlightened awareness as the mind that, though free of the habitual propensities of karma (karma-vāsanā), supports transmigratory happiness and suffering and terminates them, is based on the Nāamasaṃgīti's (v. 96) description of the discriminating gnosis (pratyavekṣana-jñāna) of the Buddha as the mind that ends happiness and suffering.

Likewise, the Vimalaprabhā suggests that the Kālacakratantra's interpretation of the self-awareness that knows the nature of all things has its basis in the Nāmasaṃgīti's (v. 98) characterization of the Buddha's gnosis as omniscient, fully awake, and wide awake to itself. 63

The Kālacakra tradition also substantiates its exposition of Jñānakāya as devoid of form (rūpa) on the basis of the Nāmasaṃgīti's (v. 73) description of Vajrasattva as one whose hundred eyes and hair are blazing like a vajra;

and it asserts that it is not the Rūpakāya of the Buddha that is the subject of investigation in the Nāmasaṃgīti but the Vajradharakāya of Vajrapāni 64

Likewise, it bases its argument that the Buddha's body is not a localized (prādeśika) body on verses 61–63 of the Nāmasaṃgīiti, which speak of the Buddha as a torch of gnosis that arises instantly in space, and so on. 65

At times, the Kālacakra tradition offers an interpretation of certain passages from the Nāmasaṃgīti that radically differs from those found in the commentarial literature on the Nāmasaṃgīti.

For example, it interprets the Nāasaṃg¯iti's (v. 45) depiction of the Buddha as having ten aspects (daśākāra) in terms of the Vajrakāya that is the existence of ten kinds of phenomena—namely, the body, gnosis, space, wind, fire, water, earth, the inanimate, the animate, and the invisible deities of the formless realm. 66

Whereas, Mañjuśrīmitra's Nāmasaṃgītivṛtti (176. 1. 7) specifies the ten aspects as ten truths— provisional truth, conventional truth, and so on—whose words and meanings the Buddha intends to teach; 67 and Vilāsavajra's Nāmasaṃgītiṭikā (196. 5. 5) interprets the ten aspects as the ten types of grasping onto the Self, 68 on the grounds that the Buddha himself should be understood as undesirable mental factors and as their antidotes.

This cryptic interpretation makes sense when examined in the light of the Kālacakra tradition's view of enlightened awareness as the support of both saṃsāra and nirvāṇa.


Similarly, the Kālacakra tradition gives its own interpretation of the Nāmasaṃgīti's (v. 133) description of the Buddha as the referent of the truth that has twelve aspects, and as one who knows the sixteen aspects of reality and is fully awakened with twenty aspects. According to the Vimalaprabhā, he is the referent of the truth with twelve aspects, because he has attained the twelve bodhisattva-bhūmis due to the cessation of the twelve zodiacs;

69 and according to the Nāmasaṃgītivṛitti (182. 5. 1), he is the referent of the truth with twelve aspects, because he has the twelve sense-bases (āyatana), which are his aspects in terms of conventional truth.

Although the Kālacakra tradition and the Nāmasaṃgītivṛitti agree that the sixteen aspects of reality refer to the sixteen types of emptiness—to be discussed in chapter 7 on the “Gnostic Body”—the Kālacakra tradition offers its own reason for the manifestation of the sixteen aspects: the cessation of the sixteen digits of the moon.


With regard to the full awakening with twenty aspects, the Kālacakra tradition also departs from the interpretation given in the Nāmasaṃgītivṛtti (182. 5. 2).


According to the Vimalaprabhā, the Buddha has spiritual awakening with twenty aspects because he fully knows the five purified psycho-physical aggregates, the five sense-faculties, the five sense-objects, and the five types of consciousness, since they were purified in the central nāḍī by means of the six-phased yoga.

According to the Nāmasaṃgītivṛtti (182. 5. 3), on the other hand, the twenty aspects are the earlier mentioned sixteen aspects and the four types of the Buddha's gnosis.

The Kālacakra tradition also considers its exposition of Kālacakra as consisting of the four families— specifically, the four bodies of the Buddha—to accord completely with the Nāmasaṃgīti's (v. 108) description of the Buddha as the sublime mind (mahā-citta) of all the Buddhas, as the desire of the mind (mano-gati), as the sublime body (mahā-kāya) of all the Buddhas, and as the speech (sarasvatī) of the Buddhas. 70

Thus, it interprets the sublime mind of all the Buddhas as the Vis´uddhakāya, the desire of the mind as the Dharmakāya, the sublime body of all the Buddhas as the Nirmāṇakāya, and the speech of all the Buddhas as the Dharmakāya.

Likewise, the Vimalaprabhā suggests that the Nāmasaṃgīti's (v. 93) characterization of the Buddha as one who has five faces and five hair-knots is most relevant to the Kālacakra tradition's presentation of the Buddha as one who, due to the classification of the five psycho-physical aggregates and elements, consists of the five families. 71

Finally, it asserts that the Nāmasaṃgīti's (v. 35) description of the Buddha Vajradhara as one who bears the sublime illusions is taught there in terms of the Kālacakra tradition's classifications of the six families and the hundred families. 72

The Nāmasaṃgīti's presentation of Vajrasattva has also influenced certain forms of Kālacakratantra practice, whose goal is the actualization of Vajrasattva as he is described in the Nāmasaṃgīti.

For example, verse 111 from the Nāmasaṃgīti, which states that the sublime Vajradhara of the Buddha bears all illusions, is considered to be a theoretical basis for the Kālacakratantra practice of the stage of generation, more specifically, for the practice of meditation on the universal form (vis´va-rūpa) of the empty and blissful Buddha that has many arms, legs, colors, and shapes. 73

Similarly, the Nāmasaṃgīti's (vs. 61–62) description of the self-arisen Vajrasattva as the sublime fire of wisdom and gnosis that has arisen from space and its (v. 56) characterization of the Buddha as one who has abandoned all thoughts and is free of ideation are pointed out as reasons why the Kālacakratantra practice of the stage of completion is to be practiced in the form of meditation that is free of ideation. 74

Moreover, the Vimalaprabhā indicates that the Nāmasaṃgīti's (v. 53) assertion that the Buddha is free of the sense of “I” and “mine” is the reason why at the stage of completion practice one should not practice self-identification with Vajrasattva but should resort to ultimate truth. 75

The recitation of certain verses from the Nāmasaṃgīti also forms an integral part of Kālacakratantra practice.

Thus, at the end of the stage of generation practice, after the tantric adept has meditated on the kālacakra-maṇḍala and on the enlightened activities of the deities in the maṇḍala, and after he has practiced sādhanas on the yoga of drops (bindu-yoga) and the subtle yoga sūkṣma-yoga), he recites verse 158 from the Nāmasaṃgīti, with which he expresses his reverence for the enlightenment of the Buddha, whose essence is emptiness.


By reciting this verse, he establishes the appropriate attitude with which he is able to purify his four drops within the four cakras by emanating the principal deities within those cakras.


With regard to the Kālacakratantra initiation, the Kālacakra tradition's interpretation of the Kālacakratantra's four higher initiations as a symbolical passage from being a lay Buddhist practitioner to being a wandering ascetic, a monk, and a Buddha is justified in the light of the Nāmasaṃgīti (vs. 81, 51–52, 94–95), which describes the Buddha as being a youth, an elder (sthavira), and an old man, as a leader of the Pratyekabuddhas, an Arhat, a monk, and the progenitor (prajāpati), and as one who has the great vow, great austerity, and so on.

Likewise, the receiving of diadem (paṭta) and crown (mauli) during the four higher initiations is explained in terms of the Nāmasaṃgīti' (v. 93) description of the Buddha as an ascetic with a crest of hair and diadem. 76 A Brief Analysis of the Inner Kālacakratantra

The entire Kālacakratantra is divided into five main chapters—the chapters on the world system (lokadhātu), the individual (adhyātma), initiation (abhiṣeka), sādhana, and gnosis (jñāna).

The subjects of these five chapters delineate the Kālacakra tradition's vision of the gradual transformation from the macrocosmic and microcosmic aspects of provisional reality to ultimate reality, culminating in gnosis.

They also represent a unitary reality that manifests as the universe, the individual, the path of purification, and its result.


The first chapter of the Kālacakratantra begins with the words of King Sucandra requesting the teaching on the yoga of the Kālacakratantra from the Buddha Śākyamuni for the sake of the liberation of human beings who live in the kali-yuga; and the last chapter concludes with Sucandra's homage to Kālacakra, who is the tantra, the presiding deity Vajrasattva, the union of wisdom and method (prajñopaya-yoga), and the reality (tattva) with sixteen aspects.


Each of the other four chapters also begins with Sucandra's request for teachings on the main topic of the chapter, and the remaining verses of each chapter contain the Buddha's response to Sucandra's request.

The inner Kālacakratantra, or the “Chapter on the Individual, ” begins with Sucandra's question to the Buddha: “How can the entire three worlds be within the body?”

It continues with the Buddha's summary of how all phenomena in the world are the three modes of the Buddha's existence that are present in the human body, all of which should be known by means of the classifications of emptiness.

This is followed by a further exposition on the origination of the individual's body, speech, and mind by means of the agglomeration of atoms and the power of time.

The detailed description of the conception and development of the fetus in the womb indicates the author's familiarity with embryology, as taught in the earlier Buddhist writings such as the Abhidammatasaṃgaha, Āhārasutta, and the Āyuṣmannandagarbhāvakr¯ntinirdeśasūtra, in tantric works such as the Vajragarbhaṭīkā, and in the Buddhist medical treatises.

For example, the Kālacakratantra's description of the conditions necessary for conception, the characteristics of the fetus, and its growth correspond to that in the Āyuṣmannandagarbhāvakrāntinirdes´asūtra. 77


The view of the six tastes as arising from the six elements is common to the Kālacakratantra and the Vajragarbhaṭīkā 78 Likewise, the Kālacakratantra's statement that the marrow, bones, and ligaments of the fetus arise from the father's semen, and the skin, blood, and flesh arise from the mother's uterine blood corresponds to a great degree with the Amṛtahṛdayāṣṭāṇgaguhyopadeśatantra's assertion that the bones, brain, and spinal cord of the fetus arise from the father's sperm, and the muscles, blood, and viscera arise from the mother's uterine blood. 79

Similarly, the Kālacakratantra's classification of the human life into ten stages corresponds to that given in earlier works such as the Āyuṣparyantasūtra 80 and the Nandagarbhāvasthā 81

Explaining the functions of each of the elements in the formation of the human being and of the conditions in the mother's womb, the author tries to demonstrate the manner in which the principles of dependent origination (pratītya-samutpāada) apply to the origination of the human psycho-physiology.

This first section of the inner Kālacakratantra continues with an exposition of the preciousness of human birth and continues with an explanation of the ways in which the four bodies of the Buddha are present in the body of the individual.


It represents the individual in the specific stages of life within and outside the womb, as the provisional manifestations of each of the four bodies of the Buddha.

It identifies the individual with the four bodies of the Buddha in accordance with the degree of development of the individual's bodily, verbal, mental, and sexual capacities.

It shows further the manner in which the elements, the psycho-physical aggregates, the prāṇas and the mind support each other in the body of the individual; and it explains the relation among the sense-faculties and their corresponding sense-objects in terms of one type of element apprehending a different type of element.

For example, the olfactory sense-faculty, which arises from the water-element, apprehends taste as its sense-object, which arises from the fire-element.

Explaining their relation in this way, the author tries to demonstrate that all the constituents of the individual and all his experiences arise due to the union of opposites, often referred to in this tantric system as the “different families.

” He specifies the elements from which each of the psycho-physical aggregates, the prāṇas, and the cakras arise in order to demonstrate the material nature of the transmigratory body.

The second section of the inner Kālacakratantra (vs. 27–47) specifies the locations of the four bodies of the Buddha and of the six families within the individual's four cakras.

It describes the manner in which mental states enter the body and the body enters mental states, and thus they become of the same taste.

Likewise, it discusses the elements of the bodily constituents in terms of wisdom and method, and it suggests that everything pertaining to the body and the mind of the individual comes into existence due to the union of these two.

In this way, it provides the reader with a description of the kālacakra-maṇḍala in terms of the human being.

It further depicts the ways in which the presence of time and the universe is to be recognized in one's own body and shows the correspondences between the passage of time in the world and the passage of prāṇas within the body.

In this regard, this section also discusses the different functions and locations of the diverse types of the prāṇas in the body.

The third section of the inner Kālacakratantra (vs. 48–60) begins with a description of the current battle between the universal monarch (cakravartin) and the lord of the Barbarians (mleccha) within the body of the individual, which will take place in the land of Mecca and be between the external manifestations of good and evil.

It also discusses the ways in which the yogani and yoginī tantras, such as the Māyājāla and the Guhyasamāja, and the tantric families of their deities are present within the individual and included in the kālacakra-maṇḍala.

In this regard, it further describes the location of the male and female deities of the kālacakra-maṇḍala within The fourth section of the “Chapter on the Individual” (vs. 61–81) gives a detailed description of the characteristics of the unfavorable signs of death, beginning with descriptions of the ways in which one can determine the number of the remaining days of life by examining the flow of the prāṇas in the nāḍīs.


For example, if the prāṇa uninterruptedly flows in the left nāḍī for a day and a night, then one has one more year to live, and so on.


It associates the unfavorable signs of untimely death with the gradual ceasing of the prāṇas' flow in the individual nāḍīs of the navel-cakra.

It also describes the characteristics of timely death, which begins with the disintegration of the nāḍīs in the navel-cakra and progresses throughout the body through the severance of the nāḍīs within all the other cakras and bodily joints.

It compares the process of death to the moon and the sun leaving their lunar and solar mansions.

The gradual severance of the nāḍīs is said to manifest for six days in the acidity of urine and in the prāṇas' departure from the sense-faculties.

During the other six days, it is said to manifest in the following symptoms: one perceives the tip of one's own nose as dangling down, one perceives the sun as being black and the full moon as being yellow, and the planets as the sparks of fire, and a black line appears below one's tongue, and so on.

The fifth section of the inner Kālacakratantra (vs. 82–106) discusses the kālacakrī, or the moment of seminal emission, in terms of conventional reality, as an agent of the creation and annihilation of the individual.

It also points to the individual's conceptualizations and karma that is contained in the guṇas of prakṛti as causes of transmigratory suffering and happiness.

It classifies the karma of human beings into three kinds: gross, subtle, and subtlest, in accordance with the classification of the body, speech, and mind. It also distinguishes a karma with regard to the individual's grasping onto the agent of action.

When one thinks,

“I am the agent, ” this is a distinct karma; when one thinks, “The supreme Iśvara is the agent, ” this is a karma; but when one thinks,

“Neither I nor someone else devoid of prakṛ is the agent, ” this is not a karma. It further asserts that it is the mind of the deluded person that creates his own suffering and happiness and not the Bhagavān Kālacakra, who is devoid of the guṇas and conceptualizations.

In light of this, it affirms that the mental state that characterizes the individual's mind at the time of death determines the state of his next rebirth.


The sixth section of the “Chapter on the Individual” (vs. 107–160) is dedicated to the discussion of the ways of guarding the body from illness and untimely death.

It first depicts various tantric yogic practices and practices of prāṇāyāma as methods of eliminating malignant illnesses and preventing untimely death. In addition to these practices, it also prescribes herbal medication, elixirs, and dietary regulations.

It also gives guidance on storing medicinal herbs and spices and preparing their combinations, and on preparing and storing rolls of incenses, unguents, and fragrances. Additionally, it discusses ritual tantric methods of protecting pregnant women and infants from diseases caused by malevolent spirits, and it describes the symptoms of such diseases.

The last section of the inner Kālacakratantra (vs. 161–180) discusses the Kālacakratantra's philosophical views and those of other Indian Buddhist and non-Buddhist systems of thought.

After briey expounding the fundamentals of its own philosophical tenets, the author presents the tenets of other systems, without offering any comment on them.

Upon giving an overview of the other systems, he engages in a critique of those tenets that he finds contrary to the Kālacakratantra's philosophical orientation.



A History of the ṣạdaṅ-yoga of the Kālacakratantra and Its Relation to Other Religious Traditions of India

Aclose look at the Kālacakratantra's six-phased yoga reveals its correlation and historical connection to earlier forms of the six-phased yoga, found in both Hinduism and Buddhism.

Moreover, it also reveals the unique character of the practical applications and implications of the Kālacakratantra's sixphased yoga.

To the best of my knowledge, the earliest reference to a six-phased yoga is found in the Maitrāyaṇīya, or Maitrī Upaniṣad, which belongs to the branch of the black Yajur Veda and is considered to be the last of the classical Upaniṣads.

The ṣaḍ-aṇga-yoga of the Maitrāyaṇīya Upaniṣad, Ch. 6, v. 18, contains the following six phases: breath-control (prāṇāyāma), retraction (pratyāhāara), meditative stabilization (dhyāna), concentration (dhāraṇā), contemplative inquiry (tarka), and samādhi. 1 It is taught in this Upaniṣad as a method for achieving union with the supreme Self (paramātman).

If we accept that the Maitrāyaṇīya Upaniṣad predates Patañjali, we can assume that this six-phased yoga also predates the eight-phased yoga (aṣṭāṅga-yoga) of the classical Yoga system.


The fact that Patañjali never makes any reference to a six-phased yoga and that his Yogasūtra never mentions contemplative inquiry (tarka) is not sufficient evidence to regard the six-phased yoga as a later revision of the eight-phased yoga, as Günter Grönbold suggests.

2 Even if the sixth chapter of the Maitrāyaṇīya Upaniṣad, which incorporates a six-phased yoga, is a later interpolation, as Mircea Eliade speculates,

3 the antecedence of the sixth-phased yoga to the yoga of Patañjali is still quite plausible.

The phrase “for it is said elsewhere, ” which often occurs at the beginning of the verses of the sixth chapter, indicates that the Maitrāyaṇīya Upaniṣad draws its yogic elements from the earlier yogic sources.

Even though we are unable to determine the exact sources of the yogic elements in the Maitrāyaṇīya Upaniṣad, it is obvious that different forms of its six-phased yoga have very early origins in India.


The six-phased yoga was later modified into diverse forms of yoga with varying numbers of phases

For example, in one of the earliest Purāṇas, the Vāyu Purāna, Ch. 10, v. 76, 4 one enounters a fivephased yoga, whose fifth phase is recollection (smaraṇa), corresponding in name to the fifth phase of the Kālacakratantra's six-phased yoga.

In this Purāṇa as in the Kālacakratantra, contemplative inquiry (tarka) is replaced by recollection.

Considering that the Purāṇas underwent many revisions after the majority of their material was composed during the Gupta reign (c. 320 —c. 500 CE), it is extremely difficult to establish whether the recollection phase of yoga was established first in the Purāṇic tradition or in the Buddhist tradition, specifically, in the Guhyasamājatantra, which some scholars date as early as the fourth century ce and some as late as the eighth century CE.

Within later Hindu sources, a six-phased yoga is also mentioned in a number of texts belonging to the Upaniṣads of the Yoga class—specifically, in the Amṛtabindu Upaniṣad—and in the Śaiva Āgamas, Śaiva tantras, and some Dharma Sūtras, where there is a slightly different order of phases than that found in the six-phased yoga in the Maitrāyaṇīya Upaniṣad.

For example, in the Amṛtabindu Upaniṣad, v. 6, the six phases of yoga are;

retraction (pratyāhāra),
meditative stabilization (dhyāna),
breathcontrol (prāṇāyāma), concentration (dhāraṇā),
contemplative inquiry (tarka), and
samādhi.

This particular sequence of the phases of yoga is almost identical to that of the Kālacakratantra.


The difference between the two lies in the designation of the fifth phase of yoga as contemplative inquiry (tarka) instead of recollection (anusmṛti). 5

Even though contemplative inquiry is not explicitly mentioned among the six phases of the Kālacakratantra's six-phased yoga as a separate member, it is not absent from there.

Rather, it is included within the phase of meditative stabilization (dhyāna), along with wisdom (prajñā), analysis (vicāra), joy (rati), and immutable bliss (acalasukha). 6

Contemplative inquiry as a constituent of the phase of meditative stabilization is explained in the Vimalaprabhā as the apprehension of the phenomenon of empty form that is being observed or meditated upon during this phase. 7

As such, it is an indispensable element in the practice of the Kālacakratantra's six-phased yoga.


Nevertheless, it is not given superiority over all other phases of the six-phased yoga and their elements as it is in Kaśmīr Śaivism—specifically, in the Śaivāgamas and in the works of Abhinavagupta and Jayaratha. Abhinavagupta (975–1025) in his Paratrīśikavivara asserts that “among all the lights of the component parts of yoga, ”

contemplative inquiry (tarka) has already been determined in the earlier Mālinīvijaya “to be the brilliant sun by which one gets liberated and liberates others. ” 8

When commenting on Abhinavagupta's Tantrāloka, Jayaratha (thirteenth century) in his Tantrālokaviveka mentions the six-phased yoga that has breath control (prāṇyāma) as its first member and contemplative inquiry (tarka) as its fifth member and exalts it as the highest (uttama) phase. 9

Moreover, just as contemplative inquiry is included in the six-phased yoga of the Kālacakratantra, even though it is not regarded as a separate phase, so too are meditative posture (āsana) and restraint (niyama) implicitly included in this yoga.

The vajra-posture (vajrāsana) is often referred to as the posture in which an adept of the Kālacakratantra does his meditative practice, whereas niyama is included in the observance of the Kālacakratantra's ethical discipline, in the form of restraint from indulging in the five objects of desire and keeping the twenty-five tantric precepts (vrata), which are deemed prerequisites for the successful outcome of the practice of the six-phased yoga. 10

The Vimalaprabhā defines niyama as a Buddha's command (buddhānujñā) with regard to the twenty-five precepts. 11

Since these two prerequisites to the Kālacakratantra's six-phased yoga are present in each phase of the yoga as qualifying conditions, they are not considered to be separate phases.

Within later Hindu sources there are also those who speak of a six-phased yoga that does not include the phase of contemplative inquiry but includes meditative posture (āsana) as the first phase.


For example, some Yoga Upanisads—specifically, the Dhyānabindu Upaniṣad, v. 41 and the Yogacūḍāmaṇi Upaniṣad, v. 2—several texts of the Gorakṣa corpus (c. twelfth century), and the www.shivashakti.com, cited in Kṣemarāja's Vimarśinī (eleventh century) commentary on the Śiva Sūtra 6, contain the following list of the six phases:

posture (āsana), breath-control (prānāyāma), retraction (pratyāhāra), meditative stabilization (dhyāna), concentration (dhāraṇā), and samādhi.

This form of the six-phased yoga seems to be later than that found in the Guhyasamājatantra and later incorporated into the Kālacakratantra.

Thus, it is most likely that the Buddhist six-phased yoga chronologically succeeds the six-phased yogas containing contemplative inquiry (tarka) as the fifth phase, which continued to be in practice in later times as well.

However, it is more difficult to determine with certainty whether the Buddhist six-phased yoga precedes the six-phased yoga of Kaśmīr Śaivism that contains meditative posture (āsana) as its first phase or whether it was contemporaneous with it.

If one were to rely only on the extant Śaiva texts that refer to the sixthphased yoga having meditative posture as its first member, it would seem that the Buddhist sixth-phased yoga preceded that particular yoga of Kaśmīr Śaivism.


Considering the incompleteness of textual and historical information, it is impossible to reconstruct an accurate and precise history of the six-phased yoga in India.

Therefore, I offer here only a limited comparative table of the different types of six-phased yogas that were cited in specific Śaiva, Vaiṣṇava, and Buddhist texts.

As table 2.1. indicates, not only teachers of different religious traditions but also various teachers of different schools within the same tradition taught diverse forms of the six-phased yoga, according to their intended goals.

Even though these diverse types of the ppsixphased yoga]] were couched within the different theoretical and practical frameworks of disparate traditions, they all share some commonalities.


The most salient point of commonality is that each form of the six-phased yoga is viewed within its own tradition as inducive to the accomplishment of both limited, or mundane, and supreme siddhis.

There are also certain commonalities in the more general interpretations of some phases of the diverse types of six-phased yoga, despite the clear divergence in the manner in which particular phases are structured and practiced within the different traditions.

For example, in both Kaśmīr Śaivism and Buddhism, the phase of breath-control (prāṇāyama) involves bringing the prānas into the central nāḍī phase of retraction (pratyāhāra) involves the withdrawal of the senses from external objects; and meditative stabilization (dhyāna) implies meditation on a divine form, and so on.

Their interpretations also coincide to a certain degree with Patañjali's definitions in the Yoga Sūtras.

For the variant listings of the six members of the ṣaḍ-aṇgayoga within the different schools of the Hindu and Buddhist traditions see table 2.1.

Within the Indian Buddhist tradition, teachings on the six-phased yoga are found within two Buddhist tantric systems—the Guhyasamājatantra and the Kālacakratantra.

The Hevajratantra (Ch. 8, vs. 21– 22) also mentions a six-phased yoga, but it does not list its members nor does it elaborate on it.

Even though the six-phased yogas of the Kālacakra and Guhyasamāja systems accord in the names and in the sequences of their phases, they differ in their content and practical implications.

Among the Indian sources of these two traditions, the majority of treatises and commentaries on the six-phased yoga belong to the Kālacakra corpus.


According to the Blue Annals, the six-phased yoga of the Kālacakratantra was initially taught by Vajradhara in the form of Avadhūtipa to Anupamarakṣita (c. eleventh-twelfth centuries), who passed it on to his friend Śrīdhara. 12

Two works on the six-phased yoga are traditionally attributed to Anupamarakṣita: the ṣaḍaṅgayoga and the ṣaḍaṅgayoganāma.

The later Indian author Raviśrījñāna (eleventh-twelfth centuries)—in the introductions to his Guṇabharaṇī, a commentary on the ṣaḍaṅgayoga and to his ṣaḍaṅgayogaṭīkā, commentary on the ṣaḍaṅgayoganāma—gives a brief account of Anupamarakṣita's revelatory experience. 13

According to the accounts recorded in the Guṇabharaṇi and the ṣaḍaṅgaṭīkā, Anupamarakṣita studied Buddhism and other Indian systems of thought.

Under the guidance of Śrīkhasarpana, he practiced for twelve years a meditation on reality without an object and free of conceptualizations, but was unable to gain a special insight.

Depressed, he fell asleep, during which Vajrayoginī appeared to him, instructing him to go to Vikramapura, where he would attain that special insight.

After arriving at midnight in Vikramapura—accompanied by his disciple, the great paṇḍita Śrīdhara——Anupamarakṣita received instruction on the six-phased yoga directly from the Buddha in the form of Avadhūta.

By merely receiving the instruction that confirmed,

“This is reality, ” he entered samādhi; and upon emerging from his samādhi in the early morning, Anupamarakṣita taught this knowledge to Śrīdhara. With some variations, this story is repeated several times in later Tibetan chronicles of Buddhism and the lineage of the Kālacakratantra's six-phased yoga. 14

Apart from Padma dkar po, who mistook Vikramapura for Vikramaśīla monastery in Bihar, none of the sources specify the location of Vikramapura nor the place from which Anupamarakṣita went to Vikramapura.

It is likely that the Vikramapura to which Raviśrījñāna refers is Vajrayoginī village in contemporary Dacca, located in east-central Bengal, which is also thought to be the birthplace of Atīśa. 15

This is perhaps the same Vikramapura mentioned in the inscriptions found in north India.

In the inscriptions related to the rulers of the Varman and Vikramāditya dynasties of northern India, Vikramapura is mentioned as their capital during the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

The Varman dynasty ruled eastern Bengal in the second quarter of the eleventh century, and their Vikramapura was eventually overtaken by Vijayasena, the greatest king of the Sena dynasty, in the middle of the twelfth century.

Thus, Raviśrījñāna, who, according to Tāranātha's History of Buddhism in India, lived during the reign of the Sena dynasty, could have been referring to that Vikramapura. 16 Some inscriptions mention Vikramapura as a capital founded by Vikramāditya VI (c. 1076–1126).

His father, Someśvara I, reigned in Magadha and eastern Bengal, and he himself conquered central Bengal shortly before 1068 ce, after defeating Vigrahapāla III. According to Tāranātha's History of Buddhism in India, Anupamarakṣita lived during the period of the Bhayapāla and Nayapāla kings of the Pāla dynasty. 17

Nayapāla, the father of the mentioned Vigrahapāla III, ascended the throne in the early eleventh century and ruled the kingdom that extended on the west up to Bihar and to the east to central Bengal.

Tāranātha's information coincides with '[[Gos lo tsa ba gzhon nu dpal's assertion in the Blue Annals that Anupamarakṣita could not have been later than Nāro (956–1040 ce), since Nāro cites Anupamarakṣita's teaching in his Sekkodeśaṭīkā. 18

Thus, whether Raviśrījñāna was referring to the Vikramapura of the Pālas, Varmans, or Vikaramādityas, according to Buddhist tradition the Kālacakratantra's six-phased yoga was first disseminated in Bengal.

Anupamarakṣita's name could have been easily related to the well-known Anupama monastery (vihāra) in Kaśmīr, which produced Buddhaśrījñāna, Sarvajñaśrīrakṣita, and Śākyaśrībhadra, the great early eleventh-century Kaśmīr scholars of the Kālacakratantra.

His name also could have been related to Anupamapura, the seat of the two greatest Buddhist centers of learning in Kaśmīr during the eleventh and twelfth centuries—the monasteries of Ratnagupta and Ratnarāśmi.

In either case, Anupamarakṣita could have come to Bengal from Kaśmīr.

It is clear from the extant Indian and Tibetan sources that there were several lineages of the Kālacakratantra's six-phased yoga in India.


As these sources indicate, the most important among those lineages was that of Anupamarakṣita.

In the Guṇabharaṇī, Ravis´rījñāna gives the following lineage: Anupamarakṣita 19 —ŚrīdharaBhāskara—Ravis´rījñāna.

The same lineage, but in an extended form, is also given in the Blue Annals, the fifteenth-century Tibetan chronicle of Buddhism in Tibet, which also mentions the famous lineages of Indian Buddhist masters. According to the Blue Annals, the most famous lineage of the Kālacakratantra's six-phased yoga in

India begins with Anupamarakṣita and ends with the Bengali mahā-paṇḍita, Vanaratna (1384–1468).

Vanaratna received the transmission of the six-phased yoga from the mahā-siddha Śavaripa, one of the eighty-four legendary mahā-siddhas of India, and he taught it extensively in Tibet during the first half of the fifteenth century. 20



The exact same lineage of Indian masters is also mentioned in Padma dkar po's (sixteenth century) Dpe med 'tsho'i lugs kyi rnal 'byor yan lag drug pa'i khrid rdo rje'i tshig 'byed. 22

Earlier Tibetan historians of Buddhism in India and Tibet recorded a shorter branch of Anupamarakṣita's lineage in India.

In his Dpe med 'tsho'i sbyor drug gi br gyud pa, included in the Gsang sngags rgyud sde bzhi'i gzungs'bum, 23

Bu ston offers the following list for the Indian masters following the lineage of Anupamarakṣita:

AnupamarakṣitaŚrīdharaBhāskaradevaDharmākaras ´ānti—Ravis´rījñāna— RatnarakṣitaVibhūticandra.

This line of Indian Buddhist masters ends with Vibhūticandra (twelfth—thirteenth centuries).

According to Padma gar dbang, 24

Vibhūticandra received his Kālacakratantra initiation and teachings from three Indian scholars:

Śākyaśrībhadra, the mahā-paṇḍita of Kaśmīr, 25 who was his principal spiritual mentor, Vikhyātadeva, and Dharmadāsa.

In Nepal, he mastered the Kālacakratantra under the guidance of Ratnarakṣita, the Newari mahāpaṇḍita, from whom he received the teachings of the six-phased yoga of the Kālacakratantra in the tradition of Anupamarakṣita.

During his stay in Nepal, Vibhūticandra became an expert in the Kālacakratantra and in the practice of the six-phased yoga.

According to Padma gar dbang, 26 he wrote annotations to the Kālacakratantra and the Vimalaprabhā, which influenced later Tibetan translators and commentators on the Kālacakratantra.

As one of the Indian mahā-paṇḍitas, Vibhūticandra visited Tibet three times and became fluent in the Tibetan language.

He himself translated his ṣaḍaṅgayoganāma (Rnal 'byor yan lag drug pa) 27 into Tibetan.

According to the Tibetan six-phased yoga tradition, the ṣaḍaṅgayoganāma is the direct transmission of the six-phased yoga practice that Vibhūticandra received from Śavaripa during his stay at Stham Bihar monastery in Kathmandu, upon which he attained dhāraṇā, the fourth phase of this yoga.

In subsequent centuries, this text became one of the most important and authoritative texts for the direct transmission of the Kālacakratantra's sixphased yoga in Tibet, especially in the Jonangpa tradition.

According to Tāranātha, 28 the teachings on the six-phased yoga that Śavaripa revealed to Vibhūticandra were based on the dohas of Saraha, and Saraha's yogic practice itself was based on the six-phased yoga. In the Sbyor ba yan lag drug gi rdzogs rim gyi gnad bsdus pa, Tshong kha pa 29 (fourteenth—fifteenth centuries), following his teacher Bu ston, cites the Indian lineage of Anupamarakṣita in this way:


AnupamarakṣitaŚrīdharaBhāskaradevaDharmākaraśāntiRaviśrījñānaRatnarakṣitaVibhūticandra.


The Nature of Syncretism in the Kālacakratantra

Reading the Kālacakratantra, one immediately notices its prominent, syncretistic character, but close examination of this tantra and its commentarial literature reveals that the Kālacakra tradition has preserved a distinctively Buddhist orientation, and that its affiliation with non-Buddhist Indian systems is in form rather than content.

The syncretism of this tantric system is a self-conscious absorption, or appropriation, of the modes of expression that are characteristic of the rival religious systems of India.

This self-conscious syncretism variously permeates several areas of the Kālacakratantra, such as its theoretical system, language, medicine, and cosmology; and it is often inextricably related to Buddhist tantric conversionary efforts.

For this reason, the term syncretism does not quite fit this tradition, whose rhetorical strategies and linguistic divergences, though cleverly disguised, are firmly rooted in Buddhist doctrine.

The Kālacakra tradition expressly justifies its adaptive character as a skillful means for leading individuals of diverse mental dispositions to spiritual maturation.

The Paramādibuddhatantra asserts that “one should teach the Dharma in whatever manner matures sentient beings. ” 1

The conversionary mission of the Kālacakratantra is not the sole basis of its syncretistic character.

The growing pluralism within the inner life of Indian Mahāyāna communities could have been another contributing factor in the proliferation of syncretism, for the flourishing of religious pluralism often makes syncretism a necessity rather than just a possibility.


The pluralism that is characteristic of Indian tantric Buddhism can be described as a self-conscious recognition that although the Buddhist tradition is shared by all the members of a specific Buddhist community, the way it is interpreted, analyzed, and experienced differs within that community.

It seems that the Kālacakra tradition tried to find grounds for dialogue with other Buddhist and non-Buddhist systems without ignoring their differences; while at the same time, it was apprehensive about losing its own distinct identity.

Its ambivalence with regard to its own syncretism is evident throughout the Kālacakratantra and the Vimalaprabhā.

For example, while refuting the particular views of the Indian non-Buddhist and the so-called Buddhist heterodox schools, the Kālacakratantra states:

Kālacakra imparts instruction on the earth for the sake of this and other knowledge of people who have dull, sharp, and other mental dispositions due to the power of their karmic habitual propensities. 2 At the same time,

it warns against the dangers of grasping onto one's own dogmatic position or falling under the influence of other teachings by familiarizing oneself with those teachings in order to refute them:

Since the mind, like a crystal, is colored by the colors of the objects in its proximity, the yogī should not criticize any teaching that belongs to his own or to another family. 3

The Vimalaprabhā justifies the Kālacakra tradition's syncretism, asserting that the principle (niyama) of the Bhagavān Kālacakra is that “whatever is identical to the words of the Buddha either in terms of conventional or ultimate truth must not be criticized. ” 4


In accordance with this principle, it cites passages from the writings of heterodox Buddhist schools at times—the Vaibhāṣikas, for example—in order to substantiate its theory;

and at other times, it vehemently criticizes other passages from the same writings that express views contrary to those of the Kālacakra tradition.

Likewise, on the one hand, the Kālacakratantra asserts that even when one's own mind is pure, one should not create discord among intelligent and unintelligent people, since they are all Buddhas;

5 and on the other hand, it states that one should not use ferocious mantras to kill living beings but to terrify the host of Māras who are “the authors of the Smṛtis and other murderous heterodox groups (tīthika) who are fond of fighting. ” 6

The Vimalaprabhā interprets here “Māras” as proponents of the Vedic Dharma, and it affirms that a Bodhisattva should use ferocious mantras to generate fear in heterodox groups that their Dharma will be destroyed. 7

The Theoretical Syncretism of the Kālacakratantra

As mentioned earlier, the philosophical position advocated in the Kālacakratantra and its related literature is that of the Mādhyamikas, following the line of Nāgārjuna.

According to the Kālacakratantra, only Mādhyamikas who assert the nonduality of compassion and emptiness avoid philosophical failure.


Thus, adhering to the ontological view of the Mādhyamikas as the only valid one, the Kālacakratantra refutes the tenets of all other Buddhist and non-Buddhist systems.

Although the Vimalaprabhā acknowledges diverse Buddhist systems such as Vaibhāṣika, Sautrāntika, Yogācāra, and Madhyamaka as equally authentic teachings of the Buddha, it presents the Madhyamaka system as the pinnacle of the Buddha's teaching, and it claims that the Mādhyamikas are the only ones who are qualified to attain “the non-abiding (apratiṣṭhita) nirvāna that is without remainder (upadhi-rahita), due to the cessation of causes and results, and that is devoid of the waking and deep sleep states and is similar to the dream and the fourth state. ” 8

It affirms the superiority of the Madhayamaka school over other Buddhist schools on the grounds that the Mādhyamika treatises, unlike the scriptures of the aforementioned Buddhist schools, elucidate ultimate reality. 9



The Vimalaprabhā interprets the differences among the four schools of Buddhism

as the Buddha's response to different mental dispositions of sentient beings, some of whom have the fortune of being closer to enlightenment, while some are further from enlightenment.

It also views the differing teachings of the four Buddhist schools as the Buddha's response to the teachings of four different non-Buddhist groups, that is, as his conversionary means.

It asserts: Since beginningless time, all sentient beings have been heterodox (tīrthika), devoted to the Dharmas of gods, spirits (bhūta), and asuras, deprived of the path of omniscience, placing themselves into one of the four castes, desiring the pleasures that are the reward of heaven, and asserting [the existence of] a creator and the Self (ātman).

Among them, those who rely on the Dharmas of gods and pretas are proponents of “correct words” (śabda-vādin), Īśvara, the Self, and social discrimination (jāti-vādin).

Those who rely on the Dharmas of the Barbarians (mleccha) and asuras are proponents of a creator and a soul (jīva) and are devoid of the propagation of social discrimination. 10

Thus, according to the Kālacakra tradition, all followers of the four schools of Buddhism at some time or another belonged to the heterodox groups, and as they further pursued the issues related to the religious teachings they followed and finally settled with Buddhist answers to those issues, they converted to Buddhism.


Thus, the Vaibhāsikas are said to be Buddhist converts who previosly followed the Barbarian Dharma.

The Sautrāntikas are Buddhist converts who previously propagated the theories of a creator, correct words, Īśvara, and class discrimination; and the Yogācārins are Buddhist converts who previously held the view of the permanent Self and the creator;

whereas, the Mādhyamikas are the converts who abandoned not only the aforementioned heterodox views but also the dogmatic positions and related meditative practices that are characteristic of the other three Buddhist schools.

The Vimalaprabhā describes the manner of their conversion to Buddhism in the following way:

Among those Barbarians (mleccha) there are two types of grasping—grasping onto the agglomeration of atoms and grasping onto the [truly existent person (pudgala) who has origination.

Their belief is: “If a person who has the origination and dwells in the body that consists of the agglomeration of atoms does not exist, then who will take on another body after the body that consists of the agglomeration of atoms has perished?

Therefore, a spontaneously arisen person (upapāduka-pudgala) does exist.

By meditating on this, the reward of heaven, or the reward of nirvāna, comes about. Apart from the reward of heaven, there is no other nirvāna. ”

At the time when they sought the truth, knowing the thoughts of their minds, the Bhagavān who knows reality said:

“There is a person who carries the burden, but I do not say that he exists permanently or impermanently. ”

This is true, since according to the Bhagavān's words, it is not possible to say that a person who is [a manifestation of] mental habitual propensities in the dreaming state is permanent or impermanent.

Abandoning the Dharma of Barbarians due to this statement of the Tathāgata, they have become the Buddhist Vaibhāsikas.

Moreover, some, hearing the highest Dharma as it was being taught to the Bodhisattvas and abandoning the grasping onto the [truly existent person, resorted to the path of the Samyaksaṃbuddha.


Furthermore, among the Sautrāntikas, there is grasping onto the agglomeration of atoms.

The belief of these substantialists (artha-vādin) is: “If the animate and inanimate things that inhabit space do not exist, then the triple world would not exist

either. In the absence of samsāra, there would be nonfavorable or unfavorable states of existence. Likewise, neither Buddhas nor Bodhisattvas would exist, nor would the supreme nirvāna exist.


One could not see the Bhagavān's relics because of the absence of the substance present in the matter. ”

At the time when they sought the truth in this way, the Bhagavān, knowing the thoughts of their minds, said:

“There is the final body [of the Bhagavān that consists of the agglomeration of atoms and is endowed with thirty-two characteristics of the Great Man, by means of which the state of the Samyaksaṃbuddha and the sublime parinirvāna come into existence.

” This is true because of the appearance of the Bhagavān's relics.

Thus having heard of the power of the body that consists of the agglomeration of atoms and abandoning the propagation of social discrimination, correct words, Īśvara, and a creator, they became the Buddhist Sautrāntikas.

Moreover, some, hearing the instruction on the supramundane Dharma to Bodhisattvas and abandoning the grasping onto that substance (artha), resorted to the path of the Samyaksaṃbuddha. Among the Yogācārins, there is grasping onto consciousness.

The belief of these proponents of consciousness is: “The entire three worlds are consciousness only.

The so-called atom does not exist because it is a division that consists of the six constitutent parts.

Just as in the dreaming state the things that are mere appearances of the mind engage in activities even though there is an absence of atomic matter, so too in the waking state a thing appears by means of an unreal thing, like a hair-net or a golden conch appearing to the eye soiled with dark dirt. ”


At the time when they sought the truth in this way, the Bhagavān, knowing the thoughts of their minds, said: “The triple world is consciousness only. Apart from consciousness, there is no other samsāra.

The cessation of the seed of cyclic existence is due to the cessation of mundane consciousness (laukika-vijñāna). Due to that, there is nirvāna. ” This is true.

The manifestation of suffering and happiness arises from the animate and not from the inanimate.

So-called suffering and happiness are samsāra, and their absence is nirvāna.

Thus, hearing the Bhagavān's words and abandoning the theory of the creator and the Self, they became the Buddhist Yogācārins.

Moreover, some, hearing the instruction on the supramundane Dharma to Bodhisattvas and abandoning the propagation of consciousness, resorted to the path of the Samyaksaṃbuddha. 11

It further argues that just as the Buddha taught different theories to the four types of Buddhists, so he taught them different meditative practices that were in accordance with their differing views.

For example, he taught meditation on the impermanence of a person to the Pudgalavādins, meditation on the kṛtsnās to the Arthavādins, meditation on cognition only (vijñapti-mātra) to the Vijñānavādins, and to the Mādhyamikas, he taught meditation on the dreamlike and imperishable gnosis. 12

Thus, in light of its view of the superiority of the advanced Mādhyamika teachings and practices, the Kālacakra tradition associates the Mādhyamikas with spiritually mature Buddhists who, abandoning all dogmatic positions and related meditative practices of the other three Buddhist schools, succeed in reaching the highest spiritual goal.

Nevertheless, the Kālacakra tradition argues that there is no distinction between the Mādhyamikas and the heterodox groups with regard to the manner in which conventional reality appears.

It regards the investigation of conventionally existent phenomena and the notions of the conventional creator, means of action, and action as common to all, Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike.

It affirms that the only major difference between its philosophical views and those of the heterodox groups

is in its understanding of the nature of emptiness, which is identitylessness of two kinds—personal identitylessness (pudgala-nairātmya) and phenomenal identitylessness (dharma-nairātmya). 13


That view of the commonality of the Mādhyamika's and the heterodox groups' speculative approaches to conventional reality facilitated the Kālacakratantra's import of certain ideas and theoretical models from other philosophical systems and induced its theoretical syncretism.

By incorporating the ideas characteristic of other philosophical systems into its own theoretical framework and by attributing conventional validity to them, the Kālacakratantra attempts to accomplish two objectives: namely, to provide rational explanations pertaining to human psycho-physiology, and to convert heterodox groups.


Textual study of this tantric tradition reveals the following two goals of the Kālacakra tradition's theoretical syncretism: the conversion of heterodox groups, and the modeling of conventional reality for meditational purposes.

For example, the Sā khya's qualitative ṃ dualism of consciousness (puruṣa) and matter (prakṛti) is adopted by the Kālacakratantra as a heuristic device for explaining the nature of the human being from the conventional point of view.

However, the Sāṃkhya's concepts of puruṣa and prakṛti, which permeate the theoretical framework of this tantra, are not taken literally from the Sāṃkhya philosophical system. Rather, they are reinterpreted and adapted to the Kālacakratantra's own unique system.

The prakṛti of the human being is devoid of inherent nature (svabhāva), and from the ultimate point of view, it is luminous.

In contrast, in the Sāṃkhya philosophical system, the twenty-four principles of prakṛti forming the human being include the primordial prakṛti (mūla-prakṛti), which is an independently existent and inherently generative phenomenon, and its twenty-three temporal subdivisions.

Likewise, in the Kālacakratantra, the aggregates, elements, and sense-bases form the prakṛti of the transmigratory body, 14 and the five elements, intellect, self-grasping, and the mind form the prakṛti of the transmigratory mind. 15

In Sāṃkhya, on the other hand, only the intellect, self-grasping, and the mind form the “inner organ” (antaḥh-karaṇa); and when combined with the sense-faculties (buddhīndriya), faculties of action (karmendriya), and subtle elements (tanmātra), they form the subtle body (liṇga-śarīra), which is separable from the gross body and thus capable of transmigrating through a series of gross bodies which are aggregations of the five gross elements.

There is also a difference in terms of the origination of the gross and subtle elements.

According to Sāṃkhya, the five gross elements are derivatives of the subtle elements beginning with sound, and so forth; 16 whereas in the Kālacakratantra, the five gross elements are said to give rise to sound and other subtle elements. 17

It is not quite clear what is meant in the Kālacakratantra by the terms buddhi, manas, and ahaṃkāra.

The Indian commentarial literature does not elucidate these points, and Tibetan commentaries understand them in different ways.

For mKhas grub rje, the eight constituents of the prakṛti of the transmigratory mind are eight of the twenty-five principles of prakṛti and puruṣa, as categorized by the Sāṃkhya philosophical system. mKhas grub rje does not mention whether or not we should understand buddhi, manas, and ahaṃkāra in the way in which Sāṃkhya interprets them. He thus leaves us with a puzzle and room for speculation.

Bu ston's annotations [438], on the other hand, suggest that buddhi here refers to the five sensory faculties (buddhīndriya), that manas designates conceptualization (vikalpa), and that ahaṃkāra refers to the defiled, or afflicted mind (kliṣṭa-manas), referring to a subtle feeling of “I. ”


This concept of an afflicted mind is characteristic of the Yogācāra's classification of the mind and not of the Mādhyamika.

Bu ston's interpretation of the term buddhi definitely differs from that in Sāṃkhya, which considers buddhi a part of the “inner organ” that makes decisions, cognitively and ethically. 18

However, Bu ston's explanations of the terms manas and ahaṃkāra correspond in some ways to the implications of those terms in Sāṃkhya, which regards conceptualization as one of the functions of the manas, 19 and interprets ahaṃkāra as a part of the “inner organ” that appropriates all experiences to itself.

The fact that the Kālacakratantra uses these philosophical terms without clearly explaining their meaning is one more indication of the author's conscious attempt to incorporate the Sāṃkhya system into its universal model of conventional reality. 20

Likewise, despite some striking similarities between the Sāṃkhya's and the Kālacakratantra's interpretations of puruṣa, there are some basic differences with regard to the nature of the puruṣa and its relation to prakṛti.

In both systems, the puruṣa refers to consciousness which pervades prakṛti but itself is neither prakṛti nor its derivative, and which is free of the three properties—namely, sattva, rajas, and tamas—and is neither bound nor liberated by anything.

However, whereas in the Sāṃkhya philosophical system, the puruṣa is an independently existent reality, a contentless presence, or an inactive witness devoid of bliss, in the Kālacakratantra, the puruṣa is of the nature of innate gnosis (sahaja-jñāna), which is blissful omniscience; and it transcends both samsāra and nirvāna, and yet is active in supporting both.

For the schematization of the above mentioned differences between the Sāṃkhya's and Kālacakratantra's interpretations of puruṣa and prakṛti, see table 3.1. Similarly, the Kālacakratantra way of understanding the guṇas of prakṛti does not correspond in every way to the Sāṃkhya's interpretation.

In some instances, instead of sattva, rajas, and tamas, the Kālacakratantra specifies the five sense-objectssmell, sound, form, taste, and touch—as the guṇas of prakṛti. 21

Being subject to origination and cessation, they are said to have the characteristics of conceptualizations and bind the individual to the cycle of existence. In other instances, the three guṇassattva, rajas, and tamas—correspond to the moral distinctions among sentient beings' mental dispositions that are induced by their own karma. 22


In yet other instances, the Kālacakra tradition refers to the three guṇas in ways that are open to multiple interpretations.

For example, when it speaks of the gross, subtle, and supreme natures (prakṛti) of the mind as being contained in the three guṇas, it does not fully explain the manner in which it understands the three guṇas in this particular context.

The Vimalaprabhā suggests only that in the Kālacakratantra's classification of the nature of awareness as gross, subtle, and supreme, the gross nature of the transmigratory mind, which apprehends phenomena with the gross sense-faculties, is characterized by the waking state.

This state is said to correspond to sattva, that is to say, to the daytime.

The subtle nature of the mind, which apprehends mental phenomena that are like an illusion, is characterized by the dreaming state, which is said to correspond to rajas, or to twilight.

The supreme nature of the mind, which discards all phenomena, is characterized by the state of deep sleep, which is thought to correspond to tamas, or to midnight.

If not examined within its own context and in light of the Madhyamaka view of sattva, rajas, and tamas, this threefold classification of the nature (prakṛti) of the mind, related to sattva, rajas, and tamas, may appear identical to that of non-Buddhist tantric systems, particularly of the nondual Kaśmīr Śaivism. 23

It is quite plausible that the Kālacakratantra introduced that type of categorization of the nature of awareness from Kaśmīr Śaivism as a useful model to describe the conventional aspects of the transmigratory mind.


In light of the fact that the Kālacakra tradition explicitly reaches out to a nonBuddhist audience, sattva, rajas, and tamas may be interpreted in accordance with the Sāṃkhya philosophy.

On the other hand, there are some internal indications that for Buddhists not committed to that interpretation, the names of these three guṇas can simply be taken as ciphers to relate the three humors in the body—phlegm (kapha), bile (pitta), and wind (vāyu)—to the three nāḍīs in the body—idā on the left, pingalā on the right, and suṣumnā in the center—and to specific physiological or mental processes of three kinds, and so on. 25

Likewise, it is plausible that the Kālacakratantra's description of the fourth nature of the mind comes originally from the Śaiva tantras, for the classification of the four types of awareness was known in non-Buddhist Indian traditions since the time of the Upaniṣads.

Within the context of the Kālacakratantra, the fourth state of the mind is a state that supports the three aforementioned states.

It is characterized by the emission of regenerative fluids.

Comparative analysis of the expositions of the fourth state of the mind in the Kālacakratantra and in Śaiva tantras reveals striking similarities, and yet it shows some fundamental differences with regard to the nature of that state.

They agree that the fourth state of the mind marks the blissful state of consciousness in which all conceptualizations disappear and any sense of duality vanishes.

However, in Śaiva tantras, 26 the fourth state of the mind is also a state of selfrealization, a state in which one becomes aware of one's undivided, essential Self, and consequently becomes free of spiritual ignorance (avidyā).

It is a condition by which one rises to the fifth state, or the state of liberation, within one's lifetime (jīvanmukti).

In the Kālacakratantra, on the other hand, the fourth type of awareness, though nondual at the time of the emission of regenerative fluids, is still tainted with the habitual propensities of spiritual ignorance (avidyā-vāsanā) and is thus embedded in the cycle of existence.

The aforementioned examples demonstrate some of the ways in which the Kālacakratantra endeavors to simultaneously achieve both its goals—to offer rational explanations concerning the individual, and to convert Śaivites and other heterodox groups adhering to the Sāṃkhya's world view—without compromising its fundamental tenets.

Similarly, in order to attract the Vaiṣṇavas and to illustrate its view of the physical and mental development of the human being, the Kālacakratantra uses the model of the ten avatāras of Viṣṇu as an analogy for the ten phases of human life.

By so doing, it introduces its own unique interpretation of Viṣṇu's avatāras.

Thus, in the Kālacakratantra, 27 Viṣṇu is also referred to as Viṣṇu Vajradhara, the individual's mindvajra.

He is identified here with the gandharva being, or the being of the intermediate state (antar-bhāva), being conveived in the womb and undergoing different stages in the different phases of life inside and outside the womb.

For example, as a fetus, one assumes the forms of a fish, tortoise, and boar;

at birth, one becomes a man-lion;

in early childhood, one is in the dwarf-stage; at the time when the first teeth grow until they fall out, one is in the stage of Rāma;

in adolescence, one experiences the stage of Paraśurāma; from adolescence until the appearance of gray hair, one experiences the stage of Kṛṣṇa; in old age, one is in the stage of a Buddha, and on the day of death, one attains the stage of Kalkī.

Interpreting Viṣṇu's avatāras in this manner, the Vimalaprabhā cautions against adopting the standard interpretation of the

Purānic teachings on the grounds that they are meaningless, lead to hell, and are devised by corrupt Brāhmanas in order to deceive simple-minded people. 28

This is one of many instances in which the Kālacakratantra tradition contemptuously disparages the Vaiṣṇava tradition and its teachings.

It frequently refers to the Brāhmaṇic teachings, especially those of the Purānas, as false teachings, devoid of reasoning, creating confusion among foolish people, and composed by corrupt Brāhmaṇic sages for the sake of promoting their own social class. 29

One reason for such assertions was the overt animosity between the Buddhists and the adherents of the Brāhmaṇic tradition in the northern India of the late tenth and eleventh centuries.

This was an era in which the influence of the Purānas and strength of Brāhmaṇism steadily increased, and in which orthodoxBrāhmaṇic schools jointly stood in opposition to Buddhist ideology, posing a threat to the entire Buddhist tradition.

One of many examples of internal evidence of the antagonism between the Brāhmaṇic and Buddhist traditions of that time is their contention over the issue of which Dharma is the best one.

The Vimalaprabhā refutes the Brāhmaṇic claim that the Vedic Dharma is superior to the Buddha Dharma because it is earlier and innate (sahaja), whereas the Buddhist Dharma is later and fabricated (kṛtaka).

It argues that just as the earlier and innate ignorance is not better than later knowledge, so too the fact that the Vedic Dharma is earlier and innate does not mean that it is best.

Even though it is earlier and innate, it does not illuminate the path to omniscience, for it is characterized by the darkness of ignorance. Therefore, the Vimalaprabhā states, the later Buddha Dharma was created in order to destroy the great darkness of the Vedic Dharma.


Speaking from the Buddhist tantric point of view, the Vimalaprabhā argues that the Buddhist Dharma is superior to the Vedic Dharma because nirvāṇa comes about only by means of a sādhana on the supreme, imperishable gnosis (paramāksarajñāna) and not by means of the Vedic Dharma, which consists of nothing but the habitual propensity of seminal emission. 30

In addition to the aforementioned instances in which the Kālacakratantra adopts and redefines concepts characteristic of non-Buddhist systems, it also incorporates non-Buddhist cosmological views without reinterpreting them.

For example, in its classification of the infernal realms and its description of the size of Meru, the Kālacakra tradition closely parallels the Jaina cosmological view; and its description of the four cosmic maṇḍalas also parallels those in the Purāṇas. 31

The fact that the conversion of heterodox groups was one of the motivations behind the Kālacakratantra's adoption of specific non-Buddhist ideas implies that its teachings pertaining to the Kālacakra worldview were not kept secret from the public; that is, they were not guarded as secret teachings intended for an initiated elite.

Moreover, the Kālacakra tradition's preference for explicitly presenting its specific tantric views is a result of its openly professed conversionary endeavors. The Syncretism of Kālacakratantra Practice There is clear evidence in the Kālacakra literature that even the teachings and practices pertaining to the Kālacakra initiation were accessible to heterodox groups, whether they were seeking only mundane siddhis or the realization of the supramundane gnosis.

With regard to its initiation, the Kālacakratantra 32 asserts that whether one is a Buddhist,

a Śaiva, a Brāhmaṇa,
a naked mendicant (nagna), a snātaka (a Brāhmaṇa beggar),
a kāpālī (a follower of a Śaiva sect, who wears a garland of human skulls and eats and drinks from them),
a Jaina mendicant (lupta-keśa),
a hermit (maunī), or
a follower of the left-hand Śāktism (kaulī),


one will obtain purity and all virtues by receiving the Kālacakra initiation.

It substantiates that assertion on the grounds that through initiation into the Kālacakra-maṇḍala one becomes initiated into all maṇḍalas, including those of the deities belonging to those heterodox groups. 33

In its attempt to attract heterodox groups, the Kālacakratantra includes in its maṇḍala the deities that were equally accepted by Hindus, Jainas, and Buddhists as objects of worship and meditation.

In this way it introduced its practical syncretism into the practice of the stage of generation.

However, just as the Kālacakratantra's theoretical syncretism often lends itself to both Buddhist and non-Buddhist interpretations, so too can these deities of the heterodox groups be viewed either as nonBuddhist deities or—as the Vimalaprabhā 34 suggests—as symbolic representations of the diverse factors of Buddhahood. 35

The Kālacakra tradition is the only Buddhist tantric tradition that fully discloses the symbolic representations of its adopted nonBuddhist deities.

While the Kālacakratantra incorporates into its maṇḍala the diverse deities that were worshipped by both Buddhists and non-Buddhists, the Vimalaprabhā admonishes the Buddhist tantric yogīs who seek liberation and wish to advance in Kālacakratantra practice by meditating on the supramundane siddhis not to perform sādhanas on the deities and mantras of the outsiders.

Its rationale for this is that the deities of the outsiders cause minor misfortunes, and even when they are meditated upon, they look for the faults of the meditator and become his enemies.


It points to the futility of meditation on non- Buddhist deities in this manner:

Meditated upon, what will they, who are like poor men, give? When meditated upon, they say:

“Hey sādhaka, we will obey your every command. ”

If the sādhaka says, “Tie the king and bring him here, ” then they refuse, [saying]: “We are incompetent in this matter. ”

Likewise, the insignificant deities who are meditated upon refuse [to help] with regard to omniscience. 36


Moreover, textual study of the Kālacakratantra shows that receiving the Kālacakratantra initiation did not entail taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha.

It is clear that non-Buddhist recipients of the Kālacakra initiation did not have to become Buddhists.

However, the fact that the subsequent tantric practice of the stage of generation begins with taking refuge 37 implies that those wishing to engage in more advanced Kālacakra practices had to commit themselves to the Buddhist path.

Study of the fourth chapter of the Kālacakratantra, which describes the practice of the stages of generation, suggests that that mode of practice was introduced partly with the intention of accommodating new converts to this tantric path.


Moreover, the Vimalaprabhā 38 asserts that the Kālacakra sādhana is to be taught first as a dualistic practice, based on the differentiation between the visualized deity as permanent (nitya) and the meditator as impermanent (anitya), for the sake of the mental purification and conversion of the foolish who have not yet realized that their visualized object is ultimately their own mind.


The term “foolish” (bāla) is recurrently used in the Kālacakra literature to describe the members of heterodox groups.

The examples given above demonstrate two important facts.

The first is that the Kālacakra tradition's reconciliation of non-Buddhist views with its own is primarily achieved through its reinterpretation of non-Buddhist ideas; and the second fact is that its conversionary effort was the most important factor in inducing its theoretical and practical syncretism.


The Syncretism of the Kālacakratantra's Language

The Kālacakratantra's aforementioned expressions of syncretism are also reflected in its language.

They induce the specific types of lexical and semantical syncretism found in this tantra, which is characterized by a diverse mixture of Buddhist and nonBuddhist terms. As we saw earlier, at times the terms borrowed from non-Buddhist systems convey the ideas characteristic of those systems;

at other times, they convey traditional Buddhist ideas; and at yet other times, they designate new Buddhist ideas specific to this tantric system.

The Vimalaprabhā interprets the Kālacakratantra's linguistic divergences as its way of transcending the class discrimination of the rivaling Hindu groups, which prohibit the Vaiṣyas, Śūdras, and other low classes from studying their scriptures, saying,

“Here in the land of mortals, the Vaiṣyas, Śūdras, and others born in degraded wombs, must not study the Vedas and must not take up the mendicant's life and staff. ” 39


It also views the Kālacakratantra's linguistic syncretism as a way of overcoming the alienation created by conservative Buddhist ways of institutionalizing the language of the north Indian Buddhist tradition, upheld by Buddhists who, “seeing the arrogance of the heterodox paṇḍitas who propound the proper words, think: '

Just as the chosen deities of the Brāḥmaṇas, Vaiṣṇavas, Śaivas, and others—Brahmā, Hari, Hara, and others—speak Sanskrit, so too our chosen deities, the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, speak Sanskrit. ” ' 40

Another facet of the Kālacakratantra's lexical syncretism manifests in the usage and reinterpretation of Buddhist terms of different Buddhist schools.

For example, the Kālacakratantra frequently employs the Yogācāra's term ālaya-vijñāna (repository consciousness) simply to designate vijñāna (consciousness).

Taking into account the interpretation of the Vimalaprabhā commentary, which glosses ālaya-vijñāna as vijñāna and jīva, the Kālacakratantra's general view of the nature of the mind, and its refutation of the Yogācāra's classification of the mind, one may infer that the term ālayavijñāna in this tantric tradition designates not the Yogācāra's concept of an ethically neutral repository of the habitual propensities of karma, but a continuum of mental consciousness.

This particular type of lexical syncretism results from the Kālacakratantra's effort to convert the adherents of Buddhist schools other than Madhyamaka.


The Vimalaprabhā explicitly refers to Yogācārins, Sautrāntikas, and Vaibhāsikas as simple-minded Buddhist heretics (bauddha-tīrthika). 41

The Kālacakra tradition's conversionary endeavors may also be traced to yet another facet of its lexical syncretism, namely, the usage of terms originating from Indian vernaculars.

For example, the terms chandoha, upachandoha, melāpaka, upamelāpaka, and others, which designate the names of the specific bodily joints, do not have clear Sankrit etymologies.

Since the author of the tantra demonstrates his familiarity with the Āyurvedic medical treatises such as the Caraka and Suśruta

Samhitās, which employ standard Sanskrit terms to designate those bodily parts, it is certain that the usage of these terms was not accidental.

In light of the preceding discussions, one may draw several conclusions.

First, the above-mentioned characteristics of the Kālacakratantra's pervasive syncretism demonstrate the diversity of that syncretism.

Second, it is the prevailing reinterpretative aspect of the Kālacakratantra's syncretism that ensures this tantra's coherence and gives it a distinctively Buddhist character.

Third, the different features of the Kālacakratantra's syncretism are incidental to the various immediate goals that this tantra attempts to accomplish by resorting to syncretism. As mentioned earlier, there are several reasons for the Kālacakratantra's syncretism.

The first is to enhance and enrich its presentation of conventional reality.

The second is its expressed aim of proselytism.

In support of this claim, it is well to remember that during the late tenth and early eleventh centuries, northern India was subjected to frequent raids by the Muslim chief Amīr of Ghaznī and his son Sultan Mahmūd, whose forces took tens of thousands of slaves and plundered the country's treasures.

In the midst of this brutal invasion, the author of the Kālacakratantra may well have sought to form a united front of heterodox groups and Buddhists, a new ecumenical movement that would stand up against this common foe, who exemplified the “Barbarians” (mleccha).

Likewise, dangerous times like these often create a world of religious uncertainty that can sometimes be warded off by precarious theoretical and practical forms of religious affirmations, which may be seen as heretical.

The fact that a conversionary mission is the most compelling factor in inducing the Kālacakratantra's syncretism brings us to a simple but pertinent question: Why does the Kālacakratantra resort to syncretism in order to fulfill its conversionary goals?

The answer may be threefold.

First, by incorporating heterodox theories and practices, it makes its own system more accessible to those whom it is trying to attract.

That is, by presenting its own views in terms that the heterodox groups are steeped in and with which they are comfortable, it makes its own theory more readily understandable to them.

Second, it acknowledges aspirations already cherished by its potential Buddhist and non-Buddhist followers—such as physical health, mundane siddhis, immortality, and liberation—and shows them how to accomplish these aims by means of Kālacakratantra practice.

Third, by means of syncretism, it tries to demonstrate that in terms of conventional reality there is no fundamental difference between the views of the heterodox systems and the Kālacakratantra, and that no theory describes any purported inherent nature of the world.

However, this assertion of the essential compatibility between the heterodox and Kālacakratantra views appears to be contradictory, for the Kālacakra tradition undeniably refutes and reinterprets others' views concerning the conventional nature of phenomena.

This dilemma may be a philosophical one which the Kālacakra tradition, due to its adoptive strategies, cannot avoid; but there may perhaps be a deeper justification that can be discovered through further research into this subject.


The Concept of Science in the Kālacakra Tradition

When the issue of science is raised within the context of Indian Buddhist thought, there are no more advanced or comprehensive matrices of theory and practice than those presented in the literature of the Kālacakra tradition.

A textual study of the Indian literary sources of this tantric tradition reveals that when Brāhma ic for mal education in eleventh-century India was ṇ exclusively theological and disdainful of technical knowledge, 1 north Indian Buddhist monastic education incorporated training in nontheological skills that required knowledge of medicine, alchemy, mathematics, artisanship, and even weaponry. 2

The sharp split between theological and scientific education, which impaired the Brāhmaṇic educational system of that time, was absent in Buddhist monastic education due to the prevailing Buddhist view that theological knowledge and technical and scientific learning are not only compatible but complementary as well. 3


The literature of the Kālacakra tradition with its diverse and well-integrated topics and applications of the diverse fields of knowledge best attests to that fact.

The integration of diverse fields of knowledge by this tantric tradition has its roots in the Buddhist monastic, educational system.

The study of the five fields of knowledge (pañca-vidyā)—linguistics, logic, inner science (metaphysics and philosophy), medicine, and creative arts—was incorporated in Buddhist education at the time of the emergence of the Mahāyāna Buddhist monastic universities.

Mahāyāna monasteries were the first to offer educational opportunities to both the monastic and lay Buddhist communities; and they were the first to provide them with religious and secular education as well.

This is very significant in light of the fact that in the Indian Buddhist world, educational opportunities did not exist apart from monasteries.

In early Buddhism, Buddhist education was entirely monastic in its content and available only to those who entered or intended to enter the Buddhist monastic order.

The origin of the Buddhist educational system was closely tied to the inception of the Buddhist monastic order.


The Buddhist educational system actually arose from the need for instructing monastic novices. Each novice (śrāmaṇera) at his ordination (pravrajyā) was placed under two senior monks, one called a preceptor (upadhyāya) and the other a personal teacher (ācārya). From

the description given in the early Buddhist Pāli texts (Mahāvagga, Ch. 1. ), it seems that the upadhyāya was responsible for instructing the novice in Buddhist texts and doctrine, whereas the ācārya was responsible for training the novice in the proper conduct of a fully ordained monk.

After the novitiate period was over, a novice aged twenty or older underwent a second ordination (upasampadā).

As a fully ordained monk (bhikṣu), one received further training to become well versed in Buddhist scriptures and meditation.

That period was called niśraya, or “dependence, ” and it could be reduced to five years or extended for a lifetime. Once that period was over, a trained monk was allowed to teach younger monks as an independent ācārya. Thus, in early Buddhism the unit of the Buddhist educational system was a young monk or a group of young monks living under the supervision of two elders who were responsible for their entire well-being.

Many such groups of students and teachers resided together within a single monastic institution.

This pattern of collective life and organization of education carried over to the educational system of Mahāyāna Buddhism where it was further developed.

However, unlike the Mahāyāna texts, the early Buddhist writings 4 refer to the creative arts, craftsmanship, scribing, and similar fields of knowledge as vulgar fields of knowledge (tiracchānavijjā), which are studied only by lay people.

Likewise, in the early Buddhist period, the Buddhist laity had to seek other educational centers when they needed nonreligious education.

With the advent of Mahāyāna, there was greater emphasis on promoting general education for the entire Buddhist community.

There were two main reasons for that shift in the priorities. One reason was Mahāyāna's recognition of the Buddhist lay life as a viable way of life in the pursuit of spiritual awakening, and the other reason lay in the Bodhisattva ideal and the ideal of perfect enlightenment characterized by omniscience.


Therefore, whereas in early Buddhism attention was given almost exclusively to the elimination of spiritual ignorance, Mahāyāna Buddhism was concerned with the eradication of every kind of ignorance.

As some Mahāyāna texts attest, a Bodhisattva was encouraged to gain proficiency in all kinds of knowledge in order to attain the six perfections and assist others in every way needed.

The Bodhicaryāvatāra, for instance, declares, “there is nothing that the Children of the Jina should not learn. ” 5 In this regard, in the Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition, the study of the five fields of knowledge was considered necessary in both pursuits—the pursuit of one's pragmatic, mundane ends and the pursuit of spiritual awakening.

It is said in the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra: An Āa who does not undergo training in the five fields of knowledge in no way attains omniscience.

He trains in them in order to defeat and assist others, and in order to gain knowledge for himself. 6

The text further explains that by studying linguistics and logic one is able to defeat opponents in debate; by studying medicine, the creative arts, and similar disciplines, one assists those who desire so;

and by studying the inner science, or Buddhism proper, one gains knowledge for oneself.

Likewise, mastery of the five fields of knowledge was considered as one of the characteristics of Buddhahood itself.


In the Vyākhyāyukti, 7 or the Sūtravyākyāyuktyupadeśa, Vasubandhu states that Buddha's teaching is called comprehensive because it demonstrates his proficiency in every field of knowledge.

In tantric literature, specifically in the Vajrapañjaratantra, a good vajrācārya is said to be completely versed in all fields of knowledge.

As I will try to demonstrate throughout this book, the Kālacakra tradition supports this view of the Buddha's omniscience as inclusive of all forms of learning, and it accordingly integrates the diverse branches of exoteric learning into its esoteric theories and practices.

The fact that the entire Kālacakratantra can be divided into two main parts—one dealing with diverse disciplines pertaining to the theoretical knowledge of the world and the other pertaining to meditation—indicates that the Kālacakra tradition also agrees with the Mahāyāna view that one is unable to get the firm footing in Buddhist teachings and practice by study and analysis alone, without the practice of meditation, or with meditation alone, without study.

In this way, it concords with the earlier Maha flyāna view expressed by the following verse from the Mahāyānasūtrālamkāra: Meditation would be useless if reality could be perceived through mere study; and the teaching would be useless if one could practice meditation without having studied. 8 The topics of the Kālacakratantra's first two chapters—called respectively “

The Universe” and “The Individual”—deal with the investigation of the universe as macrocosm and of the individual as its microcosm.

The Kālacakratantra's inquiry into the nature of the external world and the individual as two facets of the phenomenal world—the external (bāhya) and internal (adhyātma)—utilizes knowledge of the various branches of Buddhist science.

Disciplines analogous to cosmology, astronomy, astrometry, chronometry, embryology, physiology, psycho-physiology, anatomy, medical therapeutics, pharmacology, alchemy, botany, psychology, and philosophy are either directly or indirectly incorporated into the Kālacakratantra, especially into its first two chapters.

For this tantric tradition, those diverse scientific disciplines provide a systematic analysis of the natural world, provisionally viewed as an object of purification, and humans' place and interactions in that world.


Thorough understanding of the structures and functions of conventional reality (saṃvṛti-satya) is considered here indispensable for the realization of ultimate reality (paramārtha-satya), or Buddhahood.

Since the earliest period of Buddhism, Buddhists' investigation of the world has been based on their understanding of nature as an orderly system governed by discernible causal laws.

This same theoretical basis of investigation also permeates the discussions of the universe and the individual in the Kālacakratantra. An analysis of this tantra and its related literature indicates that the primary goal of the tantric Buddhist investigation of the natural world is to discover the causal factors operating within the universe as macrocosm and within the individual as microcosm.

The secondary goal is to demonstrate the correspondence between the universe and the individual by identifying the properties of the external physical universe in the body of the individual. 9

This goal reflects the Kālacakra tradition's intent that its very presentation of Buddhist scientific truths be nondual, that is, without drawing an absolute distinction between subject and object.

The tertiary objective of the Buddhist tantric scientific investigation is to ascertain the properties of the cosmos and the individual as mere appearances invoked by the power of the individual's habitual propensities.

Finally, the ultimate aim is to see things as they are (yathā-bhūta) by means of acquiring direct knowledge of the nature of reality. Seeing things as they are means perceiving the illusory nature of conventional reality and realizing the nonduality of conventional and ultimate realities.

The nature of this nonduality is that conventional reality, although manifesting as the universe, has the form of emptiness (śūnyatā-rūpiṇī, and emptiness has the form of conventional reality (saṃvṛti-rūpiṇī 10

The realization of the fundamental nonduality of the conventional and ultimate realities and the contemplative path to that realization are the chief topics of the other three chapters of the Kālacakratantra, called respectively the “Initiation, ” “Sādhana, ” and “Gnosis. ”

An analysis of those three chapters indicates that this Buddhist tantric path of actualizing Buddhahood is structured on two theoretical grounds. One is a theory that the universe is contained within the body of the individual as demonstrated by the diverse disciplines of Buddhist natural sciences; and the second is that the natural world as we experience it and explain it through scientific analysis is already nirvāna but needs to be recognized as such.

Thus, in the context of Buddhist tantric soteriology, the proper understanding of the conventional world that is the object of purification, the genuine practice of the Buddhist tantric path that is the means of purification,

and the authentic actualization of Buddhahood, which is the result of that purification, are directly contingent upon adequate knowledge of the Buddhist natural and social sciences.


The concept of science in the Kālacakratantra is indicated by the Sanskrit word vidyā, meaning “knowledge. ” Already in some of the early Buddhist expositions on vidyā, the term signifies more than knowledge regarding the Four Noble Truths.

In the Nettipakaraṇa, 11 the definition of vidyā includes such concepts as investigation (vicaya), scrutiny or observation (upaparikkhā), and correct views or theories (sammādiṭṭhi).

Thus, from early times, Indian Buddhists have recognized the relevance of rational and empirical methods in their studies of the natural world and human thought and relations.

However, just as the Western concepts of religion and philosophy do not clearly apply to Buddhism as a whole, so too the Western concept of science does not directly correspond to the phenomenon of Buddhist science.

There are several critical reasons for that—namely, Buddhist science is characterized by widely known and used contemplative and introspective methods of scientific investigation, 12 its application of extrasensory perception as one of the means of scientific verification, the difficulty of demonstrating the knowledge acquired by contemplative means, and its goal of progress toward, not unprecedented knowledge, but knowledge previously acquired by Buddha Śākyamuni and other Buddhist contemplatives.

Nevertheless, I think the term “science” is justified here for several reasons.

First, in Buddhist science there are working hypotheses that are tested by means of experience and that are capable, in principle, of being refuted experientially.

Moreover, the conclusions drawn from experience are formulated as rational theories that are internally consistent and make intelligible a wide range of phenomena.

In light of the Kālacakratantra's classification of reality into the provisional and ultimate, this tantric system speaks of two types of science (vidyā). 13


The first type of scientific knowledge is knowledge of conventional reality, which is acquired by means of investigation.

As such, it is described as perishable scientific knowledge (kṣara-vidyā), since it is provisional and highly subjective. 14

It is subjective in the sense that it is affected by the habitual propensities of saṃsāra, which are nothing

other than the measure of the habitual propensities of one's own mind. Scientific knowledge of conventional reality is provisional also due to its being perceptual and conceptual.


The verification of provisional scientific truths is based on the sensory perceptions and on inference based on perceptual experiences; but one's perceptions and conceptions of the world are said to depend on the power of one's own merit, or virtue (puṇya). 15

Scientific knowledge of conventional reality is also provisional due to its being characterized by a series of momentary cognitions that arise and cease with the arising and ceasing of cognized impermanent phenomena.

A transmigratory mind, which observes conventional reality, is momentary because to that mind phenomena appear to arise, remain, and cease in separate, consecutive moments. Such a mind does not perceive the unity, or simultaneity, of the moment of the phenomena's arising, remaining, and ceasing. 16

Thus, as the mind perceives conventional reality, it discriminates the moments as one and many, and consequently, it discriminates all other phenomena as separate from one another, since they appear to arise and cease in their own separate times. This discriminatory, dualistic manner of perceiving the conventional world as a multiplicity of temporal phenomena is seen as the most prominent characteristic of provisional scientific knowledge.

The Vimalaprabhā asserts that this provisional scientific knowledge is inconsequential scientific knowledge to which the human mind is strongly attached. 17

The Kālacakra tradition affirms that that which is scientific knowledge (vidyā) in terms of conventional reality is ignorance (avidyā) with regard to the ultimate nature of phenomena. 18

Ignorance is a habitual propensity of saṃsāra, and it is knowledge accompanied by attachment that often manifests in scientific inquiry as an expectation.

Since attachment gives rise to aversion and aversion is of the nature of delusion, provisional scientific knowledge of conventional reality is fundamentally a mental affliction, which subjectively creates all the worlds in every single moment and perceives the world in a biased manner.

In contrast, knowledge of ultimate reality, or as-it-is-ness, is viewed as ultimate and imperishable scientific knowledge, because it is not affected by the habitual propensities of saṃsāra.


It is a nonconceptual, unmediated knowledge, in which the distinction between the perceiver and the perceived no longer appears.

Therefore, this type of scientific knowledge (vidyā) is said to be devoid of an object (analambinī). 19 It is nonperceptual knowledge, because it is not acquired through the sensefaculties or any conventional means of scientific investigation, nor is it acquired even by means of meditation.


It is free of momentariness, for it does not discriminate moments as one or many. In this way, it dwells in the absence of origination and cessation. Just as saṃsāra is the measure of one's own mind, so too is ultimate reality the measure of one's own mind.

Thus, ultimate scientific knowledge is nothing other than self-knowledge, knowledge of the extent of one's own mind.

However, even though provisional scientific knowledge of the world is regarded as ultimately incorrect, it is seen as indispensable for gaining eventual knowledge of ultimate reality, which is omniscience, for it facilitates one's understanding of impermanence and emptiness and thereby indirectly brings about the eradication of one's afflictive and cognitive obscurations.

Thus, provisional scientific knowledge is seen as an integral part of ultimate scientific knowledge.

A careful study of the Kālacakra literature reveals that the scope of science in tantric Buddhism includes not only a wide range of natural sciences but cognitive sciences as well.


Those diverse branches of Buddhist science present systematized knowledge of the nature and composition of the natural world and humans' place and interactions in that world.

Adequate knowledge of the Buddhist scientific disciplines and its practical application in an integrated form on the tantric Buddhist path are viewed as highly relevant for one's spiritual maturation and liberation.

For that reason, it is thought that the Kālacakratantra practitioner should acquire and cultivate such knowledge and its practical applications for the sake of liberation and for the sake of temporary wellbeing as well.

Thus, within the Kālacakra system, all the aspects of the natural world become legitimate fields of Buddhists' scientific investigation, and knowledge of the various scientific fields becomes a significant component of the Buddhist Dharma as the body of verifiable truths. 20

The Kālacakra literature also demonstrates the ways in which the natural sciences become integrated with cognitive and social sciences on that Buddhist tantric path.


Disciplines classified in the modern world as history, philosophy, fine arts, and psychology are presented in the Kālacakra literature alongside astronomy, cosmology, physics, medicine, biology, pharmaceutics, and alchemy and are jointly utilized in the varied modes of Kālacakratantra practice.

The integration of different sciences on this Buddhist tantric path is facilitated by the earlier mentioned tantric view of the nonduality of the individual and the individual's environment.

That particular view implies that all psycho-physiological processes of the individual correspond to the physical and socio-historical processes occurring in the individual's environment.

For example, the passage of days, seasons, and years corresponds to the passage of prāṇas in the human body; and the individual's spiritual battle with one's own mental afflictions has its external aspect in the religious war of Kalkī with the king of Barbarians in the land of Mecca, and so forth. 21


Thus, one may say that in this tantric system, the themes addressed in the Buddhist natural sciences are analogous to the themes of modern science.

In all of the above-mentioned disciplines of Buddhist tantric science, the verification of the Buddhist scientific truths appears to be based on the following four means: sensory perceptions, mental perceptions, extrasensory perceptions, and inference.

Since earliest times, extrasensory perceptions have been regarded in the Buddhist tradition as a valid means of scientific verification.

In its last two chapters, the Kālacakratantra presents rational psychological and physiological conditions for bringing about extrasensory perceptions.


The verification of Buddhist scientific truths concerning the relative nature of the world, as expressed in natural causal laws, is based on all the aforementioned means of verification.

Correspondingly, knowledge of relative scientific truths is viewed in this tantric system as perceptual and conceptual and as provisional knowledge of the world as it appears to the dualistic, biased mind.

The verification of absolute scientific truth regarding the ultimate nature of the world, as expressed in emptiness, is presented as a form of nondualistic contemplative perception.

Knowledge of absolute truth, however, is described as the nonconceptual (avikalpita), unmediated knowledge of all things, in which the distinction between the perceiver and the perceived no longer appears. 22

An important, common feature of the aforementioned disciplines of Buddhist tantric science is their individual syncretism that permeates the theories and modes of their practical application.

The syncretistic nature of Buddhist tantric science, as evidenced in the Kālacakratantra, stems from the Buddhist tantric view of the commonality of the Buddhists' and heterodox groups' (tīrthika) teachings concerning conventionally existent phenomena.


The Kālacakratantra contends that there is no distinction between the Buddhists and heterodox groups with regard to the manner in which conventional reality appears.

That view of the commonality of the Buddhists' and heterodox groups' approaches to conventional reality justifies the Buddhist tantric incorporation of specific ideas from other Indian religious and scientific systems and resulted in the syncretism of Buddhist tantric science.

By amalgamating the ideas characteristic of non-Buddhist systems into its own theoretical framework, the Kālacakra tradition attempts to accomplish two objectives: to facilitate its modeling of conventional reality and to convert heterodox groups.

In this way, the Buddhist tantric proselytizing efforts significantly contributed to the complex nature of most of the Buddhist tantric scientific disciplines.

However, the syncretism of Buddhist tantric medicine appears less related to those efforts, for it stems chiefly from the distinctive Buddhist tantric emphasis on the favorable effects of physical health on one's spiritual development.

The Kālacakra tradition gives great importance to the preservation of one's health on the grounds that the achievements of supernormal abilities and liberation are contingent upon proper bodily functioning. Since its earliest stages, the Buddhist tradition has been concerned with medical knowledge and its practical application as supplementary systems of Buddhist learning and religious practice.

The favorable effects of physical health on one's spiritual development are already indicated in the earliest Buddhist Pāli literature. As recorded in the Majjhimanikāya, 23

Buddha Śākyamuni himself saw health as the individual's finest possession and pointed out the difficulty of reaching enlightenment with an impaired body.

For that reason, understanding of the human body and knowledge of maintaining and restoring health have been given soteriological significance in all of Indian Buddhism.

However, it is within the context of tantric Buddhism that the preservation of one's health becomes of paramount importance.

The Kālacakratantra gives the following reason for that: Firstly, a mantrī should preserve the entire body of the Jina for the sake of siddhis. In the absence of the body, neither any siddhi nor supreme bliss is attained in this life. 24


Consequently, in the Kālacakra tradition as in other related tantric traditions, Buddhist medicine has been regarded as a major facet of Buddhist Dharma.


The earliest records of Buddhist theoretical and practical approaches to medicine are already found in the Pāli Tipiṭaka.

Those records reveal that the early Buddhists' understanding of human anatomy and physiology was generally in accord with that of classical Ārveda, whose basic contents were already formed and well known throughout the Indian subcontinent.

The early Buddhist materia medica was also similar to that of the ạyurveda.

Nevertheless, early Buddhist records frequently present the knowledge of illnesses and medicinal substances in a less systematic manner and on a more popular level than in the later Ārvedic texts and later Buddhist medical treatises.

Also, the ạyurvedic concept of the prāṇa as a support of life is only mentioned in the Buddhist Pāli Canon and not yet developed and medically utilized as it is in the Kālacakratantra.


By the time of Mahāyāna Buddhism in India, a rational system of classical Ārvedic medicine was in general use among Buddhists, and it strongly influenced the scientific framework of later Buddhist medicine. 25


Several medical treatises— such as Yogaśataka, 26 Jīvasūtra, Avabheṣajakalpa, Āryājanāmavaṭikā, and Āryamūlakoṣamahauṣadhāvalī 27 —which the Buddhist tradition ascribes to an author by the name of Nāgārjuna, contain systematized knowledge of selected collections of medicinal formulas, discussions of physiological aspects of diseases, and medical treatments that accord with ạyurveda.

The disciplines of alchemy and magic developed alongside the traditional and empirico-rational system of Buddhist medicine.

According to a tradition no later than the seventh century ce, those disciplines were already in practice by the time of Nāgārjuna, the alchemist, whose name is mentioned by the Chinese pilgrim Hsüan-tsang.

The Rasaratnākara and the Kakṣaputa 28 have been traditionally attributed to Nāgārjuna, as his writings on alchemy and magic respectively.

The Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition considered Ārvedic medicine, alchemy, and magic as separate but complementary branches of knowledge. It resorted to alchemical preparations, recitation of mantras, and drawing of maṇḍalas as supplementary methods of healing.

However, Buddhist tantric medical treatises and the Kālacakratantra literature integrate classical Ārvedic medicine, alchemy, and magic even more strongly into a unique and comprehensive system of Buddhist tantric medicine.

The broad scope of the tantric medical system, evidenced in the Kālacakra literary corpus, also encompasses knowledge of preparing incenses and perfumes used for worshipping Buddhas and Bodhisattvas during healing rites.

The Vimalaprabhā indicates that the Kālacakratantra's instructions on preparing incenses and perfumes are based on information contained in specialized treatises on the preparation of perfumes and incenses (gandha-śāstra). 29

Thus, the manuals on preparing perfumes and incenses form a significant supplementary branch of Buddhist tantric medical literature.

As in the earlier Buddhist medical systems, so too in Buddhist tantric medicine, one may find distinctions between magico-religious treatments and rational therapeutics based on induction from observation.

In Buddhist tantric medicine, the determination of a medical treatment is contingent upon determining the nature of a disease. Illnesses induced by malevolent spirits (bhūta), also known as nonhuman diseases, and snakebites are commonly treated by means of religious healing rites and mantras. 30

Mantras are also implemented as the protective, or preventive, methods of counteracting the evil intentions of nonhuman entities. 31

Likewise, carrying a precious stone of the color red, which belongs to the class of the substances that predominantly arise from the fire-element, is believed to prevent evil spirits from entering one's body, whereas gems that belong to the class of substances that are related to the space-element are said to ward off the cast of an evil eye. 32

The Kālacakratantra mentions diverse types of evils spirits and malicious Siddhas who are to be appeased by building specific maṇḍalas outside a village, or under a tree, in a cemetery, in a temple, or at the confluence of rivers, with offerings of delicacies, incenses, perfumes, flowers, candles, praises, and mantras. 33

The yakṣas, grahas, rākṣasas, piśācas, śākinīs, evil nāgas, who delight in human blood, ḍākinīs, rūpikās, vampire-ghouls feeding in cemeteries (kumbhāṇḍa), protectors of fields (kṣetrapāla), gaṇapatis, pretas, goblins, the lords of ḍākinīs who are accompanied by epilepsy, and malicious Siddhas are all considered to be powerful entities that may cause both illnesses

and great well-being. Therefore, worshiping them is seen as beneficial for the patient's safe recovery.


However, the Kālacakratantra warns against the pacification of malevolent spirits when the symptoms of irrevocable death appear, which cannot be warded off by gods, men, or nāgas. 34

It gives two reasons for this caution. 35

The first is that religious healing rites are ineffective in such a case, and the second reason is that this situation may create temptation for the tantric yogī to perform the rites simply for the sake of his own material gain, while knowing that they will be of no benefit to the patient. Tantric healing rites also entail the drawing of yantras, the initiation of a patient in a maṇḍala, and ablutions.

For example, a yantra consisting of thirty-four numbers placed within its respective sections should be shown to a pregnant woman when her womb stiffens at the time of childbirth. 36

Children afflicted by grahas are bathed with the five ambrosias (amṛta): water, milk, sour milk, ghee, honey, molasses, and fragrant water, that are contained within seven unbaked vessels. 37

At times, certain herbal medications, empowered by mantras, are administered to those possessed by malevolent spirits in order to alleviate the symptoms of afflictions.

For instance, in the case of a pregnant woman's sharp uterine pains caused by malevolent entities, the pregnant woman is to be given pounded kustha, us´īra, 38 kaseru grass, tagara, 39 blue water-lilly (keśara), and a filament of a lotus with cold water, all of which are consecrated by mantras and vajras. 40

Thus, the boundaries between magico-religious and empirico-rational treatments become far less noticeable in Buddhist tantric medicine than in its precedents. In the tantric rites of healing the afflictions caused by nonhuman entities, the magico-religious and empiricio-rational approaches clearly concur.

The empirico-rational approach involves diagnosing a disease based upon the observation of its symptoms and the occasions for their occurrence; it establishes the causes of affliction and determines the treatment according to those causes.

For example, unpleasant symptoms such as bodily convulsions, sharp pains in the eyes, a yellowish color of the face, arms, and legs, a distinctively yellow color of the urine, fever, vomiting, emaciation, and fainting are described as the symptoms characteristic of a children's disease that are caused by the possession by cruel spirits; and this can be treated by a ritual oblation of the child in the maṇḍala. 41


In this way, the empirico-rational approach essentially underlies the magico-religious healing rites.


Furthermore, the treatments of other ailments provoked by the disequilibrium of the three humors— wind (vāta), bile (pitta), and phlegm (kapha)—external actions, poor hygiene, inadequate diet, and other similar factors predominantly follow an empirico-rational approach.

Thus, the application of slightly warmed akṣobhya in the mouth is administered in the case of an infection of the mouth; anointing of the neck with karkoṭī 42 lāṇgalī, 43 and indrī 44 is applied in the case of the inflammation of the glands of the neck, and so on. 45

Nevertheless, meditation, visualization of tantric deities, and the recitation of mantras, which are the common healing factors in magico-religious healing rituals, often accompany the administering of medicaments in empirico-rational therapeutics.

For example, in the case of the malignant boils in the throat, one abiding in samādhi annihilates strong pains in the following way: while practicing prāṇāyāma, one visualizes in the heart-cakra Viśvamātā appearing as the stainless moon, with her hands in the wish-granting posture and holding a lotus, sitting on a lotus-seat in the vajra posture, and having one face and two arms. 46

Tantric medicinal mantras mentioned in the Kālacakratantra can be classified Viśvamātā, eliminate, eliminate vajra-like sharp and stingent pains, bring on my forbearance, bring on svāhā, ” 47 and consecratory mantras such as “oṃ āḥ huṃ take away, take away pains in the womb of such and such person svāhā. ” 48 In many instances, one mantra can perform more than one function.

Thus, in treatments of malignant diseases that are accompanied by fever and pain in the joints, the mantraoṃ phre vajra” is said to simultaneously empower medicinal herbal ingredients and to protect the patient's bodily cakras. 49

The recitation of protective and supplicatory mantras that induce a physiological change by directly influencing the patient's prāṇas may be regarded as an empirico-rational treatment.

The Kālacakra tradition's definition of prāṇa as the principal deity of a mantra 50 and its view of the individual's vajras, or capacities, of body, speech, mind, and gnosis as the source (yoni) of mantras 51 indicate a close and reciprocal influence between the mantras and the individual's mind and body.

In light of this view, one may infer that in the context of Buddhist tantric medicine, the recitation of mantras is utilized as a medical treatment of both the mind 52 and the body.

Although the Vimalaprabhā acknowledges that the power of mantras, medicinal herbs, gems, and other potent substances arises due to the transformation of the mind of the individual who empowers them, it emphasizes that neither mantras nor the empowered substances have limitless powers, since they are not empowered by the mind of the supreme, imperishable gnosis of the Buddha, but by the limited mind of the tantric yogī. 53

As its rational methods of cure, Buddhist tantric medicine utilizes the techniques of haṭha-yoga, particularly, the practices of prāṇāyāma and different yogic postures (āsana).

For instance, in the Kālacakratantra, the vajra posture (vajrāsana) 54 is recommended for the elimination of backache, the head-stand posture (śīrṣāsana) for the cure of a disease induced by a disorder of phlegm, the vase technique (kumbhaka) of prāṇāyāma is recommended for the alleviation of abdominal ailments, leprosy, and similar diseases.

In the case of leprosy, 55 the patient is advised to practice the kumbhaka for a period of six months, during which he should not emit semen during sexual intercourse. The Kālacakratantra 56 also cautions that one should practice prāṇāyāma only until heat in the heart or pain in the head occurs.

If one continues to practice the prāṇāyāma after those symptoms occur, the prāṇa congeals in the navel-cakra, or if unrestrained, it causes death by violently splitting the uṣṇīṣa leaving the body.


Sometimes, especially in the cases of the malignant diseases, prāṇāyāma is recommended as an alternative therapy to the application of medicaments.

It is chiefly recommended to experienced Buddhist tantric yogīs who are capable of developing profound meditative concentration (samādhi) and who do not always have access to appropriate medication.


Thus, to yogīs suffering from a malignant disease of the throat which is accompanied by fever, pains in the joints of the arms and legs, and headache, the following practice of prāṇāyāma is recommended: having entered a windowless house, the yogī should let his arms hang down toward the feet, as far as

the thighs, and he should practice the kumbhaka for as long as he does not fall on the ground and for as long as his fever does not diminish. 57


The most prevalent empirico-rational therapeutics of Buddhist tantric medicine encountered in the Kālacakra literature are dietary therapy, hydrotherapy, massage, and treatments carried out by means of nasal inhalation and oral consumption of drugs, fumigation, and anointing.

For example, everything bitter, combined with three myrobalans (kaṭuka), 58 is said to obliterate disorders of phlegm, so goat's milk, combined with the three myrobalans, is recommended to those suffering from phlegm-disorders.

Since sweet and astringent substances are believed to eliminate bile-disorders, buffalo-cow's milk is administered to those suffering from such an ailment.

Camel's milk is administered to those suffering from a disorder of wind, because camel's milk, combined with rock salt (saindhava), becomes an alkaline fluid (ksārāmbu) that removes wind-disorders.

Nasal inhalation of the akṣobhya plant or nasal inhalation of water in the morning is prescribed as a cure for a headache. 59

In the case of boils, pustules, and similar skin disorders, fumigation with ghee and seasalt wrapped in a cloth and anointing with the sap of arka 60 are suggested as an effective therapy. 61

In the case of infections of the ear and eye, the application of warm urine in the ear and of cold urine in the eye is recommended. In the case of sunstroke, the oral ingestion of a decoction containing an equal portion of dhātrī, coriander, and powder of tamarind leaves for three nights is suggested as an effective cure.

The curative efficacy of the specific tastes that characterize diverse nutritional, herbal, and mineral ingredients of medicinal preparations is thought to stem from the elements that give rise to the diverse tastes. 62

Therefore, consuming the appropriate preparations, one supplements the lack of the particular elements in the body that directly caused a disorder of one of three humors.

The aforementioned types of empirico-rational treatments best illustrate the classical Ārvedic and early Buddhist medical heritage in Buddhist tantric medicine.

The Kālacakratantra's materia medica is also similar to that of Ārveda and early Buddhist medicine.

In addition to herbal and other remedial substances that are wellknown from Ārveda and earlier Buddhist medical treatises, the Kālacakratantra mentions medicinal substances that are not specified in Ārvedic texts or in earlier Buddhist medical works.

It is possible, however, that those medicinal substances are known in Ārvedic and earlier Buddhist writings by different names, since the Kālacakratantra occasionally designates the medicinal herbs by terms that seem to be regional folk names—such as “lion's urine” (simhamūtra), “son's hair” (putrakes´a) 63 — instead of by their generally accepted names.


Indian tantric Buddhists, concerned with the preservation of the body, expanded the already existent science of rejuvenation and longevity and structured it as an additional branch of Buddhist tantric medicine.

Since Buddhist monastic schools of the eleventh-century India attracted scholars from other countries such as China, Persia, and so forth, one may suspect that tantric Buddhist methods of rejuvenation were influenced to some degree by Taoist and other methods for the prolongation of life.

Tantric Buddhists composed various tantric works that deal exclusively with diverse methods of rejuvenation and prolongation of life, which involve the arts of extracting rejuvenating essences and knowledge of performing rituals for longevity. 64

In its exposition of Buddhist tantric medicine, the Kālacakratantra indicates the following individual methods of rejuvenation: meditation (dhyāna) that involves bringing the prāṇas into the central nāḍī (madhyamā), practices of prānāyāma, ingestion of the five combined ambrosias (amṛta), 65 ingestion of life-giving essences extracted from herbs and foods, and ingestion of elixirs produced by means of complex alchemical processes.

For example, the kumbhaka, accompanied by the retention of regenerative fluids in sexual union, mentioned earlier with regard to the elimination of leprosy, is also seen as having a rejuvenating power.

It is said that if practiced for two years, it eradicates old age and its symptoms. Also, the nasal inhalation of uterine blood and the honey of black bees (keśarājikā), accompanied with meditation, is suggested as a six-month therapy for rejuvenation.

The Kālacakratantra also discusses intricate procedures for preparing tonics, elixirs, and gold, which are also called external elixirs (bāhya-rasāyana) and are regarded by Buddhist tantric tradition as nutrients that induce the attainment of a divine body (divya-deha) that is free of wrinkles and gray hair.

Thus, with respect to Buddhist tantric therapeutics, one may draw the following conclusions. Buddhist tantric therapeutics establishes four aims, namely, to prevent and cure disease, to secure longevity, and to bring forth liberation.

The first three goals are of a temporal nature.

They are not mere ends in themselves but ancillary to the actualization of the ultimate goal, which is enlightenment.

In order to actualize its goals, Buddhist tantric therapeutics utilize the syncretized knowledge and practices of tantric yoga, haṭha-yoga, Ārveda, folk medicine, religious esoteric rites of healing and exorcism, the science of distillation, and alchemy into its distinctive Buddhist tantric medical theory and practice.

Thus, the immediate objective of the syncretism of the Buddhist tantric medicine is to utilize all available medical knowledge and to provide all possible means of cure and disease-prevention in order to facilitate one's liberation.


However, the syncretism of the Buddhist tantric medicine should not be understood as a reconciliation of disparate views and practices but rather as their synthesis.

The Kālacakratantra does not attempt to reinterpret diverse medical theories and practices; it pragmatically juxtaposes them.

The Kālacakratantra's medical therapeutics rest on several theoretical grounds that are characteristic of Buddhist tantric medicine as a whole.

The primary theoretical basis of Kālacakratantra medicine is tantric Buddhist soteriology that focuses on the intimate relationship among the mind, body, and liberation.

On that foundation rests the Kālacakratantra's principal medical theory of the predominant effects of prāṇas on one's mental, physical, and spiritual condition.

To that theory the Kālacakratantra adds the theoretical framework of the secular system of Ārvedic medicine, operating on the presumption that good health is maintained by the equilibrium of the three humors—wind, phlegm, and bile.

The fourth element of this theoretical context is the principles of haṭha-yoga, which are based on the view of a causal relationship among bodily postures, breathing exercises, and mental and physical health.

Finally, the last theoretical basis of Buddhist tantric medical therapeutics is the premises of folk medicine and occult beliefs concerning bewitchment and spirit possession, according to which, spirits can possess and thereby influence an individual's mental and physical states.

Likewise, the theoretical syncretism of Kālacakratantra medicine yields a wide variety of medical treatments.

Among the aforementioned medical treatments, the tantric yogic practices of manipulating the prāṇas and retaining regenerative fluids are believed to most directly affect the accomplishment of medical and soteriological ends. Thus, according to the Kālacakratantra, the yogic methods of actualizing supernormal powers (siddhi) are a part of the Buddhist tantric medical theory and practice. The tantric yogic practices of manipulating the flows of the prāṇas and retaining regenerative fluids during sexual intercourse have a dual purpose: spiritual and medical.

When practiced by yogīs endowed with good health, the tantric yogic practices induce spiritual powers and liberation.

To those facing premature death, that is, death prior to the age of one hundred, and to those suffering from various diseases—such as abdominal ailments, 66 asthma, cough, eye-diseases, poisoning, dysuria, and leprosy—they serve as preventive and curative therapeutics.

For example, when the signs of untimely death occur, the following yogic practices are sequentially performed.

The first is the obstruction of the prāṇas in the left and right nāḍīs; the next phase entails bringing the prāṇas into the central channel nāḍī and making them circulate there for a day; the third phase involves filling one's arms, legs, and fingers with prāṇas;

and the final phase involves visualizing the Buddhas' six female consorts with their hands in the protection-mudrā and standing within one's own six cakras.

In the case of the abdominal and other diseases mentioned previously, one is advised to contract the wind of apāna from below the navel and the wind of prāṇa from above.

In this way, those two winds colide and cause a strong digestive fire to arise and spread throughout the entire body.

It is said that after a month of practicing this yoga, one averts maladies of the liver, spleen, hemorrhoids, asthma, headache, cough, and so on. 67 Lastly, the syncretism of the Kālacakratantra's medical theory reduced the boundaries between magico-religious and empirico-rational therapeutics.

The concurrence of magico-religious and empirico-rational treatments in individual cases was invariably used for two purposes: simultaneously to alleviate the symptoms of the disease and to eliminate the cause of the disease.


These multiple aims and means of cure in Kālacakratantra medicine required the incorporation of different sciences as additional branches of medicine.

For example, the earlier mentioned science of preparing perfumes and incenses, the science of extracting elixirs from foods and herbs, the science of alchemy, etc. became supplementary fields of medical study. In this way, the syncretism of the Buddhist tantric medical theory and practice broadened the scope of Indian Buddhist medicine as a whole, and it extended the Buddhist tantric framework of theory and practice.


The Cosmic Body

The Cosmos, the Individual, and the Cosmos as the Individual

The Kālacakratantra's cosmology is structured on several theoretical models. In its interpretation of the conventional nature of the cosmos, the Kālacakratantra combines to some degree the Vaibhāṣika atomic theory, the Sāṃkhya model of the twenty-five principles of the puruṣa and prakṛti, and Jaina and Purāṇic cosmographies with its own measurements of the cosmos (loka-dhātu) 1 and its own theories of the cosmos's nature and relation to the individual.

The Kālacakra tradition intentionall y uses this form of syncretism in order to provide a useful theoretical model of the Buddhist tantric view of the cosmos that will accord with its interpretation of the individual and with its model of practice.

As already indicated in chapter 3 on syncretism, the Kālacakra tradition itself justifies this syncretism in terms of its proselytizing efforts 2 and in terms of the multiplicity and relativity of conventional realities. According to this tantric tradition, knowledge of the constitution of the cosmos and of the manner in which the cosmos originates and dissolves is pertinent to one's spiritual maturation.

The Vimalaprabhā explicitly states that in order to fully comprehend the three Vehicles, one must first know the origination and dissolution of the cosmos as taught by the Vaibhāṣikas, who assert the true existence of the individual (pudgala) and of the cosmos, which consists of an agglomeration of atoms. 3

While supporting the Madhyamaka view of phenomenal and personal identitylessness, the Kālacakra tradition affirms the conventional existence of the cosmos and the individual and acknowledges the validity and usefulness of the Vaibhāṣikas' atomic th eory of the evolution and disintegration of the cosmos.

Consequently, it holds that within the context of the Kālacakra system, one investigates the conventional nature of the cosmos by way of the Vaibhāṣika doctrine and gains a thorough knowledge of the three Vehicles, thereby enhancing one's understanding of the entire Buddhist Dharma.

Resorting to the Vaibhāṣika atomic theory, the Kālacakratantra asserts that all inanimate phenomena that constitute the cosmos originate from atomic particles that evade sensory perception—namely, the atoms of the earth, water, fire, wind, and space elements, which are pervaded by the sphere of reality (dharma-dhātu). 4

Likewise in the case of the individual, the atomic particles of earth, water, fire, wind, and space that form the father's seminal fluid and the mother's uterine blood eventually become the body of the individual. 5

Thus, the inanimate phenomena in the individual's body and environment share the same atomic structure and originate in a similar fashion by means of the agglomeration of atomic particles, which takes place due to the efficacy of time.

This is one way in which the Kālacakra tradition attempts to demonstrate that the individual and the individual's natural environment are identical not only with regard to their ultimate nature, but also with regard to their conventionally established atomic structure and their manner of origination and destruction.


The Origination and Dissolution of the Cosmos and the Individual

According to the Kālacakratantra, 6 cyclic existence consists of the immeasurable Buddha-fields (buddha-kṣetra), which have limitless qualities, and of the five elements.

It is characterized by their origination, duration, and destruction.

This entire cosmos is said to arise and dissolve because sentient beings are experiencing the results of their wholesome and unwholesome actions.

The collective karma of sentient beings produces karmic winds, which mold and dissolve the cosmos by amassing and disintegrating the atomic particles that constitute the cosmos.

Thus, the external karmic winds (karmavāta) accord with the characteristic qualities of sentient beings' consciousness (vijñāna-dharma).

The karmic wind that produces the cosmos of a Buddha-field is considered to be of a dual nature, because it produces two types of cosmos: inanimate and animate.

Like the heavenly constellations (nakṣatra), the inanimate cosmos of a Buddha-field is stationary; whereas the animate cosmos is in motion, just as the circle of astrological houses (rāśi-cakra) moves in space.

At the time of the dissolution of the inanimate cosmos, the bodies of all humans and other living beings composed of atoms also disintegrate. In this way, the destiny of the inanimate cosmos, which is due to the actions of sentient beings, is also the destiny of the sentient beings who inhabit that cosmos.

The limitless karmic winds generate the numerous world-systems of the Buddhafields just as the karmic winds of the prāṇas, which invariably accompany a transmigratory consciousness, generate the body of a sentient being.

Just as the internal karmic winds of living beings induce bodily growth, the external karmic winds cause the growth of inanimate things. 7

There are three types of external karmic winds: the holding (samdhārana), churning (manthāna), and shaping (saṃsthāna) wind.


The supporting wind holds together the atoms of the earth and the other elements in the same way that a rain-wind holds together the atoms of rain-water. Following that, the churning wind churns the atoms to their very core until the elements become solidified.

Just as salt crystallizes due to its exposure to the sun, the elements solidify due to such churning. The churning wind makes the elements absorb each other into the agglomorate in which the atomic particles of one element become a predominant substance, while the atomic


particles of other elements become secondary substances.

As in a human body so too in the cosmos, with regard to solidity, the atoms of the earth become primary and the other atoms secondary. Likewise, the water, fire, and wind elements become primary in terms of fluidity, heat, and motility, respectively. In the case of space, however, all other atomic particles that are devoid of their own properties become primary. 8

Once the agglomeration of the atomic particles of the elements takes place, the great shaping wind moves through the entire Buddha-field in the form of the ten winds. 9

These ten karmic winds that fashion the inanimate cosmos also shape the body of the individual, in which they circulate and carry the habitual propensities of the individual's karma.

Therefore, one can say that for this tantric tradition, all karma of sentient beings is stored in the atomic particles of the karmic winds.

The Kālacakratantra itself asserts that “one's own karma is contained in the guṇas of prakṛti, ” 10 which is conventionally established as physical.

It also indicates that the ten karmic winds, which fashion the inanimate environment and the body of the individual, themselves arise from the five elements.

The three winds of āpāna arise from the gnosis-element, and the three winds of prāṇa arise from the space-element.

Samāna arises from the wind, udāna arises from the fire, vyāna arises from the water, and nāga arises from the earth.

These four—kūrma, kṛkara, devadatta, and dhanamja—arise respectively from the wind, fire, water, and earth. 11

In the final analysis, this suggests that the karma of sentient beings, which manifests in the form of atomic substances, is of a physical nature.

In this regard, the Kālacakratantra's view of karma conforms to the Jaina theory of karma as subtle clusters of matter that constitute a karmic body.

In the Kālacakra tradition, however, this view of karma does not preclude the traditional Buddhist view of all actions as being ultimately mental.

Even when the Kālacakra tradition acknowledges that one's own transmigratory mind (saṃsāra-citta) is a conventionally established agent of all actions and a fundamental cause of the origination and destruction of the entire cosmos, it specifies that the five elements are the material components of the transmigratory mind.

It does so pointing to the fact that the agent who is devoid of material substances neither acts nor creates anything. 12

Thus, one may infer that karma is material, because the transmigratory mind that generates it is itself material.

Likewise, all cyclic existence, which manifests due to sentient beings' karma, is material because the karma that creates it is itself material.

I surmise that this causal relationship among the material nature of the transmigratory mind, karma, and the environment that one perceives is implied in the Kālacakratantra's assertion that the cosmos that one perceives is a mere manifestation of one's own mind.

According to this tantric tradition, a Buddha-field always comes into existence accompanied by a world-system, just as the origination of the individual's body is always accompanied by the seventytwo thousand nāḍīs. 13

At the time of the origination of the cosmos, very subtle particles (aṇu), which are imperceptible to the sensefaculties, are said to be present in the form of atomic particles (paramāṇu).

These atomic particles are of the five types: wind, fire, water, earth, and space.

Under the influence of time, the wind-element originates first among these atomic particles.

This origination begins with the atomic particles of wind adhering

to each other. Then, owing to their adherence, a subtle fluttering motion takes place, and this we call “wind. ”

After that, the atoms of fire begin to adhere to one another, and lightning, accompanied by wind, comes forth as fire.

Following this, the atoms of water adhere to one other, and rain, accompanied by the wind and fire, comes into existence as water.

Lastly, the atomic particles of the earth-element appear, and a rainbow called “earth” arises in space.

The atoms of space pervade all of the abovementioned elements.

Upon the formation of the five elements, the seven continents, mountains, and oceans start to arise from the five elements due to the conjunction of the supporting, churning, and shaping winds. 14


The seven mountains and the seven continents arise from the earth-element, which is solidity.

The seven oceans arise from the waterelement, which is fluidity.

The fire of the sun, lightning, and domestic fire originate from the fire-element, which is heat.

The wind-element is motility, and the spaceelement is the domain that allows for movement and growth.

This is the manner in which the entire cosmos arises from the atomic particles of the five elements in order for sentient beings to experience the results of their actions.

At the time of the dissolution of the cosmos, the fire that burns the cosmos to ashes (kālāgni), kindled by the winds of karma, melts the atomic agglomerates of the entire cosmos.

Its function is comparable to the fire of gnosis (jñãnãgni), or the fire of sexual desire (kāmāgni), which incinerates the material nature of the transmigratory body and consciousness during the completion-stage of Kālacakratantra practice.

It is also worth noting that both fires—kālāgni and kāmāgni—are identified in this tantric tradition as two types of deities, namely, Kālāgni and Caṇḍālī. 15

Their respective locations in the cosmos and the body of the individual are also comparable, since both dwell in the lower regions of the cosmic and individual bodies, where they can become aroused or ignited. Kālāgni dwells in the underworld, and Caṇḍālī abides in the navel of the human body. Caṇḍālī flames due to the constriction of the winds of prāṇa, and it is therefore called “the fire of prāṇāyāma. ” 16

Similarly, kālāgni inflames when the karmic winds of the prāṇas of the cosmic body are extinguished.

The time of the incineration of the cosmos is characterized not only by the destruction of the cosmos but also by its origination.

At the time of the disintegration of the cosmos, the atomic particles of the earth-element do not perish; they remain due to their cohesion with the atomic particles of the water and other elements.

When the cosmos dissolves, a karmic wind draws out the atoms of the earth from their agglomerates, separating the individual atoms from the mass of earth atoms and hurling them into the mass of the water atoms.


Following this, it draws them out of the water-element and hurls them into the fire-element.

Then it draws them out of the fire-element and hurls them into the wind-element. Lastly, it draws them out of the atomic particles of the wind-element and spreads them one by one into space.

Upon the destruction of the inanimate cosmos, living beings go to another Buddhafield and to another cosmos, which are produced by their karmic winds, in order to experience the further results of their actions.

The manner in which the inanimate cosmos originates and dissolves corresponds to the manner in which a human being comes into existence and dies.

As in the inanimate world, the human body, due to the power of the ten karmic winds, arises from the agglomerations of atomic particles of the earth, water, fire, wind, and space elements.

At the time of conception, the father's semen and mother's uterine blood, which are made of the five elements, are “devoured” by the consciousness which, accompanied by subtle prāṇas, enters the mother's womb.

When conception takes place due to the power of time, the semen and uterine blood within the womb slowly develop into the body of the individual.


This occurs due to the spreading of prāṇas.


The growing fetus consumes food comprised of six flavors—bitter, sour, salty, pungent, sweet, and astringent—and these six flavors originate from the six elements, sixth being gnosis. Consequently, the body of a fetus becomes a gross physical body, composed of the agglomerates of the atomic particles.

The elements of the father's semen give rise to the marrow, bones, nāḍīs, and sinews of the fetus; and the elements of the mother's uterine blood give rise to the skin, blood, and flesh of the fetus.

Thus, all the elements and psycho-physical aggregates that constitute the human being come into existence due to the union of the atomic agglomerates of the father's semen and mother's uterine blood.

The five elements of the father's semen and mother's uterine blood facilitate the growth of the fetus, just as they facilitate the growth of a plant's seed in the natural environment.

The earth-element supports the semen that has entered the womb, just as it holds a seed in the ground; and the water-element makes it sprout from there. The fire-element makes it blossom and digest the six flavors that arise from the six elements.

The wind-element stimulates its growth, and the space-element provides the room for growth.

The earth-element causes the body to become dense, and it gives rise to the bones and nails.

The waterelement causes moisture in the body, giving rise to the seven kinds of bodily fluids.

The fire-element induces the maturation of the fetus and gives rise to blood.

The ten principal winds of prāṇas expand its skin, and the space-element becomes the bodily apertures.

On the basis of these similarities in atomic nature of the inanimate world and the body of the individual, the Kālacakra tradition identifies the seven mountains, continents, and oceans with the elements of solidity, softness, and fluidity in the body of the individual.

Tables 5. 1.a—c illustrate the correspondences among the seven mountains, continents, and oceans and the specific constituents of the human body.

After the moment of conception, the semen and uterine blood grow in the womb for a month. Following this, the ten subtle nāḍīs arise within the heart of the fetus.

Likewise, within the navel, there arise the sixty-four nāḍīs that carry the daṇḍas in the body and the twelve subtle nāḍīs that carry the twelve internal solar mansions. Due to the prāṇas' power of spreading, all the nāḍīs in the navel gradually expand into 60- the regions of the arms, legs, and face. After the second month, there are some indications of arms, legs, and a face. At the end of the third month, the arms, legs, neck, and the whole head are clearly developed.


The five fingers of each hand and the five toes of each foot arise respectively from the five elements. 17

During the fourth month, subtle nāḍīs spread into the hands, feet, face, and neck, and during the fifth month, three hundred and sixty bones and joints begin to develop within the flesh.

At the completion of the sixth month, the fetus is endowed with flesh and blood, and it begins to experience pleasure and pain. At the completion of the seventh month, the bodily hair, eyebrows, bodily apertures, and remaining nāḍīs come into existence.

At the end of the eighth month, the joints, bones, marrow, tongue, urine, and feces are fully developed.

The complete body is said to consist of 20.5 million constituents, for there are that many modifications of the five elements of the father's semen and the mother's uterine blood.

During the ninth month, the fetus experiences pain as if it were being baked in a potter's oven.

At the completion of the ninth month, one is born, being squeezed by the womb and experiencing pain as if one were being crushed by an anvil and a hammer.

Thus, propelled by the habitual propensities of one's own karma, which are carried by the ten internal winds of prāṇas, a human being enters the world that is likewise brought into existence by his own karma, which, again, is carried by the ten external winds of prāṇas.

Thus, the cosmos and the individual share a common material nature and common causes of origination and destruction.

They also originate in similar ways, with their respective components arising in the same sequence.

Table 5.2 illustrates the correspondences between the origination of the specific bodily parts and the various parts of the cosmos.

18 A classification of the different components of the human and cosmic bodies into the sequentially arising sets of the four, five, six, four, five, and three, as presented in table 5.2, is used in this tantric tradition as a model for practicing a sādhana on the sequence (krama) of the arising of the five tantric families (kula) within a larger bodily or cosmic family.

Just as a sequence of the origination of the diverse parts of the cosmos corresponds to that of the individual, so too does the sequence of the dissolution of the cosmos accord with that of the individual.

In the process of the dissolution of the cosmos, the karmic winds that support the elements sequentially withdraw from the agglomerates of the five elements in the five cosmic discs that make up the cosmos. Similarly, in the process of dying, the winds of prāṇas sequentially cease carrying the elements of earth, water, fire, wind, and space within the respective cakras of the navel, heart, throat, lalāṭa, and uṣṇīṣa. 19

According to the Kālacakra tradition, one's own body, which was produced by one's own karma from the material particles of the father's semen, also dissolves due to the emission of one's own semen. At a human's death, semen, which consists of the five elements, flowing out of the dead body initiates the disintegration of the body. Several passages on this topic in the Kālacakra literature suggest that semen leaves the body at the time of death due to the power of the individual's habitual propensities of seminal emission in sexual bliss. The habitual propensities (cittavāsanā) of the mind of the human being, who consumes the food of the six flavors that originate from the five elements, themselves consist of the five elements. Therefore, semen, which leaves the body during the experience of sexual bliss and at death, is composed of the five elements.

At the time of death, the habitual propensities of the mind, together with semen, upon leaving the dead body, make up the body of the habitual propensities (vāsanā-śarīra) of the mind. Even though this body of the habitual propensities of the mind is made of fine atomic particles, it is similar to a dream body (svapna-śarīra), in the sense that it is devoid of perceptible agglomerations of atoms. The body of the habitual propensities of karma does not cease at death. Due to this remaining body of habitual propensities, a transmigratory consciousness acquires a new gross body consisting of atoms. As a transmigratory consciousness forsakes the habitual propensities of the former gross body, the habitual propensities of the new gross body arise in the mind. Consequently, the adventitious psycho-physical aggregates (āgantuka-skandha) arise from the empty (śūnya) psycho-physical aggregates of the habitual propensities of the mind (citta-vāsanā-skandha). Likewise, the empty psycho-physical aggregates of the habitual propensities of the mind arise from the adventitious psycho-physical aggregates. The atomic particles of the former, dead body do not go to another world, for after leaving the earlier psycho-physical aggregates, a transmigratory consciousness acquires different atomic particles. 20

This process of rebirth is said to be the same for other sentient beings of the three realms of cyclic existence. The only difference is in the number of the elements that constitute the bodies of the diverse classes of gods. Instead of having five elements, the bodies and semen of the gods in the desire-realm, form-realm, and formless realm consist of four, three, and one element, respectively. This is because gods consume food that consists of five, four, or one flavor. For example, the bodies and semen of the gods inhabiting the six types of desire-realm consist of the agglomerations of the elements of water, fire, wind, and space. The bodies of these gods are devoid of the earth-element and are therefore characterized by lightness. Likewise, their mental habitual propensities are devoid of smell as the sense-object that arises from the earth-element.

The bodies and semen of the sixteen types of gods dwelling in the form-realm consist of the agglomerations of the atoms of fire, wind, and space; and their mental habitual propensities are endowed with taste, touch, and sound as their sense-objects. The bodies and semen of the gods inhabiting the formless realm consist of the space-element alone, and their mental habitual propensities have only sound as their sense-object. 21 Thus, the bodies, mental habitual propensities, and experiences of different sentient beings are closely related to the nature of the elements contained in the semen with which they undergo birth and death. According to this tantric system, a habitual propensity of transmigratory existence cannot arise from a single attribute of the elements but only from an assembly

of attributes. In the case of all sentient beings dwelling in the three realms, during sexual bliss and at death, semen—the elements of which may be the five, four, three, or one in number—leaves the body under the influence of the habitual propensities. In this way, seminal emission is instrumental in both the birth and death of sentient beings. For the Kālacakra tradition, the cycle of birth and death does not take place in any other way. Thus, one may say that for this tantric tradition, the entire cosmos, with all of its inhabitants, manifests and dissolves due to the power of the moment of seminal emission.


Since the entire cosmos comes into existence due to the efficacy of the habitual propensities of sentient beings' minds, one may regard it as a cosmic replica of sentient beings' bodies. Thus, the configuration and measurements of the cosmos are seen in this tantric system as analogous and correlative to the structure and measurements of the individual's body. Likewise, since the cosmos arises and dissolves as a manifestation of the individual's mind, the Kālacakratantra considers the cosmos as being fundamentally nondual from the individual. Due to their common material nature, the cosmos and the individual are viewed as mutually pervasive, even in terms of their conventional existence; and due to their fundamental nonduality, the cosmos and the individual inevitably influence each other. In terms of conventional reality, the cosmos and the body of the individual are nondual in the sense that they share a common nature (prakṛti) consisting of the twenty-four principles (tattva), which are the objects of the individual's (puruṣa) experience.

The eight constituents of the primary nature (prakṛti) of the individual— namely, the five elements, the mind (manas), intellect (buddhi), and self-grasping (ahaṃkāra)—are the microcosmic correlates of the primary nature of the individual's environment. Likewise, the sixteen modifications (vikṛti) of the primary nature of the individual—specifically, the five sense-faculties, the five sense-objects in the body, the five faculties of action, and the sexual organ —evolve from the primary nature of the individual in the same way that the five planets, five external sense objects, and six flavors evolve from the primary nature of the cosmos. Table 5.3 illustrates the exact correspondences between the individual and the cosmos in terms of their primary nature and its modifications. In terms of ultimate reality, the cosmos and the individual are also of the same nature, the nature of gnosis (jñāna), which manifests in the form of emptiness (śūnyatā-bimba).

Those who are free of the afflictive and cognitive obscurations nondually perceive the world as the form of emptiness in a nondual manner; that is, they perceive the world as an inseparable unity of form and emptiness. On the other hand, ordinary sentient beings, whose perception is influenced by the afflictive and cognitive obscurations, see the world in a dual fashion, as something other than themselves. They see the world as an ordinary place inhabited by ordinary sentient beings. But in reality, the entire cosmos, with Meru in its center, is a cosmic body of the Jina, a cosmic image or reflection (pratimā) of the Buddha, having the nature of form. As such, it is similar to the Nirmānakāya of the Buddha. 22 Therefore, according to this

tantric system, one should attend to this cosmic image of the Buddha, as one attends to the statue of the Buddha, created for the sake of worship. The immediate aim of the Kālacakratantra's exposition of the interrelatedness of the individual and the cosmos is not to directly induce the unmediated experience of their nonduality by eradicating the afflictive and cognitive obscurations, but to facilitate a thorough understanding of conventional reality. In this tantric system, a proper understanding of the structure and functions of conventional reality provides a theoretical basis for the realization of ultimate reality.

I see two main reasons for this. First, conventional reality is the starting point from which a tantric practitioner ventures into tantric practices; and second, a thorough knowledge of the ways in which conventional reality operates facilitates insight into the nature of conventional reality, which is fundamentally not different from ultimate reality. Before one can understand the nonduality of conventional and ultimate realities, one must first understand that a seemingly multiform conventional reality is itself unitary.

This, I surmise, is one of the reasons why the Kālacakratantra's initial two chapters are dedicated to discussions of the ways in which the cosmos and the individual correlate to and pervade each other. “As it is outside so it is within the body” (yathā bāhye tathā dehe) is one of the most frequently used phrases in the Kālacakratantra and its commentarial literature. This maxim underlies the pervading themes of the Kālacakratantra's chapters on the cosmos and the individual. To the phrase “as it is outside so it is in the body, ” the

Ādibuddhatantra adds “as it is in the body so it is elsewhere” (yathā dehe tathā anyatra), meaning, in the kālacakra-maṇḍala. 23 The cosmos, the human body, and the kālacakra-maṇḍala are taught here in terms of conventional truth as three maṇḍalas representing the outer (bāhya), inner (adhyātma), and alternative (anya), or sublimated, aspects of a single reality. Therefore, these three maṇḍalas are said to be the three abodes of the Buddha Kālacakra. Knowledge of how these three conventional aspects of ultimate reality are interrelated is seen as soteriologically significant, for such knowledge provides an indispensable theoretical framework for Kālacakratantra practice, which aims at the unmediated experience of their fundamental unity. It is for this reason that the Kālacakra literature frequently points out the correlations among the arrangements and measurements of the cosmos, the human body, and the kālacakra-maṇḍala.

There is sufficient textual evidence in the Kālacakra literature to indicate that the Kālacakratantra refers to these three aspects of reality as circular maṇḍalas, not because it considers a circular form to be their true form, but merely as a heuristic model for meditative purposes. In showing the parallels among the cosmos, the human body, and the Kālacakra-maṇḍala, the Kālacakra tradition uses various paradigms, which reflect the diverse ways in which this tantric tradition interprets the cosmos as a cosmic body of the individual and of enlightened awareness. All the diverse models of the relations between the cosmos and the individual that the Kālacakra tradition provides have a practical purpose: they serve as devices for furthering one's understanding of the interconnectedness of all phenomena and for training the mind to perceive the world in a nondual fashion. Moreover, they are the contemplative models with which one can diminish the habitual propensities of an ordinary, dualistic mind. The configuration and measurements of the cosmos as described in the Kālacakratantra frequently differ from those given in the Abhidharmakośa.

The Kālacakra tradition departs from the Abhidharmakośa not only with regard to the arrangement and size of the cosmos but also in terms of the units of measurements. 24 Nevertheless, the Kālacakra tradition does not attempt to authenticate its own presentation of the arrangement and measurement of the cosmos over that given in the Abhidharmakośa. The Vimalaprabhā 25 asserts that in terms of the ultimate truth, the cosmos has no spatial dimensions. The conventionally established size of the cosmos appears differently to different sentient beings due to the power of their virtue (puṇya) and sin (pāpa). The cosmos is merely an insubstantial apparition of the mind, like a fivecubits wide cave inhabited by a śrāvaka or a Bodhisattva due to whose powers a universal monarch (cakravartin) and his army can enter the cave without the cave being extended and without the universal monarch's army being contracted. Similarly, the Kālacakratantra 26 itself asserts that for the Buddhas and for knowledgeable people, the dimensions of the cosmos that were taught by the Buddhas are not its true dimensions, since for the Buddha, one cubit can be many cubits due to the power of the Sahajakāya. It also affirms that the Buddha reveals only the dimensions that corresponds to the perceptions of sentient beings, because if he were to say that the dimensions of the cosmos which he taught were in accordance with the inclinations of living beings dwelling in the land of karma (karma-bhūmi), then the gods would call him a nihilist (nāstika). Thus, the Kālacakra tradition implicitly suggests that

both Buddhist accounts of the configuration and size of the cosmos—those of the [[Abhidharmako and the Kālacakratantra—are ultimately invalid. Nevertheless, it considers both accounts to be provisionally valid expressions of the Buddha's skillful means. Justifying the Kālacakratantra's account of the dimensions of the cosmos in terms of skillful means, the Vimalaprabhā cites the following verses from the Paramādibuddhatantra: A falsehood that benefits sentient beings causes an accumulation of merit. A truth that harms others brings Avici and other hells.

Miserly pretas perceive a homely dwelling as a mountain. Evil-doers perceive a home in the form of a needle-pointed mountain. Siddhas who have attained the siddhi of the underworld perceive the solid earth as full of holes everywhere and visit the city of celestial nymphs (apsaras). 27 In a similar manner, the following verse from the abridged Kālacakratantra 28 expresses its view that one's perception of one's own natural environment is relative, for it is conditioned by the degree of one's own virtue and sin. Wish-fulfilling trees, quicksilver, supreme potions, other medicinal herbs, and philosopher's stones, which eliminate all diseases, appeared on the earth along with atoms. However, sentient beings do not see them. They see ordinary grass, trees, water, dust, stones, and copper. Pretas perceive rivers as blazing fires, and men in hell perceive spears and other weapons. In this way the Kālacakra tradition interprets the disparities in the measurements and arrangement of the cosmos within the two Buddhist traditions as evidence of the diversity of sentient beings' perceptions and experiences of the cosmos, which results from their diverse mental dispositions and actions. However, this same interpretative principle is not applied to the divergent measurements of the cosmos given in Hindu Siddhāntas. The Vimalaprabhā denies even the conventional validity of the Hindu view of the cosmos as Brahmā's egg (brahmāṇḍa), ten million leagues (yojana) in size.

In light of its criticism of the Hindu Siddhāntas, the Vimalaprabhā claims that the Kālacakratantra establishes the size of the cosmos using the zodiacal circle (rāśigolā) for the calculation of planets in order to abolish the Hindu measurements of the cosmos for the sake of the spiritual maturation of Buddhist sages. 29 According to the Kālacakratantra, within every single world-system (loka-dhātu) there is one great world system (cakravāla), just as on every single body of a human being there are bodily hairs and skin. The world-system that is of the nature of karma is in the center of a Buddha-field, just as the avadhūti is in the center of the body among all the nāḍīs. The remaining world-systems that are of the nature of enjoyment (bhoga) stand in the same relation to the land of karma (karma-bhūmi) as do the other nāḍīs to the avadhūti. These lands of enjoyment (bhoga-bhūmi) bring pleasure to the senses, as do the nāḍīs in the body. They are filled with jewels, as the nāḍīs are filled with blood. Vajrasattva, the progenitor of the three worlds, dwells in space until the time of expansion of the cosmos. But sentient beings do not witness the arising of the Buddha as long as they lack the accumulations of merit and knowledge. During the time

when sentient beings lack merit and knowledge, Vajrasattva resides in space, abiding in the Dharmakāya; and by means of the Jñānakāya, he perceives the entire Buddha-field as it truly is, free of karma and karmic winds. 30 It is said that Vajrasattva, together with all other Buddhas, abides in a single pure atom (śuddhāṇu), which is not of the nature of an atomic particle (paramāṇu) but of the twelve bodhisattvabhūmis. 31 Thus, while ordinary sentient beings, endowed with afflictive and cognitive obscurations, have atomic particles as their material support, the Buddhas, free of all obscurations, have the twelve bodhisattva-bhūmis as their pure, immaterial support. In other words, that which is perceived as an agglomeration of atomic particles by those with mental obscurations is perceived as pure gnosis by those without obscurations. Even though the Kālacakratantra agrees to some extent with the Abhidharmakośa about the manner in which the cosmos evolves, its description of the configuration and measurements of the cosmos differs significantly from that of the Abhidharmakośa.

According to the Kālacakra tradition, the cosmos measures twelve hundred thousand leagues in circumference and four hundred thousand leagues in diameter. 32 It is composed of the five maṇḍalas, or the five discs (valaya)—namely, the earth, water, fire, wind, and space maṇḍalas—just as the human body is composed of the five elements. These maṇḍalas support one another in the same sequence in which the five elements support one another in the body. 33 Although each of the first four maṇḍalas measures fifty thousand leagues in height, they vary in diameter and circumference. The earthmaṇḍala, measuring one thousand leagues in diameter, or three hundred thousand leagues in circumference, rests on the water-maṇḍala. The water-maṇḍala, measuring two hundred thousand leagues in diameter, or six hundred thousand leagues in circumference, rests on the fire-maṇḍala. The fire-maṇḍala, measuring three hundred thousand leagues in diameter, or nine hundred thousand leagues in circumference, rests on the wind-maṇḍala. The wind-maṇḍala, measuring four hundred thousand leagues in diameter, or twelve hundred thousand leagues in circumference, rests on the sphere of space (ākāśa-dhātu). Thus, space is the support of all the maṇḍalas, just as it is the support of all the elements in the body. The four maṇḍalas that rest in space not only correspond to the maṇḍalas of the four elements in the human body, but they are also the cosmic representations of particular bodily components.

Within different contexts, the Kālacakra tradition draws different correspondences among the four maṇḍalas of the cosmic body and the components of the human body. Here are several illustrations of the ways in which the Kālacakra tradition correlates the four cosmic maṇḍalas with the bodily parts. Table 5.4.a illustrates the identification of the four maṇḍalas with all the bodily parts in terms of their qualitative characteristics. Table 5.4.b demonstrates the correspondences among the four maṇḍalas with the upper parts of the body in terms of their measurements; and table 5.4.c illustrates the identification of the four maṇḍalas with the four bodily cakras, which bear the characteristics of the four elements. From the uppermost maṇḍala downward, each maṇḍala is one hundred thousand leagues smaller in diameter than the one that supports it, and each maṇḍala rests in the center of the one beneath it. In each of the first four maṇḍalas there are two types of underworlds (pātāla), each measuring twentyfive thousand leagues in height.

Thus, there are altogether eight underworlds: seven hells and the city of nāgas. The two underworlds contained in the earth-maṇḍala are the City of nāgas and the Gravel Water hell (śarkārāmbhas), one half of the city of nāgas being inhabited by asuras, and the other by nāgas. 34 The two hells located in the water-maṇḍala are the Sandy Water hell (vālukāmbhas) and the Muddy Water hell (paṅkāmbhas). The two hot hells in the fire-maṇḍala are the Intense Smoke hell (tīvradhūmra) and the Fire hell (agni). Lastly, the two cold hells located in the wind-maṇḍala are the Great Severe hell (mahākharavāta) and the Great Darkness hell (mahāndhakāra). As indicated in chapter 3 on syncretism, the Vimalaprabhā's account of the eight underworlds is remarkably similar to that given in the Jaina classic, the Tattvārthādhigamasūtra, which is traditionally ascribed to Umāsvati, a prolific Jaina author of the second century ce who was equally accepted by both Digambaras and Śvetāmbaras. For example, the corresponding hells enumerated in the Tattvārthādhigamasūtra have the following sequence and names: the Jewel-hued (ratna), Pebble-hued (śarkara), Sand-hued (vāluka), Mud-hued (paṅka), Smoke-hued (dhūma), Darkness-hued (tamas), and the Great darkness-hued (mahā-tamas) hells. 35 There are also certain similarities among the hells mentioned in the Vimalaprabhā and those in the Tattvārthādhigamasūtra with regard to the temperature and sequential increase in the size of hells, but not with regard to their shape and specific measurements. 36

Thus, the Vimalaprabhā's classification of the eight types of underworld and its description of their location clearly differ from those in the Abhidharmakośa. 37 It is interesting that in the Vimalaprabhā's account of the configuration of the underworld there is no mention of the Avici hell, even though the Ādibuddhatantra and the Vimalaprabhā make references to Avici in other contexts. 38 So far, I have not encountered an explanation for this omission in any of the commentarial literature on the Kālacakratantra. The only thing the Vimalaprabhā says about hell in general is that it is “a state of an infernal being (nārakatva), which originates from the habitual propensities of the six elements (ṣaḍ-dhātu-vāsanā), and is like a dream. ” 39 But this intepretative principle can also be applied to the other hells and the rest of the universe. It is possible that the author of the Vimalaprabhā, being aware of other Buddhist classifications of hells, writes of Avīci in terms of the broader Buddhist context.

It is also possible that Avīci and some of the other hells described in the Abhidharmakośa and other earlier Buddhist texts are implicitly included here as subcategories of the various hells. Since neither the Vimalaprabhā nor the Kālacakratantra offers a more detailed description of the contents of the hells and the nature of suffering in them, it is difficult to determine with certainty the extent to which the mentioned hells correspond to and differ from the hells described in the Abhidharmakośa and the Tattvārthādhigamasūtra. It is clear, however, that the Kālacakra tradition finds the Jaina classification of hells to be more applicable to its own schematization of the underworld, consisting of the four elemental maṇḍalas than that of the earlier Buddhist traditions. 40 The names of the hells reveal that each pair of hells is physically characterized by the element of the maṇḍala to which it belongs.

This fundamental fourfold classification of the underworld is obviously designed to conform closely to the Kālacakratantra's fourfold classifications of the elemental maṇḍalas in the body of the individual, the four vajras of the individual, the four states of the mind, the four castes, four vajra-families, and the four bodies of the Buddha. The configuration of the underworld, beginning with the city of the nāgas in the earth-maṇḍala and ending with the Great Darkness hell (mahāndhakāra) in the wind-maṇḍala, is structurally similar to the individual's body at death. In the dying process, the earth-element of the individual's body disintegrates first, followed by the respective elements of water, fire, and wind. 41 See figure 5.1. Thus, the Kālacakra tradition departs from the Abhidharmakośa in terms of both the configuration and the measurement of the cosmos. According to the Abhidharmakośa, the cosmos measures 3,610,350 leagues in circumference and 1,203,450 leagues in diameter. 42

The human world is supported by three instead of four maṇḍalas—the golden earth-maṇḍala, the water-maṇḍala, and the windmaṇḍala that rests in space. The golden earth-maṇḍala, which measures 1,203,450 leagues in diameter and 320,000 leagues in height, rests on the water-maṇḍala, which is, in turn, 1,203,450 leagues in diameter and 800,000 leagues in height. The water-maṇḍala rests on the wind-maṇḍala, which is immeasurable in circumference and 1,600,000 leagues in height. 43 The account of the configuration of the surface of the earth-maṇḍala in the Kālacakra tradition also differs from that of the Abhidharmakośa. According to the Kālacakra tradition, on the surface of the earth-maṇḍala there are seven continents (dvīpa), including Great Jambudvīpa (mahā-jambudvīpa) as the seventh.

Furthermore, there are seven mountains in addition to Mt. Meru, which is in the center of the earth-maṇḍala; and there are seven oceans, with the water-maṇḍala as the seventh. 44 The six continents—Candra, Sītābha, Varaparamakuśa, Kimnara, Krauñca, and Raudra—are the lands of enjoyment (bhoga-bhūmi), 45 while the seventh continent, which is the earth-maṇḍala, or the Great Jambudvīpa, is the land of karma (karma-bhūmi), inhabited by humans and animals. On the surface of Great Jambudvīpa, the six oceans—the oceans of wine, fresh water, milk, curd, butter, and honey— surround the six continents. The seventh, the salt ocean, surrounds Great Jambudvīpa, 46 and from the center of Mt. Meru, the salt ocean measures one hundred thousand leagues in all directions. Seventy-two thousand rivers flow into the oceans, 47 and they correspond to the seventy-two thousand nāḍīs in the body. The seven mountains that surround the seven continents in concentric circles are Nīlābha, Mandara, 48 Niṣadha, 49 Maṇikara, Droṇa, Sīta, and the vajramountain, Vādavāgni, which is situated at the edge of the salt ocean and the earth-maṇḍala and beneath the salt ocean. Mt. Meru is at the very center of Great Jambudvīpa, just as the spine is at the center of the body. It is said to have the shape of a bindu and is dark green in the center, due to the nature of the spacemaṇḍala. Meru's four sides have four different colors.

It is blue in the east, red in the south, yellow in the west, and white in the north due to the nature of the elements of wind, fire, earth, and water. In total, it measures one hundred thousand leagues in height. 50 The height of its head is fifty thousand leagues, and its neck and immovable peak are each twenty-five thousand leagues in height. Its upper width is fifty thousand leagues, and its width on the surface of the earth-maṇḍala is sixteen thousand leagues. Meru is the spine and head of the cosmic body; and as such, it is an external representation of the individual's head and spine, expanding from the buttocks up to the shoulders. Accordingly, its measurements correspond to those of the spine and the head of the human body. Table 5.5 illustrates the metrical correspondences bewteen Mt. Meru and the individual's spine and head, as presented in this tantric system. This measurement of Mt. Meru differs from that described in the Abhidharmakośa, in which the height of Mt. Meru is said to be 1,600,000 leagues. Here again, the Kālacakratantra's measurement of Mt. Meru accords with that given in the Jaina commentarial literature on the Tattvārthādhigamasūtra, in which Mt. Meru is said to be one hundred thousand leagues in height, with one thousand leagues being below the surface of the earth. 51 See figure 5.2.

The circle of astrological houses, together with innumerable stellar constellations, revolves day and night around Mt. Meru's summit. In the eight directions of Mt. Meru there are eight planets, just as around the spine there are the sense-faculties and faculties of action. The sun and Mars are on the right; Ketu and Saturn are in the front; the moon and Mercury are on the left; and Venus and Jupiter are on the back. On the top of Mt. Meru there are five peaks that penetrate the earth. In all directions from Brahmā's abode in the lower region of the center of Mt. Meru, there are eight thousand leagues in width. All around Mt. Meru is a mountain range (cakravāḍa), which measures one thousand leagues in breadth. Outside that mountain range, in the cavities in between the four peaks of Mt. Meru that penetrate the earth, there are the alternating discs of the six continents with their oceans and mountains.

Each of the six continents, oceans, and mountains measures roughly 889 leagues in diameter, 52 thus measuring sixteen thousand leagues altogether. Outside all of this, in the eight directions of Mt. Meru, Great Jambudvīpa measures twentyfive thousand leagues. Outside Great Jambudvīpa is a disc of salty water, which measures fifty thousand leagues in all directions from the outer limit of Great Jambudvīpa to the end of the water-maṇḍala. In every direction from Brahmā's place in Meru to the outer limit of the wind-maṇḍala, there are two hundred thousand leagues. 53 In this way, the entire breadth of the cosmos extends up to four hundred thousand leagues in diameter, its size corresponding to the size of the human body measuring four cubits (hasta). However, when one includes the space-maṇḍala in the breadth of the cosmos, then the

body of the cosmos measure five hundred thousand leagues from the top of Mt. Meru up to the end of space. With the reasoning that the cosmos pervades the body of the individual, the human body is said to measure five cubits up to the tips of the hair on the head. This type of arrangement of Great Jambudvīpa is not found in the Abhidharmakośa. The numbers and the concentric layout of the seven continents and seven oceans correspond to those mentioned in the Purāṇas, 54 as do the shape and measurement of Great Jambudvīpa. 55 Although the Kālacakra tradition accepts to a large extent the Purāṇic representation of the configuration of the cosmos, it criticizes the Purāṇic account of the origination of the cosmos.

With regard to the shapes and sizes of Great Jambudvīpa and the salt ocean, the Kālacakra tradition's account corresponds to that of the Jaina cosmology. According to the Tattvārthādhigamasūtra, Ch. 3, v. 9, and its earlier mentioned commentarial literature, Great Jambudvīpa has the shape of a ring with a diameter of one hundred thousand leagues, and it is surrounded by the salt ocean, which is twice as wide as Jambudvīpa. 56 Although the Kālacakratantra's account of the configuration of Great Jambudvīpa seems to be based on that of the Purāṇas, it includes to some degree the model of the four continents found in the Abhidharmakośa and other Buddhist texts. 57 The four continents that are mentioned in the Abhidharmakośa and other earlier Buddhist literature are incorporated into this larger picture of the cosmos as the four islands that are located in the four directions of Great Jambudvīpa. Their arrangement in relation to Mt. Meru as depicted in the Kālacakra literature corresponds to that in the Abhidharmakośa, but the measurements and shapes of the islands in most cases differ. According to the Kālacakra tradition, there are four islands on Great Jambudvīpa.

Each of the four islands is of the nature of one of the four elements—wind, fire, water, and earth. The nature of each of the mentioned elements influences the shapes and colors of the islands. 58 Thus, in the eastern side of Great Jambudvīpa, in front of Mt. Meru, there is the dark blue Pūrvavideha, which is semicircular in form, due to the nature of the wind-maṇḍala. It measures seven thousand leagues. On the south of Great Jambudvīpa, to the right of Mt. Meru, there is Small Jambudvīpa, which is red and triangular in shape, due to the nature of the fire-element. It measures eight thousand leagues. 59 On the north of Great Jambudvīpa, to the left of Mt. Meru, there is the white Uttarakuru, which is circular in shape, due to the nature of the water-maṇḍala. It measures nine thousand leagues. On the west of Great Jambudvīpa, facing the back of Mt. Meru, there is the golden island Godaniya, which is yellow and quadrangular in shape, due to the nature of the earth-element. It measures ten thousand leagues. 60 See figure 5.3.

The formation of the four islands in relation to Mt. Meru and the characteristics of their colors and shapes correspond to the four sides of the individual's body, each of which is characterized by the elemental nature of one of the four bodily maṇḍalas. Table 5.6 demonstrates the way in which the Kālacakra tradition correlates the four islands of Great Jambudvīpa with the four sides of the individual's body. The colors of the four islands correspond to the colors of the four sides of Mt. Meru. Likewise, their colors and formations on Great Jambudvīpa correspond to the four faces of the Buddha Kālacakra in the kālacakra-maṇḍala. The four faces of Kālacakra symbolize the four aspects in which enlightened awareness manifests itself. Thus, the four islands of Great Jambudvīpa and the corresponding sides of the human body are the geographical and anatomical representations of the four aspects of the Buddha's mind. When these phenomenal aspects of the Buddha's mind become purified, they manifest as the four bodies of the Buddha. Great Jambudvīpa looks like a twelve-spoked wheel, for it is divided into twelve sections (khaṇḍa). Each of the sections measures twenty-five thousand leagues.

In the center of the section belonging to the Small Jambudvīpa there is the mountain Kāilāśa, surrounded by snow mountains. Together with the surrounding snow mountains, Kāilāśa occupies one-third of that section. Outside that range there are twelve countries and districts in the twelve subsections of Small Jambudvīpa. 61 In each section of Great Jambudvīpa there is one universal monarch (cakravartin), who turns the Wheel of Dharma in his section. Thus, the twelve sections of Great Jambudvīpa have twelve universal monarchs, who are likened to twelve suns that dispel the darkness of ignorance by introducing the Buddhist Dharma. They are twelve in number in the same sense that one can speak of “twelve suns” due to the classification of the twelve solar mansions.

Thus, Great Jambudvīpa, together with its twelve sections, is an earthly reflection of the circle of solar mansions and of the twelve-spoked wheel of cyclic existence. Every eighteen hundred human years, the universal monarch enters one section of the earth-maṇḍala, 62 moving progressively from one section to another, from the front to the back of Meru. He establishes his Dharma in each section that has entered the kali-yuga and thereby introduces the kṛta-yuga. Thus, the kali-yuga is always in front of him, and the tretā-yuga is behind him. 63 This belief that at different times, the universal monarch, visiting and teaching Dharma in the twelve sections of Great Jambudvīpa, sanctifies each of the sections with his presence, is one of reasons that the Kālacakra tradition identifies the twelve sections of the Great Jambudvīpa as the twelve groups of cosmic pilgrimage sites— namely, pīṭhas, upapīṭhas, kṣetras, upakṣetras, chandohas, upachandohas, melāpakas, upamelāpakas, veśmas (pīlavas), upaveśmas (upapīlavas), śmaśānas, upaśmaśānas.

Each of the twelve groups of sacred pilgrimage sites comprises a specific number of sites. The Kālacakra tradition classifies and subdivides the twelve classes of pilgrimage sites in various ways in order to demonstrate the multiple models of interpreting the correspondences between the cosmic body and the human body. One of the Kālacakratantra's goals in outlining the correspondences and identities among the pilgrimage sites and the bodily components of the individual is to demonstrate the pointlessness of visiting the pilgrimage sites, for they are already present within one's own body. Visits to the external pilgrimage sites lead neither to spiritual awakening nor to mundane siddhis.

The Vimalaprabhā asserts that the pilgrimage sites such as Jalāndhara and others are mentioned only for the benefit of foolish people (bāla) who wander about the country. 64 This same statement also appears in Nāropā's Vajrapādasārasaṃgraha, XVII, 3b 2. 65

In both cases, it suggests that foolish people, who lack understanding of nonduality, do not see that the places of pilgrimage are omnipresent.


The entire cosmos is a [[pilgrimage site[[, as is the individual.


The Vimalaprabhā states that according to the Paramādibuddhatantra, due to the pervasiveness of the earth-element, the external pilgrimage sites are present also in


Tibet, China, and other countries. According to the abridged Kālacakratantra, they are also present in every city. 66 In this way, the Kālacakra tradition rejects the inherent sacredness of one place or one human being over another.


It suggests that all regions of the world and all human bodies are equally sacred.

This view of the human body as containing within itself all the pilgrimage sites is not unique to the Kālacakra tradition.

It is also found in other anuttara-yoga-tantras and in the literature of the Sahajayāna.

For example, the well-known Sahajīya poet, Sarahapāda, affirms in his Dohākoṣa that he has not seen another place of pilgrimage as blissful as his own body. 67

With regard to the individual, the Kālacakra literature identifies the twelve categories of pilgrimage sites with the twelve characteristics of transmigratory existence and enlightened existence.

In terms of conventional reality, the Kālacakra tradition identifies the twelve categories of pilgrimage sites with the twelve links of dependent origination and the twelve signs of the zodiac—starting with spiritual ignorance (avidyā) arising in Capricorn and ending with old age and death (jarā-maraṇa) arising in Sagittarius.

In terms of ultimate reality, the Kālacakratantra sees the twelve categories of pilgrimage sites as the symbolic representations of both the twelve bodhisattva-bhūmis—which impede the arising of the twelve links of dependent origination and the twelve zodiacs—which are the temporal basis of the twelve links of dependent origination.


This identification of the twelve categories of pilgrimage sites with the twelve bodhisattva-bhūmis is equally characteristic of other anuttara-yoga-tantras—specifically, the Cakrasaṃvara and the Hevajra tantras.

However, the Kālacakra literature gives a more explicit explanation of this type of identification.

The Kālacakra tradition identifies the twelve types of pilgrimage sites with the twelve bodhisattva-bhūmis on the ground that throughout the three times, the elements of the Buddha's purified psycho-physical aggregates and sense-bases assume the form of deities.

These deities then arrive at and leave from these pilgrimage sites, and due to the prāṇas' flow in the bodily cakras, they arrive at and leave from those cakras.

Furthermore, a group of yoginīs who roam the earth for the benefit of sentient beings dwells in each of the eight directions of Mt. Meru, expanding as far as the end of the wind-maṇḍala.

These yoginīs also journey in the cosmic maṇḍalas of water, fire, wind, and space, which are the seats of the cosmic cakras, just as the prāṇas move through the cakras of the invidivual's body. Just as the human body has six cakras, so too does the body of the cosmos.


The six cakras of the cosmos are the locations of the cosmic pilgrimage sites. In the center of the summit of Mt. Meru, there is the inner lotus (garbhapadma) of the Bhagavān Kālacakra, which has sixteen petals and constitutes the bliss-cakra (ānandacakra) of the cosmic body. 68

The gnosis-cakra, which has eight spokes, occupies two-thirds of the earth-maṇḍala.

The earth-cakra is in one half of the salty ocean, and the water-cakra is in the other half. Likewise, the firecakra is in one half of the fire-maṇḍala, and the wind-cakra is in the other half.

The space-cakra is in one half of the wind-maṇḍala. In the space-maṇḍala there are sixteen pilgrimage sites of the śmaśāna type.

Tables 5.7.a—h illustrate the specific locations of the pilgrimage sites within the six cosmic and six bodily cakras.

They also demonstrate the manner in which the Kālacakra tradition asserts that the cessation of the twelve zodiacs and twelve links of dependent origination is causally related to the transformation of the six cosmic and six bodily cakras into the twelve bodhisattva-bhūmis, or the twelve groups of pilgrimage sites.

These tables further suggest that in the context of the Kālacakratantra practice, the sequential attainment of the twelve bodhisattva-bhūmis is an internal pilgrimage to spiritual awakening.

A tantric adept undertakes an internal pilgrimage by purifying the bodily cakras by means of the six-phased yoga (ṣaḍ-aṅgayoga), which, in turn, purifies the external cakras of his environment.

Thus, one may say that in this tantric system, the path of spiritual awakening is metaphorically seen as the ultimate pilgrimage.

See tables 5.7.a—h for the correlations among the locations of pilgrimage sites in the cosmos and within the body of the individual.

According to the schema given above, each of the twelve categories of pilgrimage sites includes the four pilgrimage sites.

Thus, for this tantric tradition, there are altogether forty-eight pilgrimage sites. 69 The number of the subdivisions of the twelve pilgrimage sites and their names as given in the Kālacakra tradition differ from those given in other Buddhist tantric systems. 70 This should not come as a surprise, though, since one encounters various numberings even within each of the mentioned Buddhist tantric systems.

The Vimalaprabhā justifies these contradictions as the skillful means of liberating those with sharp mental faculties from grasping onto any physical place. 71 A closer look at the illustrated paradigms of the ways in which the Kālacakra tradition draws the correlations among the external pilgrimage sites and the


bodily parts reveals that the diverse numberings of pilgrimage sites are not contradictory or randomly arranged but complementary and carefully designed.

They exemplify the multiple ways in which this tantric system delineates the correspondences it sees. As the given correspondences themselves vary, there are different ways of structuring and numbering.

The diverse ways of identifying the pilgrimage sites with the components of the individual's body have their specific roles in the different phases of the Kālacakratantra practice.


For example, identifying the twelve groups of pilgrimage sites with the twelve sections of Great Jambudvīpa and with the twelve joints of the individual's body, the Kālacakra tradition attempts to demonstrate a close link among the purifications of the twelve bodily joints and the attainment of the twelve bodhisattva-bhūmis and the purification of the twelve sections of Great Jambudvīpa.

A purification of bodily joints implies here a cessation of the ordinary body that is accompanied by afflictive and cognitive obscurations.

Therefore, as the tantric adept gradually purifies his bodily joints by means of the Kālacakratantra practice, he also eradicates the obscurations and attains the twelve bodhisattva-bhūmis.

The identification of the twelve bodily joints with the twelve sections of Great Jambudvīpa is based on the Kālacakratantra's view of their common relation to the elements of wind, fire, water, and earth. 72 Thus, as one purifies the atomic nature of one's own body, one simultaneously purifies one's own perception of the twelve sections of Great Jambudvīpa as ordinary, physical places. 73

Table 5.8 illustrates the aforementioned correspondences among the twelve pilgrimage sites in the cosmic and individual bodies, which are the phenomenal aspects of the twelve bodhisattva-bhūmis.

In some other contexts, the Kālacakra tradition classifies the twelve groups of pilgrimage sites into thirty-six subcategories.

It presents thirty-six pilgrimage sites as the dwelling places of thirty-six families of yoginīs, who are the sublimated aspects of thirty-six social classes (j¯ati), thirty-six bodily constituents of the individual, and thirty-six factors of spiritual awakening (bodhi-pākṣika-dharma).


As table 5.9 illustrates, the Kālacakra tradition identifies these thirty-six pilgrimage sites with thirtysix components of the cosmos and the individual.

This identification is taught in the “Chapter on Initiation, ” in the context of tantric yogic practices performed during a tantric feast (gaṇa-cakra), in which the thirty-six social classes of the Indian society of that time had to be represented. 74


It exemplifies one of the ways in which this tantric tradition identifies the individual with his social environment.

This particular manner of identifying the external and internal pilgrimage sites as the abodes of yoginīs is seen as relevant for the purification of tantric pledges (samaya).

It is relevant because the purification of tantric pledges takes place only when the initiate is cognizant of the correspondences given below and applies them in viewing his body and his natural and social environments as nondual and equally sacred.


Bringing to mind the sublimated aspects of the participants in a tantric feast and viewing the parts of one's own body and the cosmos as their pure abodes, one purifies one's own vision of the individual, social, and cosmic bodies.

By so doing, one transforms one's own body and the cosmos into the sacred pilgrimage sites and brings forth a certain degree of purification.

For the specific correlations among the pilgrimage sites and the constituting elements of the cosmos, individual, and Kālacakra-maṇḍala, which a tantric practitioner must know in order to purify his vision and attitude toward his natural environment and toward his own body, see table 5.9.


There are several other ways in which the Kālacakra tradition identifies the pilgrimage sites with the individual's body, and these are equally relevant to the aforementioned phase of the Kālacakratantra practice.

The following two models are specifically related to the practice of the unification of the tantric pledges (samayamelāpaka), or of the female and male consorts, during tantric sexual yoga performed after a tantric feast.

Identifying the sacred pilgrimage sites with the various parts of the male and female body during sexual tantric yoga, a tantric practitioner sanctifies a sexual act, which becomes a kind of bliss generating pilgrimage.

This type of identification also suggests that the bliss and spiritual benefits resulting from a single yogic sexual act equal those resulting from visiting ten kinds of pilgrimage sites.

Table 5.10 illustrates the manner in which the Kālacakra tradition classifies ten [[pil grimage]] sites into two main categories—those corresponding to ten parts of the female body and those corresponding to ten parts of the male body.

Whereas table 5.11 demonstrates the way in which each of ten groups of pilgrimage sites is identified with the same male and female bodily parts.

All of the aforementioned classifications of the pilgrimage sites illustrate the Kālacakra tradition's premise that on this tantric path to spiritual awakening, one transforms one's own environment, or more precisely, one's own experience of the environment, by transforming one's own physical constituents.



The Three Realms of Cyclic Existence as the Individual

The Kālacakratantra's earlier mentioned principle, which states that “as it is outside so it is within the body, and as it is within the body so it is elsewhere, ” also applies to its view of the interconnectedness of human beings with all other sentient beings. The Kālacakratantra suggests that one should look at the triple world as similar to space and as unitary. 75

The Kālacakra tradition provides a variety of methods for training the mind to perceive all sentient beings as nondual from oneself.

These methods are considered to be applicable at any stage of the Kālacakratantra practice, for they reinforce the underlying premise and objective of all Kālacakratantra practices, which are the nonduality of all phenomena and its realization.

The Kālacakra tradition points out that all six states of transmigratory existence are already present within every individual.

In the Kālacakratantra's view, the origination of a sentient being within a particular state of existence is directly influenced by one or the combination of the three guṇas—sattva, rajas, or tamas. The three guṇas of one's mind are, in turn, the direct result of sentient beings' karma.

Thus, the existence as a god is caused by the sattva-guṇa, which, due to wholesome karma, gives rise to the peaceful state of mind.

Existence as a denizen of hell is caused by tamas, which due to unwholesome karma, gives rise to the violent state of mind.

Existence as an animal is caused by rajas, which, due to the medially unwholesome karma, gives rise to the passionate state of mind.


Finally, existence as a human is characterized by the combination of the three guṇas.

Similarly, the existences of asuras and pretas are characterized by a combination of two of the three guṇas.

Since human existence is caused by a combination of the three guṇas, the individual's mental states and experiences are often determined by the prevalence of one of the three guṇas.

Thus, due to the prevalence of sattva, a person experiences happiness; due to the prevalence of rajas, one experiences suffering; and due the prevalence of tamas, one experiences constant suffering.

Because the prevalence of the three guṇas tends to alternate throughout one's lifetime, an ordinary person may experience the mental states that characterize all six states of existence. 76

In this way, the individual who mentally experiences different states of existence in a single lifetime already embodies all six states of existence.


One of the Kālacakratantra's methods of training a tantric practitioner to view all sentient beings as a part of himself is patterned on the fivefold classification of sentient beings, who have five different origins (yoni) of birth.

The four different classes of beings who originate from the four respective sources—namely, the earth, wind, water, and womb, and the self-arisen, or apparitional beings (upapāduka), who arise from the element of space—inhabit both the cosmos and the individual.

On this tantric path of developing a nondual vision of the world, one should recognize that one's own body, like the body of the cosmos, is the birthplace for diverse sentient beings and is thereby most intimately connected with diverse forms of life.

It is a microcosmic representation of the cosmos and its inhabitants.

Table 5.12 exemplifies the way in which the Kālacakra tradition correlates the five types of sentient beings in the natural environment with the constituents of the human body and living organisms that inhabit the body. 77


Similarly, to realize the nonduality of oneself and the triple world, one must train oneself to view the three realms of the cosmos—the realms of desire, form, and formlessness—as one's own three vajras— namely, the body, speech, and mind vajras.

Only then can one understand that the diverse sentient beings within the three realms of cyclic existence are nondual from one's own mental, verbal, and bodily capacities.

Different states of existence are simply the cosmic manifestations of one's own body, speech, and mind, whose sublimated aspects are the body, speech, and mind maṇḍalas of the Kālacakra-maṇḍala.


Tables 5.13.a—b illustrate the specific correspondences among the three realms of cyclic existence and the three vajras of the individual and their locations in the bodily cakras, as they are explained in this tantric system. As tables 5.13.a—b demonstrate, the Kālacakra tradition, like other Buddhist systems, classifies the three realms of cyclic existence into thirty-one categories.

According to this tantric system, from among these thirty-one categories of cyclic existence, four belong to the formless realm, sixteen to the realm of form, and eleven to the desire-realm.

Here again, one encounters some departure from the Abhidharmakośa, according to which, the realm of form contains seventeen types of existence, and the desirerealm is comprised of ten.

The Kālacakra tradition omits the class of Sudṛśa gods of the realm-form and adds asuras as the eleventh class of beings belonging to the desire-realm.

Likewise, the names of the heavens of the realms of form and formlessness differ from those in the Abhidharmakośa and accord with some of the names of heavens listed in the Jaina Tattvārthādhigamasūtra, Ch. 4, v. 20.

According to the Kālacakra tradition, at the top of the cosmos, above the thirtyone types of cyclic existence, in the crest of Mt. Meru's peak, abides Kālacakra, the indestructible Vajrakāya.

He is accompanied by all the Buddhas and surrounded by the guardians of the ten directions. 78 The location of the three realms in the body of the cosmos corresponds to their location in the body of the individual.


Below Meru's uṣṇīṣa, in the area of its head, there are the four divisions of Saudharmakalpa, a heavenly abode of the formless realm. 79


Those who have developed a meditative concentration (samādhi) on the four types of the space-kṛtsna are born in the formless realm.

The four heavens of the form-realm are sequentially located in the regions of Meru's lalāṭa and nose, in the area beneath the nose that extends up to the chin, and in the region of Meru's throat.

One is born within one of the four divisions of the form-realm by developing a meditative concentration on the respective wind, fire, water, and earth kṛtsnas and by the power of ethical discipline (śīla).

The desirerealm extends from the bottom of Meru's throat to the bottom of the wind-maṇḍala. Sentient beings are born as gods of the desire-realm due to the power of generosity (dāna) and due to the recitation of mantras.


The remaining types of existence in the realm of desire are those of asuras, humans, animals, pretas, and denizens of hells.

The existence of asuras comes about by the power of generosity. Human existence is due to the power of one's wholesome and unwholesome actions. Animal existence results from lesser sins.

The existence of pretas is due to the power of middling sins, and the existence of the denizens of hell comes about through the power of the greatest sins. Tables 5.14.a—b give a schematic presentation of the life spans of the sentient beings in the cyclic existence, as taught in the Kālacakra tradition. 80

According to this tantric tradition, the life spans of all sentient beings are related to and measured by the number of their breaths. Within the six states of existence, breaths of the different types of sentient beings have different durations.


For example, the duration of one breath in the human realm is one solar day for an insect, a duration of thirty human breaths is one breath for a preta, one human year is one breath of the gods in the Akaniṣṭha heaven, and a hundred years in the human realm is one breath of the gods in the formless realm.

Thus, just as the cosmos is perceived and experienced differently by different sentient beingsrelative to their karma and state of existence—so too is time a relative phenomenon, experienced differently by different sentient beings.


The Kālacakra tradition considers the age of one hundred years as the full life span of the individual, which can decrease or increase in accordance with the individual's own karma.

It increases for yogīs and ascetics who, by the power of their yoga and meditative concentration, extend the duration of a single breath for up to one ghaṭikā; and it decreases for evil people due to the power of their sins.

Thus, the duration of one's life is directly related to the duration and number of one's breaths, which, in turn, is directly related to one's mental states.


As the mind becomes more afflicted and agitated, one's breathing becomes faster, breaths become shorter, and thereby one's life becomes shorter. It is in the form of the breaths, minutes (pāṇipalas), ghaṭikās, and solar days that death takes its course in the body.

As these measures of time gradually increase within the right and left nāḍīs, death advances in the body, until the prāṇa finally leaves the nāḍīs, which dissolve and cause a bodily disintegration.

The notion of the full human life span being one hundred years goes back to the early Brāhmaṇic period. In support of this notion, the Vimalaprabhā cites a line from the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, II. 17. 4. 19, which states that a person (puruṣa) has a life span of a hundred years. 81

The Vimalaprabhā interprets this statement in terms of both its provisional and definitive meanings. In terms of a provisional meaning, a person has a life span of a hundred years, due to the increase of the human life span during the kṛta-yuga. In terms of the definitive meaning, the wordperson” (puruṣa) designates here every solar day and every year.

This implies that with regard to the individual, there are one hundred solar days, and with regard to the cosmos, there are one hundred years.

Thus, one year in the individual's environment corresponds to one solar day in the body of the individual, in accordance with the number of the individual's breaths. On the grounds that the individual takes twenty-one thousand and six hundred breaths each solar day, two hundred such solar days in a human body are said to equal 4,320,000 years in the environment, which make up four cosmic yugas. 82


Thus, with each round of 4,320,000 breaths, which the individual takes in the course of two hundred solar days, a cycle of four cosmic yugas takes place in the body.


In this way, all temporal and physical changes that occur in the body of the cosmos have already taken place in the body of the individual.

A goal of the Kālacakratantra practice is to transmute these phenomenal bodies of the cosmos and the individual into the transcendent body of the Buddha Kālacakra, into the Vajrasattva, who is the indivisible unity of the three realms of cyclic existence.

The process of their transmutation entails their generation in the form of the Kālacakra-maṇḍala by means of the stage of generation practice and their dissolution by means of the stage of completion practice.

At the time of the transformation of the individual's body into the transcendent body of Kālacakra, the constituents of the phenomenal body manifest as the constituents of spiritual awakening. Thus, certain bodily components—bodily hair, skin, flesh, blood, water, bones, marrows, and

the like—manifest as the bodhisattva-bhūmis. The four great elements of the ordinary body—earth, water, fire, and wind—manifest as the four brahma-vihāras—loving kindness (maitrī), compassion (karuṇā), sympathetic joy (muditā), and equanimity (upekṣā).

The five ordinary pshycho-physical aggregates, accompanied by afflictive and cognitive obscurations, manifest as the five types of unobscured psycho-physical aggregates, or the five types of gnosis—the mirror-like gnosis (adarśajñāna), the gnosis of equality (samatā-jñ¯ana), the discriminating gnosis (pratyavekṣana-jñāna), the accomplishing gnosis (kṛtyānuṣṭhāna-jñāna), and the gnosis of the sphere of reality (dharma-dhātujñāna).

When the bodily constituents become free of obscurations and atomic matter, they manifest as the empty form.

Although the empty form is endowed with aspects of fire, earth, water, and the like, due to its immateriality, it is neither a fire, nor is it solid or liquid. Likewise, although appearing with various colors, it has no color.

It is said to appear like an illusory city. 83

The Kālacakratantra states that although the empty form is endowed with all aspects (sarvākāra), “foolish people are unable to see it anywhere, due to the power of their mental obscurations, which are sustained by the flow of the prāṇas in the right and left nāḍīs. ” 84

Thus, even though the entire universe is ultimately the omnipresent, empty form, it is not perceived as such by those whose perception is obscured by their materiality. The Wheel of Time, the Individual, and the Wheel of Time as the Individual


In this tantric system, the term “wheel of time” (kāla-cakra) designates the dynamic and nondual nature of a single reality that manifests primarily in two ways—the conventional (saṃvṛti) and the ultimate (paramārtha).

The conventional reality itself appears in two ways—the individual (adhyātma) and the individual's environment (bāhya), the macrocosmic and microcosmic aspects of that single reality.

With regard to the external aspect of conventional reality, the term “wheel of time” refers to the passage of days, month, and years in the cycle of time.

The Vimalaprabhā defines time (kāla) as a circle of twelve solar mansions or zodiacs (rāśi-cakra). 85 The unit day-andnight (aho-rātra) is also called “time. ” 86


With regard to the individual, the “wheel of time” denotes a circulation of prāṇas within the wheel of the nāḍīs in the body.

In view of the close interrelatedness of these two aspects of conventional reality, the “wheel of time” also designates a circulation (cakra) of twenty-one thousand and six hundred pairs of inhalations and exhalations, which takes place in the course of a day-and-night called “time. ”

Even though the cosmos ultimately neither arises nor ceases, conventionally, the entire cosmos, with its three worlds, is said to arise and cease due to the power of time.

More specifically, this is said to occur due to the union of the time of origination and the time of destruction.

It is stated in the Ādibuddhatantra: Time brings forth phenomena, and time always destroys phenomena, for time is the Bhagavān, vajri, who has the nature of a day and a night. 87

In accordance with the classification of the mind, a day is the sun, uterine blood, and vulva; a night is the moon, semen, and male sexual organ. Their union is Kālacakra, the supreme bliss (mahā-sukha). 88



Likewise, the unit day-and-night is interpreted as “time, ” and a circle of solar mansions (rāśi-cakra) is seen as its “wheel. ”

In terms of the individual, the unit dayand-night is also understood as “time”; whereas its “wheel, ” the circle of solar mansions, is understood as the circle of twelve nāḍīs in the navel-cakra, which is the seat of the transmigratory mind.

This internal circle of twelve zodiacs consists of twentyone thousand and six hundred pairs of breaths and is characterized by the twelve links of dependent origination.

Due to the flow of the wind of prāṇa through the twelve internal zodiacs, a human being comes into existence, dies, and is born again.

It is in this sense that the Kālacakra tradition views time as the sole cause of the origination and cessation of all living beings. 89

In all of cyclic existence, the union of “time” and its “wheel” (kāla-cakra-yoga) has nirvāṇa, or the gnosis-element (jñāna-dhātu), as its beginning and the earth-element as its end.

In between are the elements of space, wind, fire, and water, which are pervaded by the gnosis-element, or nirvāṇa, which itself is without attributes.


Thus, the “wheel of time” is the nonduality of the ultimate and conventional realities.

With regard to the ultimate reality, the “wheel of time” indicates the nonduality of two facets of a single reality—namely, wisdom (prajñā), or emptiness (śūnyatā), and method (upāya), or compassion (karunā).

The wordtime” refers to the gnosis of imperishable bliss (akṣara-sukha-jñāna), which is a method consisting of compassion; and the wordwheel” designates wisdom consisting of emptiness. 90


Their unity is the Buddha Kālacakra. As the purified aspects of time, emptiness and compassion are the ultimate aspects of the sun and the moon, of a day and a night, and of the dark and bright lunar fortnights (pakṣa).

Sixteen types of emptiness are the purified aspects of the sixteen lunar days (tithi) of a dark lunar fortnight, and sixteen types of compassion are the purified aspects of the sixteen lunar days of a bright lunar fortnight. 91 Their union is Kālacakra.

Tables 5.15 and 5.16 illustrate the manner in which the Kālacakra tradition identifies the sixteen types of emptiness and compassion with sixteen lunar days.


Resorting to the Madhyamaka's four-point analysis (catuṣ-koṭi), the Kālacakra tradition tries to demonstrate that from the ultimate point of view, the Sahajakāya of the Buddhas is neither compassion —a bright lunar fortnight (śukla-pakṣa)—nor wisdom—a dark lunar fortnight (kṛṣṇa-pakṣa)—nor is it both because of their mutual contradiction, nor is it without the both.

Thus, the Sahajakāya is neither female nor male but neuter (napuṃsaka). It is the sixteenth digit (kalā), which is characterized by emptiness and purified through the four-point analysis. 92

In terms of the Buddha's mind and body, “time” refers to the Buddha's mind, which is the moment of supreme, indestructible bliss (paramākṣara-sukha), in which the moment of perishable bliss, or seminal emission, perishes forever.

This moment is the vajra-gnosis (vajra-jñāna).

The “wheel” indicates the Buddha's body, which is brought forth by that supreme bliss and is comprised of the aggregates and elements that are free of the afflictive and cognitive obscurations.

This body, which has all aspects and the form of a bindu, is the unity of the three worlds, the object of knowledge (jñeya). 93


The Sekoddeśaṭikā interptets it in a similar way, stating that the wordtime” designates “the supreme, imperishable, moment of nonemission” (acyuta-kṣaṇa), which is gnosis; and its “wheel” is the wheel whose psycho-physical aggregates, eleof the vajra-sphere” (vajra-dhātu-mahā-maṇḍala), the Bhagavān's body that consists of wisdom and method, that has all aspects and all sense-faculties and holds all illusions. 94

The Kālacakra tradition also interprets the “wheel of time” as the unity of the Buddha's mind and body, in terms of the nonduality of knowledge (jñāna) and the object of knowledge (jñeya).

Time” is the supreme indestructible gnosis (paramākṣarajñāna), the supreme bliss, and the cause of the eradication of all afflictive and cognitive obscurations. Its “wheel” is the triple world, which is characterized by innumerable phenomena and is the object of that knowledge. 95


Similarly, “time” is a supreme, indestructible moment (paramākṣara-kṣaṇa) of seminal nonemission, known as the vajra-gnosis.

This moment of seminal nonemission is sometimes referred to as the indestructible time (akṣara-kāla), a termination of attachment (rāga), of the time of origination (utpāda-kāla), and of the time of cessation (nirodha-kāla).

Its “wheel”—the unobscured aggregates and elements—is the unity of the three worlds, which is the object of knowledge that is free of obscurations. That very “wheel” is also called “the supreme maṇḍala of the vajra-sphere” (vajra-dhātu-mahā-maṇḍala), which has all aspects, holds all illusions, and is the Buddha's body, which consists of wisdom and compassion. 96

Time” is also understood as an image (mūrti) of wisdom and compassion, which has the form of conventional reality (saṃvṛti-rūpin); and its “wheel” is the emptiness (śūnyatā) of that image. 97

As an image, “time” is revered as an incomparable person (puruṣa)—omnipresent, free of elaborations (niṣprapañca), standing at the far limit (kūṭa-stha), and having the ears, nose, mouth, eyes, body, arms, and legs as its “wheel. ”


Yet this Wheel of Time is neither a puruṣa nor a prakṛti, neither the mind nor the sound, smell, taste, touch, or form. That Kālacakra is the end of sentient beings and their lord.

It is the holder of the three worlds, the cause of causes (kāraṇam kārānām), yet it is not a creator. It is spiritual knowledge (vidyā), the highest state of bliss, which is attainable through yoga. 98

In terms of the Kālacakratantra practice, the “wheel of time” refers to the integration of the cause, result, and method of actualizing the unified mind, known as Kālacakra.

The syllable kā designates the cause (kāraṇa), which is peace (śānta).

The syllable la signifies the absorption (laya) of the unsteady mind (cala-citta), indicated by the syllable ca, into that peace, which takes place due to the joining of the flows (krama-bandha) of drops.

The joining of the flows, which is denoted by the syllable kra, implies the joining of the flows of the drops of the body, speech, mind, and gnosis by means of innate bliss. 99

Thus, one can say in conclusion that the “wheel of timesignifies not only the manifestations of the cyclic existence and nirvāṇa but their causes as well. In this tantric system, the “wheel of time” represents a single, unified reality that is called by different names: Kālacakra, Vajra-yoga, Ādibuddha (“Primordial Buddha”), Sahajakāya (“Innate Body”), Jñānakāya (“Gnosis-body”), Viśuddhakāya (“Pure Body”), Sahajānanda (“Innate Bliss”), and the like. When this single reality manifests itself in numerous phenomenal forms, it is called cyclic existence.

According to the Vimalaprabhā's hermeneutical explanation of the term kāla-cakra, conventional reality is a provisional meaning (neyārtha) of the term “wheel of time, ” whereas the ultimate reality is the definitive meaning (nītārtha) of the term.

The identification of time with the phenomenal and ultimate realities is neither invented by nor is unique to the Kālacakra tradition. Its precursors can be found already in the Vedas. In the early Vedic texts, the wordtime” designated both phenomenal time and supreme being, the source of living beings.


For example, the Atharva Veda reads: “The mind is in time, the prāṇa is in time, and the name is placed in time…. Time created living beings. In the beginning, time created Prajāpati. ” 100

Likewise, some of the aforementioned definitions of the term kāla-cakra reveal striking similarities between the Kālacakratantra's interpretation of Kālacakra and the early Brāhmaṇic notion of Prajāpati.

Like the Kālacakratantra, the Brāhmaṇas speak of Prajāpati as “time, ” which, by means of days and nights, brings forth and destroys living beings. Like the body of Kālacakra, the body of Prajāpati is a year, consisting of days and nights, the cosmos, and sentient beings. 101

Furthermore, some of the ways in which the Kālacakratantra correlates specific bodily parts with the digits of the moon and other temporal phenomena strikingly resemble the correlations given in the Brāhmaṇas. 102

In the Sekoddeśa one even encounters a reference to Kālacakra as Prajāpati, the progenitor of all the Buddhas. 103


Similarly, the Kālacakratantra's notion of the “wheel of time” as manifesting in the form of the temporary, phenomenal world, in which it is characterized by the movement of the sun, and as the timeless, unitary reality, whose form is emptiness, shows some similarity to the Upaniṣadic notion of time. The Maitrī Upaniṣad identifies time with the two aspects of Brahma—the embodied and formless, temporary and timeless.



The formless, or timeless, aspect of Brahma precedes the sun and is indivisible; but time that is related to the movement of the sun is a temporal aspect of Brahman, which manifests as a year, or Prajāpati, by whose efficacy living beings originate, grow, and perish. 104

Likewise, the earlier cited line from the Ādibuddhatantra, which states that time brings forth phenomena and time always destroys phenomena, also resonates with the following line appearing in the Mahābhārata and in the Kūrma Purāṇa, which reads: “Time creates beings, and time destroys people. ” 105

Different passages in the Mahābhārata and in the Kūrma and Viṣṇu Purāṇas also speak of time as a conventional phenomenon and as the omnipresent, self-existent, supreme Īśvara, who is without beginning and end, who is the Self (ātman) of all. 106

In the Bhagavadgita, kṛṣṇa speaks of himself as the imperishable time that brings forth the destruction of the worlds. 107

These similarities between the Kālacakratantra's intepretation of the wheel of time and those of the aforementioned works of the Hindu tradition suggest that it is likely that these non-Buddhist interpretations of time inspired to some degree the Kālacakratantra's formulation of the “wheel of time. ”

Time in the Cosmos and in the Individual According to this tantric tradition, time in the human realm is externally measured according to the movement of planets and internally according to the number of the individual's breaths. 108

The arrangement and movement of the planets in the sky influence the body of the individual and correlate to the arrangement and flow of the nāḍīs in the body.

Thus, in accordance with the sun's passages (saṃkrānti) through the twelve solar mansions, twelve very subtle nāḍīs originate in the navel, which is the seat of the transmigratory mind. 109


Likewise, the sun's passing through the twelve signs of the zodiac in the course of a year correlates with the prāṇa's daily passing through the twelve petals, the internal signs of the zodiac, in the navel-cakra. 110

The manner in which the sun passes through the twelve zodiacs also corresponds to the manner in which the prāṇa flows within the twelve nāḍīs of the navel.

For example, one solar passage occurs in the course of eighteen hundred daṇḍas, just as a passage of prāṇa within a single petal occurs in the course of eighteen hundred breaths. Likewise, within a single solar passage, the passing of the five maṇḍalas takes place, just as within the petal of a single passage of prāṇa, there are five localities— the west, north, south, east, and center—where the respective maṇḍalas of earth, water, fire, wind, and space flow. Similarly, every single maṇḍala within a solar passage passes in the course of three hundred and sixty daṇḍas, just as a single passage of prāṇa from one nāḍī to another takes place in three hundred and sixty exhalations.


The cosmic maṇḍalas of space and the other elements pass through the uneven solar mansions, 111 just as in the body, the maṇḍalas of space and the other elements flow in the

left nostril. The cosmic maṇḍalas of earth and the other elements pass through the even solar mansions, 112 in the same manner in which the bodily maṇḍalas of the earth and the other elements flow in the right nostril.

Furthermore, just as in the north, the moon governs Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, and Aquarius, so the element of semen (bodhicitta-dhātu) governs the left nāḍī in the body of the individual. Likewise, in the south, the sun governs Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, and Capricorn, just as the element of uterine blood (rajo-dhātu) governs the right nāḍī in the body. 113

The sun and the moon in the sky and their manifestations in the body of the individual—semen and uterine blood—are equally set in motion by the power of prāṇas.


Just as the karmic winds of prāṇas bring these constituents of the cosmos and the individual into manifestation, so they keep them in motion until the karmic winds of prāṇas become exhausted and desert them at the time of dissolution and death. According to this tantric tradition, the twelve links of dependent origination arise due to the efficacy of the solar passages through the twelve zodiacs and due to the passing of the lunar fortnights (pakṣa) and lunar days (tithi).

In this way, the daily coursing of the sun and the moon in the cosmic body and the daily passing of the prāṇa in the right and left nāḍīs within the individual's body perpetuate cyclic existence in the world and in the body.

Therefore, both the external and internal circles of zodiacs are the temporal causes of transmigratory existence and the temporal manifestations of the twelve links of dependent origination.

For this reason, the twelve phases of the stage of completion (saṃpannakrama) practice of the Kālacakratantra directly relate to the eradication of the twelve internal and external zodiacs.

In terms of ultimate reality, however, the internal and external circles of zodiacs are the temporal manifestations of the vajras of the individual's mind, speech, body, and gnosis, and of the four bodies of the Buddha, which are characterized by the cessation of the twelve links of dependent origination.

Therefore, in the course of the Kālacakratantra practice, one starts to sublimate the twelve signs of the zodiac by visualizing them as the twelve gates of the Kālacakra-maṇḍala, as the body of the Buddha Kālacakra, and as his twelve faces. 114


The internal circle of zodiacs within the navel-cakra, which corresponds to the external circle of zodiacs and gives rise to the twelve links of dependent origination in the body, is of the nature of causes and effects.

Therefore, time, or transmigratory existence, ceases when these causes and effects cease.

There are several ways in which the Kālacakra tradition interprets the twelve zodiacs and twelve links of dependent origination in terms of causes and effects.

Table 5.17 illustrates the manner in which this tantric system explains the interdependence of the twelve links of dependent origination and of the twelve zodiacs, starting from Capricorn, the month of conception in the womb.

Capricorn is always considered as the month of conception, because after conception, the prāṇa begins to move from the nāḍī of Capricorn into the navel-cakra of the fetus.

Table 5.17 also illustrates the cycle of existence (saṃsāra-cakra), in which mental affliction gives rise to karma, karma gives rise to suffering, and suffering gives rise to mental affliction.

Thus, each link of dependent origination is a cause and a result of another link. For this tantric tradition, the very cycle of existence can be seen as a cause and the entire world as its result.

There are no other sentient beings apart from this cycle of transmigratory existence, which consists of causes and effects. Due to the relation between the cause and effect and the cycle of existence, this phenomenal wheel of time ceases when these causes and effects cease.

The Kālacakra tradition's classification of the twelve links of dependent origination into three categories—mental affliction, karma, and suffering—goes back to the earlier works of Abhidharma and Mahāyāna. 115

However, the specific links of dependent origination that it includes in those three categories differ from the classifications of the earlier Buddhist systems.

For example, in Nāgārjuna's Pratitysamutpādahṛdayakārikā, 116 spiritual ignorance (avidyā), craving (tṛṣṇā), and grasping onto existence (upādāna) belong to the category of mental afflictions; karmic formations (saṃskāra) and becoming (bhava) belong to the category of karma; and the remaining seven belong to the category of suffering.


Table 5.18 illustrates yet another manner in which the Kālacakra tradition relates the twelve links of dependent origination to the twelve zodiacs and twelve lunar months. In this particular scheme, the three aforementioned aspects of the twelve links of dependent origination are reduced to two—cause and effect.

Thus, the first five links of dependent origination, which correspond to the first five zodiacs and lunar months, are interpreted as the causal phenomena; and the remaining seven are viewed as the resultant phenomena, characterized by suffering. 117

This particular manner of classifying the twelve links of dependent origination into the two categories seems to be specific to the Kālacakra tradition.

Due to the power of this cycle of time within the body and outside the body, the twelve links of dependent origination constantly revolve in the sequence of creation and destruction.

The respective links of dependent origination arise and cease not only when the sun enters a zodiac and when the day of a new lunar month begins,

but also with the coming and passing of every lunar day.

For example, spiritual ignorance arises on the first lunar day of the month of Pu ya (in the sign of Sagittarius) duri ṣ ng the bright lunar fortnight (śukla-pakṣa). Karmic formations arise on the second day, and so on.

During the bright lunar fortnight, the twelve links of dependent origination arise in the sequence of creation.


However, when spiritual ignorance arises on the first lunar day of the dark lunar fortnight (kṛṣṇa-pakṣa), then the twelfth link arises on the second day, and so on.

Thus, during the dark lunar fortnight, the twelve links of dependent origination arise in the sequence of destruction.

As during the month of Pusya, the twelve links of dependent origination arise first in the sequence of creation and then in the sequence of destruction;

and this is due to the classification on the bright and dark lunar fortnights.

Therefore, within the following month of Māgha, they arise first in the sequence of destruction, starting with the second link, the karmic formations, and ending with spiritual ignorance as the twelfth.

The sequences of their arising alternate with each lunar month. In this way, due to the efficacy of the bright and dark lunar fortnights, a full cycle of origination and destruction takes place in a single lunar month.

Thus, a cycle of the twelve links of dependent origination of a solar year contains the twenty-four shorter cycles of dependent origination of the twelve lunar months. When the twelve links of a solar cycle of dependent origination are added to the twenty-four links of a lunar cycle of dependent origination, they make up thirty-six links of dependent origination, which correspond to the thirty-six padas (“stations”) of the sun and the moon in the sky and of the semen and uterine blood in the body of the individual.

Likewise, if one multiplies the twenty-four lunar cycles of dependent origination by the twelve links of a single solar cycle of dependent origination, one gets the number that corresponds to the two hundred and eighty-eight padas of the sun and the moon, which are obtained by the multiplication of their thirty-six padas by the eight watches of the day (prahara).

Similarly, every single day, the eight watches of the day and the four junctures (sandhyā) of the day make up together the twelve links of dependent origination, the twelve microcosmic zodiacs.

In the body of the individual, each of these twelve links has eighteen hundred flows of prāṇa, just as outside the body, each link of dependent origination has eighteen hundred daṇḍas in the course of a lunar month.

In this way, just as one solar year consists of three hundred and sixty days, so one lunar cycle of dependent origination consists of three hundred and sixty daily cycles of dependent origination.

Likewise, every two links of dependent origination make up a season (rtu), consisting of two months, which has thirty-six hundred flows of prāṇas in the body and thirty-six hundred daṇḍas outside the body.


In this way, the six seasons of a year also make up the twelve links of dependent origination. 118

Thus, in the cosmic body and in the body of the individual, the multiple shorter cycles of dependent origination make up the successively larger cycles of dependent origination, in accordance with the division of a solar year into the smaller units of time.

This implies that each cycle of dependent origination, which comprises progressively smaller cycles of dependent origination, arises in dependence upon other cycles of dependent origination and is therefore itself empty of inherent existence.

This implies further that even within one lifetime, the individual is nothing other than the embodiment of the multiple cycles of dependent origination.

Likewise, this analysis of time in terms of the successively smaller cycles of dependent origination suggests that time itself is not an inherently existent phenomenon, since there is nothing within the cycle of time that can be established as its ontological basis.


In this manner, the Kālacakratantra supports the Nāgārjuna's position on time, presented in the nineteenth chapter of the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, which argues that time is not an independent, inherently existent phenomenon but a dependent set of temporal relations.

This analysis also suggests that the individual is merely a cycle of transmigration (saṃsāra-cakra), a wheel of time manifesting in human form.

The Kālacakra tradition affirms that apart from this phenomenal wheel of time, there is no other sentient being. 119

This assertion reminds one of Nāgārjuna's Bodhicittavivaraṇa, v. 60, which states that there is no other sentient being apart from the twelve-spoked wheel, which rolls along the path of cyclic existence. 120

This is a way in which the Kālacakra tradition analyzes the emptiness of the inherent existence of the phenomena existing in time.

By means of such analysis, it tries to demonstrate that since it is a wheel of time, the body of the individual and personal identitylessness (pudgala-nairātmya) are mutually pervasive and nondual.

This is one of the Kālacakratantra's unique ways of interpreting the early Madhyamaka's reconciliation of the traditional Buddhist theory of the twelve-limbed dependent origination with the doctrine of emptiness, as found in


Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā 121 and Pratityasamutpādahṛdayakārikā. Identifying phenomenal existence with emptiness, the Kālacakra tradition also affirms the old Mahāyāna assertion stated in the Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra that form is emptiness and emptiness is form.

The Kālacakra tradition presents the human body as a wheel of time in a variety of ways.

Table 5.19 demonstrates the manner in which this tantric tradition identifies the solar and lunar days and the digits (kalā) of the moon with the specific nādīs of the individual's body.

Tables 5.20.a—b illustrate the manner in which this tantric system sees the nādīs of the six bodily cakras as the inner supports, or seats, of the wheel of time.

The wheel of time that is embodied in the individual is stirred by the ten winds of prāṇas in sixteen hundred and twenty bodily nādīs, called “the nādīs of the wheel of time. ”

As table 5.21 indicates, the nādīs, of the wheel of time are one hundred and sixty-two nādīs which are of ten kinds due to the circulation of the ten kinds of prāṇas in each nādī. 122


These nādīs of the wheel of time bring death to ordinary people, for in the course of time they become disturbed by the elements of phlegm (kapha), bile (pitta), and wind (vāta). 123

However, they are said to give bliss to those yogis who meditate upon them as the nādīs of the Buddha Kālacakra—the deities of the Kālacakra-maṇḍala— and who protect them in the body by means of the six-phased yoga (ṣaḍ-aṅga-yoga).

Since the transmigratory wheel of time is nondual from the body of the cosmos and the body of the individual, it is of the nature of the elements and their modifications.


and the remaining six zodiacs, beginning with Cancer, are of the same nature as the aforementioned six but in reverse order. 124


Likewise, the classification of the units of time is due to the efficacy of the six elements.

For example, as in the case of the aforementioned six solar mansions, the classification of six months is due to the classification of the six elements, the six seasons alternating in accordance with the nature of the six elements.


Among three seasons of six months, the first season is characterized by sattva, the second by rajas, and the third by tamas. 125

Similarly, the following threefold classification in which a lunar fortnight is of the nature of sattva, a lunar month is of the nature of rajas, and a season is of the nature of tamas, is due to the classification of the three guṇas. 126


Thus, in terms of conventional reality, wherever there is corporeality there is time, for everything material, which is characterized by the origination and cessation, is temporary.

Therefore, a goal of Kālacakratantra practice is to transform this corporeal wheel of time into the transcendent wheel of time, which is devoid of matter and free of origination and cessation.

When the locally embodied and temporary wheel of time becomes the omnipresent and everlasting wheel of time, it is called the Buddha Kālacakra, the unity of emptiness and bliss.


The actualization of the transcendent wheel of time is charaterized by the transformation of the twelve zodiacs into the twelve bodhisattva-bhūmis. Likewise, at the time of this transformation, the thirty-two digits of the moon manifest as the thirtytwo marks of a Great Man (mahā-purusa).

Similarly, the moon becomes the supreme mind (mahā-citta) of the Buddha, and the last of its sixteen digits becomes the supreme emptiness (mahā-śūnyatā), the supreme body (mahā-kāya) of the Buddha. This sixteenth digit of the moon, or the supreme emptiness, comes at the end of the bright lunar fortnight, which is passion, or attachment (rāga); and it comes at the beginning of the dark lunar fortnight, which is dispassion, or detachment (arāga).

Thus, the supreme emptiness of enlightened awareness is the cessation of the phenomenal aspects of the bright and dark lunar fortnights.

It is the heart of all the Tathāgatas in the same way that personal identitylessness is the heart of dependent origination.

This is the manner in which the Kālacakra tradition explains, in terms of the cessation of phenomenal time and its causes, its definition of Buddhahood as the mind that has emptiness as its form (śūnyatā-bimba-citta) and transcends both attachment and detachment.


Likewise, by transforming the atomic nature of the five elements that constitute the internal moon, sun, and Rāhu into the nature of gnosis, one transforms these heavenly bodies within oneself and outside oneself into the different types of gnosis, or into the aggregates that are free of obscurations (nirāvaranaskandha).

The moon in the sky, or semen in the body, becomes the Buddha's mirrorlike gnosis (ādarśa-jñāna), the unobscured form-aggregate (rūpa-skandha), or Vairocana.

The sun in the sky, or uterine blood in the body, becomes the gnosis of equality (samatā-jñāna), the unobscured aggregate of feeling, or Ratnasambhava. Rāhu in the sky, or consciousness in the body, becomes the discriminating gnosis (pratyavekṣaṇajñāna), the unobscured aggregate of discernment, or Amitābha.

The unification of these three in the wind of prāṇa becomes the accomplishing gnosis (krtyānusthānajñāna), the unobscured aggregate of mental formations, or Amoghasiddhi.

When consciousness becomes endowed with all the components of these four members, it transforms into the gnosis of the sphere of reality (dharmadhātu-jñāna), the unobscured aggregate of consciousness, or Aksobhya.

Thus, due to the purification of afflictive and cognitive obscurations, which are stored in subtle atomic particles, the phenomenal wheel of time, which is characterized by the twelve limbs of dependent origination, manifests as the transcendent wheel of time, which is characterized by the twelve bodhisattva-bhūmis.

This transcendent wheel of time knows itself to be devoid of the past and future, and yet it sees the past and future. 127 Perceiving that time is empty of inherent existence, it knows itself to be of empty nature (śūnya-svabhāva).

Appendix


Table A.1 outlines yet another way of seeing the correspondences among the ten pilgrimage sites and the human limbs, joints, and nails. 1


In the schema presented in table A.2, the twenty-four pilgrimage sites, grouped into ten main categories and subdivided into the groups of two and four, correspond to the joints in the body of the individual.

2 Table A.3 illustrates the Kālacakra tradition's interpretation of different heavenly lights in terms of the nādīs in the body of the individual and in terms of the different types of gnosis ( jñāna ).

Table A.4 shows the manner in which the Kālacakra tradition sees the correspondences among the ten planets and the individual's bodily apertures. Table A.5 demonstrates the [[Kālacakra] tradition's]] interpretation of stellar constellations as macrocosmic correlates of the individual's teeth.


Table A.5a illustrates the Kālacakra tradition's identification of the meteorological phenomena with the body of the individual. In table A.6 the three realms of transmigratory existence are seen as corresponding to the three types of bodily extremities. The correspondences between time in the individual's body and time outside the body are the following:


<poem>
1 fortnight 900 breaths

24 fortnights of a year 21,600 breaths, making up a solar day 1 period (yuga-samaya) 3 5,400 breaths
four periods of a year 21,600 breaths/a solar day
1 time (kāla) 7,200 breaths
three times of a year 21,600 breaths/a solar day
1 half a year 10,800 breaths
2 halves of a year 21,600 breaths/a solar day
1 day and a night (ahorātra) 60 breaths
360 days and nights of a year 21,600 breaths/a solar day 1 lagna 5 breaths
4,320 lagnas of a year 21,600 breaths/a solar day


The Social Body

The Individual and Society

The Kālacakratantra's views of the individual's place in society and of the individual as society are closely interrelated.

These provide a sociological framework for the traditional interpretation of the Kālacakratantra's history, and for its eschatology and soteriology.

The Kālacakra tradition's interpretation of social relations and its sharp criticism of caste divisions and social bias have multiple goals and practical applications.


Some of them are unique to the Kālacakra tradition, and some are characteristic of all Indian Buddhist systems.

From its very inception, Indian Buddhism prided itself on its inclusiveness of all social classes and ethnic groups.

Throughout its history, it criticized the Brāhma views ṇ of the divine origin of the four castes (varṇa) and the hereditary nature of their moral and spiritual qualities.

It censured the Brāhmaṇical insistence on the preservation of the hierarchy of the caste system and the Brāhmaṇic position on the soteriological implications of one's social status and relations. 1


Even though Indian Buddhist communities at times fell short of Buddhist social ideals, Buddhist scriptures continually emphasized the provisional nature of social differences, the lack of any inherent, moral qualities of any social class or ethnic group, and the equal qualifications of all social classes for venturing onto the Buddhist path of spiritual maturation and awakening. Buddhist scriptures often refer to the populace as the intended audience of Buddhist teachings.

The early Pāli literature depicts Buddha Śākyamuni as turning the Wheel of Dharma for the benefit and happiness of the multitudes of people (bahujana-hita, bahu-jana-sukha); and later Mahāyāna works portray the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas as those who teach the Dharma for the well-being of all sentient beings (sarva-sattvārtha).

Among the renowned male and female Arhats, Bodhisattvas, and Siddhas, many are said to have been born into families of barbers, fishermen, cowherds, hunters, courtesans, and outcasts.

In one of the earliest Buddhist texts, the Suttanipāta, the Buddha teaches that human beings cannot be divided into different species as are animals and plants.


Rather, their differences are determined only by convention. Diverse social classes (jāti) exist by mere designation. Since there is no real difference among social classes, one cannot speak of the four castes. 2

Consequently, the moral superiority of the individual does not lie in the caste, clan, or family into which one is born but in the individual's spiritual achievements—specifically, in freedom from mental afflictions (kleśa) and in ethical conduct (śīla).


According to the Vāseṭṭha Sutta, the Buddha Śākyamuni stated the following:

I do not call a man a Brahmin because of his mother or because of his breeding. Just because a man is entitled to be called “Sir, ” it does not mean that he is free from habit and attachment.

He who is free from attachment and he who is free from grasping is the person I call a Brahmin.

When all the chains are shattered, when there is no more agitation, and a man has freed himself and thrown off his shackles—that is the person I call a Brahmin. 3


According to the Theragāthā, the Buddha said similar words to Sunīta, an outcast, who was said to be revered by Indra and Brahmā after attaining Arhatship.

By austerity, by living the religious life, by self-restraint and self-taming, by this one becomes a Brāhmaṇa; this is the supreme state of being a Brāhmaṇa. 4

The Majjhimanikāyāṭṭhakathā distinguishes two types of sons of a noble family— one who is a son of a noble family by birth (jāti-kula-putta), referring to one who is born into the family of an upper social class, and the other who is a son of a noble family by conduct (ācāra-kula-putta), referring to a Buddhist monk.


Thus, the early Buddhists attempted to transcend class discrimination in their communities by creating a socially integrated, monastic community.

In the early Buddhist canonical texts, the terms gotra and kula, meaning “family, clan, or lineage, ” have often been used as synonyms for a Buddhist spiritual family or lineage.

In the context of Mahāyāna, the term kula remained a general term designating a community of Mahāyāna practitioners, and the term gotra assumed an additional, technical meaning, specifying one's spiritual disposition or inclination. Indian Buddhist tantras, on the other hand, conflated and expanded the meanings of these two terms beyond their meanings in the Mahāyāna scriptures.

The difference in the interpretations of these two terms is explained by the fact that different theoretical and practical implications were attributed to the notion of a spiritual family or lineage by different Buddhist traditions and schools.


Even though the interpretative differences are obvious, they are historically related in the sense that the later interpretations are formulated on the basis of the earlier ones.

In early Buddhism, the Pali terms gotta and kula primarily signified a Buddhist monastic community of the spiritual heirs of the Buddha and secondarily a Buddhist lay community.

A monastic community unified through social integration and shared beliefs, spiritual goals, and practices was seen as an ideal type of family.

According to the Mahāvagga of the Aṅguttara Nikāya (XIX. 14), the Buddha taught that those who left home for homelessness in the Buddhist Dharma and monastic discipline (vinaya) renounced their former lineages (nāma-gotta) and became members of the integrated, Buddhist monastic family.


The text expresses this point as follows:


Monks, just as great rivers—namely, Gaṅgā, Yamunā, Aciravatī, Sarabhū, and Mahī—descending into the great ocean, lose their former names and are called the great ocean, so, monks, these four castesKṣatriyas, Brāhmaṇas, Vaiśyas, and Sūdras—having gone from home to homelessness in the Dharma and monastic discipline, which are taught by the Tathāgata, renounce their former lineages and are called the wandering ascetics (samaṇa) belonging to the son of Śakyas. 5

Likewise, in the Aggañña Sutta of the Dīgha Nikāya (III. 84. 9), the Buddha asserts that a monk who has firmly rooted and unshakable faith in the Tathāgata can truly call himself “a Son of the Bhagavān, who is born of his mouth, born of Dharma, generated by Dharma, and who is an heir of Dharma, since the Tathāgata is the Body of Dharma. ”

This formula is undoubtedly modeled on the example of the Brāhmaṇic claim to the moral and spiritual superiority of the Brahmin caste, cited by the Buddha in the Madhurā Sutta of the Majjhima Nikāya, which reads: “Master Kaccanā, the Brāhmaṇas say thus: '… Brāhmaṇas alone are the sons of Brahmā, the offspring of Brahmā, born of his mouth, born of Brahmā, created by Brahmā, heirs of Brahmā. '” 6


Early Pāli texts indicate that even a person who has not yet become a Streamenterer but is endowed with the conditions conducive to stream-entry becomes of the lineage (gotta-bhū) of Āryas, thereby surpassing the inferior lineage of ordinary people (puthuj-jana). 7

Even though he is lacking experiential insight (dassana) and full confidence (saddhā) in the Buddha's teachings, by becoming disillusioned with the world of desires and by aspiring for nibbāna, a person becomes of the lineage of Āryas and thereby becomes capable of clearly discerning the first Noble Truth. 8

Thus, according to the early Buddhist scriptures, a Buddhist spiritual family includes two main categories of individuals:

(1) those endowed with spiritual accomplishments such as experiential insight into the Four Noble Truths and freedom from mental afflictions, and (2) those showing potential for attaining those accomplishments.

These early Buddhist notions of a spiritual family are the precursors to later Mahāyāna theories of the Buddha-family.

Some Indian Mahāyāna authors continued to advocate a social integration of the Buddhist spiritual family, and to some degree, they extended this social ideal to Buddhist lay communities as well.

Following the example of the earlier Suttanipāta, they denied any significant differences among social classes and explained social class as mere designation (samjñā-mātram), or convention (vyavahāra).

Reinterpreting the Vedic Puruṣasūkta in their rejection of the traditional Brāhmaṇic interpretations of the origin of the four castes, they claimed that in this world there is only one, universal social group (sāmānya-jāti), since human beings do not differ among themselves as do different species of animals and plants. 9

The Śārdulakarṇāvadāna asserts the unity of all social classes, declaring: “this all is one, and one is this all. ” 10

It tries to demonstrate that the Brāhmaṇic account of the origination of the four social classes from the four different parts of Brahmā's body does not justify social discrimination but proves instead that all the members of Indian society are of the same class and value by birth, since they all originate from the same source.


The text argues this point, stating:

“Since Brahmā one, therefore his progeny belongs only to one social class (jāti). ” 11

It supports this argument by affirming that if all the members of one social class originated from the same part of the Brahmā's body, then:

Your sister would be your wife, and that is not appropriate for a Brāhmaṇa's If this world was first generated by Brahmā himself, then a Brāhmaṇi is a Brāhmaṇa's sister, a Kṣatriyā a Kṣatriya's sister, a Vaiśyā a Vaiśya's [sister], and a [[Śūdrā is a Śūdra's [sister].

A sister is not suitable to be a wife, if she is generated by Brahmā. Sentient beings are not generated by Brahmā but are generated by their mental afflictions and karma. 12

Aśvaghoṣa, a renowned Mahāyāna scholar and poet belonging to approximately the same period as the Śārdulkarṇāvadāna, poses a similar argument in his Vajrasūci.

Basing his arguments on the authority of the Vedas and Smṛtis, Aśvaghoṣa argues that neither the soul (jīva) nor the body make up a Brāhmaṇa.

The soul is not a Brāhmaṇa because the gods Sūrya, Soma, and Indra were once animals. If the body were a Brāhmaṇa, then Kṣatriyas, Vaiśyas, and Śūdras, who are born from the Brahmā's body would also be Brāhmaṇas.

Aśvaghoṣa argues along the same lines as the Suttanipāta that human beings are not of different classes, or species, just as the four sons of the same father cannot be of different races and just as fruits of the same tree cannot be of different species. 13


He states this in the following manner: Some fruits of an udumbara or a paṇasa tree grow on the branches, some on the trunk, some at the branching parts of the stem, and some on the edges.

There is no difference among them as, “this is a Brāhamaṇa fruit, this is a Kṣatriya fruit, this is a Vaiśya fruit, and this is a Śūdra fruit, ” because they have grown on the same tree.

In the same way, there is no difference among human beings as well, because they have originated from the same Man (puruṣa). 14

Like the Śārdulakarṇāvadāna, Aśvaghoṣa's Vajrasūci points to the following fault of the Brāhmaṇic postulation of the origin of class division:

If a Brāhmaṇa is born from the mouth of Brahmā, wherefrom is a Brāhmaṇī born? If she is born from the same mouth, alas, then you are having intercourse with your sisters!

Thus, you do not consider what is appropriate or inappropriate sexual intercourse, and this is extremely repugnant to the world. 15 Although the Mahāyāna tradition advocated the equality of all social classes and their solidarity, the new Mahāyāna ideal of a Buddhist spiritual family became that of the Mahāyāna monastic and lay communities.

Only those who ascended to the Mahāyāna Vehicle (mahāyāne āruḍha) by generating the spirit of awakening (bodhicitta) are referred to as the sons and daughters of the noble family (kulaputra or kula-duhitṛ).


Likewise, the epithets Jinaputra (“a son of the Jina”) and Sugatasuta (“a child of the Sugata”) apply to those who, in the words of Nāgārjuna, “drink the elixir of emptiness for themselves and others” and “who burnt the fuel of mental afflictions with the cognitive fire of emptiness (śūnyatā-jñānāgni). ” 16

The spirit of awakening (bodhicitta), “the seed of all the qualities of the Buddhas, ” 17 became a necessary qualification for spiritual birth into the family of the perfectly awakened Buddha (samyaksaṃbuddha-kula). 18

Citing the Ratnakāraṇdasūtra in his Śikṣāsamuccaya, Śāntideva asserts that even an ordinary person (pṛthag-jana) may be a Bodhisattva. 19


He substantiates this assertion on the basis of the view expressed in the Vimalakīrtinirdésa that the spirit of awakening can arise even in a person whose belief in the true existence of the personality (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) is as massive as Mt. Sumeru.

Thus, a prerequisite for the arising of the spirit of awakening is not one's philosophical orientation, but one's ability to be inspired and incited to generate the spirit of awakening.

As the Dharmadaśakasūtra points out, this particular ability is the bodhisattva-gotra, or one's predilection for th e Bodhisattva path. 20

While some Mahāyāna authors differentiated five types of gotras, 21 others identified gotra with the dharmadhātu and argued against its divisibility, affirming its beginningless and endless existence in all sentient beings without exception. 22

However, according to the Kālacakratantra, it is one who retains his semen (bodhicitta) by the power of meditative concentration (samādhi) that becomes a Bodhisattva born into the family of the Jinas. 23

The Vimalaprabhā comments that by being born into the family of the Jina in this way, one increases the lineage of the Sugatas.


For this very reason, Māras, Rākṣasas, and other demons steal the emitted semen from those who are not well concentrated and devour it on a daily basis.

The holders of the Kālacakra tradition in India further developed the earlier Buddhist precursory notions of a socially integrated and inherently unified spiritual family and attributed to them new practical applications and soteriological implications.

The vajra-family emerged as a new model of an ideal spiritual family.

The phrasevajra-family, ” which may be interpreted here as an “indestructible or indivisible family” (the wordvajra” meaning “indestructible, indivisible”), has diverse connotations and implications.

First, it denotes a community of individuals initiated into the same Vajrayāna tradition, a community that is indivisible and indestructible by virtue of its spiritual, social, and ethnic integration.


As will be demonstrated later, in the context of the Kālacakratantra tradition, the emergence of this kind of vajrafamily has socio-political and soteriological significance.

Second, the “vajra-family” designates the family of Bodhisattvas who by means of tantric practices have become vajra-sons (vajra-putra), born into the family of Vajrasattva, or Kālacakra, and who are endowed with an insignificant degree of obscurations (āvaraṇa) regarding their spirit of awakening (bodhicitta). 24

The aforementioned arguments of the earlier Buddhist systems against Brāhmaṇic social discrimination were also incorporated into the social theory of the Buddhist tantras.

There is no doubt that those arguments circulated among the Indian Buddhist communities for centuries, since they also reoccur in the Kālacakra tradition.

Even though the Kālacakra tradition reiterates those arguments, setting them in the context of Buddhist tantric social theory and practice, it gives them a uniquely tantric application, which will be discussed later in this chapter.

The following passage from the Vimalaprabhā illustrates the Kālacakra tradition's criticism of the Brāhmaṇic social theory and demonstrates the strong influence of the earlier Buddhist social critiques on this tantric system.

They say here that Brahmā's mouth is the source of Brāhmaṇas, because they originated from there.

Likewise, his two arms are the birthplace of Kṣatriyas … his two thighs are the birthplace of Vaiśyas, and his two feet are the birthplace of Śūdras.

Thus, there are four castes. The fifth class of Caṇḍālas immediately follows these four.

What is their birthplace? That much Brāhmaṇas do not know. M

oreover, is it true, as they say, that Brāhmaṇas are born from the Brahmā's head? Hence, I ask:

“Are Brāhmaṇīs also born from there? If they are, then they are their sisters, because they originated from the same source.

Furthermore, do Kṣatriyas and others have marital relations with their sisters? Why? If that happens, then the Barbarians' (mleccha) Dharma becomes prevalent.

When the Barbarians' Dharma becomes prevalent, then there is an end of social classes. Due to the destruction of social classes, there is hell. …

It has been further investigated that if there is a single creator of living beings, then why are there four castes?

Just as four sons of one father are not of different castes, so is this true of castes. If the difference is due to the division of the Brahmās head and other bodily parts, that is not logically possible.


Why? Just as there is no difference between the udumbara fruits growing at the lowest level, in the middle or at the top, so is that the case for castes.

Since one cannot perceive any distinction [among castes in terms of the classification of the white, red, yellow, and black colors nor in terms of the elements, sense-faculties, happiness, suffering, knowledge, sacred scriptures, and the like, therefore it has been established that a caste is impermanent. 25


This passage from the Vimalaprabhā parallels a passage from the Paramārthasevā, which is also traditionally attributed to Puṇḍarīka and included in the literary corpus of the Kālacakra tradition.

According to the Paramārthasevā, people are born into different social classes due to the nature of their karma and not due to their origination from the particular parts of Brahmā's body.

The following passage of the same text refutes the Brāhmaṇical characterization of social classes in terms of their colors and their inherent predilections for their inherited functions in society, which were standardized by the authors of the Indian Dharmasūtras and Dharmaśāstras.


Just as the fruits of an udumbara tree, growing from the lowest level, middle, and top, are of the same form, ingredients, texture, and taste, so the regions of [the Brahmā's mouth and other parts are the same.

Whoever is born from his mouth is not bright like moon-rays. Whoever is born from his arms is not like the rising sun.

One who is born from his thighs is not like yellow paint. Whoever is born from his feet is not like very dark eye-coloring. All Twice-born are not the class of knowledge, nor are they the princely class.

Those born from the Kṣatriya caste are not [necessarily] heroes.

All Vaiśyas are not endowed with wealth. Śūdras are not the greatest workers in the world.

The states of happiness and suffering are due to the classification of the elements.

According to the scriptures and reasoning, as people are born due to their accumulations of virtue and sin, they experience the world in the same manner.


The four castes of people originate in this manner. 26 Like their predecessors, the holders of the Kālacakra tradition viewed conceited attachment to one' own caste and family as impediments to spiritual maturation and the actualization of Buddhahood.

The literature of the Kālacakra tradition frequently warns against social and moral discrimination, which is perpetuated by attachment to one's own caste and its regulations.

By means of the different types of analysis, it tries to demonstrate the insubstantiality of the reasons traditionally given in support of social discrimination.

To demonstrate the untenability of social discrimination, the Kālacakratantra at times uses a type of analysis that is similar to the one frequently applied in Buddhist refutations of the independent existence of a personal identity.

The following verse exemplifies one such method:

There are earth, water, fire, wind, space, guṇas, mind (manas), intellect (buddhi), selfgrasping (ahaṃkāra), and vital breath. There are the sense objects, form and the like, the sense-faculties, the eye, and so on; and there are the five faculties of action (karmendriya).

Among these phenomena that pervade the bodies of animals and humans, which is of the highest caste, and which is of the lowest? 27

The Kālacakra tradition often calls attention to the detrimental effects of social discrimination for one's progress on this tantric path. It also views the absence of conceited attachment to one's social status and lineage as a prerequisite for receiving Buddhist tantric teachings and engaging in Buddhist tantric practices.


The Vimalaprabhā confirms the assertion of the earlier Guhyasamājatantra that not a single Tathāgata between Dīpaṃkara and Śākyamuni taught the Mantrayāna, because people during that era were not suitable to receive the teachings on the great secrets of Mantrayāna. 28

It interprets this statement of the Guhyasamājatantra in terms of its own social theory, affirming that during that era, people in the land of Āryans were unsuitable for tantric teachings due to their prejudice concerning the four castes.


The Kālacakra tradition sees this same social prejudice as the reason that the Buddha Śakyamuni did not initially teach the Paramādibuddhatantra to the people of the land of Āryans but to Sucandra, a king of Sambhala and an emanation of Vajrapāni, who took it with him to Sambhala, where it was preserved for centuries before it was revealed to the people of India.

This Buddhist tantric system closely links the negative soteriological implications of social prejudice to its negative socio-political implications.

Its eschatological teachings relate the demise of the “Barbarian Dharma, ” or Islam, to the social and spiritual unification of the vajra-family.

It sees a causal relationship between the resurgence of the Barbarian Dharma with the reoccurrence of social segregation. According to the Vimalaprabhā, the Buddha prophesied in the Paramādibuddhatantra that Yaśas, the eighth king of Sambhala in the line of Sucandra, an emanation of Mañjuśrī, will unite all social classes into a single clan (kalka) by means of initiation into the Kālacakratantra.

He foretold the following: Due to making the four castes into a single clan within the vajra-family and not making them into Brahmā's family, Vāgmī Yaśas, who has a vajra-family, will be Kalkī. 29

The term kalka, meaning, a “clan, ” is interpreted by the Vimalaprabhā as a unification of the castes and noncastes, or outcasts. 30

Since that clan will belong to King Yaśas, he will be called kalkī, meaning, “one who has a clan”;

and his lineage (gotra) will be the lineage of kalkī. 31 His son Puṇḍarīka, who will write a commentary on the abridged version of the Paramādibuddhatantra, will be the second kalkī. He will be succeeded by twenty-three other kalkīs, after whose reign, Mañjuśrī Yaśas will reappear as Raudra Cakrī and engage in a fierce battle with a vicious king of the Barbarians.

He will eliminate the Barbarian Dharma by converting Barbarians to his own Dharma, thereby incorporating them into his vajra-family.


At that time, all human families will be fulfilled in terms of the three pursuits of a human life:


Dharma, pleasure (kāma), and wealth (artha). His two sons, Brahmā and Sureśa, who will rule the northern and southern sections of Small Jambudvīpa, will also practice Dharma.

However, upon his departure to the state of bliss, he will be succeeded by his son Brahmā, and class segregation will reoccur within Brahmā's lineage.

Consequently, many divisions in the lineage of Brahmā and in other lineages will appear in the northern part of the earth, and at the end of the kali-yuga, the Barbarian Dharma will be propagated once again in all the regions of the earth.

After eighteen hundred years, the Barbarian Dharma will be destroyed again, and the Buddhist Dharma will prevail for another eighteen thousand years. 32

This account of the Buddha's prophecy concerning the role of Buddhist kalkīs in the elimination of social segregation and the subsequent eradication of the Barbarian Dharma is a Buddhist response to the Purāṇic teachings, which identify the Buddha and Kalkī as the ninth and tenth avatāras of Viṣṇu.

The Vimalaprabhā urges the reader to consider the Purāṇas as nonsensical treatises, composed by corrupt sages for the sake of establishing their own social class. 33 It asserts the historical precedence of these Buddhist prophecies over those in the Purāṇas on the ground that the Purāṇic prophecies were composed by corrupt Brāhmaṇas at the time of the Buddha's appearance and are not contained in the earlier Vedic texts.

Sarcastically reiterating the Purāṇic interpretation of the Buddha's identity and his association with those of low social strata, it tries to demonstrate the supremacy of Buddhist social ethics.

It is worth citing here the Vimalaprabhā's full account of the Purāṇic interpretation of the Buddha, since it also sheds some light on the centuries-long conflict between Hindu and Buddhist social and ethical theories.

This Bhagavān Buddha is the ninth avatāra of Viṣṇu, called Vasudeva; and Kalkī is the tenth.

In the kali-yuga, the Buddha will vitiate the sacrificial laws by means of a great, delusive deception.

He will abolish the military laws, ancestral rites, the propagation of castes, killing, lying, stealing, sexual misconduct, abusive language, slander, idle talk, avarice, malice, false views, harm to all sentient beings, the dwelling of one's own lineage, the duties of a Kṣatriya, the instructions of the great sage Vyāsa, the Bhārata, the teachings of the Gīta, and the teachings of the Vedas, which yield the fruit of heaven.

Thus, having abolished them, he will teach a perverted Dharma to Śūdras and other low classes.


For example, Bodhisattvas must bring to completion these ten perfections:

They must cultivate the spirit of loving kindness toward all sentient beings and the spirit of compassion.


They must benefit all sentient beings, and they must not engage in ten unwholesome actions— namely, killing, lying, stealing, sexual misconduct, abusive language, slander, idle talk, avarice, malice, and false views.

After bringing the Śūdras and other low classes to understanding by means of these perverted teachings and shaving them, he will make them monks wearing red robes.

Because those who formerly stood in the army of Dānava were not killed in battle by Vasudeva, and because they must go to hell due to offending the Brāhmaṇas, Viṣṇu created this illusion of the Buddha so that Śūdras and other low classes, who stand on the side of former demons, may go to hell. 34

The Vimalaprabhā also objects to the Purāṇic interpretation of Kalkī as the tenth avatāra of Viṣṇu, who will be born as a Brāhmaṇa, kill the Barbarians, and make the earth full of Brāhmaṇas.

It once again asserts that Kalkī, who is none other than Mañjuśrī born into the Kṣatriya family of Śākyas, will make all castes into a single caste, because in the past, thirty million Brāhmaṇas in the land of Sambhala demonstrated their inclination toward the Vajrayāna.

It also bases its objection to the Purāṇic interpretation of Kalkī on the reading of the Kālacakratantra (Ch. 1, v. 26), which prophesies both the appearance of the king Yaśas in Sambhala six hundred years after the year of the Buddha's teaching of the Paramādibuddhatantra and the introduction of the Barbarian Dharma into the land of Mecca eight hundred years after his appearance.

The Vimalaprabhā argues that if Kalkī is a son of the Brāhmaṇa Yaśas, then he cannot be called Kalkī, since without a clan (kalka), he cannot be one who has a clan (Kalkī), just as without wealth, one cannot be a wealthy man.


It also refutes the Purāṇic prophecy of Kalkī killing the Barbarians with his arrows made of darbha grass, claiming that Kalkī Yaśas will not kill them but will only eradicate their Dharma. Seeing the extreme wickedness of Barbarians, he will emanate supreme horses by means of his “samādhi on supreme horses” (paramāśvasamādhi) and will thus melt the minds of Barbarians and establish them in his own Dharma.

The Vimalaprabhā explains the statement of the Kālacakratantra (Ch. 1, v. 161), which affirms that Kalkī Yaśas will destroy the Barbarians by way of the Kālacakratantra's proselytizing efforts.

It interprets this as the Kālacakratantra's method of attracting the evil sages to this tantric path, and it substantiates this proselytizing method on the basis that “spiritual awakening is not possible when the spirit of doubt arises first. ” 35


The aforementioned eschatological passages express the Kālacakra tradition's view of social segregation as causally related to the decline of Buddhism and the rise of Islam in India.

They point to social unification as a social condition necessary for securing the mundane and spiritual prosperity of the country.


These passages reflect legitimate concerns of Buddhist communities in northern India during the tenth and eleventh centuries, which were provoked by the constant threat of Sultān Mahmūd's invasions and the increasing dominance of the Islamic faith.

The words of Sultān Mahmūd's secretary, Al-'Utbi, which indicate that Islam or death was the only alternative that Sultān Mahmūd placed before his people, 36 attest to the political and religious crisis faced by Indian Buddhists of that period.


The Kālacakra tradition expresses the concern that due to the similarity between the Vedic and Barbarian Dharmas with regard to killing, future generations of Brāhmaṇical communities may well convert to Islam, unless they join their Buddhist compatriots in the vajra-family.

The Vimalaprabhā's account of Mañjuśrī Yaśas's teaching of the Kālacakratantra to thirtyfive million Brāhmaṇic sages in Sambhala attests to that concern. According to the Vimalaprabhā, the king Yaśas was aware that Brāhmaṇas in Sambhala were originally from different countries with contrary customs regarding eating meat, drinking liquor, and the like.

Therefore, he deemed it necessary to unite them into a single vajra-family by initiating them into the kālacakra-maṇḍala, which he constructed in a sandalwood grove, south of the village of Kalāpa. Before leading them into the kālacakra-maṇḍala and giving them tantric precepts, the king Yaśas provided them with

the following socio-political and soteriological reasons for consolidating them into the unified vajrafamily: I must lead you here into this maṇḍala palace of the Bhagavān Kālacakra and give you mundane (laukika) and supramundane (lokottara) initiations.

Moreover, you must eat, drink, and have marital relations with your vajra-family as I command you. If you do not obey my command, then leave my nine hundred and sixty million villages and go wherever you please. Otherwise, after eight hundred years have passed, your descendants will engage in the Barbarians' Dharma and will teach the Barbarians' Dharma in the ninety-six great countries of Sambhala and eleswhere.


With the mantra of the Barbarians' deity, Vismillāh, striking animals on their necks with a cleaver, they will eat the flesh of the animals killed with the mantra of their own deity and condemn the eating of the flesh of animals that died due to their own karma….

There is no difference between the Barbarians' Dharma and Vedic Dharma with respect to killing.

Therefore, the descendants of your family, seeing the vigor of those Barbarians and the manifestation of their deity Māra in battle, will become Barbarians in the future, after eight hundred years have passed.

Once they join those Barbarian races, all the inhabitants of the nine hundred and sixty million villages, the four castes and other social classes, will become Barbarians. …

Thus, regarding the Vedic Dharma as authoritative, they will adopt the Barbarians' Dharma.

For this reason, I have given you precepts (niyama) so that the Barbarians' Dharma may not enter [here] in the future. 37 On the basis of these passages, one may surmise that in the context of the Kālacakra tradition, the vajra-family represents a society that cannot be destroyed by foreign enemies and their religion, but is able to preserve its distinct identity because it is founded on the religious theories and practices that radically differ from those of its adversary.

According to this tantric system, the reason why Buddhist teachings have not yet disappeared is that the Tathāgata, being free of social prejudice, did not dispense them to just some individuals on the basis of their high social class and hold them back from others due to their low class.

Rather, he taught the diverse systems of the Buddhist Dharma for the benefit of all, in accordance with their inclinations. 38

In light of the earlier mentioned concerns, the Kālacakra tradition admonishes Buddhist practitioners not to admire the Vaiṣṇava and Śaiva Dharmas, on the ground that these Dharmas, characterized by the arrogance of class prejudice (jāti-vāda) and the absence of compassion for all sentient beings, produce a false sense of self-identity (mithyāhaṃkāra). 39


A false sense of self-identity implies here a sense of self-identity that is based on one's social status, and determined by one's own caste, its duties, and lineage.

The Kālacakra tradition, like other related Buddhist tantric traditions, distinguishes this false sense of self-identity from the valid sense of self-identity that the tantric practitioner establishes on his path of actualizing Buddhahood.

For example, at the time of the self-empowerment on the stage of generation (utpattikrama), the tantric adept appropriates his true self-identity by identifying himself with the body, speech, and mind of all the Tathāgatas, with the vajra of gnosis (jñāna) and emptiness (śūnyatā), and with the purified dharma-dhātu. Appropriating this self-identity, he maintains it in all of his activities. 40

Not only does he establish this self-identity for himself, but he also regards all other beings as endowed with the same identity. Thus, one may infer that in this tantric system, a valid sense of per-

sonal identity empowers the individual in his spiritual endeavors, thereby yielding a profound sense of nonduality with all living beings.


This sense of nonduality with one's natural and social environment, in turn, facilitates religious and social unification, thereby empowering the entire society and enabling it to endure in perilous times.

A false sense of personal identity, on the contrary, separates the individual from his natural and social environments and disempowers both the individual and the society.

Consequenctly, a society that is disempowered by social and religious segregation is unable to endure in times of danger. The author of the Vimalaprabhā declares that his reason for elaborately describing the characteristics of the kālacakra-mandala in the abridged Kālacakratantra, as they were taught by Mañjuśrī in the Ādibuddhatantra, is to eliminate the self-grasping (ahaṃkāra) of the sages who propound class discrimination (jāti-vādin). 41

The bearers of the Kālacakra tradition in India considered class prejudice as most intimately related to the Hindu doctrines of a personal god and creator (Īśvara and of an independent, inherently existent Self (ātman).

They also saw class prejudice as creating the linguistic bias of extolling the excellence of the Sanskrit language and showing disdain for vernacular languages. 42 They were fully aware of the ways in which the Kālacakratantra's theoretical, practical, and linguistic features contradicted the cultural, religious, and social norms of the mainstream Brāhmaṇical tradition.

The Kālacakra literature interprets those features not only in terms of their conversionary activity and the Kālacakratantra soteriology but also in terms of the Kālacakratantra's social theory. It explains the grammatical inaccuracies and lexical syncretism of the Sanskrit language of the Kālacakratantra as a:


(1) skillful means of eradicating the conceit of those attached to their social class, knowledge, and proper words, and

(2) skillful means of making the Buddhist tantric teachings accessible to a diverse audience, which speaks different languages and dialects.

The Vimalaprabhā affirms that individuals who are overcome by a false sense of self-identity grasp onto the “single, parochial Sanskrit language” and teach, as attested by the Mahābhārata, 6, 1, 84, that a single word well-pronounced yields one's desires in heaven. 43


It accuses the Brāhmaṇic sages of writing the Dharmas of the Bhagavadgīta, Siddhāntas, and Purāṇas in the Sanskrit language out of greed for material things. It asserts that Brāhmaṇas wrote these scriptures in Sanskrit in order to prevent the Vaiśyas, Śūdras, and other low social classes from reading their scriptures and gaining knowledge of their Dharma and various sciences.

The Vimalaprabhā states further that the Brāhmaṇic author of these scriptures knew that if lower classes were to gain knowledge, they would stop revering the Brāhmaṇas for their special qualities. 44 It contrasts the selfish motivation of the conceited Brāhmaṇic sages to the altruistic motivation of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, who are free of grasping onto social discrimination and linguistic bias.

The Buddhas and Bodhisattvas do not exclusively use the Sanskrit language to teach and redact the Buddhist teachings, for they also resort to the “omniscient language” (sarvajña-bhāṣā), using the expressions of vernaculars and languages of different countries. 45 Relying on the meaning of the teachings, they use different vernaculars and different grammars in order to bring others to spiritual awakening.

Although this characterization of the Buddhas' universal language is also found in the writings of Mahāyāna, 46 it is most emphasized in the Buddhist tantras.

The Paramādibuddhatantra also advocates the usage of a lexically syncretized language that would benefit people of all social classes, ethnic groups, and mental dispositions.

According to the Paramādibuddhatantra, the Buddha himself expressed this sentiment in the following words: When one understands the meaning from regional words, what is the use of technical terms? On the earth, a jewel is called by different names from country to country, but there is no difference in the jewel itself.


Likewise, the various redactors of my pure Dharma use diverse terms in accordance with the dispositions of sentient beings. 47


In this tantric tradition, as in other related tantric systems, every stage of tantric practice is either directly or indirectly related to its social theories. Eating the flesh of an animal that died due to natural causes or an accident, drinking liquor, and engaging in sexual relations with the members of all social classes were prohibited for members of the Brāhmaṇa caste.


The Kālacakratantra literature, however, often presents these practices as tantric pledges (samaya), which are designed to counteract grasping onto one's own social class and tradition. 48 The following verse from the Paramādibuddhatantra demonstrates this point:

The Vajrī who perceives reality has prescribed food, drink, and unsuitable sexual intercourse in order to destroy attachment to one's own lineage. 49

This and other explicit passages from the Kālacakratantra literature specify that the eradication of attachment to one's own social and spiritual lineage is a reason behind certain practices of tantric pledges, and they also explain similar but less explicit passages in other anuttara-yoga-tantras.

The tantric pledges of all the anuttarayoga-tantras equally involve the transgression of social conventions and cultural boundaries in order to cultivate a perception of one's own social environment in a nondual fashion.

For example, one reads in the Hevajratantra that a person who has joined the vajra-family through initiation should eat all kinds of meat, associate with all kinds of people, and keep the company of all kinds of women.

One who engages in tantric yoga should interact with all social groups and consider them as a unified, single caste, because he draws no distinctions among the various social classes. He may touch men of low castes and outcasts— dombas, [[Canḍālas, Carmāras, Haḍḍikas, Brāhmaṇas, Kṣatriyas, Vaiśyas, and Śūdras—as readily as his own body.

The tantric yogīs who have mastered yoga should neither favor nor despise other beings. 50 Likewise, the Candamahārosanatantra, which belongs to the literary corpus of the Guhyasamājatantra, admonishes the tantric practitioner never to think in terms of edible and inedible food, suitable and unsuitable work, appropriate and inappropriate people for sexual relations, nor think in terms of sin and virtue, or heaven and liberation. 51

The unique approach of the Kālacakra tradition to these tantric practices is not in its rendering of their soteriological importance but in placing them in its own historical context and giving them historical and political significance.

Its distinctiveness with regard to these tantric practices also lies in its interpretation of these practices in terms of mundane convention (loka-vyavahāra) and in terms of supramundane gnosis (lokottara-jñāna), which may elucidate the observances of tantric pledges in other related tantras.


The Kālacakratantra literature reveals that a vajrācārya was expected to teach the required tantric pledges to tantric beginners only in terms of the mundane, conventional truth, according to the differing customs of their own countries and social groups.


Just as certain practices with regard to eating, drinking, and sexual relations were prohibited in one region and for one social class and were allowed in another region or for another social class, so would the specific tantric pledges differ from one tantric beginner to another.

For example, the Vimalaprabhā informs us that in accordance with the customs of different countries, tantric beginners in specific countries should eat beef, horse meat, dog meat, elephant meat, pork, or even human flesh, and so on.

Similarly, one should follow the customs of one's own country and social class with regard to drinking liquor, as in specific countries, liquor is prescribed to Brāhmaṇas, Śūdras, or to the members of all social classes.

The same principle is applied to one's sexual relations. In certain countries, when a husband dies, the mother becomes her son's wife; brother and sister may marry; one may marry a maternal uncle; members of castes are allowed to have sexual relations with outcasts; or Brāhmaṇas may have sexual relations with low-caste courtesans. 52

The tantric beginner is advised to eat, drink, and have sexual relations according to the customs of his own country until he attains the mantra-siddhi or the gnosissiddhi and thereby becomes a tantric yogī.

The Kālacakra tradition offers several reasons why the tantric beginner should not transgress the customs of his country and social group for as long as he lacks the above-mentioned siddhis.

First, if the tantric beginner, who has not attained those siddhis, eats the flesh of an animal that is a tutelary deity of his family and thereby offends that deity and causes it to bring misfortune to his family, he will be unable to protect his family from calamity.


Similarly, if the tantric beginner violates the customs of his country by eating the flesh of animals that are the tutelary deities of other families, and by having sexual relations with prohibited castes and outcasts, the people he offends will harass him, since he lacks the siddhis and realizations of a yogī. Furthermore, as in other related tantric systems, so too in this tantric tradition, the tantric practitioner must be able to consume the substances of tantric pledges with a nonconceptual mind (nirvikalpa-citta); otherwise, they will not give him the samaya-siddhi, by means of which inedible poison can be transformed into edible food, foul smelling feces can become sweet smelling, and so on. If the tantric beginner lacks the samaya-siddhi, he will poison himself.


Therefore, a vajrācārya is not to give the precepts pertaining to the consumption of these substances to those in the community who do not meditate on deities and mantras, for they will die as a result of eating the poisonous substances.

The Vimalaprabhā warns that one's pollution caused by impure pledges may give rise to a disregard for the world, out of which one may commit suicide and go to hell. In light of these dangers, the Kālacakratantra criticizes the Śaiva tradition for leading people to hell by instructing them to eat semen and uterine blood in order to attain the bliss of Śiva. 53

Therefore, in the Kālacakra tantric system, the substances that are generally regarded as impure and poisonous are not to be prescribed by a vajrācārya to beginners but only to yogī, who are not ordinary sentient beings (prākṛta-sattva) and who by the power of their mantras and meditative concentration are able to transmute these poisons

into ambrosias (amṛita). By the power of his mind, an extraordinary yogī transforms liquor into milk, deadly poisons into elixirs of life (rasāyana), the bones of an animal into flowers, teeth into pearls, urine into musk, uterine blood into benzoin (sihlaka), semen into camphor, feces into fragrant unguent, and so on.

When these substances are purified and transformed into ambrosias, they do not harm the yogī's body but induce great powers and facilitate the attainment of Buddhahood.


For example, purified liquor, which represents innate bliss (sahajānanda), facilitates the attainment of that bliss.

The five types of meat symbolize the five sense-faculties; and when purified, they facilitate the purification of the senses.

The five ambrosias (amṛta)—purified feces, semen, urine, uterine blood, and marrow— represent the five Buddhas, and their ritual consumption facilitates the attainment of the five types of gnosis, because by consuming the five ambrosias, one worships the five Buddhas. 54

However, if these substances are not transformed into ambrosias and properly understood, they will not bring forth the qualities of Buddhahood to the person who consumes them. According to the Vimalaprabhā, these substances are also not to be given to conceited scholars, “the hypocrites who crave after the properties of the Buddhist temples and monasteries and teach the meaning of Buddhist tantras incorrectly. ” 55

Because the minds of the conceited scholars are evil, even when the defiled substances are transformed into ambrosias, they retain their harmful qualities.

However, once a tantric adept attains the mantra-siddhi or the gnosis-siddhi (jñāna-siddhi), he is allowed to eat and drink and have sexual relations not just according to the customs of his country and social class but just as he pleases, because he has transcended the distinction between the allowed and prohibited, the suitable and unsuitable, and no one is able to object or harass him. 56

The supramundane gnosis (lokottara-jñāna), which he actualizes, does not grasp onto the edible and inedible, since for it, the edible and inedible only fill the belly and are not gates to liberation.

Therefore, a tantric yogī is able to transform the nature of other substances into himself.

The aforementioned Kālacakra tradition's justification for conforming to the customs of one's own country and family indicates that one should behave in accordance with those customs not out of attachement to them or due to conceit in one's own social class but for the sake of protecting oneself and one's family.

As the earlier-cited verse from the Paramādibuddhatantra attests, freedom from attachment to one's own caste and family is posited in this tantric system not only as a moral qualification for joining the unified vajra-family but also as one of the main goals of the Kālacakratantra practice.

This has both sociological and soteriological significance. As indicated earlier, the sociological efficacy of detachment from one's social class and family is that it provides an indispensable condition for social and ethnic unification and the resultant prosperity of society.

The soteriological efficacy of detachment from one's spiritual lineage and family relations is that it removes obstacles, which, according to the Paramādibuddhatantra, “Māra creates in forms of the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, fathers, mothers, daughters, sisters, sons, brothers, and chosen wives. ” 57

This form of detachment is also soteriologically significant in the sense that it enables one to engage in the much commended act of generosity, namely, the offering of sensual love (kāma-dāna). Offering one's own courtesan, wife, daughter, or other female relative as a gift of sensual love to Buddhist tantric yogī of all social

classes, who seek the attainment of mundane siddhis and the experience of the immutable bliss, is praised as a supreme act of generosity.

This form of generosity is regarded as the highest form of generosity for several reasons. First, it provides Buddhist yogī with an actual consort (karma-mudrā) and enables them to attain various mundane siddhis, by means of which they can protect themselves and others from enemies, malicious spirits, and other dangers.


In times of imminent foreign invasion, mundane siddhis such as pacification, dominance, immobilizing, bewildering, and the like may have had a special appeal for the Indian Buddhists of that period.

Likewise, detachment to one's own family and social class, expressed in the kāma-dāna, becomes a gift of Buddhahood to others. At the same time, it becomes a gift of Buddhahood to oneself, for it is said that one who gladly offers his wife as a gift of sensual love to others is promised to swiftly attain the ten perfections (pāramitā) in this very life.


On the other hand, one who is attached to his wife goes to hell. 58 The soteriological efficacy of the gift of sensual love seems to exceed that of all other forms of generosity, since it increases the donor's stores of merit (puṇya) and knowledge (jñāna) more than any other form of generosity.

The Kālacakratantra tells us that the Buddhas themselves resorted to this form of generosity for the sake of [[spiritual] awakening]]. Long ago, for the sake of Buddhahood, the Buddhas gave their land, elephants, horses, chariots, and numerous golden objects.

They gave even their own heads, blood, and flesh. Because the desired Buddhahood did not come about, they gave the gift of sensual love (kāma-dāna).

This secret offering of men brings forth Buddhahood in the family of the progenitor of Jinas. 59 It also points to the salvific power of the meritorious nature of the kāma-dāna in the following manner:

Hatred and other faults of the best of men and gods are due to attachment, due to love for their chosen wives and others. For the sake of uprooting that attachment, the sons of all the Jinas have given her in the gift of sensual love.

Therefore, rejoicing in generosity brings forth the reward of immutable bliss. This produced accumulation of merit is a kinsman to the three worlds who always removes the peoples' fear of hell. 60

The Vimalaprabhā also affirms the absolute necessity of the kāma-dāna in pursuing spiritual awakening on the tantric path, stating that within the system of mantras (mantra-naya), it is impossible to attain the mahāmudrā-siddhi without the gift of sensual love. 61

For this reason, upon receiving the initiation, the initiate, whether a householder or a monk, pledges to give one-sixth of all his possessions, including his consort, to his spiritual mentor (guru) so that he may not succumb to attachment to his property and family.

Giving one-sixth of a consort meant offering one's own consort to the spiritual mentor for five days each month.

According to the Paramādibuddhatantra, 62 prior to the two higher initiations (uttarābhiṣeka), the secret and wisdom initiations, a householder who seeks liberation is expected to offer ten attractive (rūpiṇī) consorts (mudrā) to his spiritual mentor, namely, a sister's daughter, a daughter, a sister, the mother, the mother-in-law, the maternal uncle's wife, the wife of the father's brother, a sister of the father, a sister of the mother, and his own wife.

The ten offered consorts represent the ten Vidyās, beginning with Tārā and ending with Dharmdhātubhaginī, who are the purified aspects of women belonging to ten social groups— specifically, Śūdrī, Kṣatrinī, Brāhmiṇī; Vaiśyi, ḍombī, Kāivartī (fisherman's wife), Nāṭikā(a dancer), Rajakī (a washerwoman), Carmakārī (the wife of a leather maker), and Caṇḍālī.

They are also the manifestations of the ten perfections (pāramitā), ten magical powers (vaśitā), ten bodhisattva-bhūlmis, and ten powers (bala).

Thus, by offering the ten consorts to his spiritual mentor, a householder symbolically offers to others the aforementioned spiritual achievements, which are the sublimated aspects of a unified society, and he himself becomes qualified to obtain them. A householder who, being protective of his family, refuses to offer them to his spiritual mentor is considered unqualified to receive the two higher initiations.


When a householder refuses to offer such consorts, the spiritual mentor initiates Buddhist monks (bhikṣu) and wandering ascetics (śrāmaṇera) into the kālacakramaṇḍala with other consorts of the lower social classes, Śūdrī and Caṇḍālī.

This indicates that monks and wandering ascetics who wished to engage in the Kālacakratantra practices depended on the householder's generosity in this way, in order to acquire a consort who would be of good family, pleasing manners, or attractive appearance.

Since this generosity was not always available, those who depended on the generosity of the householder had to be free of social and other related biases in order to engage in the tantric, yogic practices.

Just as the offering of one's own consort is considered soteriologically significant since it provides one with an accumulation of merit (puṇya-saṃbhāra), so is the respectful acceptance of the consorts of all social classes regarded as soteriologically significant.

Respect for the consort involves not only a disregard for the consort's social status but also the nonemission of semen during the sexual act, which is viewed as a form of celibacy (brahmacarya).


Respect for the consort is a requirement for the accumulation of ethical discipline (śīla-saṃbhāra), which, together with the accumulation of merit, provides the basis for the accumulation of knowledge (jñānasaṃbhāra).

According to this tantric tradition, complete and perfect Buddhahood (samyaksaṃbuddhatva) does not take place, except by means of these three types of accumulation. 63

The passage from the Paramādibuddhatantra that clearly indicates that monks and wandering ascetics are to be given the two higher initiations is supported by passages from the Vimalaprabhā, describing the ritual offering of a consort to monks and wandering ascetics; but this seems to contradict the statement of Dīpaṃkara Śrījñāna (Atīśa) in his Bodhipathapradīpa, which asserts the following:

A celibate (brahmacārin) should not receive the secret and wisdom initiations, since it is specifically prohibited in the Ādibuddha, the supreme tantra.

If a celibate practices what is prohibited upon receiving those initiations, then a downfall from observing the austerity will occur. An ascetic will fall into a great sin and into an unfavorable state of existence, and men will never have the siddhi. 64


Nowhere in the abridged Kālacakratantra nor in the Vimalaprabhā is there any clear reference to the statement in the Ādibuddhatantra that prohibits monks from receiving the two higher initiations.

One passage in the Vimalaprabhā indicates only that a tantric initiate had to take the following vow (praṇidhāna) prior to receiving the first seven Kālacakratantra initiations:

“For the sake of the accumulation of ethical discipline (śīla-saṃbhāra), with regard to sexual intercourse between the castes and outcasts, I will clearly observe the vow (saṃvara) of celibacy in the union with a lotus. ” 65

In the literature of this tantric tradition, celibacy is often interpreted not as abstinence from engaging in sexual tantric practice, but as the practice of retaining sexual fluids during sexual tantric practices.

In the tantric feast (gaṇa-cakra) following the initiation, a woman of any caste and age, whether she was lovely or filthy, crippled or facially deformed, had to be worshipped by means of sexual yoga for the sake of spiritual awakening.

The Kālacakra tradition also acknowledges that in order to carry out this tantric precept, one must be a Bodhisattva with a compassionate heart, free of all mental afflictions and attachments, and not involved in social conflicts. 66

Thus, on the one hand, the Buddhist tantric yogīs' impartiality and lack of social prejudice had to be developed out of practical necessity; and on the other hand, they had to be cultivated as expressions of compassion and wisdom by means of which one perceives all phenomena as being of the same essence (sama-rasa), the essence of gnosis (jñāna).

Accepting women of despised social classes and professions and women who were socially rejected due to physical deformities as their rightful consorts and partners in their spiritual pursuits, Buddhist yogīs made it possible for the most disempowered and disdained members of Indian society to partake in Buddhist tantric practices and to pursue their own spiritual goals.

At the same time, their lack of social prejudice and impartiality to external appearances was seen as an indication of their spiritual maturity, which qualified them for receiving the most advanced tantric teachings and for engaging in the most advanced tantric practices.

The gathering of a gaṇa-cakra reveals yet another way in which the Kālacakra tradition envisioned a socially integrated vajra-family.

The participants in the tantric feast were either the actual or symbolic representatives of thirty-six social classes of India, 67 whom a tantric practitioner had to view as one's own immediate family and as manifestations of enlightened awareness.

The couple representing the lowest ḍomba class had to be perceived as one's own mother and father.


===The representatives of the four main social classes became one's own brothers and sisters===.


The classes of braziers, flute-dancers, jewelers, well-diggers, weavers, liquor-makers, goldsmiths, and garland-makers became one's own sons and daughters; and all the remaining social groups became one's own grandchildren. 68 This vajrafamily of the gaṇa-cakra symbolizes not only a well-integrated human family or society but also the unified nature of ultimate reality.

As in the Cakrasaṃvaratantra, so too in this tantric system, the assembly of thirty-six social classes represents thirty-six pure families of yoginīs, who symbolize the thirty-seven factors of spiritual awakening (bodhi-pākṣika-dharma). 69

This identification of thirty-six social classes with the factors of spiritual awakening implies that the entire society is to be viewed on this tantric path as the social body of the Buddha.

The Vimalaprabhā asserts that apart from these families of yoginīs, there are no other pure families. 70 The Kālacakratantra's identification of thirty-six social classes with the pure families of yoginīs explains why the acceptance of qualified consorts of all social groups is interpreted here as a worship of the thirty-six families of yoginīs of the kālacakra-maṇḍala.

It also explains why tantric practitioners, by engaging in sexual yoga with representatives of the thirty-six social classes, satisfy the yoginīs belonging to the thirty-six families of the kālacakra-maṇḍala with sexual bliss.

It is said that when the tantric practitioner pleases the yoginīs in this way, they protect him from adversities by giving him the mundane siddhis. This form of worshiping the yoginīs also facilitates the yogīs' attainment of the supramundane siddhi.

Embracing qualified tantric consorts of all social classes with a proper attitude, the yogīs embrace the represented factors of spiritual awakening and empower themselves to attain them swiftly.

The seating arrangement of the participants of the tantric feast reveals yet another way in which this tantric tradition in India advocated social integration and envisioned the vajra-family.

The seats of the representatives of the thirty-six social classes were arranged in accordance with the places of the thirtysix families of yoginīs in the kālacakra-maṇḍala.

The couple of the ḍomba class, which makes the gnosis-cakra and represents the Sahajakāya of the Buddha and the gnosis-vajra of the individual, was seated in the center of the human kālacakra-maṇḍala.

In the four cardinal directions, around the ḍomba couple, were seated the representatives of the four main castes.

The Śūdra caste was in the east, the Kṣatriya caste was in the south, the Brāhmaṇa caste was in the north, and the Vaiśya caste was in the west.


The second circle of the gaṇa-cakra, or the mind-cakra, which symbolizes the Dharmakāya of the Buddha and the mind-vajra of the individual, includes the representatives of the following eight social classes: the class of braziers in the east, the class of flute-dancers in the south, the class of jewelers in the north, the class of well-diggers in the west, the class of weavers in the southeast, the class of liquor-makers in the southwest, the class of goldsmiths in the northeast, and the class of garland-makers in the northwest.

The third circle, or the speech-cakra, which symbolizes the Saṃbhogakāya of the Buddha and the speech-vajra of the individual, includes an additional eight social classes: namely, the class of butchers in the east, the class of potters in the southeast, the class of pillow-makers in the south, the class of courtesans in the southwest, the class of tailors in the west, the class of fishermen in the northwest, the class of actors in the north, and the class of washermen in the northeast.

The fourth circle, or the body-cakra, which symbolizes the Nirmāṇakāya of the Buddha and the bodyvajra of the individual, consists of yet another eight social classes: the class of blacksmiths in the east, the class of lac-makers in the south, the class of scabbard-makers in the west, the class of oilpressers in the north, the class of flute-makers in the southeast, the class of carpenters in the southwest, the class of cobblers in the northwest, and the class of barbers in the northeast.


Finally, outside the body-cakra, in the circle that represents a cemetery, which was always outside the town, are the representatives of the following outcasts and ethnic groups: Barbarians (mleccha) in the east, Haḍḍas, the sweepers, in the south, Māltaṅgas in the west, Tāpins in the north, Varvaras in the southeast, Pukkasas in the southwest, Bhillas in the northwest, and Śabaras in the northeast. 71

Thus, the entire assembly at the tantric feast represents a unified society, the vajra-family that consisted of the diverse social and ethnic groups that constituted Indian society at that time.

This vajra-family of the gaṇacakra also represents the individual, whose unified capacities, or vajras of the body, speech, mind, and gnosis are understood as the internal gaṇa-cakra, or vajra-family. Likewise,


it symbolizes the enlightened vajra-family, or the mutual pervasiveness of the four bodies of the Buddha. In this manner, the Kālacakra tradition expresses its view of the indivisibility of the vajra family in all its aspects: the individual, social, and ultimate.

See figure 6.1. As in the gaṇa-cakra, so too in the kālacakra-maṇḍala, the ḍomba couple is identified with the presiding deities (adhidevatā) located at the center of the maṇḍala, whose nature is the pure and omniscient gnosis that emits and pervades all other inhabitants of the maṇḍala. In this way, the social class that was generally treated as the lowest in the mundane realm becomes here a symbol of the supreme in the spiritual realm.

The class whose living areas were restricted to the outskirts of towns and villages is placed at the very center of the gaṇa-cakra and the kālacakra-maṇḍala. 72

By identifying the Buddha Kālacakra with the ḍomba class, the Kālacakratantra conveys several messages.

On the one hand, if the ḍomba class pervades all other social classes, then not a single social class can claim to be pure and unmixed. On the other hand, if the ḍomba class is stainless, enlightened awareness, which generates all the Jinas, then even the lowest social class is ultimately pure, as are all the other

classes that are permeated by it. This is one of the ways in which the Kālacakra tradition reinforces its position that all social classes are fundamentally of equal value and ultimately undifferentiated.

Another reason for the Kālacakratantra's identification of Kālacakra and Viśvamātā with the ḍomba class perhaps can be inferred from other anuttara-yoga-tantras, which also identify their central deities with this particular class of outcasts.


For example, it is stated in the literature of the Hevajratantra that Hevajra's consort Bhagavatī is called ḍombī on the grounds that she is intangible, that is to say, outside the realm of sensory experience. 73

It is very likely that the ālacakra tradition adopted this idea of identifiying the ḍomba caste as its principal deity from the earlier Buddhist tantras, as it adopted many other similar ideas as well. A similar apotheosis of ḍombī also characterizes the Buddhist Sahajayāna, which was contemporary with the Kālacakra tradition in India.

For instance, two Old Bengali songs (caryāpada) of Kānhapāda (ca. the eleventh century ce) are addressed to Dombī, the goddess Nairātmyā, 74 who lives in the cottage outside the city—meaning, outside the world of the sensefaculties— and only touches the Brāhmaṇas and the shaven-headed but does not reveal herself to them. 75 The unification of all social classes into one family by means of a tantric initiation is not unique to the Kālacakratantra and other Buddhist tantric systems of the anuttara-yoga class.


It is also characteristic of some tantric Śaiva sects as well. For in stance, Rāmānuja in his Sribhāṣya (II. 2. 35–37) criticizes the sect of the Kāpālikas for their claim that even individuals belonging to the lowest classes can immediately attain the status of a Brāhmaṇa and the highest stage of life (aśrama) by means of initiatory rites.

Similarly, a passage in the Kulārṇavatantra reads that the differentiation between the Śudrahood of a Śūdra and the Brāhmaṇahood of a Brāhmaṇa has vanished for those who have received tantric initiation, since those who are consecrated by initiation do not discriminate among social classes. 76

The same text also asserts that in the circle of worship (pūjā-cakra), all are equal to Śaiva 77 However, the Kulārṇavatantra and others sources give clear indications that the transcendence of social barriers within the Śaiva tradition took place only in a ritual context and did not extend to the everyday life.

The denial and reevaluation of social classes were valid only in that circle during a secret gathering. Outside a secret gathering, each would resume his or her own social status and its prescribed rules of conduct and duties.

The Kulārṇavatantra indicates that even the differing durations of studentship in tantric Śaivism were prescribed to the initiates according to their social class. This does not seem to have been the case in the Kālacakra tradition.


Nowhere in the literature of the Kālacakratantra corpus can one find indications that the denial of class barriers was limited to the ritual context.

The Paramādibuddhatantra does state that certain kinds of individuals—namely, a householder who lives off a monastery, a servant, who is under the rule of someone else, a ploughman, who kills sentient beings by ploughing the ground, a trader of weapons, a person who sells the Dharma, and a mentally dull person—are not suitable for the role of a vajrācārya. 78

However, this assertion does not refer to the incompatibility of their social class for the position of a vajrācārya but to the incompatibility of their lifestyles with the responsibilities of the vajrācārya and to their inadequate moral and mental capacities for that spiritual role.

The Vimalaprabhā explicitly states that such types of activities rob one of his duty (dharma) of a vajrācārya. 79 The Kālacakra tradition differentiates vajrācāryas as

superior, middling, and inferior not on the basis of their social classes but according to their religious status. For example, an ordained vajrācārya is considered to be superior; a vajrācārya who lives as a wandering ascetic (śramaṇa) is regarded as middling; and a vajrācārya who is a householder is regarded as an inferior vajrācārya, who should not be honored by an ordained vajrācārya. 80


This type of classification reveals that the Kālacakra tradition retained a strong, monastic orientation, which was characteristic of the earlier forms of Buddhism and which engendered a certain religious hierarchy.

This often counteracted class discrimination in Buddhist communities by giving higher honor and status to a monk of a lower social class than to a householder of a higher caste.


The Kālacakra tradition also classifies tantric disciples as superior, middling, and inferior. Again, it does not make the classification on the basis of their social class and lineage but on the basis of the spiritual goals that they seek.

Those intent on practicing the Dharma that consists of compassion and emptiness and seeking the supramundane siddhi are regarded as superior disciples, who are eligible to receive all eleven initiations.


Those who desire the mundane siddhis are regarded as middling disciples, who are eligible to receive only the first seven initiations.

Whereas those who desire none of the siddhis but respect a spiritual mentor are characterized as inferior disciples, who do not qualify for tantric initiations and are eligible to receive only the teachings on the five ethical precepts. 81

In the context of the Kālacakratantra, the Buddha Kālacakra, who is identified with ḍomba, is portrayed as the progenitor of the four castes:

Brāhmaṇa, Kṣatriya, Vaiśya, and Śūdra.

The four castes originate from the four mouths of Kālacakra, which belong to his four faces, which, in turn, symbolize the four aspects in which enlightened awareness manifests in the world—namely: the meditative, peaceful, passionate, and wrathful aspects. 82


This interpretation of the four castes as the social manifestations of the four different expressions of enlightened awareness affirms the Kālacakratantra's view of the fundamental equality of all castes.

It can be construed as a Buddhist tantric counterpart of the Vedic Puruṣasūkta, which affirms the mouth of the Primordial Man (puruṣa) as the birthplace of the caste of Brāhmaṇas only.

Thus, by presenting the four castes as the ways in which ultimate reality manifests itself in a human society, the Kālacakra tradition suggests that on this tantric path, one must reinterpret one's habituated view of one's own social environment in order to realize the nonduality of all the aspects of phenomenal existence.

Likewise, if one analyzes this interpretation of the origin and manifestation of the four castes in terms of the standard Hindu view of the roles of the four castes in Indian society, other implications of this interpretation become clearer.


When one examines the Kālacakratantra's explanation of the four castes in light of the exposition of the Baudhāyanadharmasūtra (I. 18. 2–5)—which ascribes the duties of preservation of the Vedic tradition, protection of people and their properties, protection of domestic animals, and service to the other three castes to the respective duties of the four castes, respectively 83 —it suggests that the social functions of the four above-mentioned aspects of enlightened awareness are to preserve spiritual learning and to secure the physical and material well-being of the individual and society. However, unlike the Hindu treatises that prescribe to the caste of Brāhmaṇas the duty of preserving only the Vedic tradition, the Kālacakra tradition views Kālacakra as a depository and guardian of diverse religious systems. According to the Kālacakra


tradition, enlightened awareness manifests not only as the social forms of the Buddha but also as the religious body of the Buddha, which incorporates diverse Hindu and Buddhist systems of thought and practice.

Different religious systems and schools are also said to arise from the four mouths of Kālacakra as their ultimate source.

The Jñānakāya of Kālacakra, assuming the various forms of transmission, teaches diverse treatises, including the Vedas. Thus, the Buddha Kālacakra teaches the Rg-Veda from his western mouth, the Yajur-Veda from his northern mouth, the Sāma-Veda from his southern mouth, and the Atharva-Veda from his eastern mouth.

He also teaches other religious systems with those same mouths. For example, he teaches the tantra of spirits (bhūta-tantra) and the Buddhist yogānuviddha, Madhyamaka, and the systems of Sthaviras with his western mouth.

He teaches the Hindu kaulatantras and the Buddhist wisdom-tantras (prajñā-tantra), the Yogācāra and Sarvāstivāda systems with his eastern mouth. With his northern mouth, he teaches the Hindu Siddhānta, the Buddhist action-tantra (kriyā-tantra), and the systems of the Vaibhāṣikas and Mahāsaṃghikas.

With his southern mouth, he teaches the Dharma of Viṣṇu, the Buddhist yoga-tantra, Sūtrānta, and the system of Samitīyas. 84


Thus, the diverse religious systems are simply the manifestations of different aspects of the Buddha's unified mind, or integrated wisdom, taking the form of a religious body in accordance with the mental dispositions of different people.

This view of Kālacakra as the single source of the diverse religious systems implies the inherent value of the different religious traditions, and more importantly it provides a justification for the theoretical syncretism of the Kālacakratantra as its conversionary method.


It suggests that becoming a member of the vajra-family does not involve completely abandoning one's prior religious tradition, but entails only a hermeneutical shift with regard to the authoritative scriptures of that tradition.

This ascription serves as a conceptual basis for the reinterpretation of non-Buddhist ideas that one frequently encounters in the literature of the Kālacakratantra.

It also explains the Kālacakra tradition's argument, already mentioned in the chapter on syncretism, that there is no distinction between Buddhists and non- Buddhists with regard to the manner in which a conventional reality appears; rather, the only difference between them is in the Buddhists' understanding of personal (pudgala) and phenomenal (bhāva) identitylessness (nairātmya). 85


One example of the Kālacakra tradition's reinterpretation of non-Buddhist teachings is related to the Kālacakratantra's assertion that the practice of offering the kāma-dāna was also taught in the Vedānta but that evil Brāhmaṇas concealed it for their own selfish reasons.


The Kālacakratantra rejects the traditional Brāhmaṇic interpretation of Vedic sacrifice and interprets it in terms of the tantric yoga of gnosis (jñāna-yoga) in the following manner:

At the time of sacrifice, approach the lords of bulls, rhinoceroses, horses, and elephants as the bodily sense-objects and sense-faculties. When your knife is purified, there is a cessation of those sense-objects and sense-faculties in the yoga of gnosis. The drink of the initiated, which is mixed with blood and somavallī, is in the cowhide.

The nectar of semen (soma), gone from the tip [of sexual organ] to uterine blood in vulva, is of the nature of the all-pervading bliss. Brahmā the body, Hara is speech, and Hari is the mind of living beings. They are three Vedas. They are three letters, the syllable auṃ. They are the moon, sun, and

fire, or three nādīs; and they are the three guṇas. An additional member of the family (kaula) within the body, present in the sense-objects and guṇas, is of the nature of the sound (nāda) of the fire-priest (atharvan).

Within that body, the anāhata, which is devoid of the sense-objects and guṇas, is the indestructible. In old times, Brahmā told this secret to yogīs in the Vedānta. The sages whose knowledge became lost in the course of time taught here the killing of living beings.


Humans' engagement in that [sacrificial killing] for the sake of heaven brings about a miserable hell as its result. Charcoal moistened here by the flow of milk nowhere becomes of the color of soma. People who are deceived by the words of the Vedas, which are incorrect and devoid of pledges (samaya), guard their wives day and night for the sake of acquiring sons for themselves.

Supposedly, a son gives an offering to a father who has departed to the world of the dead. Therefore, the evil Brāhmaṇas concealed this gift of sensual love (kāma-dāna), which brings forth the result of immutable bliss. 86

I believe it is on the basis of this and similar interpretations of the meaning of the Vedic tradition and Vedic sacrificial rites that the Kālacakratantra can attribute the authorship of the Vedas to the Buddha Kālacakra without contradicting its main Buddhist principles.

This view of the origin of different religious systems explains in part the previously discussed syncretism of the Kālacakratantra; and it is yet another way in which this tantra advocates religious integration by means of conversion to the Kālacakra tradition. In addition to its social and religious aspects, the vajra-family reveals itself also in its temporal and cosmic aspects.

For the Kālacakratantra, the four yugas (“ages”) of the world and the six types of cyclic existence (gati) are the particular modes of the four expressions of enlightened awareness.


As such, they are the temporal and cosmic correlates of the four castes. The social, religious, and temporal structures of the conventional world are the diverse and mutually pervasive manifestations of the same vajra-family, which manifests itself in this world as a society, expresses itself through the religious systems of that society, and transforms its social and religious aspects due to its own temporal power.

Its social, religious, and temporal manifestations are a display of its powers and enlightened activities that create and destroy the phenomenal world. It is said that Kālacakra generates the six types of cyclic existence from his four mouths. Likewise, he paralyzes, bewilders, pacifies, improves, dominates, attracts, destroys, and expels this world by means of the same four mouths. 87

Finally, one could say that Kālacakra's social, religious, and temporal bodies bear the inseparable and mutually pervasive features of the conventional and ultimate realities.

Table 6.1 illustrates the Kālacakratantra's presentation of the interrelationship among the four mouths, or aspects, of Kālacakra, the four castes, the four groups of religious systems, the four yugas of the world, and the six types of cyclic existence.

In conclusion, one may say that it is chiefly on the basis of the aforementioned perspectives on the commonality of the fundamental nature and source of different social classes and religious systems that the Kālacakratantra opposes social discrimination and rejects the mainstream Brāhmaṇical interpretation of the Hindu scriptures.

It regards social discrimination and the interpretation of scriptures that supports such discrimination as detrimental to both the socio-political, material, and


spiritual welfare of society and to the psychological and physical well-being of the individual. The Kālacakratantra warns against the harms of the pernicious Hindu practices that involve suicide and other hurtful activities that result from grasping onto social discrimination in the following manner:

He who has a caste as his standard, o king, has the Veda as his authority. He who has the Veda as his authority, has sacrifice as his standard on the earth. He who has a sacrifice as his standard, has the slaying of various animals and people as his sanction. For him who has killing as his sanction, a sin causing the fear of death will be a measure. 88

The monk, the wandering ascetic, the naked mendicant, the shaven-headed one, and one with clotted hair, who delight in supreme bliss, and the learned one who delights in listening and reading—they all, deprived of the path, create hardship by grasping onto the creator and the Self, by continually grasping here onto themselves and others, onto their sons and wives, onto allowed and prohibited food, and by grasping onto delight in [discriminating between] the noble and ignoble family and onto the worthy and unworthy vessel [of receiving the teaching.

Abandoning the entire Buddha-field, which yields the fruit of immutable bliss and has a body, speech, mind, and passion, the evil-minded seeks another lord in a field, in a place of pilgrimage, and in other places by means of hundreds of vows and precepts, by means of fasting and jumping from cliffs.

Attached to the pleasures of senseobjects, [one seeks another lord in battle and in the eclipsed sun, by means of killings in fire and by means of numerous weapons.

Long ago, Māras invented all this in order to drink the blood of those who had died due to fasting in places of pilgrimage for the sake of heaven, or those who were killed in a battle, who died for the sake of the liberation of a bull and the sun, who died for the sake of their home and wealth, or who died in the duty of a Brāhmaṇa. 89

The Kālacakratantra's view of all the objects of one's experience as inherently pure in nature and its underlying premise that everything within the provisional and ultimate realms of experience is a part of the nondual reality (advaya-tattva) is also characteristic of other anuttara-yoga-tantras.


The Hevajratantra expresses it in these words: Whatever things there are, mobile and immobile, grass, shrubs, and creepers, they are regarded as the supreme reality having the nature that is one's own nature. 90 The Innate (sahaja) is the entire world.


It is called own-form (sva-rūpa). One's ownform itself is nirvāṇa when the mind is in its purified form. 91 Even though the notion that diverse religious systems and their tenets originate from a single, omniscient gnosis (jñāna) is suggested in other anuttara-yoga-tantras, it is developed at greater length and explicated in more detail in the Indian literary sources of the Kālacakra tradition than in any other anuttara-yoga-tantra.

One of the characteristics that is specific to the Kālacakra tradition is its unique interpretation of the nature and origination of society and the social classes, which directly pertains to its soteriological paths and goals.

Likewise, the socio-political reasons for social and religious integration that the Kālacakra tradition offers seem to be unique to this Buddhist tantric tradition and its socio-political climate. The Individual as a Society


For the Kālacakra tradition, the individual is not merely a member of the vajra-family or the society but is the vajra-family and the society itself. The individual is the microcosmic manifestation of the social and religious bodies of the Buddha in both their phenomenal and ultimate aspects.

The Kālacakra tradition interprets the individual as the embodiment of its society in various ways. While doing so, it utilizes a conventional classification and characterization of the social classes of India at that time and reinterprets them in the light of its broader theory of the nature and composition of the individual.


It does so by addressing the following issues:

(1) the transcendent and immanent aspects of a society,
(2) the ways in which a society manifests and functions within the individual,
(3) the interrelatedness of the transcendent and individual aspects of a society, and
(4) their soteriological relevance and practical applications on the individual's path of purification.

The Kālacakratantra indirectly correlates the four castes with the four vajras of the individual's body, speech, mind and gnosis and with the four bodies of the Buddha by also interpreting Kālacakra's four faces and their colors as the symbolic representations of the four vajras of the individual and the Kālacakra's four bodies.

In this way, it explains the four castes as the four social manifestations of the capacities of the individual's body, speech, mind, and gnosis and as the social manifestations of the four bodies of the Buddha.

Table 6.2 illustrates the manner in which the [[Kālacakra] tradition]] classifies and identifies the four castes with their immanent aspects manifesting in the individual and with their ultimate aspects manifesting in the four bodies of the Buddha.


Six Families

The Kālacakra tradition also identifies the earlier mentioned thirty-six social classes of Indian society with the thirty-six constituents of the individual, namely: the six elements (dhātu), the six sense faculties (indriya), the six sense-objects (viṣaya), the six psycho-physical aggregates (skandha), including the aggregate of gnosis as the sixth, the six faculties of action (karmendriya), and the six activities of the faculties of action. It is the father's semen and mother's uterine blood, represented in the kālacakra-maṇḍala by the white and red faces of Kālacakra, that give rise to the six families of the six elements.

Among these six families, the three families of the water, wind, and space elements are ascertained as the father's family, since they arise from semen and become the body, speech, and mind of a male. The three families of the earth, fire, and gnosis elements are ascertained as the mother's families, for they arise from uterine blood and become the body, speech, and mind of a female.

These six families of the six elements arise within the individual at the time of the origination of the element of gnosis, at the age of twelve within the female body and at the age of sixteen within the male body.

They are the six families from which evolve the six sense-faculties (indriya), six sense-objects (viṣaya), six aggregates (skandha), six faculties of action (karmendriya), and six activities of the faculties of action]] (karmendriya-kriyā). 92

Each of these six families is comprised of different bodily constituents representing six different social classes. The individual's body, speech, and mind develop and function only when the bodily constituents that belong to the father's and mother's families embrace each other.

Due to their union, they become of mixed social classes and become mutually indivisible.

Thus, just as the thirty-six social classes in Indian society have developed from intermarriages of the four castes and outcasts, so the aforementioned thirty-six members of the individual's body develop from the integration of the six elements.


The mutual interdependence and pervasiveness of these thirty-six members of the bodily vajra-family correspond to the interdependence and pervasiveness of the members of the social and enlightened vajra-families.


The inner yogic practices by means of which the tantric adept unifies his internal thirty-six social groups into a single vajra-family correspond to the external tantric practices by means of which the external vajra-family socially and spiritually unifies itself.

The mutual pervasiveness of the diverse components of the individual's body, speech, and mind and the powers that result from this pervasiveness are the internal manifestations of the characteristics of the socially unified vajra-family. The six classes, which give rise to the thirty-six social classes, evolve due to their intermingling and are specified in this tantric system as the six main families (kula): Brāhamaṇa, Kṣatriya, Viaśya, Śūdra, ḍomba, and Caṇḍāla.

In terms of the individual, these six families are the earlier-mentioned six elements; and in terms of enlightened awareness, they are the six Buddha families: namely, the families of Vairocana, Ratnasaṃbhava, Amitābha, Amoghasiddhi, Akṣobhya, and Vajrasattva. These six Buddha families are also present within the individual's six cakras and six nāḍīs

This exposition of the origination of the thirty-six social classes from the mutual pervasiveness of the six families, which, in turn, originate from a single source, is yet another way in which the Kālackara tradition subtantiates its theories of social equality and the nonduality of the different aspects of the phenomenal and ultimate realities.

Just as the previously discussed unity of the four castes is symbolicaly represented in the kālacakramaṇḍala by the four faces of the Buddha, so the unity of these six social classes is depicted by the six faces of the Buddha.

The two lowest social classes, ḍomba and Caṇḍāla, are said to originate from the additional two faces of Kālacakra, the upper and lower faces. In terms of enlightened awareness, three of the six families—the Vaiśya, Kṣatriya, and Caṇḍāla families of Vairocana, Ratnasaṃbhava, and Vajrasattva—belong to the body, speech, and mind of the wisdom aspect of enlightened awareness.

Whereas the other three—the Brāhmaṇa, Śūdra, and ḍomba families of Amitābha, Amoghasiddhi, and Akṣobhya—belong to the body, speech, and mind of the compassion aspect of the same awareness.

Owing to their mutual pervasiveness, they form an indivisible and therefore indestructible unitary reality, which is the ultimate vajra-family.

This ultimate vajra-family is the ideal family that brings about the well-being of the world, for it is the indestructible union (vajra-yoga) of wisdom and compassion. There are different ways in which the Kālacakra tradition describes the ultimate vajra-family, or the spiritually awakened vajra-society, which manifests as the social and the individual human body of the Buddha.

Tables 6.3.a—f illustrate how the Kālacakra tradition in India interpreted the vajra-family, comprising thirty-six different social groups, as it manifests in the human being, society, kālacakramaṇḍala, and Buddha Kālacakra. With regard to the six elements within the individual and the members of the gaṇa-cakra, the female members of Ratnasaṃbhava's family embrace the male members of Amitābha's family, whereas the female members of Amitābha's family embrace the male members of Ratnasaṃbhava's family.

Likewise, the female members of Amoghasiddhi's family embrace the male members of Vairocana's family; and the female members of Vairocana's family embrace the male members of Amoghasiddhi's family.

Similarly, the female members of Aksobhya's family embrace the male members of Vajrasattva's ṣ family; and the female members of Vajrasattva's family embrace the male members of Akṣobhya's family. 93

Due to their mutual embracing, or pervasion, the families belonging to the Buddha Kālacakra (father, compassion) and those belonging to his consort Viśvamātā(mother, wisdom) become mutually indivisible. Thus, even with regard to ultimate reality, one may say that the body of the Buddha arises from the mutual pervasion, or unification, of the different factors constituting Buddhahood.

The nondual, absolute reality, which is devoid of conceptualization and atomic matter, is said to have all colors and all aspects. This implies that in social terms, ultimate reality reveals itself in every individual, in every social group, and in their functions in society. On the ground that the thirty-six social classes are present in all the guṇas of prakṛti, the Kālacakra tradition sees the social body as nondual from the cosmic body.

It even classifies the different types of soil with which one constructs the kālacakramaṇḍala in terms of social classes, according to their colors, smells, and tastes.

For example, white, red, yellow, and black soil represent the respective Brāhmaṇa, Kṣatriya, Vaiśya, and Śūdra castes, and green soil represents the ḍomba outcast. 94 Thus, one may infer that in terms of conventional reality, the material body of the kālacakramaṇḍala itself is symbolically made of the mixture of castes and outcasts.

In this respect, it is also a symbolic representation of the socially integrated society. Likewise, the body of the Buddha Kālacakra visually depicted as the kālacakra-maṇḍala metaphorically consists of a mixture of social classes.

The white soil of the Brāhmaṇa caste symbolizes the purity of the Buddha's body; the red soil of the Kṣatriya caste indicates the purity of his speech; the yellow soil of the Vaiśya caste represents the purity of gnosis; the black soil of the Śūdra caste represents the purity of the Buddha's mind; and the green soil of the ḍomba class in the center of the maṇḍala symbolizes the source of these four types of purity. 95

As in the gaṇa-cakra, so in the kālacakra-maṇḍala, the class of disdained outcasts is ironically indicated as the source of all aspects of the individual's purification. Similarly, since the thirty-six families of the yoginīs of the kālacakra-maṇḍala represent thirty-six social classes, the yoginīs are also said to be of mixed breed due to the efficacy of the gunas of their prakṛti. 96


The thirty-six social classes that form the social body manifest as the diverse colors, smells, and tastes of the bodies of the individual and the cosmos. Like the three previously mentioned bodies of the individual, society, and enlightened awareness, the body of the cosmos is a cosmic manifestation of the vajra-family.

The five maṇḍalas of the cosmos and the lotus in the center of Mt. Meru are the cosmic representations of the six social classes. Thus, the space-maṇḍala on which this world-system rests is of the ḍomba class, the wind-maṇḍala is of the Śūdra caste, the water-maṇḍala is of the Brāhmaṇa caste, the fire-maṇḍala is of the Kṣatriya caste, the earth-maṇḍala is of the Vaiśya caste, and the lotus in the center of Sumeru is of the Caṇḍāla class.

The nature of the six families of the cosmos corresponds to the nature of the six families of the six elements in the body of the individual. Likewise, their arrangement in the cosmic body corresponds to their arrangement in the individual's body. In this way, the cosmic and individual bodies are the macrocosmic and microcosmic features of

the social body. Like other vajra-families, the macrocosmic vajra-family arises as a unitary cosmic body due to the unification of the six families. Thus, one may say that every body, or every aspect of the vajra-family—whether individual, social, cosmic or spiritual—stems from the union of the diverse classes that it embodies. In this way, the Kālacakra tradition indirectly refutes the disparaging view expressed by the authoritative, legal treatises of the Hindu tradition toward some mixed social classes in India.

Another way in which the Kālacakra tradition explains the nonduality of the phenomenal aspects of the Buddha's social and cosmic bodies with the body of the individual is demonstrated by tables 6.4.a—b.

In addition to the already mentioned aspects of the vajra-family, the vajra-family also manifests in a temporal form. Specifically, it manifests as the “wheel of time, ” consisting of the diverse families of the diverse units of time.

Likewise, the three years of the central nādī, during which a tantric yogī practices the yoga of nāḍīs on the stage of completion (sampatti-krama) by joining the right and left nāḍīs in the madhyamā, are also viewed in this tantric tradition as a vajra-family.

Six families of this temporal vajra-family are the six periods of three years, each of which consists of one hundred and eighty days. Its thirty-six families are the thirty-six months of the three years. 97 Thus, the unification of the different units of time and the yogic practice of unifying the nāḍīs correspond to social unification.

In this way, the Kālacakra tradition indicates that in order to actualize the ultimate unification, or the ultimate vajra family, which is the state of nonduality, one must first conventionally understand the ways in which the different phenomenal aspects of the vajra-family are already unified; and then by means of tantric yoga, one must consolidate the conventional vajra-families into the single ultimate vajra-family, called Kālacakra, or gnosis (jñāna).

In conclusion, one may say that in this tantric tradition, the interrelatedness and mutual pervasiveness of the various components of the individual's mind and body represent the social and ethnic integration of a socially and ethnically mixed society

through intermarriages. Likewise, the mutual pervasiveness of the mind and body of the Buddha and the interdependence of the thirty-seven factors of awakening represent the ultimate unity of the society, which is characterized by the interdependence and pervasiveness of its thirty-six social classes. Similarly, the mutual relations and influences of the individual, the cosmos, and time parallel those in the society.

Thus, the organization and functions of the different members of the social body are nondual from the structure and functions of the different members of the bodies of the individual, the cosmos, and enlightened awareness.

By identifying Indian society with the individual, the cosmos, time, and ultimate reality in the above-illustrated ways, the Kālacakra tradition demonstrates its vision of the ideal society and its potential, and it provides its rationale for that vision. Just as the transformation and unification of the various components of one's own mind and body on this tantric path transform one's experience of one's natural environment, so it transforms one's experience of one's social environment . Likewise, in this tantric tradition, the unification of all the phenomenal and ultimate aspects of the vajra-family, which abolishes all dualities, is nothing other than the state of self-knowing: the state of knowing oneself as the cosmos, society, individual, and enlightened awareness; and that self-knowledge is what is meant by omniscience (sarva-jñatā) in the tradition of the Kālacakratantra. </poem>

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