His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama has said that in order to practice Kalachakra, it is not necessary to have trained first with other, simpler deities. Kalachakra presents a complete system for spiritual development, with graded materials to suit each level of practice. One starts with a single-deity practice and then gradually works up in stages to being able to visualize the entire mandala of 722 deities.
Many Westerners wish to practice Kalachakra, but do not have the time to do the fuller versions and need materials to work up to them. Upon requesting His Holiness to suggest more abbreviated methods for actualizing oneself as a Kalachakra, His Holiness recommended the four texts presented in this section, which I have translated into English.
For ease of pronunciation by nonspecialists, all diacritical marks have been omitted from Sanskrit names, seed syllables, mantras and terms.