Kalachakra: The Four Noble Truths

Introduction

I’ve been asked to teach about Kalachakra this weekend. There are of course many, many aspects of Kalachakra that we could discuss, but I think that what is most important is to maintain the proper Buddhist context for our Kalachakra study and practice, which is basically the four noble truths. All of the Buddhist teachings can be fit within that context of the four noble truths, which means that they’re all aimed at helping us to overcome suffering and their causes and to attain a true stopping of them through an understanding of reality. And all of that with the proper motivation.

I think this is particularly important in Kalachakra practice because there is a certain danger when we begin our study of Kalachakra. We already have this danger in general anuttarayoga tantra, which is that the system is so complex and so absolutely beautiful in terms of all its symmetry and correlations that we become fascinated by the beauty of it. And in Kalachakra, the system is even more complex, and it is utterly amazing all the different levels of correlation and symmetry that is there. It becomes very seductive, and we just want to go deeper and deeper into learning all the details. We become more and more amazed as we uncover further beauties within the system, and it’s very easy then to lose sight of the fact that this is a Buddhist practice, that it’s based on compassion to attain enlightenment to help all beings. Especially if we are already interested in astrology (all of that is there) and we’re a bit fascinated with Tibetan medicine (and so we learn in Kalachakra different things about the energies), our mind becomes dazzled with the splendor of the beauty of the system, and it no longer becomes a Buddhist practice.

So I speak from experience because I was similarly seduced by this. And although this aspect of Kalachakra is very helpful for developing devotion and enthusiasm, nevertheless it’s very easy for that to remain on a worldly level. This is quite sad because that is not really the intention of the system. So one needs to develop a certain level of detachment, which means to not exaggerate the good qualities of the system, that it is so beautiful in its complexity. We appreciate that beauty and complexity, but we don’t allow that to become an obstacle to working straightforwardly toward enlightenment through the system. In other words, don’t let all the details about Kalachakra become a distraction from the main purpose and the main aim of working with this system. I speak with many years of experience.

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