Overcoming the Ravages of Time with Kalachakra

My question is about time in Kalachakra. What does it mean and what does it encompass?

Time is our enemy. If we examine this, we have birth, aging with some sickness and then death. Time marks the passage of each of our lifetimes. Each time that we die, we are reborn, and we certainly aren’t always reborn as humans. Sometimes it may be as a worm or all sorts of undesirable forms. In each lifetime, if we are fortunate enough to have a precious human rebirth, we have to go through the entire process of learning, studying and practicing and so on to catch up to where we were in the previous time in our practice. It may be a little bit easier because of the habits we have built up, but we may have built up some terrible habits in the meantime in other rebirths as an animal or a ghost or whatever. Clearly, that’s really a problem, isn’t it?

We want to overcome the detrimental effects of time with the attainment of enlightenment. In the infographic of the Kalachakra yidam, we have various parts of the body that represent various ways of measuring time. Time is defined as a measurement of change. We have various aspects such as the sun, the moon and the heavenly bodies, which represent the way we measure the passage of time externally. That’s the external Kalachakra, the external cycles of time. We also have another level of information in the infographic, which is the internal passage of time with the cycles of breath that we take during the day. 

That’s at least one level of the significance of time in Kalachakra. It is the measurement of samsara, and we want to overcome it, but please, when we hear “going beyond time,” that doesn’t mean that there is some realm of liberation in which there is no time and no space. This is the belief in some Indian philosophies, but that’s not in Buddhism. Time is a measurement of change, and when we talk about going beyond time or beyond the samsaric cycles, we overturn the cycles of time.

Is it all about time? Is there any special experience of this in the practice?

In order to really understand what’s going on in Kalachakra, we need to understand the basic theory of what Kalachakra is all about. If we are talking about the practice of generation and complete stage, it follows the basic structure of any anuttarayoga tantra practice. It has its special features, of course, but in general, it fits into the structure that we have in other tantras. There are the special features of how the form body of the yidam is described on the complete stage, when it’s actually generated not just in the imagination. This is quite special in Kalachakra; however, realistically speaking, we’re not going to reach that stage, and we would be working on the generation stage. The generation stage is much more complex than we find in other tantras, but it is basically a visualization practice. 

The complete stage, the second stage, is only realistically engaged in if we have completed the first or generation stage. That means that we’ve attained perfect shamatha, a stilled and settled state of mind, perfect concentration for four hours with no wandering or dullness on the complete visualization of the mandala with 722 figures within. That’s just the rough generation stage. The subtle generation stage is when we are able to have that level of concentration of all the figures in a tiny dot at the middle of the brow. That is multiplied into two, four, six, eight, etc. and involves bringing it back and so on. That’s the subtle generation stage.

Because we’re using the anuttarayoga tantra method of gaining shamatha, we attain a state of vipashyana as well simultaneously. We attain the joined state of shamatha and vipashyana by doing these subtle generation stage practices with the drops. This is the joining of the stilled and settled state of mind, shamatha, with the exceptionally perceptive state of mind, vipashyana. 

The Five Pathway Minds

That means of the five paths, what is generally called the path of accumulation, application, seeing, meditation and no more learning, we will have achieved the second of these, the application or applying mind. This is the point when we would start the complete stage of practice. It means that we will have already achieved the first pathway mind, the so-called path of accumulation, the building-up pathway state of mind. This means that we have already attained unlabored bodhichitta and don’t have to go through any line of reasoning, such as “everyone having been our mother.” We can just automatically have full bodhichitta all the time, and that we gain on the first pathway mind.

Although it is nice and helpful to know all the stages in Kalachakra practice all the way up to enlightenment as a road map, but let’s be realistic about it. The complete stage practices are especially unbelievably advanced. Let’s start with a strong foundation in sutra and slowly, on the basis of that foundation, get into generation stage practice with a sadhana.

Advice from His Holiness Regarding Practice

I asked His Holiness the Dalai Lama what would be suitable for foreigners who want to practice and have a great deal of enthusiasm. He suggested that such students get into it gradually because the mandala is so complex, and there are so many figures. He suggested a slightly abbreviated, although not terribly short, practice simplified from what is practiced in the monasteries. There is a single-deity form, then a nine-deity form, then a mind mandala form and then a full body, speech and mind mandala form of the sadhana. All of these sadhanas, at least in English, can be found on the website. There isn’t Russian translation as yet. 

Kalachakra Six-Session Guru Yoga

There is also a six-session Kalachakra guru-yoga that isn’t a sadhana. It is a six-session guru-yoga, which is a practice with the commitment to do it six times a day in the Gelug tradition in order to keep the 19 samayas, or close bonding practices with the five Buddha-families. Six-session yoga is a practice that can be done with any anuttarayoga tantra yidam. The generic or most general form is Vajrasattva and Vajradhara as the yidam forms. That is in accordance with Guhyasamaja, the main anuttarayoga practice in the Gelug tradition, the one that Tsongkhapa wrote the most about. We can substitute Yamantaka, Chakrasamvara or Vajrayogini as the yidam form in this practice. Likewise, we can substitute Kalachakra.

In the Kalachakra six-session guru-yoga, in addition to the yidam form in front of us and then ourselves as Kalachakra, we have a few things added from the Kalachakra sadhana. Some of the Kalachakra masters who teach this say that we can add a few additional aspects from the sadhana into it as well. Other gurus have even instructed people to do retreats on the basis of this Kalachakra six-session guru-yoga. 

This is very good; however, it is still not actually the full sadhanas. As I tried to explain a bit regarding the relation between the self and the yidam, we need to not be arrogant with our Kalachakra practice at whatever level of our development. We need to be humble and realize that this is a very vast practice, unbelievably advanced, and it is a long path to actually be able to attain enlightenment through this method, so be a bit modest. 

Infographic

When practicing any of these levels of guru-yoga or any actual sadhana, it’s important to remember that everything in these practices is an infographic. Everything represents something. This includes the various elements, discs, the seed syllables and all of these things that occur within our body as the yidam. They are all infographic in nature. This is where a basic knowledge of the Kalachakra teaching, the theory comes in and is very helpful in making the practices meaningful. Otherwise, it’s just a cartoon. We don’t want our practice to be playing a cartoon every day, do we?

For the theory, we go back to our discussion of time.

Samsaric Time Driven by the Winds of Karma

The passage of time in terms of samsara is driven by what is known as the “winds of karma.” This is a very special topic discussed in Kalachakra. Karma is talking about compulsiveness, the compulsiveness in which we act in deluded, confused ways, whether constructive or destructive. We act or speak in a compulsive way, and we have no control over it. Based on previous patterns, from a Western point of view, this would be strong neural pathways. There is a certain energy that is a part of what is driving this compulsiveness, and this energy component in Kalachakra terminology would be the winds of karma. It’s a subtle energy associated with this compulsiveness. 

These winds of karma occur internally as well as externally. Internally, on a gross level, they drive our behavior. Externally they drive the motion of the planets, the Sun and the Moon, etc. It is in the same manner that we have individual and collective karma. The cycles with which the winds of karma pass both internally and externally are the cycles of time. Samsaric time, in this manner, is driven by the winds of karma. 

Appearance-Making, Four Drops and Subtle Particles

There is a more subtle level of the activity of these winds of karma internally. It has to do with the whole process of appearance-making. In other words, this is the making of appearances and how things appear to us. As part of the samsaric subtle body, there are channels, chakras, winds and subtle drops. All of these are subtle forms of physical phenomena. 

There are two sets of four important subtle drops that are mentioned. The way in which our mind makes things appear to us is through a process of these winds of karma passing through one or another of these four drops. It may be of help to describe it in terms of a paintbrush going into four buckets of paint. Dependent upon which paint the paintbrush goes into, it paints a certain type of appearance. 

We have the drop associated with making appearances while we are awake, what we perceive with our senses. We have a drop associated with the appearances that arise in our dreams. By the way, “appearance” just means that it is something that arises. It’s not just visual. It can be an appearance of a sound, a smell, taste, touch or anything that arises while we are awake or dreaming. We don’t just dream visually; there are also sounds and physical sensations and so on. Then, also we have a drop associated with the appearances that arise in deep sleep, a sort of darkness that arises. The fourth drop is the appearances that arise during what is called the “fourth occasion.” These are the appearances that arise during the peak blissful experiences such as orgasm. 

Clearly, we have to realize that appearances aren’t just visual. We’re talking about all the components of an experience that arise. When the winds of karma pass through one or another of these drops, then it makes an appearance. Does it make an appearance on something? Yes, in Kalachakra, we see it in terms of subtle particles. 

There is a presentation of subtle particles in sutra as well, in Mahayana. There is no ultimate smallest particle. Every particle can be divided further and further into parts; nevertheless, conventionally, there are particles and different types. Specifically, there are particles of the various elements: earth, water, fire, wind and space. In Kalachakra, we speak of a sixth element, consciousness. All of this has to be understood in terms of what we have mentioned concerning infographics. The 24 arms and body of Kalachakra represent the aspects of reality described in the Samkhya system. We have these four occasions, even going back into the Upanishads. We also have these elements and so on described in the non-Buddhist systems. This is because in Kalachakra, we want to purify ourselves not only of inner and outer aspects, but also of any belief in the so-called samsaric systems, specifically the Samkhya system. 

Once again, these winds of karma passing through these four drops paint the appearances of truly established existence, samsaric appearances, onto the particles of these six elements. There are external gross elements and also internal subtle elements. We need the understanding of voidness; we have to understand that there isn’t anything in reality that corresponds to these appearances of self-established existence, the way they seem to just be there supported by their own power and not dependent on anything else. There is no such thing. We need to do this in order to overcome the negative effects of believing that these appearances correspond to reality. It is based on this that we have all the compulsiveness of our karmic actions that are also driven by these winds. We want to stop all of that. In this way, we overcome being under the control of samsaric time.

The various chakras with visualization of the elements, different colors in the form of different shaped discs, and the various syllables and so on that we visualize on them, represent as an infographic sometimes the four drops, sometimes the six elements, sometimes the combination of them and so on. It’s very helpful to know what these represent and why we are visualizing them. What we want to do is overcome what they represent.

That’s a little bit about the theory of Kalachakra.

Is the purification of karmic winds specific to Kalachakra, or is it for all tantric practices?

The presentation of the karmic winds is only found in the Kalachakra teachings as far as I know.

Is the truly established existence you mentioned in one specific philosophical school the same for all four philosophical schools? Could you briefly explain the difference between the object of reification within the four philosophical schools?

Firstly, I should ask if you are asking about the four Indian tenet systems or in terms of the four Tibetan traditions. 

I am asking about the four Indian schools.

Good, because then I can answer this. First, we need to discuss what we are talking about when we address these modes of existence. They aren’t exactly a mode of existence, but rather, how we establish that something exists. In Tibetan, it’s bden-par grub-pa and satyasiddha in Sanskrit, and grub-pa and siddha are the words for the English to prove or affirm something, in this case, existence. 

Vaibhashika and Sautrantika

According to Vaibhashika and Sautrantika schools, what proves or establishes that something exists is that it performs a function. It does something. Vaibhashika says that existent phenomena are truly existent. This includes both static and nonstatic phenomena, things that change and are affected by cause and effect, and things that don’t change and are not affected by cause and effect. These both perform a function, according to Vaibhashika. Static phenomena perform the function as an object of cognition, and therefore they also truly exist. 

I try to avoid the English words “permanent” and “impermanent” because they have two meanings. Either they can mean that things change or don’t change, and this is how they are primarily used. It can also mean something temporary or impermanent or something that is eternal or permanent. Especially in the Gelug tradition, the understanding of the term is only used to mean static or nonstatic, changing or not changing. They don’t use it to mean temporary or eternal. Other traditions sometimes use it to mean eternal and temporary. By the way, each of the Tibetan traditions has different explanations. What I am explaining is the Gelugpa interpretation.

Sautrantikas say that only nonstatic phenomena participate in cause and effect and are truly existent. Only those actually perform a function. Static phenomena, like categories, don’t perform any function; they don’t grow over time and aren’t affected by anything. Therefore, they lack truly established existence. Sautrantikas also differentiate objective phenomena that perform functions and metaphysical phenomena that don’t. Objective phenomena perform functions, and this means that they actually truly do exist. Static phenomena don’t have objective reality, and therefore don’t truly exist. In a sense, according to Sautrantika, they exist only in our imaginations.

We have this division of phenomena that appear in sense perception, objective reality, and things that are only involved in conceptual cognition. This would include static phenomena like categories, in which we see an object and fit it into a category. For example, I see all these objects in front of me and fit it into the category of human beings. 

In these Hinayana systems, Vaibhashika and Sautrantika, truly established existence is something that is valid. We can only establish the existence of these things that lack true existence conceptually. We can only establish the existence of categories in the sense that they appear in conceptual cognition. 

Chittamatra

Next, we address Chittamatra. This school states that there are so-called dependent or other-powered phenomena, the things that appear in sense perception. Although they are only appearing in the mind, nevertheless, there is sense perception. These dependent phenomena are truly existent because they don’t depend on conceptual cognition. They can be known by an arya non-conceptually. We can also know them, but they are objects of an arya or someone who has non-conceptual cognition of voidness. 

To clarify, according to Chittamatra, dependent phenomena are things that are nonstatic; they arise from causes and conditions and are truly established because we don’t require conceptual cognition in order to establish their existence. They can be known non-conceptually, for instance, by an arya. There are also thoroughly established phenomena referring to voidness. Even though that is static, nevertheless, because it can be known non-conceptually by an arya, it is also truly established. Then, there are totally conceptual objects, like categories, and their existence can only be established conceptually with conceptual cognition. Therefore, they lack truly established existence, according to Chittamatra. 

You asked a complicated question; therefore, you are getting a complicated answer. Remember, each of these schools define truly established existence differently. I’m sorry for this. 

Madhyamaka Svatantrika

Madhyamaka has two branches, Svatantrika and Prasangika; first is Svatantrika. They state that there is no such thing as truly established existence, and we can only establish the existence of anything in terms of names and concepts for them. In other words, they are what the name and concept refer to on the basis of imputation; nevertheless, all validly knowable phenomena have a self-establishing nature on their own side, which in conjunction with concepts and mental labeling allows for correct labeling by concepts and correct designation by words. For them, truly established existence is not only something that is established independently of what a concept refers to, but also independent of having a self-established nature as well.

Let’s simplify; they are saying that true existence can be established by two things in conjunction with each other. One is concept or category and name, and on the other side is a self-establishing nature that has a defining characteristic that makes something fit into the category and name. That would be something that is truly established, and there is no such thing. For example, how would we establish that all these colored shapes in front of us are human beings? This can be established because we have the category of human beings, and all of them have defining characteristics on their side of being a human being. That’s the self-establishing nature.

For example, we look through a microscope at a cell, and we can identify and establish it as a human cell because we have the category of human, and on the side of the cell, there is DNA. We fit that into the definition of what a human cell should have. If it’s like that, truly established would mean the cell is independent of that, something just there by itself as a human cell. This is what is being refuted.

Madhyamaka Prasangika

Prasangika states that this Svatantrika assertion of what lacks truly established existence is actually false, because there is no such thing as a self-establishing nature on the side of an object. This is what they refute; they refute that it is established independently of the conceptual framework or independent of the conceptual framework in conjunction with a self-establishing nature.

That’s a little bit about the four tenet systems; it’s a bit complicated if one hasn’t heard any of this before; however, it is extremely practical if we approach them as gradual stages of understanding and more and more subtle refutation. It is very helpful to work with the practical implications of thinking like that in each of the systems and not just in theory. What would it actually mean to view the self and the whole world through this understanding? When we start to work out all the implications, we can see that each stage is very helpful. 

If interested, on the website, in the weekly courses section, there is a Lam-rim course taught over several years. There are about 284 lectures on it so far. They are divided into folders and the last folder, number 33 is a side discussion on the practical application of the analysis of the four tenet systems concerning the voidness of the self. There are also guided meditations on this.

[See: Audio Courses section]

I heard that in Kalachakra, there is a discussion of 12 days during which events of a year can be predicted. If this is so, then what should be done in the practice of Kalachakra to possibly turn karmic events in our lives? Is there something we can utilize, such as other tantric practices to change the events and outcomes?

I have never heard of such a statement in the Kalachakra teachings. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t there; it just means that I haven’t seen it. I don’t know specifically, but there are certainly predictions of the future. Like everything else in Kalachakra, there are many levels of understanding it. Many of them are in terms of the future battle and victory in battle. That represents the internal battle against ignorance and the forces of ignorance and confusion. It represents an internal struggle. Certainly doing the full Kalachakra practice with the full understanding of voidness, bodhichitta and all of that can certainly help us to overcome these negative forces.

Clarification of Grasping for True Existence

It says in an article on the website: “In the practice of Kalachakra and any other anuttarayoga tantra there is a special way of meditating on voidness (emptiness), in which we meditate not just on the actual meaning of voidness, but also we try to simulate doing this with a clear light mind. This we do because the clear light mind is actually the most efficient level of mind for gaining the non-conceptual cognition of voidness. This is because this level of mind does not have any grasping for true existence, and it also doesn’t even make an appearance of true existence.” However, this word “grasping” can have several meanings. Can you clarify this, please?

The word graha in Sanskrit or dzinpa in Tibetan literally means “to take something” or “hold something.” It has two meanings or stages. The first is to take something as an object of cognition. When we speak in terms of truly established existence, then it means taking that appearance of truly established existence as an object of cognition. In other words, it is making that appearance and perceiving or cognizing it. The second meaning is to take it as corresponding to conventional reality and believing that it actually exists. When we use the word “grasping” in English, it has this connotation of taking it to correspond to reality. We grasp for it to exist the way it appears, but it doesn’t really convey that first meaning of just making and perceiving that appearance.

In the process of working to attain enlightenment, first, we have to get our minds to stop believing that this false appearance corresponds to reality. When we are able to do that, we become an arhat, liberated from samsara. However, to attain enlightenment we have to stop that appearance-making of truly established or self-established existence. This refers to the first meaning of grasping. We have to stop making appearances arise and perceiving them. Even though we don’t believe that they correspond to reality, still, from habit, the mind makes that projection.

Remember, Kalachakra explained that the way that the mind makes this appearance of truly established existence and perceives it is by the winds of karma passing through one of the four subtle drops of the four occasions. However, when we attain clear light mind, this mind doesn’t produce this appearance of truly established existence and doesn’t perceive it, and it certainly doesn’t believe that it corresponds to reality. It’s free of both. That’s because the clear light mind is withdrawn from the grosser levels of mind and the grosser levels of wind, of the energy. Therefore, it is withdrawn from the winds of karma, and because it’s more subtle and withdrawn from the winds of karma, then it doesn’t make these appearances of truly established existence through the four drops. It certainly doesn’t perceive it or believe it. 

For this reason, when the clear light mind perceives voidness, then it doesn’t make voidness appear truly existent. Therefore, it is automatically non-conceptual and free of making an appearance of truly established existence. Remember, the Gelugpa explanation of sense perception is that it is non-conceptual. Nevertheless, because it’s through the drop of the awakened condition, the winds of karma make an appearance of truly established existence even of non-conceptual sense perceptions. We are talking about non-conceptual perception of voidness that is not through one of these four drops, but with the clear light mind.

Long Life Practices

I wanted to get a chance to thank you for all that you do, for all the articles and books that you write. It is really a very clear explanation and helps a lot. My question is about the practices for long life. In the Kalachakra tradition, are there any special practices for those of us who sometimes have problems with our health?

As far as I know, I’m not aware of any long life practices specifically within Kalachakra. Then again, just because I haven’t heard of it doesn’t mean that there might not be some. Just as Yamantaka can recite om mani padme hum, Kalachakra can also do the long life practices of White Tara, for example. 

One way that these long life practices work is that they directly cause the positive karmic potentials that we have to ripen much more quickly to provide circumstances for living a long life. However, if we haven’t built up the positive karma, they’re not going to help. We have to have something that can be uplifted and, in a sense, brought to the head of the line in terms of what ripens. The second process is that these practices will bring negative karma up in front to ripen in a very minor type of way so that the obstacles that might prevent a long life get eliminated. It can be a twofold process sometimes. Just because our major practice is Kalachakra doesn’t in any way mean it is contradictory with doing White Tara or Amitabha long life practices. We can do them, and not every practice has to be found in the Kalachakra literature.

We hope that whatever understanding or positive force has been built up by our meeting, may that act as a cause for everyone to achieve the enlightened state of a Buddha for the benefit of all.