Time and the Universe

For those who have the opportunity to receive the Kalachakra Initiation, it is important to take advantage of the opportunity to gain as much as possible from the experience by having knowledge of the Kalachakra practice and the background of the empowerment.

Things appear in deceptive ways but we can see how they actually exist with an understanding of the Buddhist analysis of the various types of phenomena there are.

How the topic of karma is to be understood in relation to the issue of free will versus determinism.

The Buddhist abhidharma and Kalachakra literatures provide two distinct presentations of cosmology, each for a different purpose.

The 62 wrong views are based on considering the self or “soul” of a person to be self-sufficiently knowable and the universe to have truly established existence.

Maitreya, a bodhisattva residing in Tushita heaven, will be the next Buddha to come as a universal teacher.

The Yoga school of Indian philosophy shares the basic assertions of the Samkhya system, such as concerning primal matter, the self and liberation, but adds to the system the supreme god Ishvara, equivalent to Shiva.

The evolution of a universe is intimately connected with the karma of the limited beings that will be reborn into it.

A survey of the different types of mandalas used for many different purposes, both in sutra and tantra.

A comparison of the Kalachakra, Hindu and Chinese New Years as well as the Chinese and Kalachakra systems of seasons. Although the Tibetan element-animal assignment system may be reminiscent of the Chinese, yet on closer examination there are significant differences.