User Tools

Site Tools


kalachakra_tantra

Kalachakra Tantra

Translation

The Wheel of Time (Kālacakra)

Analysis and Introduction

The term Kālacakra (Tibetan: དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ།, dus kyi 'khor lo; “Wheel of Time”) denotes one of the most comprehensive and prominent systems within late Indian and Tibetan Vajrayāna Buddhism, specifically classified under the Unexcelled Yoga Tantras (Anuttarayogatantra). Centered on the core metaphor of the cakra (wheel or cycle), the system presents an intricate cosmology and soteriology divided into three interlocking dimensions: the Outer Kālacakra (the external cosmos, planetary movements, and chronological time cycles), the Inner Kālacakra (the subtle physiology of channels, winds, and drops within the human body correlating to cosmic movements), and the Other or Alternative Kālacakra (the initiations, generation and completion stage yogas, and the ultimate realization of Buddhahood represented by the primordial Buddha deity Kālacakra in union with Viśvamātā). Textual traditions related to the cycle of time and symbolic wheels (cakra) emphasize the systematic purification of internal winds and elements, as well as the deconstruction of ordinary dualistic perception. As documented across the tantric literature and canonical treatises indexed in the Dharmamitra Database (https://dharmamitra.org/db), wheels ('khor lo) function simultaneously as cosmograms, ritual mandalas, bodily energy centers, and symbolic weapons cutting through fundamental ignorance and cyclic affliction. References from the Dharmamitra Database Tibetan See more Tibetan results (https://dharmamitra.org/explore?search_input=Kalachakra&filter_source_language=bo&search_target_lang=english) gnod sbyin gdong gsum pa'i rgyud

Original: ཨར་སྔགས་དང་མིང་རུས་སྤེལ་༎ དེ་མཐར་མཆར་ཀ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་སྔགས་༎ དེ་ཡི་མཐའ་ལ་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ནི་༎ བཅུ་གཉིས་འཁོར་ལོ་ལྕགས་སུ་གཞུག་། མཐའ་མ་འཁྱིལ་བྱེད་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་བསྐོར་༎ འཆར་ཀ་ནག་པོའི་ལྟོ་བར་རོ་༎ ཞི་བའི་འཁོར་ལོ་རྩིབས་བརྒྱད་པ་༎ རྩིབས་བརྒྱད་དག་ལ་འཆར་ཀ་ཉིད་༎ བསྲུང་བ་གང་བསྲུང་གོང་རས་ལ་༎

Translation: Interweave the basic mantra with the name and clan lineage; at the end, insert the specialized mantra itself. Encircling the outer rim, place the twelve links of dependent origination within the iron wheel. Surround the perimeter with two swirling borders, situated inside the belly of the black wrathful form. For the peaceful wheel with eight spokes, array the specific ritual formulas across the eight spokes, inscribed on the upper cloth for whatever protection is to be effected. gnod sbyin gdong gsum pa'i rgyud · BO_NG_0245:325 View segment

dpal zla gsang nag po'i rgyud

Original: ཁྱབ་པར་འཁོར་༎ རང་གའི་སྐད་པར་འཁོར་༎ མ་འབྱར་བ་ཡི་ལྷག་པར་འཁོར་༎ རུ་རུ་ར་ཡི་དབྱིངས་སུ་འཁོར་༎ དེ་འཁོར་དོན་པོའི་འཁོར་དུ་འཁོར་༎ རྗེས་ཅན་རྗེས་མེད་གཉིས་སུ་འཁོར་༎ མི་འཁོར་འཁོར་ཞིང་འགྲོ་བ་དང་༌༎ རྣམ་པ་གཞན་དུ་འཕོ་ཡི་འགྲོ་། རྩ་བར་འཁོར་ཞིང་རྩེ་མོར་གཅོད་༎ དེ་ཕྱིར་འཁོར་ལོ་ཞེས་སུ་གྲག་། འཁྲུལ་ཞིང་འཁོར་བས་འཁོར་ལོ་སྟེ་༎

Translation: It revolves all-pervasively; it revolves naturally according to its own expression; it revolves singularly without adherence; it revolves within the sphere of the basic space. Revolving as the cycle of the ultimate essence, it revolves both with traces and without traces. Moving while revolving in the non-revolving, it passes and shifts into other modes. Revolving at the root and severing at the tip, it is therefore proclaimed to be a “wheel” (cakra); because sentient beings wander and cycle in delusion, it is known as the wheel. dpal zla gsang nag po'i rgyud · BO_NG_0547:0-450 View segment

phyag na rdo rje gtum po khros pa rtsa ba'i rgyud

Original: ཨ་རྩ་བའི་རྒྱུད་ཆེན་པོ་ལས་། དམ་ཚིག་གི་ལེའུ་སྟེ་དྲུག་པའོ་༎ དེ་ནས་མ་ཧ་ཀ་ལ་ཡིས་༎ བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ལ་འདི་སྐད་གསོལ་༎ འགྲོ་བ་རྣམས་ལ་ཕན་གདགས་ཕྱིར་༎ བསྲུང་བའི་འཁོར་ལོ་བཤད་དུ་གསོལ་༎ བཅོམ་ལྡན་ཁྲོ་བོས་བཀའ་སྩལ་པ་༎ གཟའ་སྐར་དུས་ཚེས་བཟང་པོ་ལ་༎ སྔགས་པ་བློ་དང་ལྡན་པ་ཡིས་༎

Translation: From the great root tantra, this is the sixth chapter on the pledge (samaya). Thereupon, Mahākāla addressed the Blessed One in these words: “For the benefit of migratory beings, please explain the protective wheel (rakṣācakra).” The Wrathful Blessed One proclaimed: “On an auspicious day, date, planet, and constellation, the wise practitioner of mantra should proceed…” phyag na rdo rje gtum po khros pa rtsa ba'i rgyud · BO_NG_0716:539 View segment

Sanskrit See more Sanskrit results (https://dharmamitra.org/explore?search_input=Kalachakra&filter_source_language=sa&search_target_lang=english) Mahāmudrātilaka

Original: caṇḍāraś vāyam ity uktam upaco rasam ucyate | bhavacakra karmakāraṃ puṣkaraṃ khaḍgam ucyate |

Translation: This is declared to be Caṇḍālī, and Upaca is stated to be essence. The wheel of existence (bhavacakra) is the maker of action, while the blue lotus is said to be the sword. Mahāmudrātilaka · SA_K12_Āgama_Mahāmudrātilaka:2505 View segment Parallel — śrī-mahāmudrātilakaṃ-nāma-yoginī-tantrarāja-adhipati (BO_K12_D0420):

Original: ཙཎྜ་ལཱི་ནི་གཞུ་ཞེས་བཤད། ། ཤྭ་པ་ཙ་ན་མདའ་རུ་བཤད། ། ཙར་མ་ཀ་ར་སྲིད་འཁོར་ལོ། ། པུཀྐ་སཱི་ནི་རལ་གྲིར་བསྟན། །

Translation: Caṇḍālī is explained as the bow; Śvapacana is explained as the arrow; Carmakāra is the wheel of mundane existence; and Pukkasī is shown to be the sword. དཔལ་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོའི་ཐིག་ལེ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་མ་ཆེན་མོའི་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་མངའ་བདག་ (śrī-mahāmudrātilakaṃ-nāma-yoginī-tantrarāja-adhipati) · BO_K12_D0420:76b-0 View segment

Tantrasadbhāva

Original: asaṃyogāt mahācakraṃ prakīrtitam | evaṃ tu mātṛkāḥ sarvāḥ cakratrayamupāgatāḥ || dvādaśāraṃ hṛdi madhye tatra śūryo vyavasthitaḥ | tāluke ṣoḍaśāraṃ tu yatra sā amṛtāvahā || mastake sarvavarṇātmā dvātriṃśaddalasaṃyutaḥ | hṛccakre udbhavo jñeyo viśleṣo vedhacakragaḥ || layastu śiracakrastho jñātavyo viditātmabhiḥ |

Translation: Because of its uncompounded nature, it is proclaimed to be the Great Wheel (mahācakra). Thus all the mother matrices converge upon the triad of wheels: in the center of the heart rests the twelve-spoked wheel where the sun resides; at the palate is the sixteen-spoked wheel bearing the nectar of immortality; and at the crown of the head is the wheel endowed with all syllables, having thirty-two petals. Arising is to be known at the heart wheel, differentiation occurs at the piercing wheel, and dissolution situated within the crown wheel should be comprehended by those who know the truth. Tantrasadbhāva · SA_GR13_anon_Tantrasadbhāva_Dyczkowski:908 View segment

Pali See more Pali results (https://dharmamitra.org/explore?search_input=Kalachakra&filter_source_language=pa&search_target_lang=english) Buddhavaṃsa-aṭṭhakathā

Original: “Dadaṃ bhuñja ca mā ca pamādo, cakkaṃ vattaya sabbapāṇina”nti ettha dāne. “Dibbaṃ cakkaratanaṃ pātubhūta”nti ettha ratanacakke. “Mayā pavattitaṃ cakka”nti ettha pana dhammacakke. “Icchāhatassa posassa, cakkaṃ bhamati matthake”ti ettha khuracakke, paharaṇacakketi attho. “Pādatalesu cakkāni jātānī”ti ettha lakkhaṇe.

Translation: In the passage “Give, enjoy, be not heedless; roll forth the wheel for all living beings,” the wheel refers to generosity (dāna). In “The divine jewel of the wheel appeared,” it refers to the jewel-wheel (ratanacakka). In “The wheel set in motion by me,” it denotes the Wheel of Dhamma (dhammacakka). In “Upon the head of the man stricken by craving, the wheel spins,” it refers to the razor-wheel (khuracakka), meaning a wheel used as a weapon of affliction. In “Wheels appeared on the soles of his feet,” it refers to the auspicious bodily mark (lakkhaṇa). Buddhavaṃsa-aṭṭhakathā · PA_atk-s05_11a:508_5 View segment

kalachakra_tantra.txt · Last modified: 2026/11/11 21:51 by Vajra Patience

Donate Powered by PHP Valid HTML5 Valid CSS Driven by DokuWiki