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96-576: Kālacakra ( Tibetan : དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ། , Wylie : dus kyi 'khor lo ) is a polysemic term in Vajrayana Buddhism as well as Hinduism that means " wheel of time " or "time cycles". " Kālacakra " is also the name of a series of Buddhist texts and a major practice lineage in Indian Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism . The tantra is considered to belong to the unexcelled yoga ( anuttara-yoga ) class. Kālacakra also refers both to

192-680: A Mongolian text in volume 2. [1] This 1966 edition was based on manuscripts from the British Library and the Bir Library, Kathmandu. A critical edition of the original Sanskrit text of the Kālacakratantra was published by Biswanath Banerjee in 1985 based on manuscripts from Cambridge, London and Patna. [2] A further planned volume by Banerjee containing the Vimalaprabhā appears not to have been published. The Sanskrit texts of

288-402: A basis for understanding ultimate reality. Regarding ultimate reality, Wallace further notes, In terms of ultimate reality, the cosmos and the individual are also of the same nature, the nature of gnosis ( jñāna ), which manifests in the form of emptiness ( sunyata-bimba ). Those who are free of the afflictive and cognitive obscurations nondually perceive the world as the form of emptiness in

384-439: A category of 27 subject headings. An interesting unique feature of Tibetan catalogue is that, alongside information about the source material of translation and the bibliographical details, it gives in physical descriptions, such as the nos. of words, verses, canto (bampo) and folios-pages in each of textual contents. Thus today we have a record of 73 million words contained in the bka’-’gyur & bstan-’gyur collection. According to

480-444: A jar] when water is poured into the jar, in the same way, the sky-vajri, who is the pervader of the universe and devoid of sense-objects, is within the body. However, even though all beings have this enlightened awareness, it is not actualized if one does not ascertain it and this entails the absence of mental afflictions or impurities which block recognition of enlightened awareness. These mental afflictions are also closely connected to

576-500: A luminous form devoid of both gross matter and the subtle body of pranas. The transformation of one's own mind into the enlightened mind of immutable bliss occurs in direct dependence upon that material transformation. The actualization of that transformation is believed to be perfect and full Buddhahood in the form of Kālacakra, the Supreme Primordial Buddha ( paramadi-buddha ), who is the omniscient, innate Lord of

672-429: A nondual manner; that is, they perceive the world as an inseparable unity of form and emptiness. On the other hand, ordinary sentient beings, whose perception is influenced by the afflictive and cognitive obscurations, see the world in a dual fashion, as something other than themselves. They see the world as an ordinary place inhabited by ordinary sentient beings. But in reality, the entire cosmos, with Meru in its center,

768-672: A patron tantric deity or yidam in Vajrayana and to the philosophies and yogas of the Kālacakra tradition. The tradition's origins are in India and its most active later history and presence has been in Tibet . The tradition contains teachings on cosmology , theology , philosophy , sociology , soteriology , myth , prophecy , medicine and yoga . It depicts a mythic reality whereby cosmic and socio-historical events correspond to processes in

864-520: A similar curriculum, using the same Indian root texts and commentaries. The further Tibetan commentaries they use differ by school, although since the 19th-century appearance of the Rimé movement scholars Jamgon Kongtrul , Jamgon Ju Mipham Gyatso and Khenpo Shenga, Kagyupas and Nyingmapas use many of the same Tibetan commentaries as well. Different schools, however, place emphasis and concentrate attention on different areas. The exoteric study of Buddhism

960-450: A single moment." The Kālacakra literature also refers to an Adibuddha who has been awakened since beginningless time, "without beginning or end". According to Wallace, this refers to "the innate gnosis that pervades the minds of all sentient beings and stands as the basis of both samsara and nirvana." Similarly, there is an ambiguity in the way the deity Kālacakra is explained in the tantra. According to Hammar, sometimes Kālacakra refers to

1056-458: A space. Spaces are not used to divide words. The Tibetan alphabet has thirty basic letters, sometimes known as "radicals", for consonants. As in other Indic scripts , each consonant letter assumes an inherent vowel ; in the Tibetan script it is /a/. The letter ཨ is also the base for dependent vowel marks. Although some Tibetan dialects are tonal , the language had no tone at the time of

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1152-496: A written tradition. Amdo Tibetan was one of a few examples where Buddhist practitioners initiated a spelling reform. A spelling reform of the Ladakhi language was controversial in part because it was first initiated by Christian missionaries. In the Tibetan script, the syllables are written from left to right. Syllables are separated by a tsek (་); since many Tibetan words are monosyllabic, this mark often functions almost as

1248-708: Is a compilation of the Buddhist sacred texts recognized by various schools of Tibetan Buddhism . The Canon includes the Kangyur , which is the Buddha's recorded teachings, and the Tengyur , which is commentaries by great masters on the Buddha's recorded teachings. The first translation into Tibetan of these manuscripts occurred in the 8th century and is referred to as the Ancient Translation School of

1344-554: Is a cosmic body of the Jina, a cosmic image or reflection ( pratima ) of the Buddha, having the nature of form. As such, it is similar to the Nirmanakaya of the Buddha. Therefore, according to this tantric system, one should attend to this cosmic image of the Buddha, as one attends to the statue of the Buddha, created for the sake of worship. The tantra's section on cosmology also includes an exposition of Indian astrology . In Tibet,

1440-410: Is above most other consonants, thus རྐ rka. However, an exception to this is the cluster རྙ /ɲa/. Similarly, the consonants ར /ra/, and ཡ /ja/ change form when they are beneath other consonants, thus ཀྲ /ʈ ~ ʈʂa/; ཀྱ /ca/. Besides being written as subscripts and superscripts, some consonants can also be placed in prescript, postscript, or post-postscript positions. For instance,

1536-442: Is always there." It can also be another way of describing sunyata (emptiness), which is also present everywhere. Tibetan script The Tibetan script has also been used for some non-Tibetic languages in close cultural contact with Tibet, such as Thakali , Nepali and Old Turkic . The printed form is called uchen script while the hand-written cursive form used in everyday writing is called umê script . This writing system

1632-423: Is defined as "the mind of immutable bliss," and the union of wisdom and method, or emptiness and compassion. Jñana is also the mind free of causal relations ( niranvaya ) and empty of inherent existence. The Adibuddhatantra (i.e. the root Kālacakratantra ) describes jñana as follows: It has passed beyond [the designations:] "It exists" and "It does not exist." It is the cessation of existence and non-existence. It

1728-666: Is designed as a simple means for inputting Dzongkha text on computers. This keyboard layout was standardized by the Dzongkha Development Commission (DDC) and the Department of Information Technology (DIT) of the Royal Government of Bhutan in 2000. It was updated in 2009 to accommodate additional characters added to the Unicode & ISO 10646 standards since the initial version. Since

1824-575: Is devoid of atomic particles and is beyond subject and object. It is free of conceptualizations, and is a self-aware ( svasamvedana ) natural luminosity which is partless and all-pervasive. Jñana is Buddhahood, the ultimate reality or thusness ( tathata ). It is the Dharmadhatu , which is the primordially unoriginated beginning ( adi ) or atemporal source ( yoni ) of all phenomena. Jñana is also beyond all classifications and transcends samsara and nirvana (though it appears/manifests as both). Since it

1920-421: Is divided into five chapters. The content of the five chapters is as follows: In the Kālacakratantra's cosmology, samsara (cyclic existence) is made up of innumerable Buddha fields and of the five elements or properties (characterized by origination, duration and destruction). The whole cosmos arises due to the collective karma of sentient beings, which produces vital winds ( vayu ) that mold and dissolve

2016-473: Is generally organized into "Five Topics," listed as follows with the primary Indian source texts for each: Also of great importance are the "Five Treatises of Maitreya." These texts are said to have been taught to Asanga by Maitreya (according to the Buddhist tradition, he is the future Buddha who currently resides in Tushita-Heaven; some scholars, for example, Frauwallner and Tucci believe Maitreya

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2112-498: Is made up of various cycles of dependent origination. Furthermore, "each cycle of dependent origination, which comprises progressively smaller cycles of dependent origination, arises in dependence upon other cycles of dependent origination and is therefore itself empty of inherent existence." The philosophical view of the Kālacakratantra is undoubtedly that of the Mahayana Buddhist Madhyamaka school, and

2208-571: Is no longer extant. The author of the abridged tantra is said to have been the Shambala king Manjushriyasas. According to Vesna Wallace, the Vimalaprabhā (Stainless Light) of Pundarika is "the most authoritative commentary on the Kālacakratantra and served as the basis for all subsequent commentarial literature of that literary corpus." The Sanskrit text of the Kālacakratantra was first published by Raghu Vira and Lokesh Chandra in 1966, with

2304-533: Is non-dual with emptiness, it is empty of inherent existence. Jñana also manifests as bodies, including the four bodies of the Buddha (the Sahajakaya, Dharmakaya , Sambhogakaya , and Nirmanakaya ) and the bodies of sentient beings (each one of which are said to contain the four Buddha bodies in unmanifest forms). According to the Kālacakratantra , enlightened awareness is innately present in an ordinary individual's body: Just as space does not disappear [from

2400-421: Is nondual. It is the vajra-yoga that is non-differentiated from emptiness and compassion. It is the supreme bliss. It has transcended the reality of atoms. It is devoid of empty dharmas. It is free of eternity and annihilation. It is the vajra yoga that is without causal relations. Wallace 2001, p. 150. Jñana is a pure radiant mind , devoid of any impurities of habitual tendencies ( vasana ). It has no form and

2496-406: Is not just a mere negation of inherent existence ( svabhava ), but also refers to "the absence of material constituents of the individual's body and mind." This "aspect of emptiness" ( sunyatakara ), or "form of emptiness" ( sunyata-bimba ), is, according to Wallace: a form that is empty of both inherent existence and physical particles. It is a form that is endowed with all the signs and symbols of

2592-464: Is reactivated. Since the beginning of 11th century onward Tibetan translators together with Indian panditas once again resumed their literary activity to bring about a new chapter to be known as "the era of new translation" and also "revival or later promulgation of Buddhism in Tibet". In addition to the previous works Tibet has produced a huge literary wealth both in terms of volume and range of coverage by

2688-528: Is simply read as it usually is and has no effect on the pronunciation of the consonant to which it is subjoined, for example ཀ་ཝ་ཟུར་ཀྭ (IPA: /ka.wa.suː.ka/). The vowels used in the alphabet are ཨ /a/, ཨི /i/, ཨུ /u/, ཨེ /e/, and ཨོ /o/. While the vowel /a/ is included in each consonant, the other vowels are indicated by marks; thus ཀ /ka/, ཀི /ki/, ཀུ /ku/, ཀེ /ke/, ཀོ /ko/. The vowels ཨི /i/, ཨེ /e/, and ཨོ /o/ are placed above consonants as diacritics, while

2784-560: Is solely for the consonants ད /tʰa/ and ས /sa/. The head ( མགོ in Tibetan, Wylie: mgo ) letter, or superscript, position above a radical is reserved for the consonants ར /ra/, ལ /la/, and ས /sa/. The subscript position under a radical can only be occupied by the consonants ཡ /ja/, ར /ra/, ལ /la/, and ཝ /wa/. In this position they are described as བཏགས (Wylie: btags , IPA: /taʔ/), in Tibetan meaning "hung on/affixed/appended", for example བ་ཡ་བཏགས་བྱ (IPA: /pʰa.ja.taʔ.t͡ʃʰa/), except for ཝ , which

2880-527: Is used across the Himalayas and Tibet . The script is closely linked to a broad ethnic Tibetan identity, spanning across areas in India , Nepal , Bhutan and Tibet. The Tibetan script is of Brahmic origin from the Gupta script and is ancestral to scripts such as Lepcha , Marchen and the multilingual ʼPhags-pa script , and is also closely related to Meitei . According to Tibetan historiography,

2976-423: Is within the body" ( yatha bahye tatha dehe ) is often found in the Kālacakratantra to emphasize the similarities and correspondence between human beings ( inner Kālacakra ) and the cosmos ( outer Kālacakra ), as well as with the enlightened Kālacakra mandala of deities ( alternative Kālacakra ). This correspondence comes about because both the cosmos and the bodies of sentient beings come into existence due to

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3072-409: The Kālacakratantra and the Vimalaprabhā commentary were published on the basis of newly discovered manuscripts from Nepal (5) and India (1) by Jagannatha Upadhyaya (with Vrajavallabh Dwivedi and S. S. Bahulkar, 3 vols., 1986–1994). [3] In 2010, Lokesh Chandra published a facsimile of one of the manuscripts that was not used by Jagannatha Upadhyaya et al. in their edition. The Tibetan translation of

3168-427: The Kālacakratantra states that "one should look at the triple world as similar to space and as unitary." The tantra also states that "all six states of transmigratory existence are already present within every individual," and this is related to the doctrine of the three gunas. The Kālacakratantra revolves around the concept of time ( kāla ) and cycles or wheels ( chakra ). Conventionally speaking, this refers to

3264-898: The Latin script . Multiple Romanization and transliteration systems have been created in recent years, but do not fully represent the true phonetic sound. While the Wylie transliteration system is widely used to Romanize Standard Tibetan , others include the Library of Congress system and the IPA-based transliteration (Jacques 2012). Below is a table with Tibetan letters and different Romanization and transliteration system for each letter, listed below systems are: Wylie transliteration (W), Tibetan pinyin (TP), Dzongkha phonetic (DP), ALA-LC Romanization (A) and THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription (THL). The first version of Microsoft Windows to support

3360-457: The Upanishads and that it is likely that they inspired the Kālacakratantra's theory of the wheel of time. However, the Kālacakratantra is clear that Kālacakra is itself empty of inherent existence (i.e. essence) and is not an independent phenomenon, but one which is dependent on conditions (a classic Madhyamaka position). As Wallace notes, the cosmic body and the body of the individual

3456-578: The 13th century and this growth imposed to carry a fresh comprehensive bibliographical record and control existing literature. In the mid-13th century a student of bcom-ldan rigs-ral (1200?), ’Jam-gag pak-shi, also known as mchims ’jam-dpal dbyangs (?–1267), who was the state priest of the Mongol emperor Ching Tsung, had managed to collect some amount of writing material and sent to his master with request for organizing and preparing catalogue of literature that were scattered all over Tibet. bcom-ldan rigs-ral with

3552-605: The 14th Dalai Lama , Tenzin Gyatso. New branches: Tantric techniques : Fourfold division: Twofold division: Thought forms and visualisation: Yoga : The Kālacakra Tantra is more properly called the Laghu-kālacakratantra-rāja ( Sovereign Abridged Kālacakra ) and is said to be an abridged form of an original text, the Paramādibuddhatantra of the Shambala king Sucandra , which

3648-518: The 9th-century spoken Tibetan, and current pronunciation. This divergence is the basis of an argument in favour of spelling reform , to write Tibetan as it is pronounced ; for example, writing Kagyu instead of Bka'-rgyud . The nomadic Amdo Tibetan and the western dialects of the Ladakhi language , as well as the Balti language , come very close to the Old Tibetan spellings. Despite that,

3744-475: The Adibuddha (which is uncreated, beyond time, eternal, the origin of the world, omniscient, non-dual and beyond causality), while sometimes the name Kālacakra refers specifically to the male figure in union with Visvamata. Regarding the difficult and complex term Adibuddha, Hammar concludes that one can see it as one way of describing Buddha-nature , "which means that there is a Buddha-seed in human beings which

3840-447: The Buddha. That form of emptiness, also known as the "empty form," is also regarded as the "animate emptiness" ( ajada-sunyata ). Due to being animate, this emptiness is the cause of supreme and immutable bliss ( paramacala-sukha ). The non-duality of the cause and effect is the essential teaching of this tantra. The unique Kālacakra path and goal is based on this view. Its goal is: the transformation of one's own gross physical body into

3936-508: The Jinas, the true nature of one's own mind and body. The supreme imperishable bliss is also defined as peace ( santa ), and pervades the bodies of sentient beings and the entire world. For beings who are in samsara, this blissful Buddha-mind also manifests as sexual bliss, during which the mind becomes free of concepts and non-dual for a brief moment. Thus, the Kālacakra tradition stresses the importance of not avoiding sexual bliss, but using it on

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4032-656: The Kangyur is not fixed. Each editor takes responsibility for removing texts he considers spurious or adding new translations. Currently there are about 12 available Kangyurs. These include the Derge, Lhasa, Narthang, Cone, Peking, Urga, Phudrak and Stog Palace versions, each named after the physical location of its printing (or copying in the case of manuscripts editions). In addition, some canonical texts have been found in Tabo and Dunhuang which provide earlier exemplars to texts found in

4128-605: The Kangyur. The majority of extant Kangyur editions appear to stem from the so-called Old Narthang Kangyur, though the Phukdrak and Tawang editions are thought to lie outside of that textual lineage. The stemma of the Kangyur have been well researched in particular by Helmut Eimer and Paul Harrison. From the seventh century onward, existing literature were compiled and catalogued from time to time which later extended, upgraded, classified, reorganized and put in different sets of different collections. A separate set of translation works

4224-482: The King which were afterward translated. In the first half of the 7th century, the Tibetan script was used for the codification of these sacred Buddhist texts, for written civil laws, and for a Tibetan Constitution. A contemporary academic suggests that the script was instead developed in the second half of the 11th century. New research and writings also suggest that there were one or more Tibetan scripts in use prior to

4320-415: The Kālacakra text is also the basis of Tibetan astrological calendars . Wallace also adds that this cosmological system based on the three Kālacakras is mainly seen by the Kālacakra literature "as a heuristic model for meditative purposes". According to Wallace, all the different paradigms outlined in the Kālacakratantra are contemplative models which "serve as devices for furthering one's understanding of

4416-560: The Lithang, Narthang, Der-ge, Co-ne, Urga, and Lhasa blockprint recensions of the Kangyur, and also in a recension with annotations by Bu ston. This Shong revision was then further revised by the two Jonang translators Blo gros rgyal mtshan and Blo gros dpal bzang po. The Jonang revision is found in the Yunglo and Peking blockprint recensions of the Kangyur, and also in a recension with annotations by Phyogs las rnam rgyal." The Kālacakratantra

4512-603: The Nyingmas. The Tibetan Canon underwent another compilation in the 14th century by Buton Rinchen Drub (1290–1364). Again, the Tibetans divided the Buddhist texts into two broad categories: The Canon includes all of the Buddha's teachings and the commentaries on all three Buddhist vehicles (yanas): Hinayana (Theravada), Mahayana (Sutra), and Vajrayana (Tantra). In addition to sutrayana texts from Early Buddhist schools (mostly Sarvastivada ) and Mahayana sources,

4608-628: The Tenjur) contains a number of commentaries composed by Indian authors. Below are the authors the tradition holds to be of paramount importance. References are sometimes made to the Seventeen Great Panditas. This formulation groups the eight listed above with the following nine scholars. Study of the Tibetan Buddhist canon is a focal point of the monastic curriculum. All four schools of Tibetan Buddhism generally follow

4704-437: The Tibetan canon includes tantric texts. The Kangyur is divided into sections on Vinaya , Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, Avatamsaka, Ratnakuta and other sutras (75% Mahayana, 25% Nikaya / Agama or Hinayana ), and tantras . When exactly the term Kangyur was first used is not known. Collections of canonical Buddhist texts already existed in the time of Trisong Detsen , the sixth king of Tibet . The exact number of texts in

4800-732: The Tibetan keyboard layout is MS Windows Vista . The layout has been available in Linux since September 2007. In Ubuntu 12.04, one can install Tibetan language support through Dash / Language Support / Install/Remove Languages, the input method can be turned on from Dash / Keyboard Layout, adding Tibetan keyboard layout. The layout applies the similar layout as in Microsoft Windows. Mac OS -X introduced Tibetan Unicode support with OS-X version 10.5 and later, now with three different keyboard layouts available: Tibetan-Wylie, Tibetan QWERTY and Tibetan-Otani. The Dzongkha keyboard layout scheme

4896-490: The Tibetan script was developed during the reign of King Songtsen Gampo by his minister Thonmi Sambhota , who was sent to India with 16 other students to study Buddhism along with Sanskrit and written languages. They developed the Tibetan script from the Gupta script while at the Pabonka Hermitage . This occurred c.  620 , towards the beginning of the king's reign. There were 21 Sutra texts held by

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4992-432: The Tibetan tradition, some collections of teachings and practices are held in greater secrecy than others. The sutra tradition comprises works said to be derived from the public teachings of the Buddha, and is taught widely and publicly. The esoteric tradition of tantra (below) is generally only shared in more intimate settings with those students who the teacher feels have the capacity to utilize it well. The collection of

5088-509: The arrangement of keys essentially follows the usual order of the Dzongkha and Tibetan alphabet, the layout can be quickly learned by anyone familiar with this alphabet. Subjoined (combining) consonants are entered using the Shift key. The Dzongkha (dz) keyboard layout is included in Microsoft Windows, Android, and most distributions of Linux as part of XFree86 . Tibetan was originally one of

5184-403: The atomic particles that make up the various inanimate things of the world and the bodies of sentient beings. A key element of the Kālacakratantra is the correspondence between macrocosmic processes and microcosmic processes . The Kālacakratantra maps the various features and developmental processes of the world system to various features of the human body. The phrase "as it is outside, so it

5280-407: The basic Tibetan alphabet to represent different sounds. In addition to the use of supplementary graphemes, the rules for constructing consonant clusters are amended, allowing any character to occupy the superscript or subscript position, negating the need for the prescript and postscript positions. Romanization and transliteration of the Tibetan script is the representation of the Tibetan script in

5376-647: The bodies of individuals. These teachings are meant to lead to a transformation of one's body and mind into perfect Buddhahood through various yogic methods. The Kālacakra tradition is based on Mahayana Buddhist non-dualism , which is strongly influenced by Madhyamaka philosophy, but also draws on a wide range of Buddhist and non-Buddhist (mainly Hindu) traditions (such as Vaibhāṣika , Kashmir Shaivism , Vaishnavism , and Samkhya ). The Kālacakra tradition holds that Kālacakra teachings were taught in India by Gautama Buddha himself. According to modern Buddhist studies ,

5472-416: The body," which is linked with the 12 aspects of dependent origination and the 12 signs of the zodiac. These different cycles are interconnected and correspond to each other. In the first chapter, it is stated that the world emerges from emptiness and the force of time, which is a kind of power that originates the universe: Because of time ( kalat ), from the voids ( sunyesu ), originate wind, fire, water,

5568-571: The commentary Vimalaprabhā is usually studied from the 1733 Derge Kangyur edition of the Tibetan canon , vol. 40, text no. 1347. This was published by Dharma Publishing, Berkeley, US, in 1981. David Reigle noted, in a discussion in the INDOLOGY forum of 11 April 2020, that, "the Tibetan translation of the Kālacakra-tantra made by Somanātha and 'Bro lotsawa as revised by Shong ston is found in

5664-418: The consonants ག /kʰa/, ད /tʰa/, བ /pʰa/, མ /ma/ and འ /a/ can be used in the prescript position to the left of other radicals, while the position after a radical (the postscript position), can be held by the ten consonants ག /kʰa/, ན /na/, བ /pʰa/, ད /tʰa/, མ /ma/, འ /a/, ར /ra/, ང /ŋa/, ས /sa/, and ལ /la/. The third position, the post-postscript position

5760-421: The cycles of the planets, to the cycles of human breathing and subtle energies in the body. Regarding the outer or external aspect of conventional reality, the wheel of time refers to the passage of days, month, and years (as well as the cycles of the zodiac ) while with regard to the individual or inner aspect, it refers to "the circulation of pranas [vital airs] within the wheel of the nadis [subtle channels] in

5856-417: The deity as follows: Homage to Kālacakra , who has as his content emptiness and compassion, without origination or annihilation of the three existences, who is regarding a consistent embodiment of knowledge and objects of knowledge as non-existence. The Kālacakra deities represent the aspects of Buddhahood : the non-dual ( advaya ) union of compassion and emptiness, the union of prajña and upaya, as well as

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5952-453: The earlier scheme of classification, the "class ... "Yoga Tantras," ... includes tantras such as the Guhyasamāja ", later "classified as "Father Tantras" ( pha rgyud ) ... placed in the ultimate class ... "Unexcelled Yoga tanras" ( rnal 'byor bla med kyi rgyud )" ( CST , p. 5). In addition to texts attributed to Shakyamuni Buddha and other Buddhas, the Tibetan Buddhist canon (specifically

6048-405: The earth; the continents, mountains, and oceans; the constellations, the sun, the moon, the host of star-planets, and the sages; gods , bhutas, and nagas ; animals that have four types of birthplace; humans and hell beings also, on the manifold earth and below -originate in the middle of void ( sunyamadhye ), like salt in water, and the egg-born in the middle of an egg. Chakra , in turn, refers to

6144-439: The efficacy of the habitual propensities of the minds of beings. In this sense, the cosmos is like a cosmic replica of a sentient being's body. Thus, one can say that the cosmos and the individual are nondual and mutually pervasive, even in terms of their conventional existence. They are interconnected and they influence each other. The basic reason for this exposition is that a proper understanding of conventional reality provides

6240-411: The famous translator Bande sKa-ba dpal-brtsegs with help from his colleagues, Bande chos-kyi snying-po, Lo-tsa-wa Bande debendhara, Bande lhun-po and Bande klu’-dbang-po etc. The earliest catalogue compilation was recorded from the manuscript of the royal collection housed in the palace- pho-brang ‘phang-thang ka-med kyi gtsug-lag-kang in the Tibetan dog year (818 CE). This cataloguing work became famous by

6336-592: The grammar of these dialectical varieties has considerably changed. To write the modern varieties according to the orthography and grammar of Classical Tibetan would be similar to writing Italian according to Latin orthography, or to writing Hindi according to Sanskrit orthogrophy. However, modern Buddhist practitioners in the Indian subcontinent state that the classical orthography should not be altered even when used for lay purposes. This became an obstacle for many modern Tibetic languages wishing to modernize or to introduce

6432-407: The help of his pupils dbu-pa blo-gsal byang-chub ye-shes, lo tsa-wa bsod-nams ’od-zer and rgyang-ro byang-chub ’bum, surveyed various parts mostly covering central and western Tibet. Authenticating and rectifying, they carefully scrutinize all the manuscripts of old and new translations and arranged them in order, compiling a comprehensive catalogue of a proto-bka’-‘gyur & bstan-’gyur. The catalogue

6528-497: The history of evolution of catalogue. Bande sKa-ba dpal-brtsegs is thus, honored as the pioneer of the Tibetan system. All the later compilers of the Tibetan Canon based their works extensively on sKa-ba dpal-brtsegs creation. After the period of suppression during the reign of King glang-dar-ma’s (803–842) which brought the first chapter of the history of Tibetan literature to an abrupt end, the second phase in its development

6624-430: The interconnectedness of all phenomena and for training the mind to perceive the world in a nondual fashion" and thus by using them one can "diminish the habitual propensities of an ordinary, dualistic mind." This view of interconnectedness is also applied among all human beings and all sentient beings and contains methods to train the mind so as to perceive all sentient beings as nondual from oneself. According to Wallace,

6720-452: The introduction of the script by Songtsen Gampo and Thonmi Sambhota . The incomplete Dunhuang manuscripts are their key evidence for their hypothesis, while the few discovered and recorded Old Tibetan Annals manuscripts date from 650 and therefore post-date the c. 620 date of development of the original Tibetan script. Three orthographic standardisations were developed. The most important, an official orthography aimed to facilitate

6816-403: The latest edition of Dharma Publication, the bKa’-‘gyur contains 1,115 texts, spread over 65,420 Tibetan folios amounting to 450,000 lines or 25 million words. Likewise, the bsTan-'gyur contains 3,387 texts using 127,000 folios amounting to 850,000 lines and 48 million words. The sum total of both these collections is 4,502 texts in 73 million words. By fixing bampo to verses and to words of each of

6912-429: The mahasukha (great bliss) of enlightenment. Since Kālacakra is time and everything is the flow of time, Kālacakra knows all. Kālacakri, his spiritual consort and complement, is aware of everything that is timeless, not time-bound or out of the realm of time. The two deities are thus temporality and atemporality conjoined. Similarly, the wheel or circle (chakra) is without beginning or end (representing timelessness), thus

7008-457: The manifestations of cyclic existence and nirvana , as well as its causes. Kālacakra therefore represents a single unified reality (also called Adibuddha , Sahajakaya, Jñanakaya, Sahajananda and Vajrayoga). When this reality manifests itself as numerous phenomena, it is called samsara. Vesna Wallace notes how the idea of time as a universal creative reality has precursors in Vedic literature and in

7104-452: The name of the palace and known as dkar-chag phang-thang-ma . Soon afterwards two further catalogues of collections available in two other royal libraries- pho-brang bsam-yas mchims-phu-ma and pho-brang stong-thang ldan-dkar were compiled and came to be known as dkar-chag mchims-phu-ma and dkar-chag ldan-dkar-ma respectively. dkar-chag ldan-dkar-ma was compiled in the dragon year (824 CE). Among these three catalogues, ldan-dkar-ma, included in

7200-469: The nonduality of two facets of a single reality—namely, wisdom ( prajña ), or emptiness ( sunyata ), and method ( upaya ), or compassion ( karuna ). The word "time" refers to the gnosis of imperishable bliss ( aksara-sukha-jñana ), which is a method consisting of compassion; and the word "wheel" designates wisdom consisting of emptiness. Their unity is the Buddha Kālacakra. Thus, Kālacakra refers to

7296-588: The original Sanskrit texts of the Kālacakra tradition "originated during the early decades of the 11th century CE , and we know with certainty that the Śrī Kālacakra and the Vimalaprabhā commentary were completed between 1025 and 1040 CE." Kālacakra remains an active tradition of Buddhist tantra in Tibetan Buddhism, particularly within the Jonang tradition, and its teachings and initiations have been offered to large public audiences, most famously by

7392-515: The origination due to the twelve-limbed dependence, the Four Truths , the eighteen unique qualities of the Buddha, the five psycho-physical aggregates , the three bodies and the Sahajakaya, and animate emptiness. The system in which these are taught is the clear and definite instruction of the Vajri. According to Vesna Wallace, the Kālacakra tradition has a unique interpretation of emptiness which

7488-449: The path, since it is a kind of facsimile of the realization of emptiness and it produces mental joy. It also stresses the importance of retaining one's semen during sexual union, as well as the importance of proper motivation and not-grasping at blissful states. The goal of Kālacakra is also described as access to gnosis or knowledge ( jñana , also called vajra-yoga , prajñaparamita , vidya "spiritual knowledge" and Mahamudra ) which

7584-425: The pranas or vital winds (which are said to cause and sustain the afflictions) and thus to an individual's psycho-physical constitution. Thus, awakening comes about through the purification of the pranas. Kālacakra also refers to a specific deity who appears as a fierce multi-armed blue deity in sexual union ( yab-yum ) with a consort called Visvamata (or Kālacakri). The Kālacakratantra's first chapter introduces

7680-571: The progenitor of the Buddhas, without origination and annihilation, possessing the three bodies, rightly knowing the three times – the omniscient Bhagavan Paramadhibuddha, I worship that very non-duality. Vesna Wallace notes that in this tantra, the Adibuddha is spoken of in two distinct ways. The first one is the idea that there is a being who was "the first to obtain Buddhahood by means of the imperishable bliss characterized by perfect awakening in

7776-404: The radical ཀ /ka/ and see what happens when it becomes ཀྲ /kra/ or རྐ /rka/ (pronounced /ka/). In both cases, the symbol for ཀ /ka/ is used, but when the ར /ra/ is in the middle of the consonant and vowel, it is added as a subscript. On the other hand, when the ར /ra/ comes before the consonant and vowel, it is added as a superscript. ར /ra/ actually changes form when it

7872-407: The requesting to re-inscribe all manuscripts and set in separate volumes. dbu-pa blo-gsal byang-chub ye-shes, who was the disciple of both bcom-ldan rigs-ral and ’jam-gag pak-shi, was entrusted for this new task. He with colleagues, dutifully accomplished the work and published for the first time a complete and new set of volumes of - bka’-’gyur & bstan-’gyur and placed at atemple, ‘jam-lha-khang of

7968-453: The script's invention, and there are no dedicated symbols for tone. However, since tones developed from segmental features, they can usually be correctly predicted by the archaic spelling of Tibetan words. One aspect of the Tibetan script is that the consonants can be written either as radicals or they can be written in other forms, such as subscript and superscript forming consonant clusters . To understand how this works, one can look at

8064-799: The scripts in the first version of the Unicode Standard in 1991, in the Unicode block U+1000–U+104F. However, in 1993, in version 1.1, it was removed (the code points it took up would later be used for the Burmese script in version 3.0). The Tibetan script was re-added in July, 1996 with the release of version 2.0. The Unicode block for Tibetan is U+0F00–U+0FFF. It includes letters, digits and various punctuation marks and special symbols used in religious texts: Tibetan Buddhist canon Samding Dorje Phagmo The Tibetan Buddhist canon

8160-577: The snar thang monastery which later became famous as snar thang edition. Unfortunately, both the catalogues and volumes of this hand-written oldest edition of the bka’-’gyur & bstan-’gyur are no longer available. The Tibetan part of the Chinese tripitaka Zhonghua da zang jing (中華大藏經) was published in 2008. These are all woodcut editions: These are all manuscript editions: The following sigla are regularly used in scholarly editions of Kanjur texts. A number of catalogues have been published. In

8256-628: The tantras of the Nyingma is known as the Nyingma Gyubum . The division used by the Nyingma or Ancient school: The Sarma or New Translation schools of Tibetan Buddhism ( Gelug , Sakya , and Kagyu ) divide the Tantras into four hierarchical categories, namely, "The Yoginī Tantra s correspond to what later Tibetan commentators termed the "Mother Tantras" ( ma rgyud )" ( CST , p. 5). In

8352-487: The term Kāla-cakra includes what is timeless and time itself. One of the key topics of the Kālacakratantra is the Adibuddha (Primordial Buddha or First Buddha). Regarding the Adibuddha, the tantra states: To the one embraced by the Bhagavati Prajña, the one who is aspectless although possessing aspect; to the one who has the bliss of the unchanging and who has abandoned the pleasures of laughter and so forth; to

8448-409: The text attempts to refute all other Buddhist and non-Buddhist systems. As noted by Wallace, the Kālacakratantra holds that "only Madhyamikas who assert the nonduality of compassion and emptiness avoid philosophical failure." The Kālacakratantra summarizes its fundamental doctrines in the following passage: Identitylessness, the maturation of karma, the three realms , the six states of existence,

8544-432: The textual contents, the individual works are interpolation and alteration. This further strengthened the authenticity of Tibetan Buddhist literature. These are the first Tibetan catalogues in three versions that were compiled and published in the beginning of the ninth century by the great sgra-sgyur gyi lo-tsa-wa Bande sKa-ba dpal-brtsegs and his team. Tibet, thus, becomes the earliest to accomplish catalogue as inventory in

8640-467: The translation of Buddhist scriptures emerged during the early 9th century. Standard orthography has not been altered since then, while the spoken language has changed by, for example, losing complex consonant clusters . As a result, in all modern Tibetan dialects and in particular in the Standard Tibetan of Lhasa , there is a great divergence between current spelling, which still reflects

8736-454: The universe and all things in it (i.e. the five aggregates, constituents and bases of the world), which exist as cyclical patterns powered by time. Kāla is also said to be knowledge ( jñana ) and chakra is the knowable ( jneya ). In the universal sense then, the term Kālacakra is all-inclusive and refers to the unity of the basis of reality and reality itself. According to Wallace, from the point of view of ultimate reality, "Kālacakra" refers to,

8832-415: The volume Jo of sna-tsogs in sde-ge bka’-bstan, is generally believed to be the only surviving so far. But recently a manuscript of dkar-chag phang-thang-ma is discovered and published from Tibet. It contains 961 titles listed under 34 subject headings with additional information of numbers of verses (soloka and bampo ) that contains in each text. The ldan-dkar-ma catalogue comprises 735 titles and listed under

8928-512: The vowel ཨུ /u/ is placed underneath consonants. Old Tibetan included a reversed form of the mark for /i/, the gigu 'verso', of uncertain meaning. There is no distinction between long and short vowels in written Tibetan, except in loanwords , especially transcribed from the Sanskrit . The Tibetan alphabet, when used to write other languages such as Balti , Chinese and Sanskrit , often has additional and/or modified graphemes taken from

9024-472: Was assigned for the purpose. As a major step in this remarkable attempt at literary standardization, the bi-lingual glossary known as the Mahavyutpatti (sgra-sbyor bam-po gnyis-pa) was successfully accomplished in the Tibetan horse year (814 CE). Another great achievement was the cataloguing of the collections then available in royal libraries of the three famous Tibetan palaces under the supervision of

9120-410: Was prepared into two sets of collections, entitled the dkar-chag bstan-pa rgyas-pa and dka-’gyur gyi dkar-chag nyi-ma’i ’od-zer respectively. Classification of Tibetan Buddhist canon or translation works into two main classes as bka’-’gyur & bstan-’gyur is basically derived from this catalogue. ’Jam-gag pak-shi was once again able to gather some good amount of writing materials and sent to Tibet with

9216-628: Was re-grouped into two major collections popularly known as bka’-’gyur and bstan-’gyur , translation of Buddha’s discourses and translation of commentarial works respectively. The very first Tibetan catalogue was introduced during the period of the 39th Tibetan King khri-lde srong-btsen, also known as sad-na legs-mjing-gyon (776–815), who issued decrees “requiring all translation works that were extant in Tibetan from their Indian original to be catalogued and subjected to be recurrently reviewed and to set guidelines of terminology in order to standardize all translation works”. A team of Indian and Tibetan scholars

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