“This is a bombshell book. Intense, covering esoteric aspects, philosophy, politics and with seamless flow. Many congratulations. This is going to be a must-read book in the Buddhist world and among strategists.” –Niraj Kumar
For the full moon today, I am happy to offer a new e-book Kālacakra Lineages, History and Philosophy: Contemporary Research and Translations, a newly arranged and edited compilation of my research and translations on Kālacakra. It is just under 300 pages and divided into six main sections (full contents list see below). It can be downloaded for free as a .pdf file: Kālachakra E-book.
I started studying and translating Kālacakra texts in 2017-18 after I finished a Master’s degree translating and analysing the important philosophical commentary on the Heart Sūtra by Jonang and Shangpa Kagyu master, Je Tāranātha (1575-1634) detailing his (and the Jonang’s) Empty-of-Other (Zhen-tong) view on the nature of reality/emptiness. In this commentary, Tāranātha explains how even the Heart Sūtra and Prajñāpāramitā, teaches the Empty-of-Other Buddha Nature view, and not just the mere negation view of conditioned phenomena (the other) as espoused by the Prāsaṅgika Madhyamika/Gelugpa school. For more on that book, see here.
Dro Kālacakra/Jonang lineage, Je Tāranātha’s texts and head of Jonang, Jigme Dorje Rinpoche
In 2017, I then began translating two important Kālacakra instruction texts (with the assistance of a Jonang Khenpo in Dharamsala) Meaningful to Behold and Hundred Blazing Lights by Je Tāranatha. This was around the time a well-known Kālacakra translator-scholar, Edward Henning, passed away (a memorial tribute is included in the new e-book).
At that time, I was informed that the (recently deceased) head of the Jonang tradition and abbot of Dzamthang Monastery, Tibet, Kyabje Jigme Dorje Rinpoche had publicly forbidden translation (and even transmission) for public or commercial consumption the instruction texts on the completion stage practices (six vajra yogas) and that such instructions and practices can and should only be given one to one between a qualified teacher and student. There are two articles in this book about Jigme Dorje Rinpoche regarding his advice on the Corona Virus and also an aspiration prayer for his swift re-birth composed by the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje.
However, I was permitted to translate the Ordinary and Special Preliminary practice sections of those texts. Some of the articles in this collection are from my translations of these texts, and include excerpts such as the important section on the seventeen main lineages of Kālacakra that came from the Indian sub-continent into Tibet, as documented by Jonang lineage holder. Kunpang Chenpo.
In addition, I translated and wrote an introduction to the important Kālacakra Preliminaries practice manual by another Jonang (and Ri-mey) Tibetan master of the 19th Century Bamda Geleg Gyatso (1844-1904) called The Chariot that Transports to the Four Kayas. This was published by the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in 2019. A second edition is forthcoming.
This work then led to my commencing a separate translation project on the Innate Kālacakra (development stage) one of the special/uncommon preliminary practices, that was awarded an Ashoka Grant funding by the Khyentse Foundation in November 2018. It can be freely downloaded as a separate e-book (see chapter in the new e-book too).
Kālacakra Origins and History in India, Nepal and Tibet
As a result of the many mass empowerments of Kālacakra given by the 14th Dalai Lama globally over the past sixty years, many people (including Tibetans) wrongly think (and even state) that it is a Tibetan Buddhist text and practice. In 2024, I hosted an interview podcast with Kālacakra Tantra scholar-translator, Niraj Kumar (details included in this collection) in which we discussed the “physical” origins of Kālacakra as a Sanskrit text, via the author of the tantra itself, Indian Mahasiddha, Nāropa.
Also, there is an article about the location of the physical, and mystical land of Shambhala, again based on Kumar’s research that Shambhala had been misidentified for decades by European and North American scholars, and that it was more likely to have been in the Arakan area of the Myanmar coast of the Bay of Bengal, where Tilopa may have been one of the former Candra Kings, and where he received the Kālacakra Tantra teachings before transmitting them to his student, Nāropa, who wrote the teaching down in Sanskrit in spectacular verse format.
There are also two articles about two places in Nepal I visited during a trip there in 2018, and their connection to the Kālacakra Tantra and practice: Vikramaśīla-Bihar and the Kālacakra lineage holder and Indian master, Vibhūticandra; and Vanaratna at the Śāntapurī Vihāra, Swayambhūnath.
The Karmapas, Karma Kagyu and other Tibetan Buddhist lineages and Kālacakra
Other articles in this e-book consider and re-tell the narrative regarding the other main Tibetan Buddhist lineages and their important connection to Kālacakra. The most important lineage for the origin and spread of Kālacakra in Tibet (before the Jonangpas) was that of Karma Kagyu, via the Kagyu forefathers, Indian Mahasiddhas, Tīlopa and his student, Nāropa. This lineage was passed to renowned Tibetan Buddhist practitioner Ogyenpa Rinchen Pal (1229-1309) and his student 3rd Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje (1284-1339), who composed one of the main commentaries on Kālacakra and whose written work on Kālacakra astrology, also led to his creation of Tibetan Tsurphu astrological system. Another important Karmapa for the Kālacakra was the 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje (1507-1554), and his work and ideas are mentioned in some of these articles.
I also consider the impact of the renowned non-sectarian Karma Kagyu master, the first Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye (1813-1899) on the preservation in Tibet of Kālacakra, via Karma Kagyu and Shangpa Kagyu lineage holders such as 1st Kalu Rinpoche, Bokar Rinpoche, Tenga Rinpoche and 12th Gyaltsab Rinpoche. There are also articles on the history of Kālacakra in the Sakya and Nyingma Kālacakra lineages, and contemporary 20th Century practitioners such as Chogye Trichen Rinpoche and Khyentse Chokyi Lodro.
Dalai Lama/Gelugpa sectarian power in Tibet and exile and (mis)-use of the Kālacakra Tantra
As the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso’s name has become (wrongly) synonymous with the Kālacakra due to his giving many mass empowerments of it in India and globally, I have included two articles regarding the Dalai Lama/Gelugpa takeover of Kālacakra and the use of mass empowerments inside and outside Tibet to garner political power and popularity. Not only are such Highest Yoga Tantra mass empowerments contrary to the advice of Vajrayana masters, such as Indian masters, Aśvaghoṣa and Je Atisha but have also been conducted incorrectly according to the Kālacakra Tantra itself, according to Kumar.
There is also an appendix article about how the Dalai Lama institution came to power in the 17th Century and was created in Tibet with a full-scale murderous Mongolian army invasion, and the six-decade failure of the ‘history-blind’ US-Gelug policy that firmly placed (and still does) the Dalai Lama as the political and spiritual leader of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism.
The preservation and continuation of authentic Kālacakra Tantra lineage and teachings
It is written in the Kālacakra Tantra that a barbaric religion will come to dominate the world and lead to a catastrophic and dangerous situation for all. Niraj Kumar has stated that this religion originates from Baghdad, Mecca and is what we call Islam. In addition, the profound and original insights of the Kālacakra Tantra in relation to time, astrology, the universe, the body, machines, and attaining full control over the body and time itself, are still an extraordinary (and relatively unexplored) spiritual and intellectual knowledge of importance cross-cultures and globally.
As can be seen in the contents of this e-book/research, one of my main motivations for doing this work is to maintain and preserve the Kālacakra history, lineage teachings and practice from degeneration and sectarian misuse and ‘ownership’. I have received the Kālacakra empowerment several times, including from the Jonang tradition, and from the Jamgon Kongtrul Kagyu tradition from 12th Gyaltsab Rinpoche and 8th Garchen Rinpoche
In 2020, at Sherab Ling monastery in Himachal Pradesh, India, I personally requested the 12th Tai Situpa in writing to bestow a Kālacakra empowerment or teaching. Then, in 2022, at the Nyingma Monlam, led by Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche, I requested him to maintain and preserve the Nyingma lineage of Kālacakra in person with a handwritten card in front of the Bodhi Temple, Bodh Gaya on Guru Padmasambhava Day. Neither responded nor has any Kālacakra teaching or empowerment been arranged or bestowed by Karma Kagyu or Nyingma teachers, with the exception of that by 12th Gyaltsab Rinpoche, which I attended at his monastery in Ravangla, Sikkim. Perhaps there are good reasons for that. In any case, there is the merit and aspiration of my having requested such with good intentions, which is immeasurable!
Special thanks to D for his kind and generous sponsorship and support of this new publication (and my work generally). Thanks also to Niraj Kumar, to the Jonang Dro Kālacakra lineage holders in Tibet and India, to 12th Gyaltsab Rinpoche and to the kindness and blessings of the three roots, the guru, 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the yidam deity, and the Dharma Protectors, without whom none of this would have been possible. May it be of benefit to the Kālacakra teachings, practice, the Shambhala Kings and the supreme deity Kālacakra.
Written, translated and edited by Adele Tomlin, January 2025.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION. 6
E-BOOKS. 10
A Hundred Blazing Lights: Supplementary Commentary on ‘Meaningful to See’ by Jetsun Tāranātha. 10
Meaningful to See: Guidance on the Profound Path of the Vajra-Yogas by Jetsun Tāranātha. 15
The Chariot that Transports One to the Four Kāyas: the Common Preliminaries of Kālacakra by Bamda Gelek Gyatso. 17
Innate Kālacakra: Instruction Texts and Recitations. 21
HISTORY AND ORIGINS. 26
The Authentic Roots and Fruits of Kālacakra Tantra and its Author Mahasiddha, Nāropa. Interview with Niraj Kumar (Dakini Conversations, Ep.7) 26
Locating Shambhala in Bay of Bengal area, Tilopa as Kālacakra King, and the “bitter sectarian” Gelugpa ‘attack’ on Tāranātha’s guide to Shambhala by the 3rd Panchen Lama. 32
The Seventeen Lineages of the Kālacakra Six Vajra-Yogas – according to Jonang master Kunpang Chenpo. 48
‘Supplication to the Kālacakra Lineage’ by Jetsun Tāranātha. 56
Machig Jobum, Female mahasiddha and lineage holder of Dro Kālacakra. 58
PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE. 64
The ‘vajra descent’ and ‘authentic completion stage’: the 8th Karmapa and Je Tāranātha on the meaning of ‘vajra’ and ‘non-conceptual primordial awareness’ 64
Ultimate ‘ecstatic union’: the meaning and role of ‘erotic bliss’ in tantra and Kālacakra 75
Kālacakra as the ‘ultimate pinnacle’ of all the tantras: Jetsun Tāranātha and 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje. 89
‘Love is the water of compassion’, Je Tāranātha on the ‘four immeasurables’ in ‘A Hundred Blazing Lights’ 99
Colour and scale images of the Kālacakra Worldly Cosmos according to Jetsun Tāranātha and Bamda Gelek Gyatso. 106
The meaning of ‘innate’ (lhan skyes) in generation stage Kālacakra. 109
The ‘nature’ and ‘meaning’ of mantra, tantra and the ten-syllables in Kālacakra by Jamgon Kongtrul 121
KĀLACAKRA AND KARMA KAGYU.. 129
The Karmapas and Kālacakra. 129
The Kagyu Kālacakra ‘forgotten’ lineages and texts: Tsami and Rechungpa. 136
The Dagpo Kagyu lineage holders of Dro/Jonang Kālacakra. 141
Murder plots, omens, black magic and Kālacakra: Tantric hero Jamgon Kongtrul’s dangerous first trip to Jonang monastery. 155
Karma Kagyu masters of the Jamgon Kongtrul lineage of Dro/Jonang Kālacakra. 161
Kālacakra and the 3rd Jamgon Kongtrul: an empowerment and teaching. 168
12th Gyaltsab Rinpoche and Kālacakra. 178
Karma Kagyu Kālacakra and the Bokar Rinpoche Kālacakra Stupa. 181
OTHER TIBETAN BUDDHIST LINEAGES. 186
Sakya and Kālacakra: the Galo, Śākyaśrī and Vajrayogini lineages and contemporary master, Chogye Rinpoche. 186
Nyingma and Kālacakra: Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, Tāranātha and Ju Mipham Rinpoche on Kālacakra. 194
KĀLACAKRA AND GELUGPA SECTARIANISM.. 198
Kālacakra and the Dalai Lamas/Gelugpas. 198
“Leaping from the Precipice” with the Unexamined: Vajrayāna empowerments for the ‘unexamined masses’ and the question of their accordance with the Buddhist Tantras and samayas. 216
KĀLACAKRA IN NEPAL. 226
Visiting Vikramaśīla-Bihar, Nepal: the forgotten and neglected Kālacakra pilgrimage site of Kālacakra lineage holder and Indian master, Vibhūticandra. 226
Vanaratna, the Six Yogas of Kālacakra and the Śāntapurī Vihāra, Swayambhūnath. 233
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES AND ASPIRATIONS. 238
Memorial Tribute and Aspiration for the Swift Return of Jonang Head by 17th Karmapa. 237
Remembering Tenga Rinpoche, a Kagyu Kālacakra master. 248
A memoriam and tribute to Kālacakra scholar, translator and calendar expert – Edward Henning (1949-2016) 251
APPENDIX. 261
Head of the Jonang lineage, Kyabje Jigme Dorje Rinpoche, on the causes of the corona virus outbreak and the recitation of the mantra revealed by Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro. 261
The Mongolian-Gelug shadow over Tibet: Six decades of failed US-Gelug policy. 265