Kalachakra Mandala
Kalachakra Teachings & The Shambhala Prophecy
In the Tibetan wisdom tradition there is a body of teachings from the Kalachakra (“wheel of time” or “time machine”) inner-science tradition which outlines in exquisite detail the profound interrelationship and interfusion of the energies of our inner universe and our outer universe. These teaching are the basis of the Tibetan medical system, as well as the methods of both astronomy and astrology, and contemplative practice. The foremost contemporary teacher of this tradition is the Dalai Lama, who has give the Kalachakra teachings to millions of people around the globe. Because these teachings seek to awaken a deep insight and intuition regarding the harmonization and balancing of inner and outer energies, these teachings are often framed as the Kalachakra teachings for world peace. Within these teachings are found many references to Shambhala – a mysterious realm that inspired our modern myths of Shangrila.
Within the Kalachakra teachings there is a prophecy regarding a time of great danger in our world – which bares strong resemblance to the times we are living in now. Such teachings are relatively rare within this tradition, which give this a special significance. While these teachings are quite extensive and profound, one of the most accessible teachings on the Shambhala prophecy comes from Joanna Macy, a friend and inspired teacher and deep ecologist whose work we deeply respect. After meeting with a group of medical students with a sincere interest in these teachings we are moved to post this information for them and for our readers and students on this occasion of the calendrical Kalachakra New Year, 2010. While most of this version appears on Joanna’s website: http://www.joannamacy.net/html/great.html#shamb – the last paragraph is taken from a talk on this topic that she offered at Manzanita Village.
THE SHAMBHALA PROPHECY
Coming to us across twelve centuries, the prophecy about the coming of the Shambhala warriors illustrates the challenges we face in the Great Turning and the strengths we can bring to it. Joanna Macy learned it in 1980 from Tibetan friends in India, who were coming to believe that this ancient prophecy referred to this very planet-time. She often recounts it in workshops, for the signs it foretold are recognizable now, signs of great danger.
There are varying interpretations of this prophecy. Some portray the coming of the kingdom of Shambhala as an internal event, a metaphor for one’s inner spiritual journey independent of the world around us. Others present it as an entirely external event that will unfold independent of what we may choose to do or what our participation may be in the healing of our world. A third version of the prophecy was given to Joanna by her friend and teacher Choegyal Rinpoche of the Tashi Jong community in northern India.
There comes a time when all life on Earth is in danger. Great barbarian powers have arisen. Although these powers spend their wealth in preparations to annihilate one another, they have much in common: weapons of unfathomable destructive power, and technologies that lay waste our world. In this era, when the future of sentient life hangs by the frailest of threads, the kingdom of Shambhala emerges.
You cannot go there, for it is not a place; it is not a geopolitical entity. It exists in the hearts and minds of the Shambhala warriors˜that is the term Choegyal used, “warriors.” Nor can you recognize a Shambhala warrior when you see her or him, for they wear no uniforms or insignia, and they carry no banners. They have no barricades on which to climb to threaten the enemy, or behind which they can hide to rest or regroup. They do not even have any home turf. Always they must move on the terrain of the barbarians themselves.
Now the time comes when great courage–moral and physical courage–is required of the Shambhala warriors, for they must go into the very heart of the barbarian power, into the pits and pockets and citadels where the weapons are kept, to dismantle them. To dismantle weapons, in every sense of the word, they must go into the corridors of power where decisions are made.
The Shambhala warriors have the courage to do this because they know that these weapons are manomaya. They are “mind-made.” Made by the human mind, they can be unmade by the human mind. The Shambhala warriors know that the dangers threatening life on Earth are not visited upon us by any extraterrestrial power, satanic deities, or preordained evil fate. They arise from our own decisions, our own lifestyles, and our own relationships.
So in this time, the Shambhala warriors go into training. When Choegyal said this, Joanna asked, “How do they train?” They train, he said, in the use of two weapons. “What weapons?” And he held up his hands in the way the Lamas hold the ritual objects of dorje and bell in the lama dance.
The weapons are compassion and insight. Both are necessary, he said. You have to have compassion because it gives you the juice, the power, the passion to move. It means not to be afraid of the pain of the world. Then you can open to it, step forward, and act. But that weapon by itself is not enough. It can burn you out, so you need the other–you need insight into the radical interdependence of all phenomena. With that wisdom you know that it is not a battle between “good guys” and “bad guys,” because the line between good and evil runs through the landscape of every human heart. With insight into our profound inter-relatedness–our deep ecology–you know that actions undertaken with pure intent have repercussions throughout the web of life, beyond what you can measure or discern. By itself, that insight may appear too cool, too conceptual, to sustain you and keep you moving, so you need the heat of compassion. Together these two can sustain us as agents of wholesome change. They are gifts for us to claim now in the healing of our world.
These two weapons of the Shambhala warrior represent two essential aspects of the Work that Reconnects. One is the recognition and experience of our pain for the world. The other is the recognition and experience of our radical, empowering interconnectedness with all life.
Brothers and Sisters, lovers of our world, you have come from so many different journeys and such different lives. . . Our coming together is in service to the sacred life of this planet. We have come for our own spiritual growth but also in service to the larger whole, to our people. In our practice we can discover how to fit together our personal pain and the planet’s pain, our personal healing and the planet’s healing – a deeper integration which brings a release of intentions, energy and insight. Be willing to hear the Earth speaking through you and to each other. Be willing to be surprised, especially to be surprised by what you hear from within yourself.
Additional notes from http://Kalachakranet.org
“Our outer world – environment and beings –
Subject to time and the auspicious conjunction of planets and stars,
Our inner being – aggregates and sense bases –
Subject to the movement of subtle channels, winds and essences,
Are in fact the deities of Glorious Kalachakra – the Wheel of Time.
One who knows this should so compose a wondrous calendar…
Such is the delirious chatter of the old man Dilgo Khyentse.’
‘A Wondrous Calendar….’ By Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Kalachakra means Time-Wheel, as “Kala” is Sanskrit for Time and “Cakra” (or Chakra) is Wheel in Sanskrit. One could also translate it as Time-Cycles. Much in this tradition revolves around the concept of time and cycles: from the cycles of the planets, to the cycles of our breath and the practice of controlling the most subtle energies within one’s body on the path to enlightenment.
The time-cycles in the external universe are interrelated to the inner cycles of energy in our bodies. Thus, the phrase ‘as it is outside, so it is within the body’ can be found in the Kalachakra Tantra to emphasize similarities between ourselves and the cosmos; the basis for astrology. But the similarities are taken to an even more profound level of connections and interdependence as taught in the Kalachakra literature. Ultimately, the teachings are designed to guide the practitioner on the path to Buddhahood, and the Kalachakra contains its own unique methods which are among the most complicated within Buddhism. However, individual practitioners require require different methods to achieve the same goals.
Based on a mix of Indian, Chinese and Kalachakra Tantra sources, the unique system of Tibetan astrology was developed. The system is used in a quite different way from the western astrological approach, where birth-charts form the main basis. It should be noted that the time of birth is considered much less important in buddhist thought, because the actual new life started at the time of fertilization of the egg, rather than at the moment of birth.
The Kalachakra astrological system forms one of the main building blocks to compose the Tibetan calendar. Part of the first chapter of the Kalachakra Tantra is dedicated to making an accurate calendar. The astrology in the Kalachakra is not unlike the Western system, and complicated calculations are required to determine e.g. the exact location of the planets.
More info and links at:
http://www.snowlionpub.com/pages/kalachakrateachings.html
Very inspiring video of the Dalai Lama’s Kalachakra teachings in Washington, D.C. is posted at:
http://www.dalailama.com/webcasts/post/195-kalachakra-preliminary-teachings
and at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJy21xAHjv8
More info also at:
An opportunity to receive the Kalachakra teachings from the Dalai Lama in Washington, D.C. July 2011:
