Kalachakra for World Peace, October 2002

In 2002 the City of Graz commissioned the Buddhist Center She Drup Ling with the organisation of the Tibetan Buddhist Ritual “Kalachakra for World Peace”. This tibetan buddhist ceremony for world peace was guided by H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama and attracted 10.000 visitors from 80 nations.

“It was an impressive event, both spiritually and for the people of the city,” recalls former mayor Alfred Stingl. “There wasn’t a single negative incident at the meeting; it was like a blessing over the city.”

Was does Kalachakra mean?

The word Kalachakra means “wheel of time” and refers to the unique representation of the cycles of time described in the Kalachakra Tantra. The meaning of the word tantra is “eternal river of continuity”.

The External Kalachakra describes the origin and construction of the external world, the planets and the stars. It depicts the external cycles of life and time, such as the days of the year, and forms a comprehensive cosmology.

The Internal Kalachakra describes the life and time cycles of the human body, in particular the flow of breath and the energy-winds through the subtle body. This section also provides the basis for the Tibetan medical science.

The Alternative Kalachakra represents a comprehensive system of methods for practitioners. On the basis set out in the External and Internal Kalachakra it describes the procedures for attaining the state of enlightenment, free from all worries and suffering. In order for individuals to be able to apply the necessary meditation methods, an initiation or empowerment is first required. On the one hand this empowerment serves to motivate the participants to desire the attainment of enlightenment for the benefit of all beings as quickly as possible, and on the other hand it serves as a blessing for the practices and as a protection from hindering influences.

The initiation proceeds on the basis of a mandala composed of coloured sand, a symbolic representation of Kalachakra’s palace. Buddha Kalachakra sits enthroned with his consort Vishvamata at the center of the mandala. The pair is surrounded by other Buddhas representing various aspects of purification and transformation. The initiation consists of a series of complex visualizations during which, analogous to human development, different aspects of human nature are purified and transformed.

An essential element of tantra generally requires practitioners to refrain from identifying with their everyday ego and its endless problems, and to view themselves in the corresponding visualizations as enlightened beings.

During the meditations of the so-called generation stage the practitioners visualize themselves as enlightened Buddhas within a mandala and their surroundings as a pure realm in which the other participants are also enlightened beings. This is to allow participants to liberate themselves from their everyday imprisonment within the concept of the ego and to guide the mind into a state of purity and wisdom. The generation stage leads to the actualization of the Form Body (rupakaya).

In the practice of the completion stage, which is essentially based on meditations on the subtle energy body, the mind retreats from all physical forms and realises its original state as pure clear light. The completion stage serves to actualize the Truth Body (dharmakaya).