This series of articles are base on my reading of Barry Bryant's "The Wheel of Time Sand Mandala". The goal is to give us all a pointer on the path to understand what Kalachakra Mandala or even what Mandala is about with a fairly short articles. Please feel free to give inputs and corrections for this is a new topic for me personally.

The articles are organized as follow: In part I I will give a brief back ground on Kalachakra Mandala. Part II is a short description of the mythical history of Kalachakra and in Part III I will walk us through the kalachakra initiation which starts the students off on the Kalachakra path to enlightenment.

Kalachakra Mandala is part of a tantra teaching pass down from Buddha. There are two classes of Buddha's teaching - sutras and tantras. Sutras are pass down in dialogue form publicly and are widely available. Tantras on the other hand are taught individually. The content is kept between the teacher and the student. The teacher gives a specific tantra teaching only if the student is ready for it. There are three major Buddhist paths - Hinayana, the path to individual liberation; Mahayana, the path of altriusm; and Vajrayana, the diamond path. Tantra is the core of Vajrayana path, which is said to be the most direct path to enlightenment.

At the center of each tantra is a deity who is "regarded as a manifestation of a particular aspect of Buddha mind". The center deity of Kalachakra tantra is Kalachakra or wheel of time. Kala is the flow of all events and Chakra is the wheel that not only represent the cycle of time but also the radiant of all our enlighten truth toward all beings. The realm of Kalachakra is one of omniscience. With Kalachakra as the center deity who represent "one with all time and therefore knows all", three deity also play a center role in Kalachakra tantra: Manjusri (wisdom), Avalokiteshvara (compassion) and Vajrapani(Power). Kalachakra is a teaching (tantra) which has its own mandala, text, mantras, prayers, meditation practices, rituals and history.

Mandala in Tibetan is Kyilkhor which is literally translated as "center and surrounding environment". The Mandala of a deity includes the deity and his palace which is also a manifestation of the deity's mind. Mandalas are usually abstracted in a two dimensional form of the three dimensional palace. the abstraction can be followed to reconstruct the three dimensional Mandala.

The Kalachakra Mandala represents the entire Kalachakra Tantra. It is also the two dimensional description of the five story palace of Kalachakra.

References

1. "The Wheel of Time Sand Mandala" by Barry Bryant, Harpercollins; (order from Amazon)