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Kalachakra Tantra: Rite of Initiation
By: Dalai Lama

Kalachakra Tantra: Rite of Initiation


 
Our Price: $34.95
Members Price: $31.46
Author: Dala Lama
Translator: Jeffrey Hopkins
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780861711512


Product Code: 5514
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Description About the author Contents
 
Of the hundreds of Buddhist tantras, the Kalachakra is one of the most important. In Tibet-where these esoteric teachings have been practised purely for a thousand years-and now in the West, this tantra has come to be especially associated with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, one of the greatest Buddhist teachers alive today.

The Dalai Lama has given the initiation into the practice of Kalachakra a number of times, and this book is based on the first that he gave in the West, in Madison, USA in 1981. It presents the series of initiations that authorize practice of the first of the two stages involved in tantra-the stage of generation, in which the practitioners visualize themselves as an ideal being, a Buddha. The initiation ritual is translated and interspersed with commentary from the Dalai Lama.

In the first part of the book the Dalai Lama's translator, Professor Jeffrey Hopkins, explains the tantric techniques of deity yoga and how it is possible, by practising them, to transform oneself into a Buddha. He discusses the importance of having an altruistic motivation for practising these techniques, and includes the marvellous stanzas of Tok-may-sang-bo, The Thirty-seven Practices of a Bodhisattva. He describes the Kalachakra mandala and how it relates to the initiation, discusses the procedure of the initiation itself, recounts in brief the lives of the authors, both the Dalai Lama and Kay-drup, and outlines a short history of the Kalachakra Tantra.

Also included are three versions of the Six-Session Yoga, the rites for daily practice.

This is the first time that a tantric initiation ritual has been explained in detail and published in a Western language. The special techniques for transforming body, speech and mind into completely altruistic expression are presented for the benefit of not only those who intend, after taking the initiation, to practise these techniques, but also for those who want to learn about this remarkable system of spiritual practice.

This edition has been revised since it was first published for the Kalachakra initiation in Switzerland, 1985.

Front cover: Kalachakra: artist unknown; photo: Hiroki Fujita; courtesy of the Office of Tibet, Tokyo. Back cover photo: courtesy of the Office of Tibet, London.

Kalachakra Tantra Rite of Initiation, Dalai Lama & Jeffrey Hopkins, Wisdom Publications, 528 Pages, $34.95

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