Table Of ContentINTRODUCTION TO THE
KALACHAKRA INITIATION
INTRODUCTION TO THE
KALACHAKRA INITIATION
by
Alexander Berzin
Foreword by
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Snow Lion Publications
Ithaca, New York
Snow Lion Publications
P.O. Box 6483
Ithaca, New York 14851 USA
607-273-8519
www.snowlionpub.com
Copyright © 1997, 2010 Alexander Berzin
All rights reserved. No portion of this work may be
reproduced by any means without prior written permission
from the publisher.
Printed in the USA on acid-free, recycled paper.
ISBN 978-1-55939-373-7
The Library of Congress cataloged the previous edition of
this work as follows:
Berzin, Alexander.
Taking the Kalachakra initiation / by Alexander Berzin ;
foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 1-55939-084-0
1. Kālacakra (Tantric rite) I. Title
BQ8921.K34B47 1997
294.3’438--dc21
97-37384
Foreword
Throughout the world there is a deeply felt need for both
external and internal peace. The Kalachakra initiation is a
profound ceremony that gathers and unites people from all
nations and backgrounds in a peaceful, spiritual activity that
affects both those people and the environment in a
significant and constructive manner. For this reason, several
lamas, including myself, have been happy to confer the
initiation when requested.
In preparing this guidebook, Alexander Berzin has done a
great service to everyone interested in the Kalachakra
initiation. It will help people who receive the initiation from
lamas of any of the four lineages of Tibetan Buddhism to
prepare for the ceremony and understand the essential points
of each step of the procedure. By explaining clearly the
Kalachakra path of spiritual development, as well as the
vows and commitments involved, the book will help people
to make a realistic decision about whether to take the
empowerment as a full participant or merely as an observer.
Many people who are not yet ready to engage in Kalachakra
meditation practice, and many who are not even Buddhists
but have sincere wishes for peace, attend the initiation as
interested observers. I am especially happy that the book
addresses this section of the audience as well, suggesting
ways in which they can make the experience more
meaningful.
It is my prayer that everyone who plans to attend, or has
ever attended a Kalachakra initiation may ultimately reap the
full benefit of doing so.
April 8, 1997
Preface
For several decades, masters from all four lineages of
Tibetan Buddhism have been conferring the Kalachakra
initiation in India, Mongolia, Southeast Asia and the West.
Thousands of people from Buddhist and non-Buddhist
cultures alike have either received the empowerment as
active participants or attended as interested observers.
Requests for future Kalachakra initiations from around the
world are ever-increasing. The interest is great.
Only a handful of Westerners attended the first Kalachakra
empowerment His Holiness the Dalai Lama conferred
outside Tibet, and I had the good fortune to be among
them. This was in Dharamsala, India, in March 1970.
Seeing that many more Westerners would come to future
initiations, His Holiness decided to make available some
guidelines and background information about Kalachakra for
this new audience. Thus several months before the
Kalachakra empowerment he next conferred in Bodh Gaya,
India, in December 1974, His Holiness commissioned
Sharpa Rinpochey and myself to translate a series of articles
on Kalachakra written by Geshey Ngawang Dhargyey and
Garjang Kamtrul Rinpochey. The Library of Tibetan Works
& Archives published them in Dharamsala, and Deer Park
reprinted the one by Geshey Dhargyey as part of the manual
they prepared for His Holiness’s first conferral of the
initiation in the West. This was in Madison, Wisconsin, in
July 1981. Organizers of later Kalachakra initiations have
frequently reprinted this manual both in English and several
European languages. His Holiness also commissioned
Professor Jeffrey Hopkins to translate and publish the text of
the initiation ritual so that participants could follow more
easily.
His Holiness’s main Kalachakra teacher was Tsenzhab
Serkong Rinpochey, his late master debate partner and
assistant tutor. Serkong Rinpochey was the son and spiritual
heir of Serkong Dorjeychang, an outstanding master of
Kalachakra and a member of its lineage. Serkong Rinpochey
was also my own root guru, whom I served for many years
as interpreter. Seeing that there would be ever-growing
interest in the West about Kalachakra, he taught me the
subject extensively. This included not only formal teaching
on its many commentaries, but informal explanations on
Kalachakra equivalents to almost anything I translated for
him. He never tired of discussing the topic and did so at
home, on the road and even at the dinner table, both in
India and everywhere we traveled on his lecture tours of the
West. He particularly delighted in the details of the three-
