Dalai Lama inaugurates first all-sects conference on Kalachakra

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His Holiness the Dalai Lama addressing the opening session of the First Conference on Kalachakra at the Kalachakra Temple in Dharamsala, HP, India on May 5, 2019. (Photo courtesy: OHHDL/Tenzin Choejor)

(TibetanReview.net, May07’19) – The Dalai Lama has on May 5 inaugurated the First Conference on Kalachakra for Scholars of all Tibetan Traditions, with some 20 scholars having come from outside India. The conference was opened in the Kalachakra Temple of the Tsuglakhang and was to continue for three days.

The Dalai Lama has explained that the name Shri Kalachakra referred to the union of bliss and emptiness arisen in the form of a deity. Shakyamuni Buddha first taught about this in the form of Kalachakra. The teaching was then taken to Shambhala.

And he has pointed out, “Scholars from all Tibetan Buddhist traditions, Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu, Geluk, Jonang and Butön have written extensively about Kalachakra.”

Papers were to be presented by representatives of various traditions, including “Nyingma, Sakya and Geluk, the Bokar Kagyus, Jonangpas, and a Geshé from Zhalu Monastery, as well as a representative of the Astro Department of the MenTseeKhang”.

Emphasizing the Buddha’s advice that his followers test the truth of his teachings before accepting them, the Dalai Lama has said, “As far as the Kalachakra is concerned, one question that has to be asked is where is Shambhala? It seems it may not be in this world, but we have to read the texts carefully. I have to admit I sometimes find what is written in the Jataka Tales hard to believe. Maybe some of them exaggerate. However, I don’t have such doubts about what we find in the Heart Sutra—‘Form is empty, but emptiness is form. Emptiness is not other than forms and forms are not other than emptiness’.”

He has said that concerning the Kalachakra tradition, the monks of Jonang Monastery and the followers of Butön Rinpoché were the main upholders.

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