Qualifications of a Kalachakra Master.

Introduction.

Is this blog's author qualified to be Kalachakra Master?

Certainly not.

i am not ready to even receive the Kalachakra Empowerment, my current interrest in Kalachakra is merely for forming a Karmic Connection with Kalachakra for future, for when i am ready to receive the Kalachakra Initiation.

So far i am reading about Kalachakra to broaden my understanding, i am interrested in Kalachakra-related morality (Sila) & probably in taking at least a few of vows as well.

i wish to correct my mistakes in future, when i am ready, however.


Qualifications of a Kalachakra Master.

'It is extremely important to examine a tantric master with critical scrutiny before committing ourselves to be a disciple. Success in achieving the goal of enlightenment and the full ability to benefit others depends on purity and honesty of our relation with our teacher. Only after establishing a close bond and gaining total confidence is it appropriate to request from a master Kalachakra empowerment.

As most people do not have the fortune or opportunity to establish a close personal relationship with the great masters who currently confer Kalachakra initiation, the only alternative is to check such teachers from whatever contact is possible or to consider trustworthy firsthand accounts. Even if we cannot personally meet the master before the empowerment, it is far better to come for initiation on the stable foundation of confidence and trust gained through reason, rather than the shaky grounds of blind faith based on the person's name and fame. Since in most cases it is not possible to request empowerment beforehand in a private meeting, the request is made formally as part of the initial steps of the ceremony.

According to the third chapter of the Kalachakra Tantra, authentic tantric masters of this system have unbroken close bonds with their own teachers, the practices, the vows and the true nature of reality. Specificially, they keep the Kalachakra tantric vows purely and have meditated succesfully on the Kalachakra generation and complete stages. They are free from attachment to anything, including their families, friends and even their bodies. Likewise they are unstained by greed, anger, foolish and stubborn ignorance, pride, jealousy or miserliness. With great patience, they work for the sake of their disciples with sincere interrest in their welfare, and with no concern for personally gaining service, love, respect, fame or wealth. They are solely motivated by bodhichitta, the wish to become a Buddha to benefit others. Having achieved pathway minds that lead to enlightenment, they are able to guide others in also gaining these minds and thus free them from fears. Having attained unchanging blissful awareness focused on voidness, they remain completely chaste, never losing their blissful state of mind through orgasm's release.

Furthermore, Kalachakra tantric masters are stable, emotionally tamed, full of common-sense intelligence, patient, honest, unpretentions, brimming with loving concern for other, well versed in scripture and commentary, skilled in applying the tantric techniques, and totally familiar with all tantric procedures. They have all the qualities and skills neccessary to crush the four maras, or demonic interferences. According to the Kalachakra system, the four maras are our physical, verbal and mental obstacles or blocks, and the obstacles caused by belief in incorrect views of reality. The textual example of the latter is believing it is unneccessary to do anything constructive in life because all happiness comes as a gift of the gods.

If there are three qualified tantric masters available - a full monk, a novice and a householder - and, all else being equal, we need to choose from among them, the text says to rely on a fully ordained master. Devotion to a lay teacher in preference to a prefectly qualified monk undermines Buddha's teachings. This is because people seeing such a monk being bypassed gain their impression that the monastic community, representing the Sangha Jewel of Refuge - one of the Three Precious Gems that provide safe direction in life - is unneccessary. This is important to bear in mind in light of the tendency in the West to minimize the role and importance of monks and nuns in Buddhism and place the emphasis on laypersons.'

-- Quoted from 'Introduction to the Kalachakra Initiation' by Alexander Berzin.


Improper Teachers.

'Such teachers are proud, filled with prejudice and hatred, have broken their close bonds with their teachers, vows and the practices, show disrespect for holy objects, and have studied little of the vast Kalachakra practices. They are only interrested in deceiving their disciples, their minds have fallen from unchanging blissful awareness - if they had ever achieved it - and they teach without proper empowerment or meditational experience. They are attached to desirable objects of the senses, are not conscientious, use harsh language, and desire only the ephemeral bliss of sexual orgasm.

The Kalachakra Tantra warns to avoid such teachers like a burning hell.

Even if we request and go through the ritual procedures of tantric initiation with such so-called 'gurus', we do not actually receive empowerment. This is because their shortcomings disqualify them from being capable of conferring it.

If we have already committed ourselves to such improper teachers, who lack compasion, are filled with anger, attached to sensory pleasures, arrogant and always praise themselves, the text advises to dissociate from them. Kaydrub Norzang-gyatso, the fifteenth-century tutor of the Second Dalai Lama, was careful to explain that this does not mean to disparage athem and be disrespectful. Rather, we have nothing further to do with them.

Since it is difficult to find a teacher with full qualifications, the only alternative is to rely on someone who at least has a majority of good qualities, most importantly someone who keeps the vows purely.'

-- Quoted from 'Introduction to the Kalachakra Initiation' by Alexander Berzin.


Wishes.

May all beings have happines and causes of happiness,

May they be free from suffering and the cause of suffering,

May they always experience true happiness, which is totally free from suffering,

May they remain in the great equanimity, which is beyond attachment and aversion.


Mantras.

OM MAHAKALAYE SOHA
OM A RA PA CA NA DHIH
OM MANI PEME HUNG

OM KALACHAKRA SOHA
OM AMI DEWA HRI

KARMAPA CHENNO

Namaste, blessed be.