The Kalachakra

For any of you who have viewed the You Tube movie The Nature of Reality you will be aware that a group of physicists at the Quantum Gravity Research Institute have been working to come up with a theory of everything. They have come to the conclusion that the fundamental building blocks of all of reality is the tetrahedron; which is a 3D equilateral triangle. It is the tetrahedron that fills up all of space, it is the smallest unit that exists and is therefore the fundamental building block of all that is. They hypothesise that our reality is an 8-dimensional crystalline structure of information, that exists simultaneously in the past, present and future. There is a constant feed-back loop between these time states meaning that every moment co-creates every other moment. And it only exists when being observed by a conscious entity. Such findings are very exciting as they cohere so well with what we know of reality through the ancient wisdom teachings.

These teachings have symbolised the soul as a triangle that represents its triple energies: will, love and intelligent activity. The square represents the four aspects of the personality: the physical, emotional, mental and etheric bodies. It is through our spiritual striving that we transform the square into the triangle. In our Triangles work we strive to create triangular relationships with others, bringing soul energies into triangular relationship on the mental plane. We are thus, working, it seems, to conform to the triangular pattern of life itself, as it exists in our Logos at this time.

The crystalline triangular structure is perhaps the divine archetype. Through connection with the soul we gradually begin to radiate its triple energies until we eventually merge with that archetype and so aid in the purification of the whole. The soul or causal body is sometimes known as the divine Temple, or the Temple of Solomon, and is the vehicle of manifestation of a solar Angel who is its informing life. The soul body, or Temple is constructed out of the good achieved in every life. We read that, ‘The building proceeds slowly at first, but towards the end of incarnation—on the Probationary Path and on the Path of Initiation—the work proceeds rapidly.  The structure has been reared, and each stone quarried in the personal life.  On the Path, in each of its two divisions, the work of completing and beautifying the Temple proceeds with greater rapidity....’ ¹

This proceeds until the point comes when the life within the soul body has been stimulated and vitalised to such an extent that it can no longer be contained by its confining form and the Temple is then rent from the top to the bottom, releasing the Solar Angel back to its source. The man of Christ who now stands revealed has access to all parts of an even greater Temple of which he now knows himself to be an integral part. When the soul body is a perfect reflection of the Temple, it is no longer needed and it then dissipates giving access to wider reaches of awareness.  In the process of constructing the Temple, of perfecting it, and of enlarging it, we thus reflect on a tiny scale the work of the Logos on His own plane.

The idea of the divine Temple is the focus of the Kalachakra Mandala which lies at the heart of the Kalachakra Tantra which are considered to be some of the most advanced and complex teachings in Tibetan Buddhism. The Sanskrit word “kala” means time and “chakra” means cycle. The name makes reference to the cyclical nature of time in Buddhist and Hindu cosmologies. In recent years  it has been publicly proclaimed by the Dalai Lama to be especially important at this time.

It is held that the Kalachakra Mandala exists at the centre of Shamballa where it is the blueprint for our planet, what is referred to in Triangles as the Plan.  This links with the words of the Tibetan Who says that the Plan is the archetypal pattern and that Shamballa is the custodian of the Plan. ²

The wonderful sand mandalas created by Tibetan monks in minute detail, show this divine Temple at Shamballa. It consists of three parts, the Outer world, the Inner world, and the Other. The Outer is a presentation of the cosmos, or macrocosm, the Inner is a presentation of the microcosm, the human being that includes the subtle bodies and energy systems. The Other is a symbolic representation of the practice, the initiations permitting its use in meditation, and instructions on how to correctly visualize it with its symbolic inhabitants, and all the associated mantras - in other words, the purification process. Before one can learn the secrets of how to penetrate the symbolism one needs first to be initiated, for this provides the necessary protection required  when one works directly with the archetype.

Monks work through focusing on the detail, and trying to understand the essence of the symbols, accurately visualising them and recognising the relationships and correspondences that exist between them.  When the visualisation is correctly done the result is the purification of the inner worlds which is made possible through alignment with the archetypal pattern of the mandala. The mandala is that which purifies.

The Tibetan’s teachings, in the form of the Blue Books by Alice Bailey, could be seen as an interpretation of the Kalachaka teachings for the more mentally focussed Western mind. The Tibetan tells us that the mind of the Eastern thinker is suited to creative imagery and that the western worker’s mind is more suited to creative scientific achievement. Yet, we read, ‘the world into which they enter is curiously the same; the instrument of thought which they employ is called the "mind" in the West and "mind-stuff" (chitta) in the East; both use the language of symbology to express their conclusions and both reach the point where words prove futile to embody the intuited possibilities.’³

The parallels between the Kalachakra mandala and the Antahkarana teachings are easy to see, for they both seek to bring about alignment with a divine archetype.  An archetype that is now according to physicists, created out of the tetrahedron, a shape that is seen throughout Eastern mandalas. It would seem that science and religion, East and West are beginning to see as one.

Christine Aagaard

References:

1 Letters on Occult Meditation pg. 31
2 Esoteric Astrology pg. 196
3 From Intellect to Intuition pg. 5