Ornament of Stainless Light: An Exposition of the Kalachakra Tantra

Nor-bzaṅ-rgya-mtsho (Mkhas-grub), Thupten Jinpa

Simon and Schuster, 2004 - Body, Mind & Spirit - 709 pages

The premiere volume of Thupten Jinpa's thirty-two-volume Library of Tibetan Classics series, inaugurated to coincide with the Dalai Lama's conferral of the initiation rite of Kalacakra in Toronto in April 2004.

The Kalacakra, or "wheel of time," tantra likely entered Indian Mahayana Buddhism around the tenth century. In expounding the root tantra, the Indian master Pundarika, one of the legendary Kalki kings of the land of Shambhala, wrote his influential Stainless Light. Ornament of Stainless Light is an authoritative Tibetan exposition of this important text, composed in the fifteenth century by Khedrup Norsang Gyatso, tutor to the Second Dalai Lama.

One of the central projects of Kalacakra literature is a detailed correlation between the human body and the external universe. In working out this complex correspondence, the Kalacakra texts present an amazingly detailed theory of cosmology and astronomy, especially about the movements of the various celestial bodies. The Kalacakra tantra is also a highly complex system of Buddhist theory and practice that employs vital bodily energies, deep meditative mental states, and a penetrative focus on subtle points within the body's key energy conduits known as channels. Ornament of Stainless Light addresses all these topics, elaborating on the external universe, the inner world of the individual, the Kalacakra initiation rites, and the tantric stages of generation and completion, all in a highly readable English translation.

Contents

• Translators Introduction: 1
• Technical Note: 19
• An Exposition of the Outer Inner and Other Kālacakra: 21
• Introduction: 23
• Part 1 The External World: 73
• Part 2 The Inner World of Sentient Beings: 159
• Part 3 Initiations: 209
• Methods of Accomplishment: 269
• The Completion Stage: 389
• Appendixes: 594
• Notes: 617
• Glossary: 673
• Bibliography: 681
• Index: 693
• About the Contributors: 709
• The Institute of Tibetan Classics: 711
• Wisdom Publications: 712
• The Library of Tibetan Classics: 713
• Become a Benefactor of the Library of Tibetan Classics: 716

About the author

Thupten Jinpa Langri was educated in the classical Tibetan monastic academia and received the highest academic degree of Geshe Lharam (equivalent to a doctorate in divinity). Jinpa also holds a BA in philosophy and a PhD in religious studies, both from the University of Cambridge, England. Since 1985, he has been the principal English-language translator to the Dalai Lama. He has translated and edited many books by the Dalai Lama, including The World of Tibetan Buddhism, Essence of the Heart Sutra, and Ethics for the New Millennium. Jinpa has published scholarly articles on various aspects of Tibetan culture, Buddhism, and philosophy, and books such as Songs of Spiritual Experience (co-authored) and Self, Reality and Reason in Tibetan Thought. He serves on the advisory board of numerous educational and cultural organizations in North America, Europe, and India. He is currently the president and the editor-in-chief of the Institute of Tibetan Classics, a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to translating key Tibetan classics into contemporary languages. He also currently chairs the Mind and Life Institute. Gavin Kilty has been a full-time translator for the Institute of Tibetan Classics since 2001. Before that he lived in Dharamsala, India, for fourteen years, where he spent eight years training in the traditional Geluk monastic curriculum through the medium of class and debate at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics. He has also received commissions to translate for other institutions, such as the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Teachings, Tibet House Germany, The Gelug International Foundation, and Tsadra Foundation.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Ornament of Stainless Light: An Exposition of the Kalachakra Tantra; Volume 14 of Library of Tibetan Classics, Khedrup Norsang Gyatso Thupten Jinpa, ed
• Authors: Nor-bzaṅ-rgya-mtsho (Mkhas-grub), Thupten Jinpa
• Editor: Thupten Jinpa
• Translated by: Gavin Kilty
• Publisher: Simon and Schuster, 2004
• ISBN: 0861714520, 9780861714520
• Length: 709 pages
• Subjects: Body, Mind & Spirit / Astrology / Eastern; Religion / Buddhism / Rituals & Practice; Religion / Buddhism / Sacred Writings; Religion / Buddhism / Tibetan