What is the Vajra Rosary Tantra? Buddhism Explained with David R. Kittay
Channel: Tibet House US Menla Online
Date: 2018-06-01

In this extended video Tibet House US President Robert A.F. Thurman & David R. Kittay lead an exploration of 'The Vajra Rosary Tantra' published by AIBS.

The Tantra details the yogic practice of the Tantra, the perfection stage of vajra repetition, and the whole path up to buddhahood. It describes in unique detail the chakra system, the techniques for mobilizing the subtle neural energies of life and death, the perfection stage initiations, the use of great bliss (mahāsukha) subjectivity, the four ecstasies that transmute sexual union, the mantras, the thirty-two deity body mandala, the six yogas, the twenty rituals of the creation stage, and the key role of emptiness.


Having been preserved for centuries in the fabled kingdom of Shambhala, the Kālachakra Tantra is an Unexcelled Yoga Tantra system of teachings which is believed to originate directly from Shakyamuni Buddha and which revolves around the concept of cycles (chakra) of time (kāla), from the cycles of the planets and the outer world to the cycles of human breathing and our physical-spiritual development. It teaches the practice of working with the most subtle energies within one’s mind and body on the path to enlightenment, through famously complex deity yoga which helps practitioners with a basic understanding of emptiness dissolve their ordinary sense of self and re-create themselves in the ideal form of the Kālachakra deity pair in union who represent omniscient Buddhahood–the union of great bliss and the wisdom perceiving emptiness. Since Kālachakra is created of time and everything manifest is under the influence of time, Kālachakra Buddha is experiential knowledge of all manifest reality. Vishvamata, his spiritual consort and complement, is aware of all that is timeless, not time-bound, or out of the realm of time. In yab-yum union, they are temporality and a temporality conjoined and represent the full glory of the ultimate nature of reality, compassionately abiding in a vast multidimensional mandala rich with symbolic meaning. In this short video Professor Robert AF Thurman leads a recitation of the Heart Sutra and then gives a teaching on it's connection to the entirety of the Buddha's teachings including the Kālachakra Tantra. 

Recorded at the "Kālachakra Study + Practice Retreat" at Menla in Phoenicia, New York Winter 2018.

This video is a apart of the Tibet House US Digital Archives & is brought to you by the generosity of it's membership community. 

To watch more videos please visit: https://tibethouse.us/ 

Full Access begins at $2 a month. Connect with Tibet House US + Menla Online: 

🗽 Tibet House US | New York City 

THUS Website: https://tibethouse.us/
THUS on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tibethouseus 
THUS on Facebook: http://facebook.com/tibethouse.us 
THUS on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tibethouse.us/ 

🏞 Menla Retreat | Phoenicia, New York 

Menla Website: https://menla.us/ 
Menla on Twitter: http://twitter.com/menla 
Menla on Facebook: http://facebook.com/menlaretreat 
Menla on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/menlamountain/
🐚