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Shamballa & the Kalachakra InitiationOriginally published as:Taking the Kalachakra Initiation.Reprint as:Introduction to the Kalachakra Initiation.Ithaca: Snow Lion, 2010.Researcher: Alexander BerzinCycles ofTimeandKarmaThe wordkalachakrameans cycles of time, and the Kalachakra system presents three such cycles –external, internal and alternative. The external and internal cycles deal with time as we normally know it, while the alternative cycles are practices for gainingliberationfrom these two. The structures of the external and internal cycles are analogous, similar to the parallel between macrocosm and microcosm discussed in Western philosophy. This means that the same laws that govern a universe also pertain to atoms, the body and our experience of life. The practices of the alternative cycles also follow this structure so as to allow us to engage with and surmount these forces in an efficient manner. Such mimicking is, in fact, one of thedistinguishingfeatures of theanuttarayoga tantramethod.Time, in Buddhism, is defined as a measurement of change. For example, a month is the measurement of change involved either externally in the moon circling the earth or internally in a woman going from one menstruation to the next. Such changes are cyclical in that the pattern repeats, although the events of each cycle are not completely identical. Externally, the universe passes through cosmic, astronomical, astrological and historical cycles. On an internal level, the body goes through physiological cycles, many of which bring about associated mental and emotional cycles as well. Furthermore, just as universes form, expand, contract, disappear and then form once again, individual beings pass through continuing rebirths with repeatedconception, growth, old age and death.Normally the passage of time exercises a debilitating effect. As we age, oursight, hearing, memory and physical strength gradually weaken and eventually we die. Due to compulsiveattachmentandconfusionabout who we are and how we exist, we take rebirth without any control over its process or circumstances, each time having to relearn everything we knew before. As each of our lives unfolds over the course of time,karmic potentialsfrom our previous actionsripenat appropriate astrological, historical and life-cyclemomentsinto the various events we experience. Some of these are pleasant, but many are not. We seem to have little choice about what happens in life.In short, the external and internal cycles of time delineatesamsara– uncontrollably recurring rebirth, fraught with problems and difficulties. These cycles are driven by impulses of energy, known in the Kalachakra system as "winds of karma."Karmais a force intimately connected withmindand arises due to confusion aboutreality. Imagining that ourselves, others and everything around us exist in the way our mind makes them appear – as if withconcrete, permanent identities established from within each being or thing – we act on the basis of this confusion with attachment,angeror stubborn foolishness. We think, for example, "I am definitely like this, those objects orpersonsare certainly like that, I must possess these things as mine and get rid of those that bother me," and so on. Any physical, verbal or mental actioncommittedon the basis of such a rigid, confused way of thinking builds up karmic potentials and habits. Under appropriate circumstances, these potentials or "seeds of karma" ripen in the form of compelling impulses to repeat these acts, and to enter into situations in which similar actions happen to us. We can readily see this if we examine carefully the impulsive behavior behind the personal and historical events we experience. How many people blunder from one bad marriage to another, and how many countries from one crisis to the next?Karmic potentials, in fact, give rise to a broad array of impulses thataffectour lives. Collective karmic potentials from previous actions of a huge number of beings – including ourselves – give rise, for example, to the impulse for a universe to evolve with specific environments and life forms into which we and these beings subsequently take rebirth. These collective potentials also give rise to the impulses that drive the physical and biological laws that govern that universe – ranging from the