The Kalachakra Tantra is classified as a Mother Tantra of Anuttaryoga Tantra. The Tantra is presented in five chapters and it discusses the three Kalachakras; External Kalac internal Kalachakra and Alternative Kalachakra.

External Kalachakra : It is an external cosmos, the universe and the beings within. In discusses the inter-dependence of the universe and its dependence on the internal cosmos, environmental awareness which is now slowly being understood was its fact a part of this ancient wisdom.
Our inter-dependence stretches throughout all space and throughout all time. Because of this inter-dependences, the suffering of others is our own suffering, suffering we are ordinarily only able to see and feel for brief moments when others is also our own is painful, so we often turn away; but this discovery is in the end the only path leading to the uprooting of the deepest of our sufferings. This is what the young Siddharth, the Buddha to-be, learned when he stepped out of his glittering protected palace. The cosmology and astrology of the Tibetan Buddhism are also derived from this Tantra.

Kalachakra Mandala

The internal Kalachakra: The internal cosmos deals with the understanding and central of nerve centres, life force and energy. Through the proper training and use of these techniques the total personal environment is purified, and the innate Buddha Nature is awakened.

The alternative Kalachakra : Deals with the ultimate nature of the cosmos. This deals with the ultimate truth while the other two are on the level of truth. The alternative Kalachakra also gives us the practices and methods to realize the ultimate truth, which cannot to understood with the mind such only with the wisdom. This wisdom is experienced when the mind ceases.
Since this wisdom could not be generated with intellectual understanding alone, the method of initiation is employed to enter in the field of the transcendental wisdom. It is a teachings with the combined force of teaching, prayer, blessing, devotion, mantra, yoga and meditation. It is also a permission to practice the Tantra. Even, in case, one is not in a position of actually practice the Tantra, a strong Karmic connection is made with the teaching when one receives the initiation. So that the blessings will ripen whenever a right environment can be created.
The Painting of the Kalachakra Mandala signifies the above mentioned facts. The fingers stretched but within the Mandala is the symbol of there cosmic universe through which the human beings be passed after being delivered from the suffering of psychic pain.

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1. The Kalachakra Initiation