The \u201cBook of Dzyan\u201d is said to be \u201cthe\nfirst volume of the Commentaries upon the seven secret folios of Kiu-te\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe\nBook of Dzyan . . . is the first volume of the Commentaries upon the seven\nsecret folios of Kiu-te, and a Glossary of the public works of the same name.\nThirty-five volumes of Kiu-te for exoteric purposes and the use of the laymen\nmay be found in the possession of the Tibetan Gelugpa Lamas, in the library of\nany monastery; and also fourteen books of Commentaries and Annotations on the\nsame by the initiated Teachers.\u201d (\u201cThe Secret Books of \u2018Lam-rim\u2019 and Dzyan,\u201d H.\nP. Blavatsky, Collected Writings<\/em>,\nvol. 14, p. 422) <\/p>\n\n\n\n These\nfourteen volumes of commentaries are said to be \u201cin the charge of the\nTeshu-Lama of Shigatse,\u201d i.e., the Panchen Lama: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cStrictly\nspeaking, those thirty-five books ought to be termed \u2018The Popularised Version\u2019\nof the Secret Doctrine, full of myths, blinds, and errors; the fourteen volumes\nof Commentaries, on the other hand\u2014with their translations, annotations, and an\nample glossary of Occult terms, worked out from one small archaic folio, the Book\nof the Secret Wisdom of the World\u2014contain a digest of all the Occult Sciences.\nThese, it appears, are kept secret and apart, in the charge of the Teshu-Lama\nof Shigatse.\u201d (H. P. Blavatsky, Collected\nWritings<\/em>, vol. 14, p. 422)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nknown \u201cBooks of Kiu-te,\u201d i.e., rgyud-sde<\/em>,\nare the Buddhist tantras. It is further said that these \u201cmust be read with a\nkey to their meaning, and that key can only be found in the Commentaries\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe\nBooks of Kiu-te are comparatively modern, having been edited within the last\nmillennium, whereas, the earliest volumes of the Commentaries are of untold\nantiquity, some fragments of the original cylinders having been preserved. With\nthe exception that they explain and correct some of the too fabulous, and to\nevery appearance, grossly-exaggerated accounts in the Books of Kiu-te\u2014properly\nso-called\u2014the Commentaries have little to do with these. They stand in relation\nto them as the Chaldaeo-Jewish Kabalah stands to the Mosaic Books. . . . No\nstudent, unless very advanced, would be benefited by the perusal of those\nexoteric volumes. They must be read with a key to their meaning, and that key\ncan only be found in the Commentaries.\u201d (H. P. Blavatsky, Collected Writings<\/em>, vol. 14, pp. 422-424)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first volume of the known \u201cBooks of Kiu-te\u201d contains the K\u0101lacakra-tantra<\/em>. Tashi-lhunpo monastery at Shigatse had one of the few K\u0101lacakra colleges in Tibet. It was the Ninth (sometimes called the Sixth) Panchen Lama, Lozang Chokyi Nyima (1883-1937), who gave the first large public K\u0101lacakra Initiations outside of Tibetan Buddhist lands, thus starting something that has been so widely continued by the present Fourteenth Dalai Lama. After leaving Tibet in late 1923, the Ninth Panchen Lama gave nine large public K\u0101lacakra Initiations. The first five were given in Mongolia, the next two in China, and the last two in Eastern Tibet.1<\/sup> The two given in China, outside of Tibetan Buddhist lands, were very influential. Photos of these were taken by Westerners who attended, and have been published.2<\/sup> This was the first time since the appearance of the K\u0101lacakra teachings in India a millennium ago and their transference to Tibet shortly thereafter that anyone outside of these lands had access to these teachings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The K\u0101lacakra teachings are full of\nabstruse symbolism and obscure statements, which could well be regarded as\nblinds. Although called exoteric in relation to the fourteen volumes of secret\ncommentaries, they have always been considered esoteric in India and Tibet. According\nto the information given by Blavatsky, they would be directly based on the\nsecret commentaries, and thus would be esoteric in that sense. The Panchen\nLamas followed Indian and Tibetan tradition in considering them esoteric. No\ndoubt many students would welcome having a key to their meaning, as said to\nonly be found in the secret commentaries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The first installment of teachings said\nto be brought out from the secret commentaries was given by H. P. Blavatsky in The Secret Doctrine<\/em>. She had made\ncontact with teachers associated with a secret school, said by her to be \u201cattached\nto the private retreat of the Teshu-Lama,\u201d i.e., the Panchen Lama:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c.\n. . Tsong-Kha-pa. This great Tibetan Reformer of the fourteenth century, . . . is\nthe founder of the secret School near Shigatse, attached to the private retreat\nof the Teshu-Lama.\u201d (H. P. Blavatsky, Collected\nWritings<\/em>, vol. 14, p. 425)<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\nis not clear whether the \u201cprivate retreat\u201d of the Panchen Lama is the same as\nhis private residence. As seen in the post, \u201cThe K\u0101lacakra College at\nTashi-lhunpo\u201d (April 30, 2020), the Panchen Lama \u201cbuilt\na new house for the 22-foot square Kalacakra mandala (dkyil ‘khor) at his\nresidence,\u201d and the K\u0101lacakra ma\u1e47\u1e0dala was constructed there out of\ncolored sand every year, along with the accompanying K\u0101lacakra ritual performed\nby him:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPanchen Rinpoche built a new house for the 22-foot square\nKalacakra mandala (dkyil ‘khor) at his residence. That was the biggest Dus’kor\nmandala in Tibet. During his time, he (Panchen Rinpoche) built that 22-foot\nsquare mandala of dultson (rdul tshon) [i.e., sand] every year and did the\nDus’kor ritual. From that time onward the Dus’kor Da-tsang followed the same up\nto 1959.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The movement for the spread of the K\u0101lacakra teachings outside of Tibetan Buddhist lands was started by the Ninth Panchen Lama four or five decades after Blavatsky\u2019s time. Only in the last few decades have these teachings become known throughout the world, thanks to the many K\u0101lacakra Initiations given by the present Fourteenth Dalai Lama and other Tibetan lamas. The stage has now been set for some of the keys to these teachings to come out from the secret commentaries referred to by Blavatsky. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Notes<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Information about the nine K\u0101lacakra Initiations given by the Ninth Panchen Lama after his departure from Tibet can be found in: Biographies of the Tibetan Spiritual Leaders: Panchen Erdenis<\/em>, by Ya Hanzhang, translated by Chen Guansheng and Li Peizhu, pp. 266, 271, 274, 283-284, 295, and 296 (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1994); and in: The Ninth Panchen Lama (1883-1937): A Life at the Crossroads of Sino-Tibetan Relations<\/em>, by Fabienne Jagou, translated by Rebecca Bissett Buechel, pp. 65-74, and summarized in note 16, p. 259 (Paris: \u00c9cole Fran\u00e7aise d\u2019Extr\u00eame-Orient, and Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2011).<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. A photo of the K\u0101lacakra ma\u1e47\u1e0dala taken by Ferdinand Lessing at the K\u0101lacakra Initiation given in Peking (now Beijing) in 1932 can be found in: The Buddhist Tantras: Light on Indo-Tibetan Esotericism<\/em>, by Alex Wayman, p. 80 (see pp. xii, 63), New York: Samuel Weiser, 1973. Photos taken by Gordon Enders at the K\u0101lacakra Initiation given in Hangchow (Hangzhou) in 1934, including one of the K\u0101lacakra ma\u1e47\u1e0dala, can be found in: Nowhere Else in the World<\/em>, by Gordon B. Enders and Edward Anthony, pp. 311, 321, 325 (see pp. 303, 322), New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1935.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The \u201cBook of Dzyan\u201d is said to be \u201cthe first volume of the Commentaries upon the seven secret folios of Kiu-te\u201d: \u201cThe Book of Dzyan . . . is the first volume of the Commentaries upon the seven secret folios of Kiu-te, and a Glossary of the public works of the same name. Thirty-five […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-of-dzyan","category-kalacakra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1828"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1832,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1828\/revisions\/1832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}