His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Following the example of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in his role as leader of all the Tibetan people, the International Kalachakra Network is non-sectarian, and with equal respect supports Kalachakra practice within all major traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, Gelug, Jonang, Kagyu, Nyingma, and Sakya.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama is also the vajra master for the great majority of Kalachakra initiates in the International Kalachakra Network. Out of our respect for him as leader of the Tibetan people, as well as our vajra vows to him as our vajra master, the International Kalachakra Network is committed to following his advice, and cannot support anything that is knowingly harmful to him. It is our sincere wish to assist in his lifelong mission of world peace through Kalachakra.
IKN Memorandum of Intent
- With the deepest respect and admiration for all authentic Kalachakra lineage masters of the past and present to support world peace analogous to the Kalachakra tradition, which symbolises a powerful force for peace in our world and an antidote to war, the undersigned endorse the following purposes of the International Kalachakra Network, to sustain the Kalachakra tradition:
- To provide world-wide, trans-sectarian support for Kalachakra practice and study in authentic lineages, by acting as a non-hierarchical communication platform between vajra brothers and sisters, with the deepest respect for the advice of fully qualified teachers such as His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
- To promote effective and efficient communication and cooperation between teachers, practitioners, scholars and translators as well as the Kalachakra Practice Groups and Centres about teaching programmes, retreats and any other related activities.
- To support emerging Kalachakra Practice Groups and Centres.
- To promote the translation, creation and production of practitioner-friendly Kalachakra texts, commentaries and practice materials.
- To preserve and make accessible traditional Kalachakra texts for practitioners, translators and scholars by creating and maintaining a catalogue and repository of available texts.
- To safeguard tantric secrecy by ensuring that access to practice texts is restricted to initiates and practitioners.
- To provide basic information to non-initiates in order to avoid serious misunderstanding of Kalachakra practice, while avoiding a popular mass-media focus.
- To discourage an approach to Kalachakra practice related materials merely for personal or professional gain.
- To protect the purity of individual lineages and to recognize the value of discussion and friendly, constructive debate between different commentarial traditions.