Notes

n.1The rali tantras are divided into four sets: Mind, Speech, Body, and Miscellaneous. For further discussion see James Gentry’s introduction to The Glorious King of Tantras That Resolves All Secrets, Toh 384.

n.2See Newman, “The Epoch of the Kālacakra Tantra” (pp. 342–43) for discussion of these dates.

n.3Gray 2005, p. 429.

n.4The reconstruction of pātālacāriṇī from sa ’og na spyod ma was suggested by Harunaga Isaacson as a variant of pātālavāsinī (personal communication). This set of three is attested in both Buddhist and Śaiva tantric literature‍—see, for example, Hatley 2016, p. 12, n. 52. The Hevajratantra is likely informing this list. It describes the sky dweller and earth dweller as part of a triad (with Nairātmyā) and as part of sets of seven (I.ii.34) and ten ḍākinīs (I.viii.15 and I.ix.11–12).

n.5See also, for example, the opening verse of the Hevajratantra (e.g., Snellgrove 1959, Part II, pp. 1–2).

n.6According to Kālacakra astrology, the lunar year lasts twenty-one thousand six hundred hours, mapping the twenty-one thousand six hundred breaths a healthy human being takes over the course of twenty-four hours. For more information see Ornament of Stainless Light (Norsang Gyatso 2001, pp. 182–92).

n.7byang chub sems ’grel skor gsum. These are the bodhisattva Kalkī Puṇḍarīka’s Stainless Light (Vimalaprabhā) commentary on the Kālacakra­tantra , Toh 1347; the bodhisattva Vajragarbha’s Summary of the Meaning of the Hevajra (Hevajra­piṇḍārthaṭikā) on the Hevajratantra , Toh 1180; and the bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi’s Summary of the Meaning of the Short [Cakrasaṃvara] Tantra (Lakṣābhidhanāduddhṛtalaghu­tantra­piṇḍārtha­vivaraṇa), Toh 1402.

n.8This number is based on the twenty-four sacred sites and the corresponding parts of the practitioner’s body. Each of these is divided into three, making seventy-two, each of which multiplies to one thousand across the subtle body. See Beer 2003, p. 242.

n.9For a detailed explanation of this system see Tsemo 2012, pp. 467–92.

n.10Ratnākaraśānti’s commentary, the Khasama­tantraṭīkā , Toh 1424, is not a commentary on this text, but on the Yathālabdhakhasama­tantra , Toh 441.

n.11The “sequence” being followed is not clarified, but based on the content that follows, it may refer to the three ḍākinīs. It may also refer to the sequence of completion-stage practices.

n.12The text does not specify what is being “entered,” but based on the context it could be the central channel, from which the wind would then diffuse to the areas mentioned in the following lines.

n.13See i.­4 and n.­6.

n.14The Choné, Lithang, Peking, and Yongle Kangyurs read “the wise should apprehend the ground of the mind” (Tib. mkhas pas sems kyi gnas par gzung).

n.15Kongtrul’s Treasury of Knowledge cites this section while explaining gtum mo practice in the Marpa Kagyu tradition. This is translated in Esoteric Instructions, pp. 159–60.

n.16The number of hair-tips refers to the size of the relatively larger central channel vs. the smaller side channels. The five pairs are the five cakras.

n.17This refers to the anusvāra, the mark that indicates nasalization of the syllable it marks.

n.18This translation follows the Kangxi, Peking Yongle, and Stok Palace versions in reading rtser gyur pa (“at its tip”). Degé reads brtser gyur pa (“kind”).

n.19I.e., butter, curd, and cheese.

n.20For these twenty-four sacred sites the text gives cryptic syllables and a brief (and equally cryptic) description. The names given for the corresponding sites in the Cakra­saṃvara Tantra are as follows (Gray 2007, p. 67 and pp. 329–37): Pullīramalaya, Jālandhara, Oḍḍiyāna, Arbuda, Godāvarī, Rāmeśvarī, Devīkoṭa, Mālava, Kāmarūpa, Oḍra, Triśakuni, Kośala, Kaliṅga, Lampāka, Kāñcī, Himālaya, Pretapuri, Gṛhadevatā, Saurāṣṭra, Suvarṇadvīpa, Nagara, Sindhu, Maru, Kulutā.