THE RADIANT SUCCESSION OF SHAMBHALA: DHARMA RAJAH SUCANDRA

The Earth Protector Kings
Who ruled the land called Shambhala,
Which means "Held by the Source of Happiness",
Were all descended from Shambhaka of the Sakya clan,

Emerging from this immemorial lineage,
Sucandra, Auspicious Moon, the Lord of Secrets
Is the first to be called a Dharma King.
Now he enters the Crystal Hall of the Kalapa Court.

This great Dharma Raja enters this world as an emanation of Vajrapani,
The All-Conquering Lord of Secrets
Who brings the blazing light of wisdom
Into the fickle realities of the human realm.
Vajrapani is the master of Buddha Activity
Beyond the waxing and waning of life and death.

Out of Vajrapani’s heart, the Dharma King Sucandra takes birth
As the first son of King Suryaprabha and Queen Vijaya.
Thus he enters the Kalapa Court and takes his seat on the Lion Throne.

His pale face is serene and his dark gaze fathomless.
His hair and mustache are black and smooth.
He wears the Gold Crown of Reality Beyond the Limit of Knowledge
Which is surmounted by a white diamond free of any flaw.

As the lord of heart and mind,
He wears gold earrings shaped like sea-dragons.
His dragon-patterned brocade robe is turquoise.
His sash is pale red like an early winter moon.

In his right hand he holds a white lotus
On which stands a crystal Vajra;
In his left a silver bell.
He sits on a glowing golden throne
Beneath the rainbow colored parasol of complete fearlessness
Which is vast as the sky and supported by a golden pole high as Mount Meru.

Encountering him is overwhelming
As if one had emerged in the night from a narrow mountain pass
And found oneself suddenly on an immense plain bathed in full moonlight.


2

In his unchanging secret form, the Great Dharma King Sucandra
Is ever youthful and his body is white as a conch.
His face is inviting and completely peaceful.

Because he has attained the summit of dharma,
His top-knot is surmounted by the three jewels
Blazing with their own radiance.

He wears the flower garland crown of the five senses
And a necklace of the five elements displayed as five kinds of gem-stones.
He wears a red and gold brocade shawl as radiant as the splendor of love.
His golden bracelets are the four aims of life.
He wears the Jewel Treasure of the Ocean on a gold chain at his heart.

In his right hand, he holds the Wish Fulfilling Tree,
And in his left a red lotus,
On which stands the golden eight spoked wheel of unobstructed truth
Surmounted by the three jewels.

His consort on his right, gold as the dawn sun,
Makes the gesture of timeless offering,
Extending the gold vase of eternal life surmounted by the flaming three jewels.

The Dharma King Sucandra is surrounded
By all the offerings of the phenomenal world.
In the peace of his radiance, there is no room for doubt or discursiveness.

3

The Great Dharma Raja Sucandra journeyed to the stupa of Dhyanakataka,
Accompanied by a great retinue of Nagas, Dralas,
And a vast number of his own subjects.

There the Great Lord prostrated to the Enlightened One,
Sage of the Sakyas, the Gautama Buddha,
The conqueror of the three worlds and light of this age.

The Dharma Raja requested the teachings for one who remains a King,
Remains in the embrace of the senses, and seeks the well being of all.
He requested the teachings that unfold outer life as an inner path.
He requested the teachings that open the gate of the seventh consciousness, And purify the full display of the ayatanas.

He requested the teachings that show the world of Basic Goodness
Glowing and fertile in the light of the Great Eastern Sun.

According to the text of The Supreme First Buddha,
The way in which he made his request is told as follows:

To eliminate the kleshas of sentient beings
By the union of body, speech and mind,
He supplicated the Bhagavan by offerings
Of jewel flowers strewn at his lotus feet.

He supplicated with the petals of precious flowers,
With prostrations made on bended knee.
With right knee to the floor
And with palms joined at the forehead,
The Lord of Shambhala requested:

"The Unsurpassed Highest Tantra, The First Buddha
Gathers all siddhis, possesses the vowels and consonants,
The Glorious Yoga of Kalachakra
Instantly manifests perfect Buddhahood.

“Possessing the four times
By its 60 divisions,
It holds the four bindus:
The emptiness and wisdom bindu,
The great supreme Vajra Holder,
The great emptiness of five words,
The empty bindu of six letters.

“Outer, body, Buddha, god, and non-god, 25 classes of beings,
All are within the nature
With bodies of various scale
Which are the cause of the three worlds' arising,
The enjoyment of gods and non-gods;
All these without exception
I ask the teacher to explain."
(2)

Then interior of the stupa became transformed into an immeasurable skull cup,
The inconceivable expanse of the dharmadhatu.
There, in the infinite expanse without beginning or end,
The Buddha arose in the form Vajrasattva
And opened the mandala of Kalachakra, The Lord of Time.
In the great dance of Vajra compassion,
He opened the immeasurable palace:
Below, he displayed the twelve blissful aspects
Of the Lord of Vajradhatu Speech;
Above, he displayed the sixteen mandalas of stars.
All this had not been seen, heard or known
Since the eon of Buddha Dipankara.

In this way, the Buddha himself gave the initiation
Into the great Mandala of Vajradhatu
And conveyed the root text of the Tantra of Glorious Kalachakra.

The Root Tantra explains the essence:

Ka is pacification of cause.
La is dissolving.
Cha is the motion of mind.
Kra is being bound to the stages.

And the Great Commentary expands this:

Whoever has neither cause nor characteristics,
Is without movement and free from stages:
This is the meaning of Kalachakra.
To that non-duality, I make homage.
(3)

So upon returning to Shambhala, Dharma Raja Sucandra
Recorded all this in writing, the "Paramadibuddha" in 12,000 verses,
With commentary five times that length.

Upon returning to Kalapa,
Dharma King Sucandra manifested his pure perception
As a great pleasure garden
To the south of the Palace of Kalapa and to the West of the "Near Lake".

In the midst of that vast park called Malaya,
From liquid gold, rubies, sapphires, emeralds,
Crystal, coral, and turquoise, and silver,
The Dharma Lord built the great Body Mandala of the Lord of Time,
A perfect square with four gates, four arches, and eight charnel grounds
With five surrounding fences,
And beyond them the mandala of the elements adorned with vajra chains.

Near it he built the Speech Mandala of Kalachakra, alike in form,
And close to that, he built the Mind Mandala of Kalachakra,
Alike in form but with three surrounding fences.
Closer still, he placed the Wisdom Mandala of Kalachakra
Surrounded by sixteen jeweled towers.
Again nearest yet to the Kalapa Court, the Dharma King Sucandra
Created a vast eight-petalled lotus
Whose golden anthers sway on breezes of delight and brush the sky,
Radiating like a hundred suns.

Placed in the timeless expanse of pure perception
The Mandalas of the Lord of Time are utterly complete
In every aspect and characteristic, and power.

From this moment on, time is marked with the names of the Kings of Kalapa.
It is from this time that the names of the Lords of Kalapa are known to all.
It is from this time that the teachings of Shambhala flourish,
Blazing through all the human realm and in every human heart.

THE GATES OF KALAPA

GATE 1

Beyond the small stream of a life
Led striving with memory,
A cold thought at one's back:
Possibility, obligation, achievement
Heard of but not yet known or seen;


To turn from this


Past the poverty of holding back,
Past choosing,
Past consulting needs as oracles;

Past the all-consuming vacuum
That is called a self,
Wandering diminished in a shadow world:


To turn from this,


And see beneath a clear vast cobalt sky
The world in autumn,
In hazy gilded light
Turned crisp by cold air.

The mountain's purple shadowed clefts
Blacken remote stands of pine.
Against the dust of early snow.

Tree tops burn against the sky,
Yellow and red light filling leaves,
And ripple with the sound of distant clapping hands.

The smell of wood smoke hovering in the dry air
Bears the deeper scent of horses and of mouldering grass;
A taste in the air of dried corn and snow:
Here, in this world, longing ripens
In fulfillment of an afternoon

As gold fulfills light and space,
Pervading mountain tops, wheat stalks, a ripe pear.
Deer move warily to fodder, and geese arch to winter home,
And stillness.


GATE 2


In this mirror of limitless ayatanas,
The Kingdom of Shambhala opens from the heart

In this, the immediate path of timeless time,
The gold eight petalled heart lotus of Shambhala opens.

Watching a hornet circle in the air,
Sight, turning beyond aims,
Enters into ceaseless expansion,
Is pure awareness.

Listening to a silvery wind chime,
Hearing, turning beyond questioning,
Enters into silent immensity,
Is pure space.

Smelling the perfume on a passerby,
Smell, turning beyond memories,
Enters into wordless depth,
Is pure time.

Tasting the bitterness of strong black tea,
Taste, turning beyond satisfactions,
Entered into inescapable intimacy,
Is pure love.

Feeling the thick fur of a horse's winter coat,
Touch, turning beyond preference,
Enters into all-pervasive contact,
Is real non-duality.

Aware of time's passage,
Consciousness, turning beyond meanings,
Enters into its unobstructed boundlessness,
Is pure light.

Body and wakefulness inseparable:
This is the spontaneous union of kaya and jnana:
The self-existing mandala of dralas.

The Kingdom of Shambhala
Lives as a pure realm,
On the earth, and in the heart.

Shambhala is alive in the senses
And opens itself
As one turns one's face
To the full hot light of the blazing sun.


GATE 3

Like touching a rock face,
Because it is the support of life,
Entering it is like falling
Into a fathomless golden sea.

Like drinking liquor,
Because it is luminous,
Entering it is like being flooded
With joy.

Like hearing the sound of a silver bell
Because it is true,
Entering it is like being stripped
Of petty mind.

Because it is powerful
Entering it is like being struck
By a blue-white lightening bolt.

Because it is all victorious,
Entering it is like knowing reality
Irreversibly.




Douglas Penick, Magyel Pomra Sayi Dakpo 10/18/94