From the archive record
Prayer wheel is among the most symbolic of religious objects for Tibetans. Mediators hold the prayer wheel and during countless rotations of the wheel, they repeat the mantra. This way, the mediator sends out thousands of prayers, each calling for universal compassion for all living beings. The word kalachakra means cycles of time, and the Kalachakra system presents three such cycles -- external, internal and alternative. The external and internal cycles deal with time as we normally know it, while the alternative cycles are practices for gaining liberation from these two. The structures of the external and internal cycles are analogous, similar to the parallel between macrocosm and microcosm discussed in Western philosophy. This means that the same laws that govern a universe also pertain