Preparation

These are rites to be performed as preliminaries to the actual empowerment and which vary in number and content according to the given tantric cycle. E.g. in some tantric cycles, the preliminaries are divided into four parts, while in the Kālacakra the preliminaries have seven parts. Often, the preliminary rites are given in the empowerment ritual text itself, though there are also examples of self-standing texts dealing with the preliminary rites alone.