The ground is essentially the normal state that beings find themselves in. Buddhism states that the essential characteristic of that state is suffering, and so the ground covers the Buddhist theory of why this suffering exists, how that state is maintained, and of course, how within that state there exists the potential to overcome the causes of suffering and achieve enlightenment.

The path is the description of the practices that are to be followed in order to remove the causes of suffering and achieve enlightenment. The result - some maintain that perhaps "goal" is a better translation - is the state of enlightenment once the causes of suffering have been completely removed.

This classification of the contents of the Kalacakra system into ground, path and result, and the division into inner, outer and other, correspond to different chapters of the Kalacakra Tantra. In other words, the Kalacakra system is explained in the Tantra in this structured manner.

The Kalacakra Tantra is divided into five chapters. The first chapter deals with the outer Kalacakra: the physical world, in particular the calculation system for the Kalacakra calendar. It also covers the basic symbolism of the Kalacakra system and describes a set of machines, ranging from catapults and an irrigation machine to a merry-go round for use at the spring festival!

The second chapter deals with inner Kalacakra, and covers the inner world of human existence, dealing with the processes of gestation and birth, the classification of the functions within the human body and experience, and the vajra-kaya - the expression of human physical existence in terms of channels, winds, drops and so forth. In particular, human existence is described as consisting of four states: the waking state, dream, deep sleep, and the so-called fourth state, which mainly refers to orgasm. The potentials (drops) which give rise to these states are described, together with the processes that flow from them. These first two chapters comprise the ground Kalacakra, describing the state of human existence as it is.

The next three chapters describe the other Kalacakra and deal with the path and result. The third chapter deals with the preparation for the meditation practices of the system, the initiations of Kalacakra. There are two main sets of initiations in Kalacakra. The first of these is the preparation for the generation process meditations of Kalacakra. This set of initiations is known as the Seven Empowerments Raising the Child. The point of this name is that the generation process (often misleadingly called a "stage") meditation purifies the process of life, from the moment of conception up to the stage of puberty. In the initiation, the student is introduced to this process by the teacher, who guides the student through the basic process from conception, through gestation, birth, learning to talk, and so forth, up to maturity. This first set of initiations requires the use of the Kalacakra powder mandala, and this is therefore described in the third chapter.

The next set of initiations is known as the "Higher Empowerments", and symbolically purifies the process of life after puberty. For this reason, there is much sexual imagery in these empowerments. They specifically prepare the student for the perfection process meditations of Kalacakra, known as the Six Yogas. The fourth chapter explains the actual meditation practices themselves: both the meditation on the mandala and deity of Kalacakra in the generation process, and the perfection process of the Six Yogas. These two chapters, three and four, thereby describe the path of Kalacakra. The final fifth chapter describes the state of enlightenment that results from the practise of that path, and thereby covers the result Kalacakra.