Six Dharmas of Naropa
The Six Dharmas of Nāropa, also called the Six Yogas of Nāropa, are a set of advanced Tibetan Buddhist tantric practices and a meditation sādhanā compiled in and around the time of the Indian monk and mystic Nāropa and conveyed to his student Marpa Lotsawa. The six dharmas were intended in part to help in the attainment of Buddhahood in an accelerated manner.
Six Yogas or Six Dharmas?
Peter Alan Roberts notes that the proper terminology is "six Dharmas of Nāropa", not "six yogas of Nāropa":Classification
The six dharmas are a synthesis or collection of the completion stage practices of several tantras. In the Kagyu traditions by which the six dharmas were first brought to Tibet, abhiṣeka into at least one Anuttarayoga Tantra system and practice of its utpatti-krama are the bases for practice of the six dharmas; there is no particular empowerment for the six dharmas themselves. The six dharmas are ordered and progressive, each subsequent set of practices builds on previous attainments.The Six Dharmas
Though variously classified in up to ten dharmas, the six dharmas generally conform to the following list:- tummo - the yoga of inner heat.
- gyulü - the yoga of the illusory body.
- ösel - the yoga of the clear light or radiant light.
- milam - the yoga of the dream state.
- bardo - the yoga of the intermediate state. This is well known through the Bardo Thödöl. Bardo yoga as the yoga of liminality may include aspects of illusiory body and dream yoga and is therefore to be engaged as an extension of these disciplines.
- phowa - the yoga of the transference of consciousness to a pure Buddhafield.
Alternate Formulations
- Drongjuk Phowa – Keown, et al. list a "seventh dharma" that is a variation of phowa in which the sādhaka, by transference, may transfer their mindstream into a recently deceased body. This technique may no longer be extant, or is kept secret. The forceful projection of the mindstream into the bodymind of another is a variation that consists of elements of phowa, ösel and gyulu.
- Karmamudrā or "action seal" .This is the tantric yoga involving sexual union with a physical partner, either real or visualized. Like all other yogas, it cannot be practiced without the basis of the tummo yoga, of which karmamudrā is an extension.
- Self-liberation – Nāropa himself, in the Vajra Verses of the Whispered Tradition, adds the practice of self-liberation in the wisdom of non-duality, which is the resolved view of mahamudra and dzogchen. This is always considered as a distinct path.
- Yantra – There are many practices and physical exercises called yantras preliminary to tummo yoga. A good example of this is the visualization on the body as being hollow: "here the body and the energy channels are to be seen as completely transparent and radiant". This essential technique releases tensions and gives suppleness to the prana channels.
Many Gelugpa practitioners including Dalai Lamas are expert in the six dharmas of Nāropa.
Physical exercises
Before engaging in the actual practices of the Six Dharmas, one begins by doing the "six exercises of Naropa". Trülkhor- Filling like a Vase – a breathing technique
- Circling like a Wheel – rolling the solar plexus
- Hooking like a Hook – snapping the elbow into the chest
- Showing the Mudrā of Vajra Binding – moving the mudrā from the crown downwards
- Straightening like an Arrow – hands and knees on the floor with the spine straight; heaving like a dog
- Shaking the Head and Entire Body – pulling the fingers, followed by massaging the two hands
Meditation on the body as an empty shell
Stages of meditating upon the actual path
Inner Heat
Visualizing the channels, Visualizing the mantric syllables and engaging in the vase breathing technique.This gives rise to five signs: like a mirage, like a wisp of smoke, like the flickering of fireflies, like a glowing butter lamp, and like a sky free of clouds.
Four Blisses
Bliss at the throat chakra, supreme bliss at the heart chakra, inexpressible bliss or special bliss at the navel chakra, and innate bliss at the secret place, tip of the jewel.This is accomplished by relying on two conditions; the internal condition of meditating on inner heat yoga and the external condition of relying upon a karmamudrā.
The Types of Karmamudrās
- Karma Mudrā – A woman possessing the physical attributes of a woman, for dull yogis.
- Jñāna Mudrā – A woman created through the power of one's visualization, for middling yogis.
- Mahā Mudrā – The images within one's own mind spontaneously arise as various consorts, for sharp yogis.
- Samaya Mudrā – The mudra experienced as a result of accomplishing the former three.
While many of the traditional lists of types of consorts to seek out for joint practice to gain spiritual attainments are written for males and from a male point of view, there are some rare instructions for these sadhanas and for consort choice from the point of view of female practitioners.
Pure illusory Body
Meditations on all appearances as illusory, dream illusions, and bardo experience.Actual Clear Light
The four emptinesses lead to the experience of clear light during the waking period and during sleep.The four emptinesses are: Emptiness, Very Empty, Great Emptiness, and Utter Emptiness. They are associated with external and internal signs of the appearance of mirage, smoke, fireflies, butterlamp, cloudless sky; and whiteness, redness, blackness, and the clear light of early dawn which resembles a mixture of sunlight and moonlight, respectively.
Union of Clear Light and Illusory Body
Actualizing the results. The state of a Buddha Vajradhāra.Transference of Consciousness
The branches of that path.There are two ways to practice the transference of consciousness: with a support and without a support.
Separating the body and the mind without a support is achieved through the emptiness of great conceptlessness whereby the mind is not attached to the body and the body is not attached to the mind.
Separating the body and the mind with a support, on the other hand, requires one to imagine the mind as a substance. With awareness one draws the mind up the central channel and then with force expels the mind into the space of the sky.
There are two methods to separate a body and a mind with support: transference in stages, and transference all at once at the time of death.
Transference in stages involves dissolving the sufferings of the six realms into a bindu which ascends the body and travels upwards in the central channel.
Starting under the sole of the feet, each point radiates colored light. Feet: black-hell, joining yellow-hungry-ghosts together at the secret place. At the navel: gray-animals. At the heart: green-human. At the throat: red-demigods, and at the crown: white-gods.
Once the bindu has reached the crown, it has the nature of five colors, corresponding to the last five stages. This bindu then leaves the central channel through the crown and comes to rest inside the heart of a deity that is one cubit above in space.
The mind is rested in equipoise in this state.
Related traditions
The six dharmas of Niguma are almost identical to the six dharmas of Nāropa. Niguma who was an enlightened dakini, a Vajrayana teacher, one of the founders of the Shangpa Kagyu Buddhist lineage, and, depending on the sources, either the sister or spiritual consort of Nāropa. The second Dalai Lama, Gendun Gyatso has compiled a work on these yogas. Niguma transmitted her teachings to yogini Sukhasiddhī and then to Khyungpu Neldjor, the founder of the Shangpa Kagyu lineage. A translator and teacher in the lineage, Lama Sarah Harding, has published a book about Niguma and the core role her teachings such as the six dharmas of Niguma have played in the development of the Shangpa Kagyu lineage.In the lineage of Machig Labdron, the practice of Mahamudra Chöd begins with The Yoga of the Transference of Consciousness.