Six Dharmas of Naropa


The Six Dharmas of Nāropa are a set of advanced Tibetan Buddhist tantric practices compiled by the Indian mahasiddhas Tilopa and Nāropa and passed on to the Tibetan translator-yogi Marpa Lotsawa.
Another name for the six Dharmas is "the oral instruction transmission for achieving liberation in the bardo," or "the Bardo Trang-dol system". Bardo here, refers to the three bardos of waking, sleep and dying. They are also referred to as "the path of means" in Kagyu literature. They are also sometimes called the Six Yogas of Nāropa.
The six dharmas are a collection of tantric Buddhist completion stage practices drawn from the Buddhist tantras. They are intended to lead to Buddhahood in an accelerated manner. They traditionally require tantric initiation and personal instruction through working with a tantric guru as well as various preliminary practices. The six dharmas work with the subtle body, particularly through the generation of inner heat energy.
The six dharmas are a main practice of the Kagyu school and key Kagyu figures such as Milarepa, Gampopa, Phagmo Drugpa and Jigten Sumgon taught and practiced these dharmas. They are also taught in Gelug, where they were introduced by Je Tsongkhapa, who received the lineage through his Kagyu teachers.

Lineage

The teachings of Tilopa are the earliest known work on the six dharmas. He received these from various teachers. According to Glenn Mullin, Tilopa's lineage teachers were the mahasiddhas Nagarjuna, Lawapa, Luipada, Shavari, and Krishnacharya. Furthermore, the sources for this compilation of tantric practices were said to be the Guhyasamaja Tantra, the Hevajra Tantra and the Chaturpitha Tantra.
Nāropa learned the six dharmas from Tilopa. Nāropa's student Marpa taught the Tibetan Milarepa, renowned for his yogic skills. Milarepa in turn taught Gampopa, who wrote various meditation manuals on the six dharmas, which are collected in the Dakpö Kambum in a section titled "Meditation manuals on the six dharmas of Naropa". From Gampopa these teachings were passed on to the various Kagyu sub-schools and lineages where they remain a central practice.
Numerous commentaries have been composed on these practices, including Shamar Chokyi Wangchuk's, the Quintessence of Nectar. They are also described in Dakpo Tashi Namgyal's Light Rays from the Jewel of the Excellent Teaching and in Jamgon Kongtrul's Treasury of Knowledge,. Today, the six dharmas are one of the main tantric practices of the Kagyu school, and are practiced in three-year retreats by monastic and non-monastic yogis.
Through the efforts of Je Tsongkhapa, Naropa’s Six Dharmas also became important in the Gelug tradition. Tsongkhapa wrote a commentary on them called A Book of Three Inspirations: A Treatise on the Stages of Training in the Profound Path of Naro's Six Dharmas. This commentary became the standard reference work on these practices in the Gelug tradition. Other figures who wrote on the six dharmas include Gyalwa Wensapa, the First Panchen Lama and Lama Jey Sherab Gyatso.
Many Gelugpa practitioners including the Dalai Lamas and the Panchen Lamas were lineage holders of the six dharmas. Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa are recent Gelug teachers of the six dharmas.

Classification

The six dharmas are meant to be a comprehensive and holistic collection of the completion stage practices of Indian Buddhist tantra. In Kagyu and Gelug, initiation or empowerment into at least one Anuttarayogatantra system and practice of its Generation Stage are the bases for practice of the six dharmas. According to Ulrich Timme Kragh,
After having visualized oneself and all other beings as deities and recited the mantras of the deity during the practices associated with the first empowerment, the practitioner uses these techniques of the six yogas, belonging to the second empowerment, to create strong experiences of bliss, presence, and non-thought, thereby providing a first glimpse of Awakening.

The Six Dharmas

Though variously classified, the most widely used list of six dharmas in the work of the Kagyu school figure Gampopa conforms to the following list:
Other dharmas, sometimes grouped with those above, or set as auxiliary practices, include:
  • Generation Stage practice. According to Thubten Yeshe, Milarepa lists Deity Yoga Generation Stage meditation as part of the dharmas.
  • Karmamudrā or "action seal" .This is the tantric yoga involving sexual union with a consort or partner, either physical or visualized. Like all other yogas, it cannot be practiced without the basis of the tummo and generation stage practice.
  • Forceful Transference – a variation of phowa in which the sādhaka may transfer their mindstream into a recently deceased body.
  • 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. This is always considered as a distinct path.

    Classifications

There are different ways of organizing and listing the dharmas of Naropa other than the list of Gampopa. For example, Tsongkhapa prefers the following listing, which follows Pagmo Drupa: tummo illusory body radiance transference forceful projection and bardo.
The dharmas are also sometimes grouped into different sets of teachings. For example, Gyalwa Wensapa groups them into two dharmas: the yogas for drawing the vital energies into the central channel; and the yogas that are performed once the energies have been withdrawn in this way.
According to Glenn Mullin, "Marpa Lotsawa seems mainly to have spoken of them as fourfold: inner heat; karmamudra, or sex yogas; illusory body; and clear light. Here three of the six-i.e., those of consciousness transference, forceful projection and the bardo yogas-are not given the status of separate "Dharmas," presumably because they are relegated to the position of auxiliary practices." Meanwhile, Milarepa seems to have classified the dharmas of Naropa as follows: generation stage; inner heat; karmamudra; introduction to the essence of the view of the ultimate nature of being; the indicative clear light of the path; and the indicative illusory nature, together with dream yoga.
There is also a list of ten dharmas, which can be found in the work of Ngulchu Dharmabhadra: the generation stage yogas; the view of emptiness; the inner heat; karmamudra yogas; the illusory body; the clear light; dream yoga; the bardo yogas; consciousness transference; and forceful projection.

Overview of practices

Preliminaries

In all schools of Tibetan Buddhism, there are various preliminary practices drawn from common Mahayana that are prescribed to students before beginning the practice of completion stage yoga. The details of this depend on the lineage, school and individual teacher. For more on this, see: Tibetan Buddhism and Tantra Techniques.
For example, Milarepa is quoted by Tsongkhapa as stating that first one establishes the basics, "such as refuge in the three jewels and the two aspects of bodhicitta." Tsongkhapa also quotes poems by Milarepa which shows that he held that one should first practice contemplating the nature of karma, observing the faults of sensuality and samsara, as well as meditate on kindness and bodhicitta.
Tsongkhapa divides the preliminaries into common and exclusive. The common preliminaries deal with Sutrayana practices such as contemplating karma, impermanence and death, contemplating the shortcomings of sensuality, giving rise to bodhicitta, practicing love and compassion meditation, keeping the bodhistatva vows, practicing the six perfections, and samatha-vipasyana. This corresponds to the sutra trainings found in Lamrim teachings. According to Tsongkhapa, if one does not practice these, one will not be "able to cut off clinging to the ephemeral things of this life, and as a consequence will not experience a stable aspiration to engage in spiritual practice." Thus, one's practice will "remain superficial," will lack bodhicitta and meditative focus, and thus will also lack insight into not-self.
The exclusive preliminaries are Vajrayana practices such as receiving initiation, keeping one's tantric pledges, Vajrasattva meditation and guru yoga. Tsongkhapa recommends that one practice generation stage meditation in preparation for the six yogas. According to Glenn Mullin,"it is obvious from Tsongkhapa' s tone that a number of his readers will have heard of practicing the Six Yogas without first having undergone sufficient training in the generation stage meditations." Tsongkhapa argues against this however. Tsongkhapa also writes that one must have an understanding of the doctrine of emptiness.
Similarly, Shamar Chokyi Wangchuk's Quintessence of Nectar states that one must: receive tantric initiation, train in the common preliminaries, develop compassion and bodhicitta, practice Vajrasattva purification, and practice guru yoga.

Physical exercises

There are also auxiliary physical exercises which use various postures and movements. There are different traditions of these physical exercises with different sets of exercises. Jey Sherab Gyatso states that some schools practice a set of six exercises, while "The Pakmo Drupa and Drikung Kagyu schools both maintain a tradition of 108 exercises."
The commonly taught "six exercises" are outlined in Phagmo Drukpa's Verses on the Path Technology: A Supplement as follows:
There are six exercises for purifying the body: filling like a vase; circling like a wheel; hooking like a hook; showing the mudra of vajra binding, lifting upward toward the sky, and then pressing downward; straightening like an arrow, and then forcefully re-leasing the air in the manner of a dog heaving; and, in order to energize the passageways and blood in the body, shaking the head and entire body and flexing the muscles. These are the six.
The first exercise is particularly important, as it is a kumbhaka breath retention practice, in which one breathes deeply into the navel and holds the breath there for as long as one can. This breath hold technique is also applied in tummo. According to Tsongkhapa, these six are to be done in conjunction with the hollow body contemplation. This practice will allow one to feel much joy, and also will help prevent any injury which might arise from the changing flow of the vital winds resulting from the practice of the six yogas.
A related practice 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 technique releases tension and gives suppleness to the subtle energy channels. Tsongkhapa describes this practice as follows:
One commences as before with the practice of visualizing oneself as the mandala deity. The special application here is to concentrate on the body, from the tip of the head to the soles of the feet, as being utterly empty of material substance, like an empty transparent balloon filled with light...Here the body is to be envisioned as being entirely without substance, appearing in the mind like a rainbow in the sky.