Six yogas of Nāropa

The Six Yogas of Nāropa (Tibetan Na-ro' i-chos-drug ), literally the six Dharmas , practices or lesson, are a whole of méditatives practices tantric of Buddhism Vajrayāna Tibetan. Transmitted orally and gathered by the Indian Mahāsiddha Nāropa (1016-1100), they arrived at Tibet by Marpa Lotsawa, the translator , then were transmitted to Milarépa whose disciples founded the lines Kagyüpa. This lesson was kept secret during thirteen generations of disciples, of Marpa until I Tsong Khapa, which wrote freely on the subject, and introduced the practices of them into the lines Gelugpa.

Goal

As final instructions of the path of the Tantra S, indifferently called Vajrayāna, tantrayāna or guhyamantrayāna, vehicle of will mantra secret, six yogas of Nāropa aim at the complete Awakening (samyaksambodhi), possible in only one life. In this corpus, the Awakening is called Mahāmudrā or clear Lumière, and indicates the Nature of Buddha presents of each one. The first three yogas mentioned below represent the direct way towards this transcendent reality, and other yogas preliminary, or are carried out, would say one, by defect.

Context

In the Vajrayāna, one calls stage of creation, or generation, the practice of the external Mandala, and stage of achievement, or perfection, the practice of the interior mandala. The interior mandala is the anatomy of the body subtle or etheric, allowing the control of the breaths (Prāna S), of the channels (nādīs), the drops (bindus), and the centers of conscience, or wheels of energy, called Chakra S. the practices which are dependant there spiritualize the body by making some an instrument of realization, and are connected with the Hatha- and Kundalini- yoga S Hindus. As for the external mandala, one it deploys by the yoga of the Déité (Yidam). Six yogas are precisely practices of the interior mandala, although some times one count also the mandala external among yogas of Nāropa. One however regards it as a preliminary yoga, or autonomous.

Classification

Although variously classified, until enumerating ten of them, Yogas of Naropa are more generally the following:

Variations

The diversity of classifications holds so that some practical can be included/understood like alternatives of the others. In particular, the yoga of Bardo is an application of the illusory Body, and the yoga of the Dream is additional with the yoga of clear Lumière.

Here other yogas which are some times indexed:

deliberated Projection, in another body recently deceased (tib.: grong- “jug ). This technique finished, for Kagyus at least, with the death of the son of Marpa, which would have precisely projected its conscience in India in the body of that which was going to be known under the name of the Tipoupa yogi. It can still exist secretly. It is an alternative of the yoga of the transfer of conscience.
Karmamudrā. (tib.: tired kyi phyag rgya ) This corresponds to famous sexual yoga tantric. Like other yogas of Nāropa in general, it cannot be fully completed that on the basis of interior Fire, whose Karmamudrā is an extension.
We already mentioned the training course of generation, or mandala external, usually separate.
Nāropa itself, in the Versets Vajra of the whispered tradition , adds the practice of the car-release in the wisdom of the Not-duality , which is the highest prospect, non-tantric, of the Mahāmudrā of the gasoline and the Dzogchen. But this is always regarded as a distinct way.
There exist several preliminaries with interior fire, as of the physical exercises called will yantras. An good example of preliminary is the visualization of the hollow body: Here the body and the channels of energy (nadis) must be seen like completion transparencies and irradiants" . Then still: Imaginez that your skin becomes clear, transparent, and like a rainbow, does not offer any more any resistance to the matter. This technique essential aims at untying the tensions and the obstructions, therefore to give flexibility to the pranic channels to allow the harmonization of the various centers.

Tantras roots

Interior Fire

The clear Light

The illusory Body

History

Tilopa (988-1069)
At the medieval Buddhist university of Nālandā, when Shāntideva was summoned to produce a speech public within a very short time, it had been shown of paresser and to sleep throughout its studies. In fact it practiced yogas of the dream and clear Lumière. This speech will become famous under the title of Bodhicaryāvatāra, it had prepared there by a meditation of the Mantra of the Bodhisattva of wisdom, Mañjuśrī.

Parallel tradition

Six yogas of Niguma are almost identical to six yogas of Nāropa. Dependently sources, Niguma was either the sister or her consort spiritual, his mystical wife to some extent. Under its name of yoginī Sukhasiddhī, its lesson was transmitted to Khyungpu Neldjor, the founder of the school Shangpa Kagyu, to distinguish from the Kagyu not yet existing which are in fact of the Marpa Kagyu

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