The Six Yogas and the Mahasiddha Naropa

The Six Yogas of Naropa were not discovered by Naropa. They originated in the teachings of Lord Buddha and were eventually transmitted to the great eleventhcentury Indian yogi Tilopa, who in turn transmitted them to his disciple Naropa. They were then passed on to many Tibetan lamas, including Marpa and Milarepa, some of whom wrote down their experiences as commentaries on the Six Yogas.

I will be explaining the practice of inner fire according to Having the Three Convictions, a commentary on the Six Yogas by Lama Je Tsongkhapa. I will not translate the entire text, but will instead give you the essence of the teaching. Even though I am not a successful meditator, I have received teachings on this text from my gurus on at least three occasions,1 and I have tried to do the practice.

As I have already mentioned, Lama Tsongkhapa lists the Six Yogas as inner fire meditation, the yoga of the illusory body, the yoga of clear light, transference of consciousness, transference into another body, and the yoga of the intermediate state. Lama Tsongkhapa explains the subjects without adding

or subtracting anything. He says that all the subjects are covered by these six topics and that anybody who expects additional meditations is ignorant of the tradition. What does he mean? I think Lama Tsongkhapa means that to teach something from your own experience that is not contained in these six subjects is foolish. It would be like Tibetans boasting that they can make better pizzas than Italians.

Sometimes the subjects of the Six Yogas of Naropa are classified into two, three, four, or even ten divisions. In accordance with the needs of a meditator’s mind, for example, there can be three divisions: the practices for attaining enlightenment in this life, in the intermediate state, and in a

future life. Or there can be two divisions: the actual completion stage meditation subjects and the cooperative causes for developing them. For example, some of the breathing exercises are not formally part of completion stage practice, but they help the completion stage meditations.

Previously, some lamas were interested only in the actual completion stage meditations and did not explain these cooperative methods. The holders of Marpa’s lineages,2 however, explain the various minor techniques that are needed to help you succeed in completion stage yoga. For inner fire meditation alone, Marpa explained hundreds of technical methods.

Some Kagyu texts on the Six Yogas of Naropa, explaining according to Marpa’s heritage, count six subjects: inner fire meditation, illusory body yoga, dream yoga, clear light yoga, intermediate state yoga, and the yoga of transference of consciousness. Other Kagyu lamas list eight yogas, adding evolutionary

stage yoga and consort practice to these six. Milarepa divides the six yogas differently: evolutionary stage yoga, inner fire meditation, consort practice, clear light yoga, illusory body yoga, and dream yoga. There are many different ways to count the yogas.

Some Tibetan texts question whether all the Six Yogas of Naropa actually come from Naropa. It seems that in Naropa’s time there might have been six separate texts and that some of Naropa’s disciples might have later combined the six. This might or might not be true, but it doesn’t really matter. History is always debatable. As long as we are able to taste the chocolate of this practice, who cares about such academic questions?

The Tibetan title of Lama Tsongkhapa’s text is Yi-che sum den, which I translate as Having the Three Convictions. Yi-che means conviction, which implies that you can have confidence; sum means three; and den means having. In other words, this commentary has three distinguishing characteristics. The first is

that Lama Tsongkhapa’s descriptions of the meditations are clean-clear and integrated. The second is that although there are many subjects, each is presented so distinctly and clearly that it can be comprehended easily by anyone with discriminating wisdom. The third characteristic is that in order to prove his points, Lama Tsongkhapa quotes many scriptures, both the tantric texts of Shakyamuni Buddha and the treatises of many of the lineage lamas.

Lama Tsongkhapa takes great care to base each of his statements on the words of lineage lamas such as Tilopa, Naropa, Marpa, and Milarepa. He uses quotations to show how his explanations are linked to theirs and to demonstrate the long history of these teachings. He gives clear, scientific explanations and uses convincing proofs on every subject. Thus we can have confidence in Lama Je Tsongkhapa’s commentary.

In Tibetan, the Six Yogas of Naropa are called Na-ro chö druk. Na-ro refers to Naropa; chö, which means dharma, can refer to doctrine or phenomena; and druk

means six. Some people have translated Na-ro chö druk as “The Six Doctrines of Naropa”; others as “The Six Yogas of Naropa.” My feeling is that although “The Six Doctrines” is literally correct, it gives the impression that the teachings are purely philosophical or theological. They are not. They are

something very practical, something to be actualized right now. I believe that “The Six Yogas of Naropa” conveys the right meaning, the right feeling. I think Naropa would be unhappy if we were to use the term “The Six Doctrines of Naropa.”

I have reasons for saying that Naropa would be unhappy if we were to regard his Six Yogas as purely philosophical. Naropa was a well-educated monk and the top professor at the ancient Indian Buddhist university of Nalanda. With a mind like a computer, he had vast knowledge of the sutras and tantras. He was famous as an expert debater and was able to defeat all the non-Buddhist scholars in public encounters.

Nevertheless, Naropa was unhappy and dissatisfied and longed for realization. He thought to himself, “There’s something wrong. I have learned all these intellectual ideas and I can explain absolutely everything about the Buddhadharma, yet I still feel empty and dissatisfied. Something is missing.”

Naropa’s guru instructed him to recite one of Heruka’s mantras, oṃ hrı̄ḥ hā hā hūṃ hūṃ phaṭ, until he found a solution to his problem. Naropa recited several million mantras. Then one day, while reciting the mantra, he felt the earth shake. A voice spoke to him from space, “You are still a baby! You have a long way to go. Your knowledge is merely intellectual, and this is not enough. In order to gain real satisfaction you must find Tilopa. He is your special guru.”

So Naropa left the monastery in search of Tilopa. When he eventually found him after months of difficulties, Tilopa was sitting on the ground cooking live fish. He looked more like a madman than a great yogi! Nevertheless, Naropa became Tilopa’s disciple. Year after year Naropa requested his guru for initiation; and year after year Tilopa would get him to perform some outrageous action, always denying him the initiation he so desperately wanted. Naropa struggled like this for twelve years, and twelve times he almost died.

One day while they were walking together in the desert, Tilopa suddenly decided to give Naropa the initiation. Unable to make any other preparations, Naropa mixed his urine with sand and offered this to his guru as a mandala. Then pam! Tilopa beat him on the head with his sandal. Naropa went into deep meditation for seven days.

It is good for us to hear this story of Naropa. These days we have no shortage of intellectual information, but I truly believe there is a shortage of fertilization. We collect so much information, but we do very little with it. This is why we have so little success in our spiritual practice. Many of my older students, for example, have heard the lam-rim twenty or thirty times and know everything about it from beginning to end. Yet still they are dissatisfied.

This is why Naropa is a good example for us. Even though he was highly advanced intellectually, he had not discovered satisfaction within himself. He left Nalanda in search of a tantric master and then struggled for all those years. He practiced continuously until he achieved his goal, enlightenment.