The Six Yogas of Naropa - Milam (3/6)

The Six Yogas of Naropa (Sankirt. Saḍdharma, "Naro's six doctrines" or "six teachings") are a set of advanced Tibetan Buddhist tantric practices compiled by the Indian mahasiddhas Tilopa and Nāropa (1016–1100 CE) and passed on to the Tibetan translator-yogi Marpa Lotsawa (c. 1012).

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, sleeping, and dying. They are also referred to as "the path of means" (thabs lam) in Kagyu literature. They are also sometimes called the Six Yogas of Naropa (though not in the traditional literature, which never uses the term ṣaḍaṅga-yoga or sbyor-drug). 

The six yogas 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 yogas work with the subtle body, particularly through the generation of inner heat (tummo) energy.

The six yogas are a main practice of the Kagyu school (and were originally unique to that school), and key Kagyu figures such as Milarepa, Gampopa, Phagmo Drugpa, and Jigten Sumgon taught and practiced these yogas. They taught in the Gelugpa lineage and were introduced by Je Tsongkhapa, who received the lineage through his Kagyu teachers. 

Overview of Preliminary Practices  

For example, Milarepa is quoted by Tsongkhapa as stating that the 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 show 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.  

In all schools of Tibetan Buddhism, there are various preliminary practices drawn from the common Mahayana that are prescribed to students before beginning the practice of completion stage yoga (such as taking refuge, Bodhicitta aspiration, guru yoga, deity yoga, and dedication of merit). The details of this depend on the lineage, school, and individual teacher.

The six yogas of Naropa 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 (generally Cakrasaṃvara and/or Vajrayogini/Vajravarāhi Tantras) and practice of its Generation Stage are the bases for practice of the six yogas.

The six yogas though variously classified (from just two to up to ten dharmas), the most widely used list of six yogas in the work of the Kagyu school figure Gampopa conforms to the following list: 

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1) Tummo - The Yoga of inner heat

2) Osel - The Yoga of luminosity or radiant  light

3) Milam - The dream Yoga 

“You should know all phenomena are like dreams.” — Shakyamuni Buddha.

Milam - The Dream Yoga or The Yoga of the Dream State is a suite of advanced tantric sadhana of the entwined Mantrayana lineages of Dzogchen (Nyingmapa, Ngagpa, Mahasiddha, Kagyu, and Bonpo). Dream yoga consists of tantric processes and techniques within the trance. Bardos of Dream and Sleep (standard Tibetan: mi-lam the bardo)

The Six Yogas of Naropa. In the tradition of the tantra, the dream yoga method is usually passed on by a qualified teacher to his or her students after necessary initiation. Various Tibetan lamas are unanimous that it is more of a passing of an enlightened experience than any textual information.

The first step to dream practice is quite simple: one must recognise the great potential that dreams  holds for the spiritual journey. Normally, the dream is thought to be ‘unreal,’ as opposedto'real'’ waking life.

But there is nothing more real than a dream. This statement only makes sense once it is understood that normal waking life is as unreal as a dream, and in exactly the same way.

What is the goal of dream yoga? 

Dream Yoga is a spiritual practice that aims to help individuals achieve greater lucidity, control, and insight in their dreams.. It is a form of meditation that is practiced while sleeping, with the goal of becoming aware that one is dreaming and learning to control the dream state.

Unless we are Yogis or Yoginis, the closest we are likely to come to an inciteful appreciation of emptiness and the true nature of phenomena might actually be our dreams. The first Karmapa attained enlightenment with dream yoga.

“It is easier to develop your practices in a dream than in the daytime. In the daytime, we are limited to our material body, but in a dream, our function of mind and our consciousness of the senses are unhindered. We can have more clarity. If a person applies a practice within a dream, it is nine times more effective than when it is applied in waking life.” Namkai Norbu Rinpoche (1938 - 2018)

Chogyal Namkhai Norbu (1938–2018) was an internationally renowned scholar of the Nyingma lineage who dedicated his life, prodigious mind, and intellect to becoming a master of the Dzogchen Atiyoga teachings.

In the bardo, one has the  yid lus , the vision body (yid, consciousness; lus, body). It is the same as the body of dreams, the mind body.  

If you’re in a nightmare and you become lucid, relate to your fear instead of running from it. This practice can show you that it’s not the contents of the nightmare that scare you, but your habit of taking the events to be solid and real.

However, lucid dreaming alone will not wake you up in the spiritual sense. If you merely indulge your fantasies, lucid dreaming becomes super-samsara. When intention is involved, even at the level of a dream, karma is created.  

Lucid dreams are not karmically neutral. If you want to go deeper, lucid dreaming can develop into dream yoga, which is when it becomes a spiritual practice. While lucid dreams can create negative karma, dream yoga is designed to purify it. “Yoga” is that which yokes, or unites. Dream yoga is designed to unite you with deeper aspects of your being and is more concerned with self-transcendence.

With dream yoga, instead of using your mind as an entertainment centre, you turn it into a laboratory. You experiment with dream meditations and study your mind using the medium of dreams. For example, one dream yoga practice is to change the objects in your dream.

In The Tibetan Yogas of Dream  and Sleep, “if we lose ourselves every night, what chance do we have to be aware when death comes? Look to your experience in dreams to know how you will fare in death. Look to your experience of sleep to discover whether or not you are truly awake.”

But, when we sleep, our minds create entire worlds within seconds; a century can pass in a relative minute; we can fly through the sky and meet Buddhas and stunningly beautiful Dakinis; we see monsters from the deepest fictional hells of our mind—and none of it is real. Yet, all of it is as real as we experience in our daily lives.

Lucid participation in your dreams can quickly help us develop insight into duality, into the true nature of phenomena, and into the illusion of appearances in our dualistic “waking” world.

Footnote

For those who have received the empowerment of this Tantric practise, you are reminded not to intentionally or unintentionally disclose the mantra to the public or anyone who may not have the empowerment or permission to practise, and disclosing the mantra intentionally or unintentionally is a form of breaking your Tantric Samaya vows to the lineage masters and Dharma protectors.
 
Please consult your Guru or a qualified lineage master for Vajrayana practise! Should a devotee even want to start studying and contemplating the Vajrayana practise, then it is truly necessary to first have completed the preliminaries and to be certain that Bodhicitta has arisen and developed in one’s mind.
 
Vajrayana features countless skillful and powerful methods that, if practised in the proper way, can make the process of accumulation and purification incredibly swift and direct. It is absolutely necessary to have pure motivation and to know that Vajrayana practise is not carried out to increase one’s own ego, power, or self-interest.  

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Aspiration For Bodhichitta

For those in whom the precious Bodhichitta has not arisen

May it arise and not decrease.

But increase further and further.

 

Dedication of Merit

By this merit, may we then obtain omniscience then.

Having defeated the enemies wrongdoings

May we liberate migratory from the ocean of existence.

With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness, and death.

 

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