The Eight Yoga of Naropa: Sexual Yoga with a Consort

There is a saying in the mahamudra system of meditation, based on the Six Yogas of Naropa, which goes, "There can be no mahamudra or nirvana without karmamudra or sexual yoga.” According to Himalayan meditation theory, sexual yoga is the central completion stage practice that results in nirvana, or the union of the Three Bodies. Both the Chinese and Tibetan civilizations have been heavily influenced by individuals who achieved whole-brain activation through the use of sexual yoga practices. These individuals include the Yellow Emperor, Lao Tzu, and Padmasambhava. Padmasambhava studied with Sri Simha on Wu Tai Shan in China, as well as with Indian masters.

According to the great historian of religion, Mircea Eliade, tantric theory was originally described in India as the “Chinese method.” Thomas Cleary felt that the descriptions of Padmasambhava practicing sexual yoga for longevity in caves throughout scholars have ignored the emphasis on sexual yoga as the completion stage of meditation in Himalayan yoga lineages. Jung pointed out that the majority of Asian and hermetic art points to the union of opposites, resulting in non-duality. He called this "the actualization of the self after the conscious and unconscious minds have united." However, he had no idea that the goal of sexual yoga is to activate the kundalini through the union of gross, subtle, and void levels of consciousness. This is the basis of both Western alchemy and Eastern medical science. Chinese Internal Alchemy is based on the idea that the lifespan of an individual can be greatly extended through the successful practice of sexual yoga.

As Joseph Campbell tells us:
In the Buddhists lamaseries of Tibet...the holy images and banners show the various Buddhas and Bodhisattvas joined with their Shaktis in embrace, in the yogic posture known as Yab-Yum, "Father-Mother." And the great prayer of the old prayer wheels of Tibet, OM mani padme HUM, "the jewel (mani) in the lotus (padme)," signifies, on one level: the immanence of nirvana (the jewel) in (samsara the lotus); another: the arrival of the mind (the jewel) in nirvana (the lotus); but also, as in the icon of the male and female joined: the lingam in the yoni. “Buddhatvam yosidyonisamsritam,” states a late Buddhist aphorism: "Buddhahood abides in the female organ."
Joseph Campbell, Oriental Mythology: The Masks of God

The First Yoga of Naropa: Yoga of Psycho

The first of the Six Yogas of Naropa is tummo (inner heat); it is the yoga of psycho - physical heat. This practice uses a combination of visualization and breathing techniques that eventually result in the adept being able to survive arctic temperatures with very little clothing. It is said that in 1100 A.D., Milarepa, the most well - known Tibetan to have completed the Six Yogas, was able to spend all winter in the Himalayas in a light cotton garment.

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TUMMO/INNER HEAT. Tummo is Tibetan for “inner fire” and is one of the Six Yogas of Naropa. It includes regulation of the breath, concentration on the navel center or in the lower abdomen and visualization of sacred syllables.Traditionally in Tibet, a practitioner of tummo would be tested by being put out naked into the snow and then having wet sheets wrapped around their body. Then they would need to generate enough heat within their body to dry multiple sheets.

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Heat yoga is probably among the oldest practices, dating back to shamanic hunter- gatherer cultures. Like many of the techniques and practices we will be discussing, the original technique led to physiological, transformative results. These results provided a greatly enhanced survival advantage, which was then passed down to descendants, probably both genetically and culturally. Thus, any culture that had to exist in extremely cold climates appears to have linked inner heat with both a survival and a consciousness- illuminating affect.

In China, at the hunter-gatherer level of development, survival was largely based on skill derived from hereditarily transmitted animal martial arts systems. Each village or clan had a specific animal guardian with a system of corresponding martial arts, often based on sword, spear, and a variety of other weapons; these systems were used to protect the tribe from marauders. Very few students of Zen realize that one of the oldest sayings from the Shaolin temple, the legendary source of both Zen and martial arts, is "kill the leader of the bandits and you save the whole village."

The basis for all martial arts systems is chi development; martial arts skills are determined by the amount of heat that the individual has been able to generate through specific breathing, visualization and meditation practices. Energy cultivation is the basis of both the martial arts and medical traditions dating back toprehistoric times in Asia.

Essentially, an individual who mastered these practices could be expected to live to a much greater age than most people as well as maintain a very high level of health. In theory, this would allow the clans that had mastered these techniques to survive and reproduce successfully at a much greater rate than those who were not able to master this yogic skill. Heat yoga can compensate for nutritional inadequacy in winter months, so fasting practices could benefit those in times of extreme cold or famine. Heat yoga and fasting practices are techniques that ultimately became the basis of many Tibetan yogic systems.

Even in modern times, martial arts masters are able to fight successfully past their seventies. There have been many cases in which elderly practitioners successfully defeated challengers or armed opponents. In one story, Wang Pei Sheng, a well-known master, defeated four Japanese soldiers carrying bayonets with his bare hands, using tai chi skills, during the Japanese occupation of Beijing. Similarly, in Japan, the belief was that one true samurai armed with a sword could defeat ten armed opponents. In China, the belief has always been that success in combat is determined by the level of chi development of the practitioner. In modern times, these arts have continued to be transmitted because of their health benefits and their associations with longevity. In ancient times, the medical system, the martial arts system and the system of spiritual cultivation were not separate; you see this in the monastic teaching systems that existed in China, Tibet and India.

Six Yogas of Naropa

The Six Yogas of Naropa are a collection of techniques passed down by enlightened couples, many of whom have achieved the permanent union of the Three Bodies. These yogas can be done before or during death, with the understanding that some yogis can only achieve full Buddhahood at the time of death. Each of the techniques is considered a complete method of transcendence in and of itself; the Six Yogas represent a collection of practices of a number of Mahasiddhas. In many ways, the Six Yogas appear to be based on the original shamanic and yogic methods of inner power development; the most complete form results in the union of the Three Bodies.

Naropa, one of the most well known practitioners of Buddhism and tantric yoga, was a student of Tilopa in India in the 10th century. He studied with Tilopa by first being subjected to what are known as "The Twelve Trials of Naropa,” which involved Tilopa's placing Naropa into situations that were quite challenging and painful, testing Naropa's willingness and devotion.

There are many stories of spiritual teachers who test their potential and ongoing students with extremely harsh conditions, demands, requests, and questions. The trials to test sincerity, which many teachers put their students through, are meant to eliminate dilettante practitioners who do not have the mental fortitude or devotion to traverse the path to its end. The students who successfully pass through these trials demonstrate a level of devotion conspicuously absent from many modern spiritual or religious disciplines. The focus and dedication that it takes an Olympic athlete to earn a gold medal are similar to what is necessary for a student to master advanced spiritual disciplines, such as those in chi gong or mahamudra teachings.

The Six Yogas of Naropa, advanced teachings that are the foundations of the Buddhist lineages, especially in Tibet.

Understanding the Yin and Yang

The ancient Taoists, those natural philosophers of change and balance, used the concepts of yin and yang to symbolize the polarity of existence. Everything that exists can be assigned either to yin or yang, thus identifying its polar aspects. In this way, all elements are paired and balanced with each other—night and day, sun and moon, moist and dry, dark and light, fire and water, male and female. It is through this interdependence and interrelationship that the universe, and we humans within it, remains in balance and harmony.

The principle of yin/yang is fundamental to any understanding of Taoist philosophy or sexual yoga. As do so many Taoist ideas, this concept of yin and yang comes from nature. Originally yang stood for the light side of a hill, the side facing the sun. Yin stood for the shady side, away from the sun.

The qualities of yang are brightness, heat, activity, upward and outward direction, aggressiveness, expansion and what we might think of as maleness. The qualities of yin are darkness, water, cold, rest, inward and downward direction, stillness, receptivity, and what we might think of as femaleness.

It is very important to understand that when we talk about yin and yang we are not talking of gender or sex. We all have both yin and yang qualities, whether we are male or female. The balance of these two qualities is not static and concrete, but ever moving and shifting. At times our yin side may assert itself, at other times our yang side.

By being aware and sensitive to the balance and subtle shifts of our own yin and yang qualities we are better able to make proper decisions and conduct ourselves with greater integrity and foresight in our dealings with others.

Yin and yang are not two completely separate forces. They are, instead, different facets of one unifying principle.