The Siddha as a Cultural Category

The Siddha as a Cultural Category

The Siddha as a Cultural Ca... by contemplative

Naropa's Channel-Energy Exercises.

There is an interesting text called _The Cycle of Channel-Energy Exercises from the Hearing Lineage of (Chakra)samvara_ (བདེ་མཆོག་སྙན་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་རྩ་རླུང་འཁྲུལ་འཁོར་གྱི་སྐོར་)

The text covers an ancient Indian set of yoga practices that were passed on to the translator Marpa (མར་པ་ལོ་ཙ་བ་) by the famous Indian teacher Mahapandita Nadapada (महापण्डित पादधर्म) better known as Naropa. As such they originate within the Pa-Panth of the Siddhasampradaya (Nath-Sampradaya) and are essentially the Buddhist version of Nadi-Vayu practices of Hatha-yoga. Interestingly the Buddhist practices preserved in the Indo-Tibetan tradition are probably older than their Saivite counterparts.

These teachings form part of the oral instructions known as the “Hearing Lineage” (Karna-Tantra कर्णतन्त्र) of the tantric system related to the deity Cakrasamvara (चक्रसंवर).

The book’s topic is the highly secretive practice of “channel-energy exercises” (Sk. nadi-vayu-yantra नाडिवायुयन्त्र Tib. rtsa rlung 'khrul 'khor རྩ་རླུང་འཁྲུལ་འཁོར་).

These “channel-energy exercises” involve, among other things, moving the prana (vayu to be more accurate) through various subtle nerve-like channels called nadis. These techniques are used as a support to a Buddhist form of kundalini-yoga which is called candali-yoga (चाण्डालियोग Tib. gtum mo rnal 'byor གཏུམ་མོ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་)

These techniques have been integrated into the well-known “Six Yogas of Naropa” (Sk. Sadnadapadadharma षड्नादपादधर्म Tib. na ro chos drug ན་རོ་ཆོས་དྲུག་).

Below is a short quotation from the text describing some of these exercises (please excuse my poorly edited English translation):

“The Root Verses of the Five Subsidiary Yantras: Sit in seven point Vairocana posture. Make vajra-fists and put them upon the knees. This is endowed with the four-applications of breath. Extend the left hand and rub it three times with the right hand. Do the same by rubbing three times on right side. Strike the palms (together). Rub the face, backs the front side of the body three times. Jump and extend the right leg. Rub it three times with both hands. Do the same on the left side. Sit in the cross-legged posture (Vajrasana). Put the two fists on the waist and jump. Then shake your body making a ‘Ha’ sound. This is the excellent intent of the Incomparable Mila. The Indian-Snowlion-Yantra is like the following: Make a six-cornered stove. Hold the air in the vase (kumbhaka). Rotate the waist to the right and then to the left side. Move the elbows back and front. Jump three times. Shuvam.”

It is interesting that the particular movement-sequence described in the quotation above is actually demonstrated in the DVD “The Yogis of Tibet” by a Tibetan teacher named spyan snga rin po che (who is a relatively important member of the 'bri kung bka' brgyud lineage).

The Six Yogas of Naropa (& Related Practices)

The Six Yogas of Naropa
Sanskrit: Sadnadapadadharma षड्नादपादधर्म 
Tibetan: Na Ro Chos Drug ན་རོ་ཆོས་དྲུག་

The Six Yogas of Naropa: Tsongkhapa's Commentary Entitled A Book of Three Inspirations by Glenn H. Mullin 


The Practice Of The Six Yogas Of Naropa by Glenn C. Mullin 


The Six Yogas of Naropa & Teachings on Mahamudra by Garma C.C. Chang 


Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines by W. Y. Evans-Wentz


Tummo and Trul-khor

The Bliss of Inner Fire: Heart Practice of the Six Yogas of Naropa by Lama Thubten Yeshe 


Yantra Yoga: Tibetan Yoga Of Movement by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu 


Tummo, Illusory Body, and Clear Light

Clear Light of Bliss: A Tantric Meditation Manual by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso


Dream Yoga and Sleep Yoga (Clear-Light)

Natural Liberation: Padmasambhava's Teachings on the Six Bardos by Gyatrul Rinpoche
 This text also contains "Illusory Body" yogic instruction


Meditation, Transformation, And Dream Yoga by Gyatrul Rinpoche


Dreaming Yourself Awake: Lucid Dreaming and Tibetan Dream Yoga for Insight and Transformation by B. Alan Wallace and Brian Hodel


Dream Yoga and the Practice of Natural Light by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu


The Tibetan Yogas Of Dream And Sleep by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche 

Mahasiddha as Psychonaut

Back in 2007 I wrote this as a letter to a friend, but think I think some people who stumble upon this blog might find it interesting as well. It’s from Robert Thurman (whom I feel some ambivalence about). I do like that he has started to introduce terms like “psychonaut“ and “psychotechnology” into the Buddhist discourse. The term psychonaut helps bring into view the experiential and exploratory nature of yogic practice. The idea of “courageous exploration” is appropriate considering the radical epistemic inquiry that lies at the heart of such practices. These practices can be an investigation of “mind” and “reality” that almost forms a sort of self-imposed "guerrilla ontology" (to use RAW’s wonderful turn of phrase). The process can be frightening at times so “courageous exploration of inner space” seems to be quite apt. Anyway here is the quote:

“The Tantric communities of India in the latter half of the first Common Era millennium (and perhaps even earlier) were something like "Institutes of Advanced Studies" in relation to the great Buddhist monastic "Universities." They were research centers for highly cultivated, successfully graduated experts in various branches of Inner Science (adhyatmavidya), some of whom were still monastics and could move back and forth from university (vidyalaya) to "site" (pitha), and many of whom had resigned vows of poverty, celibacy, and so forth, and were living in the classical Indian sannyasin or sadhu style. I call them the "psychonauts" of the tradition, in parallel with our "astronauts," the materialist scientist-adventurers whom we admire for their courageous explorations of the "outer space" which we consider the matrix of material reality. Inverse astronauts, the psychonauts voyaged deep into "inner space," encountering and conquering angels and demons in the depths of their subconscious minds. These Tantric communities seemed to have understood full well the real dangers of falling prey to the forces lurking in such psychic depths— hence the secrecy and warnings of the dangers of the Tantras. As a skillful response to such dangers, the mandala universes of the Tantric imaginaire— such as that of Chakrasamvara, located on the summit of Mount Meru in the Buddhist cosmos, and associated with Mt. Kailash on earth—are realms wherein such explorations can be conducted safely. Just as astronauts have to wear elaborate metal and plastic space suits to venture into the moon­scape or the pressureless reaches of outer space, so the holographically visu­alized life-forms (isthadevata, or "chosen deities") such as Chakrasamvara are embodiments and identities that the adepts can inhabit in order to penetrate areas where otherwise their normal embodiments and identities would be destroyed. These inner scientist adepts claim to have developed such extreme stability of contemplative attention and imagination that they can persist in the continuum of awareness from waking into lucid dream state, and that in the latter they can consciously manifest their body as that of a systematically imagined divine buddha-form, acting in the dream with the identity of being a perfect buddha-deity of the Chakrasamvara mandala palace community. They further claim that they can build on that ability and do the same thing in contemplatively induced out-of-body experience, manifested when the ordinary, coarse body has been stabilized in cataleptic trance, in simulation of near-death and post-death, between-state (antara-bhava, bar do) experiences. They thus contend that they can traverse death and rebirth in these subtle, dream-like planes numerous times in a single lifetime, and that they can thereby radically accelerate their evolutionary progress toward what they define as the buddha condition.”

I know that Timothy Leary is currently rather ill-regarded but I believe that he was almost prescient in the way he was able to read a book that most scholars regarded as a sort of "mass for the dead" and intuit that there exists a tantric-yoga that is based on the "pre-mortem death and rebirth experience" and that this yoga’s broad outlines could be discerned in the Bardo Thodol. It should be remembered that this is long before anybody had written on the “Path and Grounds of Highest Yoga Tantra” or the "Nine Blendings". It should also be remembered that the idea that “bardo” techniques could be carried out in the mental continuum of a living person was widely criticized and it was claimed that the whole concept was contrary to what the Tibetans really had in mind. Now, four decades later, we know that Dr. Leary was correct and that the practice of blending the “Dhamakaya with Death”, the “Sambhogakaya with Bardo”, and the “Nirmanakaya with Rebirth” is accomplished not only when one dies, but is (just as Leary claimed) also meant to be a yogic practice that is done while still alive (in both the waking and sleep states). He understood the Bardo Thodol (and the yogas related to it) on a level that was quite beyond the abilities of his critics (and even the vast majority of Tibetologists). I think that this is so can be discerned in the following:

“Those proficient in meditation will recognize the Clear Light at the moment of ego-loss and will enter the Blissful Void (Dharma-Kaya). They will also recognize the positive and negative visions of the Second Bardo and obtain illumination (Sambhogha-Kaya); and being reborn on a higher level will become inspired saints or teachers (Nirmana-Kaya)” “These refer to the fundamental Wisdom Teachings of the Bardo Thodol. In all Tibetan systems of yoga, realization of the Voidness is the one great aim. To realize it is to attain the unconditioned Dharma-Kaya, or "Divine Body of Truth,” the primordial state of uncreatedness, of the supra-mundane All-Consciousness. The Dharma-Kaya is the highest of the three bodies of the Buddha and of all Buddhas and beings who have perfect enlightenment. The other two bodies are the Sambogha-Kaya or "Divine Body of Perfect Endowment” and the Nirmana-Kaya or "Divine Body of Incarnation." Adi-Kaya is synonymous with Dharma-Kaya. The Dharma-Kaya is primordial, formless Essential Wisdom; it is true experience freed from all error or inherent or accidental obscuration. It includes both Nirvana and Sangsara, which are polar states of consciousness, but in the realm of pure consciousness identical. The Sambhoga-Kaya embodies, as in the five Dhyani Buddhas, Reflected or Modified Wisdom; and the Nirmana-Kaya embodies, as in the Human Buddhas, Practical or Incarnate Wisdom. All enlightened beings who are reborn in this or any other world with full consciousness, as workers for the betterment of their fellow creatures, are said to be Nirmana-Kaya incarnates… ‘In the boundless panorama of the existing and visible universe, whatever shapes appear, whatever sounds vibrate, whatever radiances illuminate, or whatever consciousnesses cognize, all are the play or manifesta­tion in the Tri-Kaya’” 

So despite the fact the Dr. Leary is currently out of fashion and that you might think my praise for him is misguided, I have to acknowledge his brilliance and the fact that he was far ahead of his time in his understanding of the underlying meaning (and processes) of the Bardo Thodol.

“O son of noble family, listen. Now the pure luminosity of the dharmata is shining before you; recognise it. O son of noble family, at this moment your state of mind is by nature pure emptiness, it does not possess any nature whatever, neither substance nor quality such as colour, but it is pure emptiness; this is the dharmata, the female buddha Samantabhadri. But this state of mind is not just blank emptiness, it is unobstructed, sparkling, pure and vibrant; this mind is the male buddha Samantabhadra. These two, your mind whose nature is emptiness without any substance whatever, and your mind which is vibrant and lumin­ous, are inseparable; this is the dharmakaya of the buddha. This mind of yours is inseparable luminosity and emptiness in the form of a great mass of light, it has no birth or death, therefore it is the buddha of Immortal Light. To recognise this is all that is neces­sary. When you recognise this pure nature of your mind as the buddha, looking into your own mind is resting in the buddha-mind.”                       -- Bardo Thodol (Translated by Trungpa and Fremantle).