The Tibetan Book Of The Dead, The Art Of Dying
Esoteric Instructions on Death
and Liberation
Tibetan literature devoted to
the topic of death and dying in the
context of Buddhist meditative practice
is immense. This literature can be
organized into several related genres
that comprise not only those texts that
came to be treated as canonical (see
Section 1 above) but also include the
instructional advice, dam-ngak (gdams
ngag), on yogic and contemplative
practice derived from the esoteric
experiences of advanced Tantric Buddhist
teachers. Characteristically, these
instructional systems provide important
insights into how the ordinary dying
experience, and the subsequent
intermediate bardo period, can be
altered and purified through a process
of intense training, involving the
radical manipulation of physical and
psychological energies to bring about
transformative and extra-ordinary states
of consciousness.
By at least the sixteenth century, the
many traditions of dam-ngak circulating
throughout Tibet had been uniformly
classified into an eight- fold scheme.
Of these eight sets, two are represented
in the texts chosen for this section of
the exhibit: the traditions derived from
the teachings of the Indian supermen
(siddha, "perfected ones") Tilopa and
Naropa, which were transmitted to Marpa
Chökyi Lodrö (Mar pa chos kyi blo gros,
1012- 1097); and the lineage drawn from
the teachings of Khyung-po Nenjor
(Khyung po rnal Îbyor,
d.ca.1135).
Esoteric Instructions on the
Six Yogas of Naropa
Chos drug gi
man ngag
Sanskrit: Saddharmopadesha
Author: Tilopa (988-1069)
Tengyur vol. 53, no. 2330.
Tibetan: bKaâ yang
dag paâi tshad ma zhes bya ba mkhaâ Îgro
maâi man ngag
Sanskrit:
Ajnasamyak-pramana-nama-dakinyupadesha
Tengyur vol. 53, no. 2331
The work entitled Esoteric
Instructions on the Six Yogas of Naropa,
which is actually comprised of two
smaller texts, is included in the
Tantric section of the Tibetan Ten-gyur
or "Translated Treatises" (see Section 1
above). It focuses on the yoga
practices gathered by the great Indian
renouncer Tilopa (988-1069) from the
spiritual masters of several individual
lineages of Tantric teaching. These sets
of yoga teachings, which Tilopa later
transmitted to his principal disciple,
Naropa (c.956-1040), became the primary
source of the so-called "Six Doctrines
(or Yogas) of Naropa" (Naro Chö-druk, na
ro chos drug). The Six Doctrines are
comprised of the yogas of mystic heat
(tum-mo, gtum mo), radiant clear light
(ö-sel, Îod gsal), illusory body
(gyu-lu, sgyu lus), dream state (mi-lam,
rmi lam), intermediate state (bardo),
and transference of consciousness
(phowa, Îpho ba). Of these six advanced
techniques, only three are directly
connected with the yogic practices
surrounding death and dying; namely,
radiant clear light, intermediate state,
and consciousness tranference (we will
discuss these topics in more detail
below). The remaining three yogas are
indeed fundamental to the practices of
dying but are not as explicitly related
to these techniques. The Six Yogas,
collectively presented as a coherent
system (perhaps for the first time) by
Tilopa in his Esoteric Instructions on
the Six Yogas of Naropa, are without
doubt founded upon the religious
experiences of early Indian mysticism,
and play an important role in the
development of the basic components that
make up much of Tibet's later literature
on death, intermediate state, and
rebirth.
A Brief Synopsis of the Six
Yogas of Naropa
Tibetan: Chos drug bsdus paâi zin
bris
Author: Padma dkar po
(1527-1592)
I(Bhu)-Tib-114; 77-902197
The Six Yogas constitute the
most significant yogic and meditative
techniques of the Kagyu school of
Tibetan Buddhism or "Transmission of the
Oral Teaching Sect" (bkaâ brgyud pa),
founded by Naropa's chief Tibetan
disciple, Marpa Chökyi Lodrö. The
sixteenth century Kagyu leader, Pema
Karpo (Padma dkar po, 1527-1592), was a
prolific author and
scholar-practitioner, whose intimate
relationship to the Tibetan yogic
tradition is best exemplified in his
written commentaries and meditation
guides on the Six Yogas, such as this
skillfully composed digest entitled A
Brief Synopsis of the Six Yogas of
Naropa. Pema Karpo's text provides a
succinct overview of all six yoga
practices, including a remarkably
detailed description of the specific
exercises involved in the subtle yoga of
radiant clear light. According to this
tradition, the clear light is the most
subtle, profound, and powerful level of
consciousness. Indeed, it is the
fundamental nature of the mind itself,
whose appearance is said to be like the
sky's own natural cast at dawn before
sunrise, its brilliance radiating
everywhere in all directions. This mind
of radiant clear light is indestructible
and untainted by the emotional and
psychological confusions that perpetuate
the ongoing cycle of birth and death
(samsara). We are told that the clear
light is experienced briefly by all
human beings at the very first moment of
death, by advanced yogic practitioners
in the highest states of meditation, and
unceasingly by all Buddhas.
Interestingly enough, this very subtle
radiance is said also to be experienced,
though rarely noticed, in more mundane
moments, such as fainting, sneezing, and
orgasm, as well as in the first instant
before and after dreaming. However, only
at the moment of death is the conscious
and unwavering realization of the clear
light tantamount to the achievement of
Buddhahood.
A Collection of Kagyu-pa
Texts on Naropaâs Six Yogas
Volume Title: Naro chos drug Texts of
the ÎBrug-pa dKaâ-brgyud-pa Traditions.
Thimphu : Kunsang Topgay, 1978.
I(Bhu)-Tib-199;
79-901832.
The Six Yogas tradition of the
Kagyu School, represented here in this
Collection of Kagyu-pa Texts on Naropa's
Six Yogas, teaches that there are
actually three intermediate periods, or
bardo states: the transitional periods
between birth and death (Bardo of
Ordinary Life), between falling asleep
and waking (Bardo of Dreams), and
between death and the next life (Bardo
of Becoming). At any given moment, all
living beings are caught in one or more
of the three bardo situations, propelled
forward by the force of their own past
actions (karma). A unique feature of the
Six Yogas tradition is that it offers a
set of meditative techniques for
mastering each of these three states.
The most powerful of such practices,
however, is the yoga of dying, which is
meant to be exercised in the first
moment of the bardo between death and
rebirth (Bardo of Becoming). According
to the texts, death begins with a
gradual process of dissolution, in which
the senses and energies that worked in
cooperation with consciousness
degenerate by stages. These dissolutions
are experienced, only partially, in our
daily life while falling asleep, and can
be consciously generated in meditation
by advanced yogins; but only at the time
of death are they experienced both
completely and inevitably. When
practitioners become skilled in inducing
the dissolution phases, they gain the
ability to apply the same techniques
during sleep, and ultimately during the
first moments of dying. The dying
process culminates in the appearance of
the radiant mind of clear light (see
above). For those individuals who had
gained mastery of the bardo yogas in
their lifetimes, the true nature of this
fundamental radiance is immediately
recognized, as the Tibetans say, like a
child being returned to its mother's
lap. At that very moment of recognition,
the dying practitioner is liberated from
the cycle of birth and death. In most
ordinary cases, however, the dying
individual is generally unfamiliar with
the mind of clear light, and is thus
unable to recognize it. Consequently, he
or she is propelled with little or no
control into the bardo state of
becoming, which leads eventually to
rebirth in a new existence.
A Book of Three Inspirations:
A Treatise on the Stages of Training in
the Six Yogas of Naropa
Tibetan: Zab lam na roâi chos
drug gi sgo nas Îkhrid paâi rim pa yid
ches gsum ldan
Author: Tsong kha pa
(1357-1419)
I(Sik)-Tib-146; 72-906421
In addition to constituting the
most notable meditative practices of the
Kagyu-pa order, the tradition of the Six
Yogas of Naropa was adopted also by the
powerful Geluk-pa or "System of Virtue
Sect" (dge lugs pa), which was founded
by the brilliant philosopher-saint
Dzongka-pa (Tsong kha pa, 1357-1419),
and which eventually became the
institutional seat of the successive
Dalai Lamas. Dzongka-pa's treatise, A
Book of Three Inspirations, is regarded
as one of the finest works on the
subject of the Six Yogas, and over the
past five hundred years has served as a
standard for the majority of works that
later followed. In A Book of Three
Inspirations, Dzongka-pa discusses the
practices of all Six Doctrines with
extraordinary precision and depth,
quoting from a wealth of Indian and
Tibetan sources as well as drawing upon
his own profound inner experience. For
our interests, however, Dzongka-pa's
text is distinguished by its detailed
presentation of the yoga of
consciousness transference or phowa,
including a rare description of the
extremely secret yoga of forceful
projection or drong-juk (grong Îjug).
Briefly, phowa is the practice of
ejecting the consciousness out from the
top of the head at the time of death and
transferring it to a more favorable
realm of existence. A person may choose
to practice this method of consciousness
transference in order to be reborn in a
heavenly realm or a Buddha's Pure Land,
or in order to have the energy of his or
her past meritorious karma continue,
without interruption, into the next
life. Traditionally it is held that the
appearance of a tiny hole at the
fontanelle of the dead person's head is
a sign of a successful transference of
the individual's consciousness. During
certain meditative exercises designed to
prepare people for this practice,
teachers test their students'
proficiency in the yoga of transference
by sticking a flower stem in the hole
that begins to develop at their crown.
If their preparatory training is
successful, and this hole in turn grows
larger, it is said the flower will
actually stand upright.
Directly connected with the yoga of
transference is the esoteric method of
forceful projection or drong-juk, in
which a practitioner projects his or her
own consciousness into a corpse of
either a dead human being or animal. The
practice is thus metaphorically referred
to as the "reanimation of corpses." In A
Book of Three Inspirations, Dzongka-pa
informs us that drong-juk was brought to
Tibet from India by Marpa Chökyi Lodrö,
the teacher of Milarepa (Mi la ras pa,
1040-1123), who in turn gave it to
his÷Marpaâs÷son, Dharma Do-de (Dharma
mdo sde). Unfortunately, Dharma Do-de
met with a sudden and untimely death,
taking with him the authentic wisdom of
the drong-juk technique. Nevertheless,
in spite of this apparent break in the
lineage of transmission, Dzongka-pa says
that the practice of forceful projection
continued to be taught secretly in the
oral transmission traditions and is
never to be discussed publicly.
Instruction on the Three
Bardo States
Tibetan: Bar do rnam gsum gyi
zhal gdams
Author: Khyung po rnal Îbyor
(d.ca.1135)
In Shangs-pa bKaâ-brgyud-pa Texts.
Sumra, H.P., Urgyen Dorje, 1977. I-Tib-
1734; 77-906849.
In Tibet, there are actually
two principal traditions of the Six
Yogas, one attributed to Naropa and the
other to his sister Niguma. The Six
Doctrines (or Yogas) of Niguma (Nigu Chö
Druk, ni gu chos drug) were transmitted
in a vision directly through the female
yogini Sukha Siddhi to the Tibetan poet
and scholar-practitioner Khyung-po
Nenjor, founder of the obscure Shang-pa
Kagyu sect or "Transmission of the Oral
Teaching of Shang Valley" (shangs pa
bkaâ brgyud). Nigumaâs Six Yogas are
essentially the same as those of Naropa,
differing only in points of emphasis,
and are particularly associated with the
Shang-pa order. Khyung-po Nenjor's brief
Instruction on the Three Bardo States,
drawn from his visionary revelations,
elucidates the yogas of the three
bardos--those of the waking state, dream
state, and after-death state--within the
context of Niguma's esoteric doctrines,
and explains how these three
intermediate states are to be
implemented as a spiritual practice
whose ultimate goal is liberation from
the ongoing rounds of rebirth and the
subsequent achievement of
Buddhahood.
next page
return to index
