Six Yogas of Naropa

Domain XIII · Contemplative & religious disciplines · Naropa, Tilopa · India

What it is

The Six Yogas (or Six Dharmas) of Naropa (Tib. na ro chos drug) are a set of completion-stage practices of Highest Yoga Tantra (anuttarayoga tantra), attributed to the Indian mahasiddha Naropa (glossed by LYWA as 1016–1100) and, before him, to Tilopa. They passed to Tibet through Marpa and Milarepa…

Format

• Retreat practice under instruction. In the Kagyu setting the yogas are practised within the three-year retreat or a dedicated retreat of several months, with group and individual guided instruction.
• Monitoring and response. Throughout, especially around retreats: watch for adverse experiences, step up care if they appear, and coordinate with the teacher and doctor as the client wishes.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Not a therapy. This is a religious training path with its own sequence, set by the lineage and the teacher. The framework below describes (a) the tradition's path as institutions publish it, and (b) the therapist's parallel work. No session counts are given in sources for therapeutic use.
• Study. Gampo Abbey requires an online pre-training on the Third Karmapa's The Profound Inner Principles, taught by translator Elizabeth Callahan.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• pathologising devotion itself; conversely, missing coercion because devotion is expected.
• reassurance-seeking moving from teacher to therapist; avoidance of practice altogether out of fear.
• commercial courses selling "tummo" breathing for health or cold endurance; requests for breath-retention coaching.
• the client seeking the therapist as a substitute teacher; the therapist's own beliefs (for or against) shaping interpretations.
• death anxiety intensified by vivid after-death imagery; ritual guilt; death-related ideation (assess risk in the usual way, B7).

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.