The book is about the life and teachings of Naropa, an Indian teacher of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. Naropa was a leading scholar at the Nalanda University where he embarked on the lonely and arduous path of enlightenment. After a few trials he received direct transmission from his guru Tilopa. The teachings that he received and the six doctrines of Naropa have been passed on to Tibetan Buddhism.
Naropa belonged to a royal family, was married. Once he became interested in becoming enlightened, he had visions of an ugly woman, followed by eleven hideous visions. During that period Tilopa, his guru subjected him to a lot of physical and mental stress like asking him to jump off a building and when he did he suffered broken bones etc. Tilopa would heal him instantly but would subject him to more and more of such tests. Like being subjected to fire, being beaten to death, having his blood sucked out, being pricked by flaming splinters, run till he died, suffer in a relationship with a woman, being forced to give his consort to Tilopa and watch him ill treat her, cut off his rams and legs and present them to Tilopa as a mandala. After all this he received a transmission of the Mahamudra.
Of the eleven ugly visions are those of a leper, a stinking bitch, a person pulling intestines out of a corpse, a person who cut open his stomach and was cleaning it, being served cooked frogs, a person who impaled his father on a stake, killing lice and so on.
One must go beyond ego to get into tantra. One must have genuine compassion and not idiot compassion (which is about yourself and not the other)
The 6 dharmas of Naropa are
1 - the illusory body - every experience is illusory, life is a mirage, every experience to be regarded as body/non-body
2- its a dream - its a fantasy, does not exist
3. - Bardo - the situation between death and life
4 -inner heat, tumo or chandali in Sanskrit, an inner burning that arouses the universal flame that burns away all notions
5- transference of consciousness - transfer of consciousness which has nothing to do with 'me' or 'mine'
6 - luminosity - whole thing is open, brilliant, things are as they are, no dark mysterious corners left
There are three levels of enlightenment experiences
1st level - level of manifestation - can communicate with ordinary beings
2nd level - can communicate with emotions and energies of ordinary beings
3rd level - can communicate with greater depths of ignorance in ordinary sentient beings
Tantra means continuity of intelligence. The method used to enable us to release pain is called mantra.
Prajna is seeing things as they are. Shunyata is choiceless awareness- it comes to you. Satori is shunyata.
Prajna without Shunyata is like a man without hands trying to climb a rock.
The walls of confusion and chaos are eliminated by prajna. Ground of confusion and chaos are eliminated by Shunyata. One is suspended in midair.
Mahamudra is the great symbol.
Naropa says - ego is pain, pain is ego. Absence of ego is also pain. The experience of Mahamudra is about clarity, confidence and fearlessness.
After completing the 6 dharmas of Naropa, a person practices hatha yoga.
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As with all Buddhist books I got confused in the first read. In the second I found an order and made some sense. The author is the founder of the Naropa Institution, Boulder, Colorado.
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