Deep Dive

The Six Dharmas of Naropa

Considered a fast track to buddhahood, the Six Dharmas are advanced tantric practices including tummo (inner heat), yoga of the dream state, resting in luminosity, and more. Featuring an overview by Pema Khandro Rinpoche, plus in-depth teachings by specialists in each of the Six Dharmas.

PHILOSOPHY

The Swift Path to Buddhahood

Pema Khandro on the fascinating history, practice, and purpose of the Six Dharmas of Naropa.

Pema Khandro Rinpoche

Emotions

The Practice of Fierce Inner Heat

Judith Simmer-Brown on tummo, one of the most famous esoteric practices of Tibetan Vajrayana and the Six Dharmas. What is it, what are its benefits, and what role does it play in our journey to enlightenment?

Judith Simmer-Brown

The Playful Dance of Awakened Mind 

Lama Döndrup Drölma on the illusory nature of phenomena and how we can wake up to reality’s true nature via the body-mind connection.

Lama Döndrup Drölma

Awakening Through Dream

What role do dreams have in our path to liberation? Charlie Morley on the history and benefits of the fourth of Naropa’s Dharmas, milam, or yoga of the dream state. Includes a short dream yoga practice for you to try tonight.

Charlie Morley

Resting In Luminosity

Lama Karma Wall on how the practice of clear light (osel) yoga can help us recognize the luminous nature of our mind free from dualistic conceptualization.

Lama Karma Wall

“The tendency to grasp, cling, and reify self is the
catalyst for all manner of suffering.
But the good news is that this grasping is
the ailment for which
the Six Dharmas are the ideal remedy.”

—Pema Khandro Rinpoche, “The Swift Path to Buddhadhood”

A Wake-Up Call

Andrew Holecek on bardo, one of the Six Dharmas of Naropa’s two practices for helping us find our way, when the time comes, through the death experience. It can help us in life, too.

Andrew Holecek

The Fine Art of Conscious Dying

Glenn Mullin on phowa, the tantric practice of transferring our consciousness at the moment at death in order to take rebirth in a pure realm.

Lama Glenn Mullin

The Lineage of the Six Dharmas

A look at the people and practices that contributed to the development of the Six Dharmas as we know them today.

Lama Hun Lye

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Deep Dive

Living Buddhist Ethics

Looking primarily at the three sila aspects of the Buddha’s eightfold path—right action, right speech, and right livelihood—leading dharma figures explain how, as Buddhists in today’s world, we can live ethically, and in accord with what the dharma teaches.

Man in Zen robes with hands in gassho

Ethics, Meditation, and Wisdom 

Norman Fischer on how sila, samadhi, and prajna work together to give us stability on the Buddhist path to liberation.

A Buddhist monastic holds up their saffron-colored robe

Understanding the Vinaya

Amy Paris Langenberg on the history, evolution, and modern manifestations of the training rules followed by Buddhist monastics.

A collage whose pieces comprise an abstract human face

Dukkha as a Doorway to Liberation

Scott Tusa on how Buddhist ethics transcend mere morality and help us to realize awakening.

Deep Dive

Buddhist Teachings of the Dalai Lama

Buddhadharma has been privileged to publish the world’s greatest dharma teachers — among them, of course, is His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Read a collection of some of his best pieces for committed Buddhist practitioners:<br />

Human eye.

Discover Your Innermost Awareness

In his teaching on the essence of Dzogchen, the Dalai Lama describes the shock that naturally accompanies innermost awareness, the basis of all reality.

Beyond No-Self

While insight into the truth of no-self, is an important step, says the Dalai Lama, it doesn’t go far enough.

"Coq Au Vin," 2015. Illustration by Gary Taxali. Original Artwork Collection of Chef Thomas Keller.

Ethical Conduct Is the Essence of Dharma Practice

The Dalai Lama and Thubten Chodron outline three levels of Buddhist ethical codes and how we can follow them.