Toh 1368A Commentary on [Anupamarakṣita’s] “Six-Branched Yoga”

Exposition of the Treatise: Commentary on Six-Part Yoga

Background

This work is a profound commentary belonging to the Tengyur, the Treatise Collection of the Northern Transmission tradition, intended to clarify Anupamarakṣita’s “Six-Part Yoga” (Ṣaḍaṅgayoga). Anupamarakṣita was an erudite master of the Buddha Dharma in the Vajrayāna tradition. His name means “Protected by the Incomparable,” and he was a renowned commentator who entered deeply into tantric practice and inherited the profound instructions of the Indian forefathers.

Six-Part Yoga (the six aṅgas) is a special system of practice in Tibetan tantra, entering into the completion stage of the Vajrayāna path. This work was composed for the purpose of guiding practitioners who wish to enter the most advanced secret methods, where the discriminating mind is transformed into pure wisdom, and the bodily form is transformed into the revolving mandala of the Buddha.

The present commentary is an effort to explain carefully the complex concepts that Anupamarakṣita presented, serving as a bridge between abstract theory and concrete practice.

Main Contents

Six-Part Yoga comprises six branches (ṣaḍaṅga) of advanced meditative practice: praṇidhi (the power of aspiration), pravivekaṇa (distinguishing through reflection), dhyāna (meditation), dhāraṇā (abiding of the mind), ānanda (bliss), and nirmāṇa (emanation).

This commentary goes deeply into each branch, explaining how practitioners arouse a powerful aspiration to attain bodhi, and then proceed to distinguish the unborn and unceasing nature of reality. The section on meditation instructs how to concentrate the mind upon an object of practice, often the image of a bodhisattva or the Buddha. The aspect of abiding of the mind (dhāraṇā) instructs how to preserve meditative power, not allowing thoughts to wander vaguely.