Within the Kagyu tradition, the Six Yogas of Naropa are regarded as indispensable tantric methods that support and complement Mahamudra. Mahamudra points directly to the nature of mind, yet this recognition requires a suitable inner ground to become stable and continuous. The Six Yogas provide that ground by working with the subtle body—channels, winds, and drops—to purify obscurations and transform ordinary consciousness into primordial awareness. In this way, they function as both preparatory and consummating practices, uniting the Mahamudra view with powerful tantric methods.

Each of the six has a distinct role in this transformative process. Tummo, or inner heat, generates great bliss and manipulates subtle energies, dissolving emotional and karmic blockages so that nondual wisdom can arise more readily. Illusory body and dream yoga train recognition of the dreamlike, insubstantial nature of all phenomena, undermining the tendency to reify self and world. Clear light practice directly engages the luminous, fundamental level of mind that Mahamudra ultimately seeks to recognize and abide in, especially as it appears in deep meditation and at death.

The remaining yogas extend this training into the critical junctures of dying and the intermediate state. Bardo yoga prepares the practitioner to navigate the transitions of consciousness after death, applying the same insight into mind’s nature when ordinary reference points fall away. Phowa, or transference of consciousness, cultivates the capacity to direct consciousness at the moment of death, ensuring that the trajectory of mind is guided by wisdom rather than confusion. Through these methods, the continuity of Mahamudra realization is protected so that it need not be interrupted by death or the bardo.

Taken together, the Six Yogas of Naropa form a complete experiential framework within the Kagyu lineage for embodying the Mahamudra view. They accelerate realization by intensifying clarity, bliss, and nonconceptual awareness, and they stabilize that realization by integrating it with every dimension of experience—waking, dreaming, dying, and the intermediate states. In this sense, they are not a separate path but the principal tantric vehicle through which the simplicity of Mahamudra can be fully realized and lived.