Levels of Achievement

● Hatha Yogi – purification of the right, left and central channels. Awakening of kundalini.

Tha Yogi – eradication of rajas. Rajas manifests in a person as an involuntary impulse toward anger, wrath, or harsh speech. Kempo.

● Raja Yogi – ability to transcend attachment to any of the three gunas, and specifically, attachment to the energy of tamas. Tamas manifests in a person as laziness and an involuntary obsession with pleasures. That is why tamas is the very first thing any practitioner should get rid of. Therefore, when a practitioner conquers their tamas, an exceptionally high willpower awakens within them. Lama. Realized practitioner. An Achieved One. In meditation, the brain emits alpha waves.

Semi-Sleep Yogi – ability to consistently enter a state of meditative semi-sleep. In meditation, the brain emits sigma waves.

●Samadha Yogi – ability to consistently enter samadhi. Kundalini Yogi. Holiness. Tulku. In meditation, the brain emits theta waves. Muhammad is a practitioner of at least the Samadha Yogi level, who manifested God's program in the dense world to save souls from falling (which in itself signifies Mahayana in its second sense).

● Arhat – entering the state of nirvana. Solitary awakening. Solitary liberation and enlightenment (“enlightenment” refers to the mental aspect of liberation). A soul worthy of offering. A mahamudra yogi. In a calm state, the brain emits alpha waves; in meditation, it emits delta waves.

● Bodhisattva – savior. Mahayana Yogi. This is the minimum level attained by Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

● Bodhisattva in astral – savior in the astral realm. Astral Mahayana Yogi.

● Bodhisattva in Causal – savior in the causal realm. Causal Mahayana Yogi.

● Buddha – attainment of mahanirvana. Great Awakening to Truth. Great liberation. The spiritual level of a buddha surpasses that of any deity, with the exception of Shiva. In both meditation and a calm state, the brain does not emits any waves.

● Victor in Truth – attaining mahanirvana independently, without teachers.

● Departure of the Victor in Truth into Mahaparinirvana – attainment of the Absolute. The Great Ultimate Destruction of Worldly Desires. Adi-Buddha. The spiritual level of the Adi-Buddha surpasses the spiritual level of any god, including that of Shiva.

Awakened Bodies – Buddha Bodies

As yogis advance in meditative practice and master ever‑deeper stages, they awaken dormant bodies within. The awakening of a body of another dimension – and a controlled exit into this other body – is also called the formation of this other body.

● Physical body – associated with the muladhara chakra and operates in the world of phenomena. To exit the physical body in another body, a yogi must bring the physical body into an altered state – for example, by achieving extreme relaxation, entering a drowsy (meditative) state, falling asleep, or attaining a state of artificial anabiosis (samadhi).

● Body of Apparition – associated with the svadisthana chakra. Operates in the lower astral plane.

● Phenomenal body (nirmanakaya) – associated with the manipura chakra. Operates in the lower causal plane. It can manifest in the world of phenomena as the body of apparition, seperated from the real physical body.

● Body of the Law (dharmakaya) – associated with the anahata chakra. Operates in the upper astral plane.

● Body of Essence (svabavikakaya) – associated with the vishudha chakra. Operates in the middle causal.

● Body of Reward (sambhogakaya) – associated with the ajna chakra. Operates in the upper causal.

● Vajra body (vajrakaya) – associated with the sahasrara chakra. True Ego. It represents the Atman. Abides in the state of nirvana.

In the course of the Six Yogas of Naropa, yogis progress sequentially from the lower to the higher chakras and work with the awakened bodies corresponding to these chakras. The Six Yogas of Naropa – performed in the following order – are:

● Tummo Yoga (Yoga of Inner Heat), which focuses on generating inner warmth and energy, often linked with the lower chakras and the awakening of kundalini;

● Bardo Yoga, which deals with the intermediate states (bardo) between life and death and trains the practitioner to maintain awareness during transitions;

● Yoga of Dreams, which cultivates lucid dreaming and the ability to recognise dreams as illusory, using this insight to deepen spiritual awakening;

● Yoga of the Illusory Body, which trains the yogi to perceive all phenomena, including the body, as illusory and facilitates the formation and control of subtle bodies;

● Yoga of Light, which involves practices of visualisation and working with inner light and aims at realising the luminous nature of mind;

● Yoga of Transference of Consciousness (phowa), which teaches the method of consciously transferring one’s consciousness at the moment of death to a higher realm or state, ensuring a favourable rebirth or liberation.

Four Yanas

Yana. The path to achieving various spiritual levels proceeds through spiritual practice (sādhana). A wide range of interests is realised through spiritual practice. This may be simply love or attachment to the Supreme, or to some saint, or to a particular deity (or even just to its form). It may also be an attraction to saṃsāra, or it may be a material interest. Spiritual practice includes specific techniques such as asanas, special physical exercises, walking (standing or running), and pranayamas. In Christianity, standing is a very important gymnastic component of spiritual practice (though its significance is little understood; for this reason, church officials who refer to officials holding candles at ceremonies merely for show as “candle‑holders” are wrong). Spiritual practice also includes mental exercises such as meditations, mantras, prayers, and reading sutras. It also involves making changes to one’s lifestyle, as well as purification techniques and various ascetic abstentions – such as, for example, intermittent dry fasting. Spiritual practice further includes various ritual actions and the performance of ceremonies, as well as different ways of making offerings – of oneself, one’s actions, or one’s possessions. Spiritual practice is carried out either independently or under the guidance of various teachers, either individually or by joining like‑minded groups. The multitude of schools, approaches, paths, and methods of spiritual inquiry are traditionally systematised, categorised, and correlated with the four yanas. Each subsequent yana includes all the preceding ones.

● Hinayana (literally "lesser vehicle") is the path of individual, personal liberation. It has another name: Theravada. This path involves the adept leaving home, joining a monastic community, and becoming a monk by taking on the relevant monastic vows and precepts. Within this yana, the practice of retreat is also carried out – that is, when the adept abandons worldly life but lives outside the monastic community. Sometimes, retreat is carried out outside the community but under its supervision. If we compare the speed of spiritual growth within a community and outside it, progress within the community is an order of magnitude faster. Laypeople, meanwhile, should strive to become monks. If this is not possible, then a layperson should structure their life so that it is as close as possible to the monastic lifestyle. Among the recommended offerings that laypeople can make are donations to the monastic community. Through such an offering, a layperson accumulates karmic data so that in the next life there will be no more obstacles to monastic life. A marked feature of Hinayana is social seclusion, autistic tendencies, and self‑centredness. Since any interaction or social openness on the part of the adept brings their state back to the initial, worldly level – because in this case the adept becomes filled with data received from another person, and this foreign data is usually unbearable for them, causing them to fall back to the worldly level. The goal of Hinayana is small nirvana. One who attains small nirvana is called an Arhat. After personal attainment, having become an Arhat, the adept can choose what to do next: abandon life and enter small anupadhishesha nirvana, or take up the path of Mahayana.

● Mahayana (literally "great vehicle") – is, in the strict, original sense, the continuation of the path of spiritual growth after attaining the level of an Arhat. It is the path of the Bodhisattva – Bodhisattvayana. The main task of a Bodhisattva is to lead all souls to spiritual awakening. The goal of Mahayana is mahanirvana. One who ultimately attains mahanirvana is called a buddha.

However, there is another, broader meaning of the term Mahayana. It turned out that Mahayana can be practised even at the stage of Hinayana. Moreover, it turned out that if a person has not yet attaned the level of a Bodhisattva, but nevertheless practises what a Bodhisattva should do, their speed of spiritual progress increases by an order of magnitude. Thus, Mahayana in the broad sense is the path of saving all souls. Adepts of Mahayana initially strive to attain enlightenment for the sake of saving all souls. This approach is based on the development of bodhicitta. Bodhicitta (literally “awakened consciousness”) is the conscious choice and resolve of the adept – regardless of whether they are already an Arhat or not – to dedicate themself entirely to saving all souls.

Mahayana, in this broad sense, unites all the other vehicles. It is practised by both monks and laypeople. Within schools of Mahayana, there is often a mistaken belief that mahanirvana differs from small nirvana in that one enters small nirvana individually, while one enters mahanirvana collectively. This is not the case. Both are achieved individually (instances of simultaneous collective awakening are practically non‑existent). The difference between the two lies in the spiritual level. The practice of the Six Yogas of Naropa and the six Buddha bodies is also part of Mahayana.

● Tantrayana (literally "secret vehicle", tantra translates as "connection, thread, sequence") is a secret, esoteric vehicle. Tantrayana is included in both Mahayana and Vajrayana. In Tantrayana, non‑trivial means are used to achieve the goal: magic, borderline states (of life and death), psychotechniques, and sociotechniques. Tantra is understood as the practice of achieving the final result (“fruit”) – the state of Buddha – by any possible means. The word “tantra” is understood as the unbroken continuity of cause (basis), skillful means (path), and fruit. In tantra, rituals, mudras, meditations, and yantras are practised. All tantra practices are secret; one must not speak of them to anyone, otherwise there will be no effect from the practice. An important detail of tantra is the Bodhisattva vow: the adept, without fail – regardless of whether they are an Arhat or not – must take a vow to save all living beings. Also an important condition of tantra is taking a vow to attain the state of Buddha in order to later save all or as many souls as possible. Tantra is considered the shortest and at the same time the most dangerous path. For a tantra adept, it is very important to find a good teacher, who must also be thoroughly vetted.

Tantra transforms the adept into a divine being. Identification with a deity (or deities) occurs through mantras, mandalas, meditations, and rituals. Signs and symbols acquire special importance in practice, particularly words written in Sanskrit characters (which quite resonates with Orthodox discussions about the need to recite prayers in Church Slavonic, and which inevitably creates a special existential perception – although it is more than obvious that the lag of church language behind the modern one is a natural regularity). Tantra is characterised by an expansion of the list of practices, departing from traditional Buddhist meditations and rituals, and allowing borrowings from other religions – such as yoga, Christianity, Sufism, paganism, and Taoism. Physiology is studied as a subject of organism transformation. Techniques for activating sexual energy are used. A rule is introduced for the work of consciousness: there are no failures in practice – that is, any failure is not a failure but, on the contrary, a success, a necessary event for development, a lesson that must be studied in order to avoid repeating the mistake. A repentant sinner is higher in spiritual level than a righteous person. Moral and ethical norms are re‑examined.

It should be especially noted that there is a significant difference between genuine tantra and what amateurs commonly mistake it for. A large number of so‑called tantrists who have appeared recently (in the early 21st century), practising in the tradition of Rajneesh or Andrey Lapin, in fact have nothing to do with genuine tantra. They are merely engaged in highly sophisticated group sex, using esoteric, magical, and energetic techniques – all of which they practise for the sake of obtaining ever more sophisticated pleasure. As a rule, in these orgies there is not even any talk of what spiritual growth means.

● Vajrayana (literally "diamond vehicle") is the path of forming an indestructible consciousness. The main aspect of Vajrayana is unshakable devotion to the guru. “Indestructible consciousness cannot be formed; it can only be copied”. In Vajrayana, very high demands are placed on the spiritual level of the guru. In Vajrayana, the guru must be at least a Buddha or a Bodhisattva very close to supreme awakening. Vajrayana is considered the highest vehicle. It is not hard.