Sure,
I did not want to say, that it’s just for buddhists, but there are many preparational meditations within that “mahamudra-tantra” path, where you first call the lineage of masters of that system and get their special blessing that you succeed easily and fast on that way. The importance of that is mentioned many times. Without these blessings, it seems to be harder to get quick results, but sure, this again is based on your belief. If you believe or devote to your god and practice the core parts, like that tummo meditation, it should give the same results. I tried one round of that meditation, just to get an understanding of the method and instantly felt the fire at the navel.
All in all, the aim is to melt the white drop of the crown and the red drop of the navel within the immortal drop of the heart. The same I heard from Krishna in his talks to Arjuna. Bringing apana and samana to the heart and then the prana of the heart gets free, somthing like that 
Then all the winds dissolve in the central channel, you go through the 8 signs and reach clear light of bliss/samadhi. Then meditating over emptiness seems to lead to the next step.
Waht I did not like, is, that there is no routine within the system. In ayp, you know, sitting twice a day for deep meditation will bring you nice results. Within mahamudra, it seems that the more you put into it, the more you will get out of it. There is no guidance about when to do what or perhaps, this is delivered from a guru and within the book, you just find the techniques, one after the other, even that ones beyond samadhi.
Christi,
which ones do you practice besides ayp?
Sure ! With your AYP training, it must be easy.
The book gives different basic steps, but I attended a retreat where the steps where different. Anyway that’s not so important, because it is your practice which decide what you will do. One day you concentrate more on the fire, another day you concentrate more on the dripping of the white drop, or on the winds in the central channels… As for the time, it is usually much demanding. For example, Chagdud Rinpoche said that he spent 6 months on it, in a closed retreat, when he was young. In Tibet, there are tumo retreats, each year during the winter, you’re supposed to practice 8 hours a day during 114 days, and then you go on the roof where it is very very cold with wet clothes… Our Gueshe did it 2 times. The most amazing thing he said is that they put a big pot of water on the roof of the temple and that it musn’t freeze. During this time, the students are in the temple, not on the roof. He says “Normally it is impossible that a pot of water wouldn’t freeze in tibet if you left it out at night, but if you do good tumo, it won’t freeze”. Anyway, I’m far from it, so I won’t go there, or I would die on the roof…
Hi Holy
I do the four mindfullness practices: mindfulness of the breath, mindfullness of the body, mindfullness of the contents of the mind, and mindfullness of mindfullness (or awareness of awareness). I also practice Metta Bhavana (the creation of love) and a series of visualization practices from the Mahayana tradition. But as I said, I adjust the visualizations to make them more meaningful for me, as I grew up in a Judeo-Christian country (if you can really call the UK a Judeo-Christian country 
).
I agree with you. It is my experience that with nearly all spiritual practices, if we do not feel comfortable with the parafanalia, and extras, then it is possible to work out what are the core tools being use and cut out the rest. The Buddha did this very successfully with the spiritual practices that were being taught during his time in India, and it is what Yogani is doing with Yoga.
And again I agree, as long as we realize what the purpose of the initiation (invocation) was then I we could substitute other practices to serve the same purpose. In this case it would be connecting with our own sense of the divine, and asking for protection and guidance.
I haven’t done any of the practices that you are discussing here, but would be very interested to try.
Is this from the BagavadGita? I tried to look it up but couldn’t find anything.
Christi
Hi Christi,
it’s possible that these words come from Patanjali and not from Krishna. I could not find the source, where I had read it, but I read it many many times. The first time I read it in Yogananda’s autobiography where he explains the science of kriya yoga. But this again was a quotation from either Krishna, Babaji or Patanjali =P
Btw, interesting meditations, the “best” one of them seems to be: “awareness of awareness”
Hi Christi,
I second Holy’s sentiment. I used ‘breath’ until I got through first Jhana. Thereafter my meditation has remained mainly “awareness of awareness”, although awareness of body and external sounds has helped along the way.
I’d just like to say what a fantastic thread this is. Very informative.
Kris
Hi Kadak,
Reading your posts I figured out that doing Six Yogas…
I am trying to practice by myself, no teacher, books only…
Unfortunately I couldn’t find any place on the net, forum, group etc … dedicated Naropa practices especially tummo and Internal Heat meditation…
Do you know any?
Very interesting topic. I am reading about Tummo practice as well. Just found this video in russian:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_zBNHGWMju0
PsiNomad
http://www.netvibes.com/psinomad
Yes, this video is very fascinating and I personally relate a lot with right tummo practionner because he starts the meditation via singing kargyraa.
As i shared on another thread, khoomei, kargyraa or sygyt which belong to overtone singing and throat singing (turco-mongol origin) can really help detox blocked channels in stomach area.
Albert