Ritual · “Repetition Rewires”
Purification of the Six Lokas
To purify the karmic causes of the six realms (the six root emotions) by visualising, sounding and dissolving six seed-syllables in the body, then resting in the resulting clarity.
Six Lokas purification: Sit, relax, set intention. For each of the six realms in turn, visualise its seed-syllable (A · SU · NRI · TRI · PRE · DU) in the body, recognise its root emotion (pride / jealousy / desire / ignorance / greed / anger), sound the syllable to stir and loosen it, then dissolve syllable and emotion into light. Seal with OM ĀH HŪM. Finally rest in the clarity that remains, and dedicate. A preliminary that clears the emotional causes of suffering.
What it is
Purification of the Six Lokas (six realms) is a structured preliminary purification Chögyal Namkhai Norbu taught from the Longsal cycle — a rushen, an “inner separation” of samsara from nirvana.
Tibetan cosmology maps six realms of existence (gods, demigods/jealous gods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, hell-beings), and Dzogchen reads them psychologically: each realm is driven by one root emotion (pride, jealousy, attachment/desire, ignorance/dullness, greed/miserliness, anger).
The practice works through all six in turn using six seed-syllables — A SU NRI TRI PRE DU — visualised in the body, sounded, and then dissolved, breaking up the emotional “cause” of each realm.
Norbu described it as “a powerful practice able to eliminate not only the effects of negative karma, but above all its causes — disturbing emotions such as anger or jealousy,” and to increase clarity and remove obstacles.
The syllables carry troldrug, “the six liberations”: even seeing or hearing them is said to be a cause for liberation.
The Method
A faithful general outline (the precise terma details — exact colours, locations, melody and dissolution — are received within the transmission and not reproduced here):
- Settle and generate motivation. Sit, relax, calm the breath, and set the intention to purify the causes of suffering for yourself and all beings.
- Work through the six realms in sequence. For each realm, in turn, you: - Visualise its seed-syllable at the corresponding place in the body, recognising the root emotion that realm embodies (e.g. the realm of the jealous gods ↔ jealousy; the hell realm ↔ anger; the hungry-ghost realm ↔ greed/craving; the animal realm ↔ ignorance/dullness; the human realm ↔ attachment/desire; the god realm ↔ pride). - Sound the syllable — A, SU, NRI, TRI, PRE, DU — letting the vibration pervade and “stir up” then loosen that emotion and its karmic trace. - Dissolve the syllable and the emotion into light/emptiness, feeling the realm’s cause purified.
- Apply the three Vajras. The practice integrates OM ĀH HŪM (the syllables of enlightened body, voice and mind) — used to seal and purify body, energy and mind across the sequence.
- Rest in the result. After the six are purified, let go of all construction and rest in the clarity and openness that remains — the recognition (rigpa) the rushen is meant to reveal by contrast with the just-released emotional states.
- Dedicate. Close by dedicating the merit/benefit to all beings. (Sourcing note: faithful paraphrase of the practice’s published structure and Namkhai Norbu’s own description of its purpose; the syllable order A SU NRI TRI PRE DU follows the Dzogchen Community’s transmitted text. The full Longsal practice is properly received through his transmission.)
Source & Lineage
The practice comes from the Longsal (“Luminous Clarity of the Universe, Heart Essence of the Dakinis”) cycle that Namkhai Norbu (1938–2018) received as terma through dreams of clarity, and which he taught throughout the worldwide Dzogchen Community as a core preliminary.
It belongs to the Dzogchen / Anuyoga stream of the Nyingma tradition (Garab Dorje, Padmasambhava).
The Traditions' versions
Six-realms / six-syllable purifications (Tibetan Buddhism) — many lineages have a six-realm purification (often tied to OM MA NI PAD ME HUM, whose six syllables are mapped to the six realms); Norbu’s Longsal version is a Dzogchen form.
- Seed-syllable (bīja) deity yoga — visualising and sounding a syllable, then dissolving it, is the core grammar of tantric sādhana.
- Bön Zhitro / purification practices — parallel realm-purification logic.
- Chöd / rushen — separating samsaric mind from the natural state by working through the emotions, not suppressing them.
- Vipassana “noting” of emotions — labelling an emotion to loosen identification overlaps with naming each root emotion here, minus the cosmology.
Common refinements
Mechanical recitation. The point is to actually contact each root emotion as you sound its syllable, then release it — not to mumble through six sounds.
- Suppressing instead of purifying. The rushen uses the emotion; don’t push it away — feel it, then dissolve it.
- Skipping the rest at the end. The recognition the practice aims at is in the open clarity after the purification, not in the busywork.
- Getting the syllables/order wrong. Use the transmitted form (A SU NRI TRI PRE DU with OM ĀH HŪM); don’t improvise the seed-syllables.
- Treating it as the main practice. Norbu framed it as a preliminary that prepares for contemplation, not a substitute for it.