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THE SNOW LION NEWSLETTER
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WONDERS OF THE NATURAL MIND
The Essence of Dzogchen in the
Native Bon Tradition of Tibet
by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche.Foreword by
HH the Dalai Lama.
224 pp., 6 x 9".
#WONAMI $18.95
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"This book will be of great help to readers wishing to find a clear explanation of the Bon
tradition, especially with regard to its presentation of the teachings of Dzogchen."— HH the
Dalai Lama |
Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche and the History of Bon
Bon is the ancient autochthonous preBuddhist religious tradition of Tibet, still practiced today by many Tibetans in Tibet and in India. The founder of the Bon religion in the human world is Lord Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche.
According to the traditional biographical account, in a previous age Shenrab was called Salwa and studied the Bon doctrines with his two brothers Dagpa and Shepa in the Sidpa Yesang heaven under guidance of the Bon sage Bumtri Logi Cesan. After finishing their studies, the three brothers visited the God of Compassion, Shenlha Okar, to ask him how they could alleviate the suffering of sentient beings. Shenlha Okar advised them to act as guides to mankind in three successive world ages. Dagpa taught in the past world age; Salwa manifested as Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche and is the teacher and guide of the present world age; the youngest brother, Shepa, will come to teach in the next world age.
Tonpa Shenrab descended from the heavenly realms and manifested at the foot of Mount Meru with two of his closest disciples, Malo and Yulo. Then he took birth as a prince, the son of King Gyal Tokar and Queen Zanga Ringum, in a luminous garden full of marvellous flowers in a palace south of Mount Yungdrung Gutseg, at dawn on the eighth day of the first month of the first wood male mouse year (1857 B.C.). He married while young and had children. At the age of thirty-one he renounced his worldly life and started to practice austerity and teach the Bon doctrine. Throughout his life his efforts to propagate the Bon teachings were obstructed by the demon Khyabpa Lagring, who fought to destroy Shenrab's work; eventually he was converted and became Shenrab's disciple. Once, Khyabpa stole Shenrab's horses and Shenrab pursued him through Zhang Zhung into southern Tibet. Shen-rab entered Tibet by crossing Mount Kongpo.
This was Shenrab's only visit to Tibet. At that time the Tibetans practiced ritual sacrifices. Shenrab quelled the local demons and imparted instructions on the performance of rituals using offering cakes in the shapes of the sacrificial animals that led to the Tibetans abandoning animal sacrifices. On the whole, he found the land unprepared to receive the five Ways "of the fruit" of the higher Bon teachings, so he taught the four Ways "of cause." In these practices the emphasis is on reinforcing relationships with the guardian spirits and the natural environment, exorcising demons, and eliminating negativities. He also taught practices of purification by fumigation and lustral sprinkling and introduced prayer flags as a way of reinforcing fortune and positive energy. Before leaving Tibet, he prophesied that all his teachings would flourish in Tibet when the time was ripe. Tonpa Shenrab passed away at the age of eighty-two.
Mythological Origin and History of the Bon Religion
According to Bon mythological literature, there were "three cycles of dissemination" of the Bon doctrine, in three dimensions: the upper dimension of the gods or Devas (lha), the middle dimension of human
beings (mi), and the lower dimension of the Nagas (klu).
In the dimension of the Devas, Shenrab built a temple called the
"Indestructible Peak that is the Castle of the Lha" and opened the mandala of
the "All-Victorious Ones of Space"; he established the Sutra teachings and
appointed a successor, Dampa Togkar. In the dimension of the
Nagas, he built a temple called the "Continent of the Hundred Thousand Gesars
that is the Castle of the Nagas" and opened the mandala of the Pure Lotus
Mother. He established the Prajnaparamita Sutra teachings and gave instructions
on the nature of the mind.
In the human dimension, Shenrab sent emanations to three continents for
the welfare of sentient beings. In this world, he originally expounded his
teachings in the land of Olmo Lungring, situated to the west of Tibet and part
of a larger country called Tazig, identified by some modern scholars as Persia
or Tazikhistan. "Ol" symbolizes the unborn, "mo" the undiminishing, "lung" the
prophetic words, and "ring" the everlasting compassion of Tonpa Shenrab. Olmo
Lungring constitutes one third of the existing world and is formed like an
eight-petalled lotus under a sky that appears as an eight spoked wheel. In the
center of Olmo Lungring rises Mount Yungdrung Gutseg, "Nine Swastika Pyramid."
The swastika is the symbol of permanence and indestructibility. The heaped nine
swastikas represent the Nine Ways of Bon. At the base of Mount Yungdrung Gutseg
spring four rivers, flowing in the four cardinal directions. This description
has led some scholars to identify Mount Yungdrung Gutseg with Mount Kailash and
Olmo Lungring with Zhang Zhung, the country lying around Mount Kailash in west
Tibet and the cradle of Tibetan civilization. The mountain is surrounded by
temples, cities, and parks. Access to Olmo Lungring is gained by the "arrow
way", so called because, before visiting Tibet, Tonpa Shenrab shot an arrow and
created a passage through the mountain range.
Until the seventh century, Zhang Zhung existed as a separate state
comprising all of Western Tibet around Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar. The
capital was Khyunglung Nulkhar, the "Silver Palace of the Garuda Valley," the
ruins of which are to be found in Sutlej valley southwest of Mount Kailash. The
people spoke a Tibeto-Burmese language and were ruled by a dynasty of kings that
ended in the eighth century when King Ligmincha or Ligmirya was assassinated by
King Trisong Detsen of Tibet and Zhang Zhung was annexed to Tibet.
Further History of Bon
With the spread of Buddhism in
Tibet and after the founding of the first Buddhist monastery at Samye in 779
during the reign of King Trisong Detsen, Bon underwent a decline in Tibet.
Although at first King Trisong Detsen was reluctant to eliminate all Bon
practices and even sponsored the translation of Bon texts, he later instigated a
harsh repression of Bon. The great eighth century Bon master and sage Dranpa
Namkha, father of the Lotus born Guru Padmasambhava, founder of the Nyingmapa
(rNying ma pa) Buddhist tradition and the master who spread the Tantric and
Dzogchen teachings in Tibet, embraced the new religion in public but maintained
his Bon practice and allegiance in private in order secretly to preserve Bon. He
asked the king "Why do you make a distinction between bon and
chos?" (The word "bon" for the Bonpas and "chos" for the
Buddhists both mean "dharma", or "truth"), since he held that in essence they
were the same. Vairocana, the Buddhist scholar and disciple of Padmasambhava,
and many other translators of Indian and Oddiyana Buddhist texts participated in
the translation of Bon texts from the language of Drusha. To be saved from
destruction, many of the Bon texts had to be hidden as termas so that they could
be rediscovered later in more propitious times. In the ninth and tenth
centuries, Bon suffered further persecutions and attempts to eradicate it.
Followers of Bon, however, were able to preserve the scriptures until the
eleventh century during which time there was a Bon revival. This was
precipitated by the rediscovery of several important texts by Shenchen Luga, a
descendant of the great master Tonpa Shenrab himself.
Shenchen Luga had many followers, some of whom founded the first Bon
monasteries in Tibet. In 1405, the great Bon master Nyamed Sherab Gyaltsen
founded Menri monastery. Menri and Yundgrung Ling monastery became the most
important of the Bon monasteries.
The Bon Doctrine:
Different Presentations of the Bon
Teachings
The Bon teachings imparted by Tonpa Shenrab are presented
in various ways and with different classifications in the three written accounts
of Tonpa Shenrab's life. Shenrab is said to have expounded Bon in three
successive cycles of teachings: first he expounded the "Nine Ways (or successive
stages of practice) of Bon"; then he taught the "Four Bon Portals and the Fifth,
the Treasury"; finally he revealed the "Outer, Inner, and Secret Precepts."
The First Cycle: The Nine Ways There are three different ways of classifying the Nine Ways of
Everlasting Bon: the Southern, Northern, and Central Treasures. These are
systems of teachings that were hidden during early persecutions of Bon to be
later rediscovered as termas. The termas rediscovered in "Brig mtshams mtha"
dkar in south Tibet and in sPa gro in Bhutan constitute the Southern Treasures;
those rediscovered in Zang zang Lha dag and in Dwang ra khyung rdzong in north
Tibet constitute the Northern Treasures; those rediscovered at bSam yas and in
Yer pa'i brag in central Tibet constitute the Central Treasures.
In the Southern Treasures, the Nine Ways are subdivided into the lower
"Four Ways of Cause", which contain the myths, legends, rituals and practices
concerned mainly with working with energy in terms of magic for healing and
prosperity, and the higher "Five Ways of the Fruit", the purpose of which is to
liberate the practitioner from the cycle of samsaric transmigration.
The Nine Ways of the Northern Treasures are not widely known. In the Zang
zang ma system, they are divided in three groups: external, internal, and
secret.
The Nine Ways of the Central Treasures are very similar to the Nine Ways
found in Nyingmapa Buddhism. In fact, they are cycles of Gyagarma teachings that
were introduced into Tibet from India and were translated by the great scholar
Vairocana, who worked as translator in both the Bon and Buddhist spiritual
traditions.
The Second Cycle: The Four Portals and the One
Treasury
The second cycle of Bon expounded by Shenrab is divided
into five parts. The First Portal deals with esoteric Tantric practices and
spells. The Second Portal consists of various rituals (magical, prognosticatory,
and divinitory, etc.) for purification. The Third relates rules for monastic
discipline and lay people, with philosophical explanation, and the Fourth
instructs on psycho-spiritual exercises such as Dzogchen meditation. The fifth
teaching is called the One Treasury and comprises the essential aspects of all
four portals.
The Final Cycle: Outer, Inner and Secret Precepts
The
final teachings expounded by Tonpa Shenrab consist in the three cycles of Outer,
Inner, and Secret Precepts. The outer cycle is the path of renunciation (spong lam), the
Sutra teachings. The inner cycle is the path of transformation (sgyur lam), the
Tantric teachings, which use mantras. The secret cycle is the path of
self-liberation (grol lam), the Dzogchen teachings. This division into Sutra,
Tantra, and Dzogchen (mdo sngags sems gsum) is also found in Tibetan Buddhism.
Sutra, Tantra, and Dzogchen
According to Bon, the five
passions: ignorance, attachment, anger, jealousy, and pride, are the principal
cause of all the problems of this life and of transmigration in samsara. They
are also called the five poisons because they kill people. It is these passions
that we must overcome through practice. According to the Sutra view, it takes
many lifetimes to purify the passions and achieve enlightenment, whereas
according to the Tantric and the Dzogchen views the practitioner can attain
enlightenment in this very lifetime. Different religions and spiritual traditions have devised
various ways of purifying the passions and attaining realization. In Yungdrung
Bon, these are the method of renunciation, the method of transformation, and the
method of self-liberation.
For dealing with the passions, we can use the example of a poisonous
plant. According to the Sutra interpretation, the plant must be destroyed,
because there is no other way to resolve the problem of its poison. The Sutra
practitioner renounces all the passions.
According to the Tantric system, the Tantric adept should take the
poisonous plant and mix it with another plant in order to form an antidote: he
does not reject the passions but tries to transform them into aids for practice.
The Tantric adept is like a doctor who transforms the poisonous plants into
medicine.
The peacock, on the other hand, eats the poisonous plant because he has
the capacity to use the energy contained in the poison to make himself more
beautiful; that is, he frees the poisonous property of the plant into energy for
growth. This is the Dzogchen method of effortlessly liberating passions directly
as they arise.
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