As the term has been used in contemporary scholarship, “Bön” has three primary referents. The first is the religious tradition of Tibet prior to the importation of Buddhism. “Bön” can also refer to the popular religion of Tibet: the ritual practices, annual rites, and mythic motifs that fall outside of institutionalized religion. Finally, the term can denote the religion that developed as early as the late tenth century in competition with emerging forms of postimperial Buddhism, and that shares much in common doctrinally, if not mythically with both the Nyingma school and some forms of Indian Buddhism then being introduced to Central Tibet by the other new schools. Although each definition carries an element of truth, the first two have come under intense criticism in recent decades. The following selections are most representative of the third meaning—a distinct tradition of thought, practice, and institutional life that emerged approximately a millennium ago in Central Tibet.
Within modern European scholarship, the origins of the Bön tradition are the subject of great debate even after almost a century of scrutiny. But the tradition itself is quite clear that the origin of the Teaching is to be found in the heroic efforts of Shenrap Miwo, a enlightened being who took birth in a royal family in the city of Ölmo Lungring in Tazik, a kingdom to the west of Tibet. The historicity of Shenrap’s homeland is also debated. Yet the richness of his story is undeniable. He combines the world-transforming charisma of the Buddha with the martial bravado of the Tibetan epic hero Cesar. His enlightenment is a cosmic event on par with the eons-long struggle for perfection undertaken by the Buddha, yet he also is a master sorcerer, fully adept in more mundane magical arts. Narratives of his life constitute a significant, if ultimately minute aspect of the Bön tradition’s vast literature, and two of the excerpts in this chapter draw from this large body of works. Life stories of Shenrap might be considered early examples of a truly Tibetan narrative literature grounded in the Tibetan landscape, social motifs, and mythic repertoire. Beyond this, lives of Shenrap functioned as proto-canonical collections, in which lengthy liturgical works or philosophical treatises could be integrated into the chronology of Shenrap’s career, such as presentations of the “nine ways of Bön,” a graded presentation of ritual, philosophical, and contemplative instructions. In this the life of Shenrap is no different than the life of the Buddha, although no biography of the Buddha reached the massive proportions of the life of Shenrap in twelve volumes!
Although Shenrap is foundational to Bön, other figures have had a more demonstrable impact on the growth of the tradition, especially innovative figures of the eleventh century such as Shenchen Luga. He is renowned as the principal revealer of Bön texts said to have been hidden since the persecution at the hands of Buddhists in the imperial period of the ninth and tenth centuries. The excerpt from his life story below portrays his beginnings as a revealer. Beyond Shenchen Luga, Bön, like Buddhism, has a deep tradition of philosophical thought stretching from the eleventh century to the present. We can provide only a glimpse with a debate text in defense of Bönpo systems of Great Perfection philosophy. Finally, one sign of a tradition’s strength is the vehemence with which other traditions attack it, and if the anti-Bön text included here is any indication, Buddhist polemicists met a formidable match in Bön thought. KRS
In the opening scenes of
chapter 5 of the massive epic of the origins of the Bön tradition, the
Zermik or “Clear Eye,” a young boy named Yü Zurpüchen, who has crystal skin and sports a magical coat of mail, arrives in the Bönpo holy land of Ölmo Lungring riding a turquoise dragon. He comes before Shenrap Miwo, founder of the Bön tradition, while he is giving a teaching to his many disciples. Shenrap informs his astonished audience that this very boy was the source of a miraculous voice that had earlier interrupted his teaching sessions. The boy quickly reveals himself to be an emanation of Sangpo Bumtri, a creator deity in the Bönpo pantheon of gods. The boy produces a message from Sangpo Bumtri, which prevails upon Shenrap to travel to another land and redeem the morally corrupt leader Tobu Dodé. Shenrap declines, arguing that the disciples in his homeland need him more than anyone in other lands. The crystal boy pleads with him in verse, saying that no one else can curb Tobu Dodé’s reckless actions. Finally Shenrap agrees, seeing that the conversion of Tobu Dodé will further the cause of the Bön tradition itself by encouraging converts in Tobu Dodé’s besieged land. He therefore takes the first of many missionary journeys from Ölmo Lungring. As soon as he arrives, Tobu Dodé sends his army against Shenrap. But Shenrap is unperturbed and sends four magical monsters to repel the soldiers. Quickly defeated, Tobu Dodé is faced with a choice—continue to fight and be consumed by monsters, or convert and let Shenrap into his castle and his kingdom. KRS
In the language of the gods of the Svāstika:
Gatrak Haling Musang Lam
In human language:
The chapter relating the redemption of Tobu Dodé and homage done before the one hundred Lha and Shen.
About that time sounds full of harmony were heard from heaven, many bright lights rose in Harnang (the mid-kingdom), and the earth quaked fearfully. The inhabitants of Dzambuling were greatly afraid. At that time there came from the void sky
The little boy Yüi Zurpüchen,
Of a complexion as clear as crystal,
Arrayed in a coat covered with magic writ,
Riding on the blue horse of the turquoise-dragon.
After having soared about everywhere,
He came to Ölmo Lungring, the land of the Shen,
Where the savior Shenrap Miwo
Before innumerable hundreds of thousands of disciples
Preached the Bön [tenets] of the three Peutsé,
He came down into the midst of the lecture-class.
All were astounded thereat,
And the savior Shenrap spake:
“When the other day that voice and that light appeared
And spread out, it was on account of this emanation.
Thou renowned little boy, of which class of beings art thou?
Where dost thou go to? What is thy intention?”
To this question of the master the little boy replied:
“Oh Shenrap Miwo, thou peerless prince!
I am Zurpüchen, the little boy of your heart.
On my body, whose tint is clear as crystal,
I am clothed with a coat full of magic writ.
I ride on the blue horse of the swift thunder-dragon
That is laden with the small light bag of the To.
I am an emanation of the Sangpo Bumtri.
I come to you, oh Shenrap!”
Speaking thus, he dismounted his dragon-horse quickly, circumambulated the teacher, presented divine greetings and offered to him the five kinds of precious jewels. Then he knelt down on the ground with dignity and spake:
O savior Shenrap, most eminent of the wise,
Prince among all who seek the welfare of living beings!
Thou wise one, who knowest all!
Hearken to the letter of Sangpo,
The king of the Sipa!
Thereupon he raised the lid of a costly little box and [read] the following petition: “O teacher, the Sangpo Bumtri beseeches thee: In the northern kingdoms of the world there is a land, called Öma Jamkya; the palace is named Dangwa Dzongpuk. The father’s name is Tokhir Jetangpo, and the mother’s Ché Gungtsün Trima. The son of both is called Tobu Dodé. He is a man from Dzambuling, belonging to the caste of nobility. Among all who have become men, not one has committed greater sins. The flyers in the sky, the creepers on the earth, the flutterers in the mid-air kingdom, all these he has murdered by thousands, through great cunning and wise means, as he was very clever and skilful in shooting with the bow. To those who combated vice he said, that the so-called future life was a delusion, and he consorted with sinners and the red-handed executioners. He practiced theft and war on his fellow-men. He reduced the high castles to ruins, he plundered the low-lying lands; he killed men and horses with the knife; he slaughtered the precious cattle in great numbers. In consequence of his misleading one finds in all kingdoms of the endless world fewer men of virtue than visible stars when the sun rises in the morning; and sinners more than the highest possible number of men on earth. With this state of things the Sipa [ruler] called the Sangpo Bumtri felt great compassion. But when he increased the number of virtuous men, Tobu Dodé caused them to sin; when he protected the existing cattle, Tobu Dodé slaughtered and destroyed them. Then the Sangpo formed a great resolve and sent me here as petitioner. Oh teacher, he begs thee to convert this sinful Tobu!”
Thus the little cherub-boy entreated.
The teacher Shenrap said: “Oh son of nobles, that be not so!
Since many hundreds of thousands of disciples
Here hearken to the Bön [teaching] of the true magic,
It were not right, should I from now preach
But to the sinful Tobu.”
Thereupon the little cherub-boy replied:
“These many hundreds of thousands of the Master’s pupils
Have far advanced in purification since the beginning of Time.
They behold the teacher’s countenance, have learned some words, and thank him.
Surely they will not sin, rather accumulate masses of virtue.
And it is right, if they receive at last the highest honor!
Shall Tobu Dodé alone not be converted?
Even if, as by the increasing moon, 100,000 times 100,000 beings
Should come under the roof of Virtue; yet it is grander, should Tobu be converted.
O Light of the teachers, come quickly hither!”
Thus he implored, and Shenrap spoke:
“Although during the three winter months earth and water freeze,
Yet there are still some [waters], belonging to the class of springs,
From which the beings drink, after having sought them here.
These are called ‘Perennial Springs,’ oh friend of the beings!
But how many thirsty ones never come to the waters!
We call them ‘Hurrying Passers-by.’ O little boy, thou art verily not in the right!
A being, that remains unredeemed in spite of the master’s blessing
Will not be redeemed, even through meeting him in person.”
Thus spoke he, and Zurpüchen, the little cherub-boy entreated:
“If something be bound with iron, the smith must be fetched [to free] it.
But if it be [bound] with a woolen thread, then anyone can free it.
Are the virtuous driven away, they assemble yet again round the teacher.
Whereas the sinners come not [again] and flee far away.
[To effect] the highest good of the beings, thou, oh Shenrap hast not discarded the body.
O teacher, thou art as water; these thirst not!
The converted beings are assembled on this side of the border.
When those beyond are also converted, thou art [truly] the Lamp of the teachers.
Delay not! I pray thee, go quickly as teacher [to them]!”
Thus he implored, and Shenrap spake: “Oh son of nobles, Zurpüchen, thou little cherub-boy! In the kingdoms of the world there is yet one cleanser from the five soul-poisons of Tobu Dodé. The conversion of such inconvertibles is the work of the devil!
Because it is so hard to convert him after the method of the devil Mugö,
My soul must be given over to complete apathy.
If Tobu be converted only after death, he will soon come to conversion.
This sinner is very hard to convert.
But if this one be not converted, then no beings will be converted.
By that time I too, shall have ascended to heaven.
According to the difficult task of the little boy as petitioner,
[That he undertook] obeying the word of the ruler Sangpo Bumtri,
I also will meditate [on] the welfare of the beings.
Can I not convert him, well, how is a log to be converted?”
As he had thus spoken, he said to his followers: “Ye students of Ölmo Lungring! Meditate on patience! Show zeal, keep the morals, concentrate your thoughts in equanimity! Learn wisdom! Pray! Accomplish your aim! Give alms! Show strength! Be filled with wisdom!
“I shall go into another kingdom of the world, in order to convert a very sinful being, that hitherto was too hard to be converted. Could he not be redeemed from the first to the second birth, it must be attempted in the fifth to the sixth. As soon as he has received freedom from the place of transmigration, the doctrine of Truth and Magic will spread abroad.”
After having spoken thus, the teacher Shenrap mounted the golden eight-wheeled carriage, and Malo and Yulo accompanied him, on the right and left side of his hips, while Zurpüchen, the little cherub-boy, showed the way. While driving, he let many rays of light emanate from his body. In every place over which Shenrap drove, manifold flowers grew up, and in the sky many kinds of light came out.
Then he reached the land of Öma Jamkya. Tobu Dodé raised an army, put on his armor and seized his sword. As the men, who had never yet been seen there, appeared, he spoke: “Kill the men and plunder them of their goods!” Then he started running at Shenrap. Now as the teacher was of omniscient wisdom, and Tobu not to be overcome by gentleness, he resolved to destroy him in a terrible way. From the rays of light coming from his own body, he let four great monsters proceed, viz: Zo U Wugu, the
trowo [“wrathful being”] of the Wel in the east; Rompo Tsegu, the
trowo of the Wel in the South; Rucho Degu, the
trowo of the Wel in the west, and Zema Gogu, the
trowo of the Bel in the north. These four great monsters were of a bluish black shining color, and had nine heads, four feet and eighteen hands. The nine heads were: a Garuda’s head, an ox’s head, a crocodile’s head, a lion’s head, a yak’s head, a tiger’s head, a leopard’s head, a bear’s head, and a hyena’s head. In their eighteen hands they held: an arrow to shoot with, a spear to pierce with, a noose to catch with, an iron hook to draw with, a battle-axe to hew with, a sword to cut with, a saw to divide with, a
tulum to cut into little pieces with, a great nail to drive in with, a
tardo to burn with, an iron chain to fetter with, a knife and a pair of tongs, a bronze seal and an iron seal, a
yatel, a wheel and … on their four feet they had: a cross formed out of two thunderbolts, a wheel with eight spokes, a Sv
āstika with nine loops, and a burning volcano. So these four monsters of the Wel shook their heads in all four directions, licked their muzzles, showed their teeth, distorted their eyes, straddled with their legs, raised their hands, and out of their mouths came smoke with red-hot pieces of iron, and with the spittle of their tongues they spat out molten gold.
The teacher Shenrap, however, was of wonderfully beautiful appearance, and shining. He had nothing remarkable about him, neither back nor front. His face was bright as the sun and moon, and he could actually look towards all ten directions. His head was covered with a costly crown bearing nine points. In his hand he held a golden scepter, on which was a drawing of the turquoise Svāstika. Thus transformed he came forward. Shenrap came from above, and Tobu ran from below. Thus the two suddenly met, in a place higher up than Yelatsik. Some of Tobu’s warriors fainted, and some became stiff. Tobu himself was seized with fear, and staggered backwards and forwards, trembling. At the same time he bethought him as follows: “Whatever I may do—this is my last hour, I shall be killed! Even it I flee, I shall not be saved! I cannot escape!” Consequently he thought to beg humbly, dismounted from his horse, took his armor off his body, ungirded his sword from his side, bowed himself down, and said:
“Thou nobeheld incomparable being!
Thou beautiful body sparkling all over with gems!
Ye eyes, bright as sun and moon, that truly look in all ten directions!
Thou crown on the head, that gleams with jewels!
Thou, who holds a golden scepter with turquoise-colored drawing of the Svāstika in thy hand!
Thou that ridest on a golden eight-wheeled chariot!
The four fearful great beings sway all ends.
Wherever I may turn, I am in thy power.”
As he thus entreated, the teacher spake:
“I tell thee, sinful Tobu Dodé,
Who art born in a human frame:
The seed of the five poisons has heaped itself up, and thou committest manifold sins.
The warders, the four wrathful guardians say to thee:
To redeem [thee] now, we must consume [thy] flesh and thy bones!
But I say: If thou renounce thy sins and practice virtue,
Thou shalt not be killed, but become a hero of transmigration.
Choose now: to be killed, or to renounce sin!”
Thus spake he, and most of the warriors recovered from their swoon, and the stiffness departed from them.
Tobu Dodé spoke to the teacher: “I will from now henceforth renounce sin, according to the teacher’s word, and will practice virtue!” This Tobu promised in the midst of many people, driven by fear, but without being shaken in his faith in his soul.
The teacher spoke: “When a man promises something in the presence of many people, so is that no promise, but a contract.”
“If a man break a contract, so will he be burned by [its] fruits.
That then leads to a re-birth in five hundred hells.
Wherever he may be born, everywhere temptation draws nigh.
But now do thou not go back from the good!”
After having thus spoken, he entered Tobu’s castle Dangwa Dzokpuk.
[A. H. Francke, “gZer Mig: A Book of the Tibetan Bönpos,” Asia Major 4 (1927): 206–213.]
Shenchen Luga is the best known of the early treasure revealers of the Bön tradition. In 1017 he unearthed an extensive cache of texts that legend held been secreted away by Bönpo during the prehistoric persecution of Bön in the Tibetan imperial period under Drigum Tsenpo, eighth king of Tibet in the mythical chronology extending from Nyatri Tsenpo. The principal text in this revelation was the
Inner Treasury of Life, a bilingual work appearing in both Tibetan and the ancient language of Zhangzhung, which Bönpo claim as the original language of their tradition. According to an early life story told in the first-person voice, as a young man Shenchen was blessed by miraculous occurrences as he worked as a laborer. These wondrous signs eventually compelled him to embark upon a religious career. After settling down in a place known as Drak Kharru to engage in spiritual practice under the guidance of his teacher, he began to have a series of frightening visionary encounters. In these visions a variety of spirits and deities aided and coerced him to seek a treasure of the Bön tradition. When he finally received a magical dagger, a
purba, from a host of visiting deities, he began to investigate rock outcroppings around Drak Kharru. What he found within the rocks was to prove foundational for the Bön tradition, and the disciples who gathered around him after he unearthed the Bön treasure texts went on to become the founders of Bön institutions throughout Central Tibet during the eleventh century. KRS
Among several different accounts, that of Shenchen himself is as follows.
When I reached my thirteenth year, my father said, “You and Lha Gekhö run along and go pick white gentian and tinder.” So we went. I left Gekhö to pick gentian, and I went to find tinder in a further valley, where a voice spoke from the sky saying, “Shen Luga, shall I bestow the spiritual power of Bön?” The place where I stood shook, and a crevice in the rock was filled with liquid. Thinking this to be the spiritual power, I kept it secret even from my parents.
I thought I would stay there at the white rock, but I could not get there for a few years. During that time there was fighting between Central Tibet and Zhuyé. Lha Gekhö went to the middle of the fighting, was struck by an arrow, and died. I was held up for a year in the high country gathering wool goats, wool sheep, go [a kind of gazelle] and yaks. One athletic Burpa did not want to give me go or yaks, so I knocked him off the top of his horse, then ran away on foot and escaped. For this they called me “strong man.”
As a distraction from this [business], I was building a three-story [building] at Chu Sermo when Nenak Yemkhyen asked, “Sir, since you are known as ‘mighty,’ will you compete with us?” He carried eight bricks. Then I, carrying nine bricks, reached the eleventh rung of the ladder with the carrying bowl and fell together with the bricks. The back joints at the waist were set, but it did not help, and in my eighteenth year, I walked bent over.
At first, when the spiritual power had appeared, I thought I would remain there, but it did not work out that way. I thought that this accident was a “fault formatiindent">on” of that inability to remain there.
In my nineteenth year, I requested the teachings from Pönsé Razhak, including the Yungdrung Trogyé and the single paged water offering Anuma. Then I engaged in spiritual work during the tiger year [1014 C.E.] at Drak Karru. During that year of spiritual work, the signs and spiritual power appeared as before. I dreamed that I encountered the divinity and a stream of elixir, so I came out of retreat and I stayed there fulfilling the memorial observances. This detained me until the dragon year [1016 C.E.].
During the dragon year, the signs of successful practice appeared as before. In that year I took Nagaza Peldrön as wife. By fault of that, the year passed.
In the following snake year [1017
C.E.], the signs appeared as before. One evening at dusk there came a black woman, her locks of hair pressing against her shoulders, her angry fangs bared as if ready to eat something. Without being frightened at this, I remained in contemplation. That evening I set out for Dzakya Senggi Tö. I reached the monastery in the morning and, as I arrived at the juncture of Drakkar, I was met by many children with turquoise ornamented topknots and women dressed in fine white cloth. They prostrated, gave offerings and scattered flowers. I sat without expressing delight in this and they disappeared so that I had no idea where they went.
Again one evening at dusk a huge Chinese mask appeared saying, “I will devour you!” but again I remained in meditation unafraid. That evening I started for the top of the large grassy mountain facing me. In the morning, as I arrived at that place, many Bönpos with tiger-skin coats beating drums and sounding shang bells beckoned to me, but then disappeared so that I had no idea where they had gone. That evening there were different miraculous appearances including a giant frog. By night, I started for the north side of the place and in the morning as I returned there was a rock which seemed to have a human face dripping with a white liquid with yellow globules. I held out a copper basin. The liquid poured continuously and filled it. I took some with my fourth finger and placed it on my tongue. It had a superb taste and, thinking it was Elixir, I drank until it was gone.
In the first part of the day, while I was doing a water offering, the copper basin flew into the sky and then came back landing nearby. Not only that, but a “finger rock” hit me from somewhere just as I was going to sleep. I thought it was my brother Lutsek and stayed still. When I brought my head and eyes close, there was no one at all. Many crystal lights in the atmosphere were coming toward me. I went to the face of the cliff to look, but there was no one there. Five-colored light rays were radiating and dissolving into me. Then there were three loud sounds. After that, from the sky came four beautiful white colored women wearing fine white cloth. One came down riding a dragon, another on a khyung bird, the third on a lion and the fourth on a tiger.
They descended, saying, “Shengur Luga, shall we give the spiritual powers of Bön? If you study, will you become knowledgeable? If taught, will you be able to meditate?”
“If I study, I will become knowledgeable. If taught, I will be able to meditate. Grant me the spiritual powers of Bön.” I took a first-offering of yoghurt from the cave and made an offering.
“Since you are an emanation embodiment, take this eight finger-width sized crystal purba and keep it secret for a cycle of twelve years,” they said. Traveling into space, they vanished.
When I examined it, the purba had what are called the nine grades of Vehicles, the six doors of Bön. If you descended down the nine ladder notches of crystal, it had something like a spiral on its trunk. At its head was a square boulder. On the neck was a Svāstika of vermillion. Below it was a clear Svāstika of crystal. Upon examination of the site, it turned out to be just like that.
Without considering if it would be possible to break the boulder, I wanted to do it. So I sent Peldrön away and said to Lutsek, “Come and bring a pickaxe.” That evening it was not possible to break the boulder. We were prevented by a strong wind and snow.
That night I dreamed a voice came to me saying, “Lutsek is an emanation of the planet Mars. Therefore, he is no suitable subject for the teachings. Do not bring him.”
In the morning I said to him, “I played a trick on you. Now just how would a treasure come from a rock like this! I need to fix the pickaxe today, so leave it here.”
Lutsek left me with the words, “You need a treasure more than you need a Bön treasure.”
Then this is what occurred on the twenty-fourth day of the middle winter month, the day of the tra constellation: I overturned the square boulder to find a bluish clay. Below that was another square boulder with two Svāstikas drawn on it—one in vermillion, the other in crystal. I took it out and there were two small boxes. In the larger box were many Bön teachings of both the cause and result Vehicles.
I went to take the treasure manuscripts and in a moment they were gone to who knows where. I went to the treasure hold and said, “Now how is it they were here and now that I come to take them they are gone?”
In the evening a black woman and a black man came and said, “Do not take away these things of ours. When you extract them, set up as their ‘substitute’ a white sheep with vermillion eyes and a white yak with red forehead spot and belly wool. Set up dranggyé with small vermillion spots and a small food offering. Display them in front of the hole and then take them.” When they said that, I did not want to take them.
[Dan Martin, Unearthing Bön Treasures: Life and Contested Legacy of a Tibetan Scripture Revealer, with a General Bibliography of Bön (Leiden: Brill, 2001), 57–64.]
The Bön religion, like the Buddhist Nyingmapa order, favored classifications of nine sequential vehicles of spiritual practice. At least three such systems of classification are known from Bönpo sources. Among them, of particular interest is the system belonging to the so-called “southern treasure,” a series of revealed scriptures that were promulgated in the south of Tibet during the early second millennium
C.E. This system integrates into one overarching scheme both the “worldly” ritual systems that were concerned with regulating the relations between human beings and the innumerable gods and spirits of the natural world, and the “transcendent” systems that, like the vehicles of Buddhism, were devoted to the achievement of enlightenment. At the apex of the system, poised as the ninth vehicle, is the transcending teaching of the Great Perfection, here referred to simply as the “Great Vehicle” (and not to be confused with the use of the same term, equivalent to Sanskrit Mah
āy
āna, in well-known Buddhist contexts). The present text—which was redacted during the twelfth century but claims antecedents going back to the eighth, and is presented as a commentary on a scripture of the Bön teaching of the Great Perfection, first promulgated by Shenchen Luga and entitled the
Nine Secret Cycles of the Enlightened Mind demonstrates the development among the Bönpo of scholastic methods of classification, for instance, in treating each spiritual vehicle discussed in terms of the three categories of its entryway, practical action, and realized view. In connection with the “worldly” systems in particular, it reveals an almost ethnographic interest in the ritual life of early Tibet. MTK
Henceforth, the greatness of our proper textual tradition in respect to the vehicles is taught in what follows, where there are three [topics]: 1. the teaching of the four causal Bön; 2. the teaching of the four fruitional Bön; and 3. the teaching of the exceptional vehicle.
1. Of them, in teaching the first, the four causal Bön, there are the vehicles of: 1.1. the Shen of Augury (
cha shen), 1.2. the Shen of Appearance (
nang shen), 1.3. the Shen of Marvels (
trül shen), and 1.4. the Shen of Phenomenal Existence (
si shen).
1 Each has three subtopics: the teachings of entranceway, practical action, and realized view.
1.1. First, then, the three concerning the Shen of Augury:
The entranceway is an entrance through exorcism (
to)
2 and medical diagnosis. How does one thus enter? In general, sentient beings are subject to many congenital afflicting spirits, and so forth, and one enters [this vehicle] in order to remove them by means of divination and exorcism. Because they are subject to many diseases of fever and cold, etc., one enters in order to alleviate them by medical treatment and diagnosis.
As for the practical action, when the effects of disease or afflicting spirits have appeared, first [one investigates] what harm has occurred and what sort of disease or afflicting spirit there is. You examine a disease by pulse and urine, while afflicting spirits are examined by divination and
tang.
3 Without halting the application of medicine and treatment to the effects of disease, you bring about benefits by medicine and treatment; and without halting the application of divination and exorcism to the effects of afflicting spirits, you bring about benefits through various sorts of exorcism. This is the practical action.
Concerning, now, the realized view: for example, just as a scout on the mountain pass spies out all enemies and dangers [and so brings about their avoidance or removal], so in this case you realize, with respect to disease, that it may be treated and cured, and with respect to afflicting spirits, that they may be impeded and deflected. Such is the view.
1.2. Second, the entranceway to the Shen of Appearance: one enters through the gate of the four doors of incantation, the nine vocal inflections, and the forty-two thanksgivings. The four doors of incantation are the door of worship of the divine spirits, the door of removal and cleansing, the door of liberation and ransom, and the door of augury, enrichment, and
nyen.
4 The nine vocal inflections are, first, three with respect to leading; then, three with respect to transformation; and, finally, three with respect to settling. The forty-two thanksgivings are ten with respect to the gate of worship of the divine spirits, ten with respect to removal and cleansing, ten with respect to Augury and Enrichment, and one each with respect to
nyenpa-si and
nyenpo-chi,
5 making forty-two in all. In that way, one enters unerringly, in accord with the chants of thanksgiving and the methods of playing the drum.
As for the practical action: because all that appears and comes into being abides as gods and demons, with respect to the 80,000 sorts of obstacles and the eightfold groups of godlings, whether in reference to past deeds or ephemeral conditions, one amasses the several requisites and ritual items. Having divided the beneficial deities and the harmful spirits and beseeched the deities for final purposes, the excellent priesthood provides a refuge for its lords and patrons. At intervals, one offers ransoms to the obstacles, and thereby reconciles opponents, removing their animosity. Thus, one methodically extracts the nails and arrows,
6 and gently terminates the continuity of the illness. In the end, one oppresses the
si at the threshhold and so imprisons the
si in a pit.
Concerning the view to be realized: it is as at market time, when the speech of the traders is translated by their respective leaders, whereby each one’s desires are respectively fulfilled. Similarly, in recognizing this appearance to be a divinity, and thus beneficent, or a demon, and thus harmful, one comes to realize that all of birth and death are fashioned by divinities and demons.
1.3. Third, the entranceway of the Shen of Marvels: one enters by means of the combination of method and magic. As a method for extending the teaching of the eternal Bön, before those who are fearful, in a location where there are savage divinities and demons, one amasses the necessary provisions, including flesh and blood. One enters in order to coerce the divinities and demons, such as the düd and sinpo.
As for the practical action: by means of
mantra, mudrā, and
samādhi,
7 according to one’s degree of intimacy with and attainment of the arrogant worldly divinities—such as the
welmo, gyemo, zima and tangmo
8—who are respectful of Bön and attached to the Shen, one wins the sign of success, according to the degree to which one has entrapped the enemy’s soul-sign, and thus one cultivates experience. Such is the practical action.
Concerning the view to be realized: it is like master and slave, for just as the master puts the slave to work, the practitioner, like the master, realizes the welmo and factotums to be like slaves and servants. Thus, by freeing oneself, one desires to free others. This is the view.
1.4. Fourth, the entranceway of the Shen of Phenomenal Existence: one enters by way of the eighty-one means of death, the four doors to the grave, and the 360 mortuary rites. Among them, these are the eighty-one means of death: twenty deaths due to illness through fever or chill; twenty sudden deaths due to spirits and obstacles; twenty deaths by weapons, due to violence; twenty deaths conditioned by the elements; and the one death due to
karman, when the lifeforce is spent. This makes eighty-one. They are summarized, moreover, in the four doors to the grave. What are those four? The four are the pair of childhood death and the death of benefactors,
9 and the pair of knife and weapon.
10 As for the 360 mortuary rites: there are 120 varieties of deceased ancestor and parental lineage; 120 varieties of cemetery interior; and 120 varieties of mortuary priest, from among the entourage of the deceased. With respect to them, one enters without error.
As for the practical action: with compassion and loving affection, like a mother, one is to be skilled in the means of guiding the deceased, who turns in the three realms and wanders among the six destinies. One unites the true sign and its true significance at the frontier of the visible world of the living and the invisible world of the dead, and purifies [the fate of the deceased] by emanating offerings to discharge [karmic] debts and as ransom. This is the practical action.
Concerning the view to be realized: it is like a dream; for, on falling asleep, although one’s body does not budge from the bed, the mind is excited by objects, so that one experiences various pleasures and pains. Similarly, although one abandons [in death] the inanimate body, there are three—vital soul, intellect and mind—that wander in the round and experience pain. As for those three, vital soul, intellect and mind: the vital soul (
la) is that which amasses dispositions in the ground-of-all; that which follows from connection with that is mind; and there is intellect that passes through varied pleasures and pains. The desire to purify that by means of three—destiny, existence, and allies
11—is the essential aspect of the view.
Thus far, the causal vehicles have been explained.
2. Henceforth, in what follows, the four Bön of the result are taught: the vehicles of 2.1. Laymen, 2.2. Ascetics, 2.3. the Pure A,
12 and 2.4. the Primordial Shen. There are three divisions of each of them, among which:
2.1. Concerning the first of them, the entranceway of the Laymen is an entry via the ten virtues. Abandoning the three types of bodily evils, one enters by preserving life, distributing donations, and practicing continence. Abandoning the four types of evils of speech, one speaks the truth, avoids rumor, speaks gently, and does not prattle. Abandoning the three types of mental evil, one enters by not entertaining malicious thoughts, thinking beneficially, and thinking inerrantly.
The practical action is activity that, on abandoning even subtle forms of evil, cultivates the practice even of the slightest virtues.
And concerning the view to be realized, just as, having first prepared the cause, the result emerges later, so there is a cause of error in the mind, wherefore, for the while, one earnestly practices austerities so that that error is renounced and purified, whereupon one aspires to obtain the result later. That is the correct view.
2.2. Second, the entranceway of the Ascetics is an entry via the four immeasurables and the ten virtues. Among them, the four immeasurables are love, sympathetic joy, compassion and equanimity. Of them, love is an all-embracing nurturing, while compassion empathizes and sustains. Sympathetic joy produces enthusiasm for the benefit of living beings. Equanimity makes no distinctions in the [scope of that] joy. As for the ten virtues, one enters just as before.
Regarding the practical action, there is the men’s moral code and the women’s moral code. In the men’s moral code, one upholds 250 [branch regulations] that are derived from four roots. There the four roots are [to abstain from] killing, theft, sexual incontinence, and lying. The 250 branches derived from them are: 50 misdeeds pertaining to killing; 50 misdeeds pertaining to theft; 50 misdeeds pertaining to sexual incontinence; 50 misdeeds pertaining to lying; and 50 misdeeds pertaining to diet and comportment. One upholds thus 250. In the women’s moral code, one upholds 360 branches derived from eight roots. Of them, the eight roots are, in addition to the four roots given above, [to abstain from] perverse desire, injurious thoughts, rumor, and anger. The 360 branches derived from them are: 100 regulations to be observed by the body; 100 regulations to be observed in speech; 100 regulations to be observed mentally; 20 regulations to be observed in one’s comportment; 20 regulations to be observed in adornments and colors [of clothing]; and 20 regulations to be observed in diet. These are the 360. To maintain them [i.e., the men’s and women’s codes] is the practical action.
The view that is to be realized is the understanding that the objects that are grasped externally are atoms and that the cognitions that grasp internally are momentary. The view holds that both exist ultimately.
2.3. Third, the entranceway of the Pure A consists of the nine approaches that form the foundation for ritual service and the eighteen branches of attainment. There, the nine approaches that form the foundation for ritual service are three approaches to service that depend upon bodily mudrās, three approaches to service that depend upon vocal bījas [“seed syllables”], and three approaches to service that depend upon mental samīdhi. The three bodily approaches are the mudrā of natural accoutrements, the mudrā of the upper body [in the phase of] creation [in the form of the divinity], and the mudrā of action involving [ritual] preparations and transformations. The three vocal approaches are the infallible cause which is the root mantra, the conditional mantra [in the phase of] creation, and the mantra of practical action that is recited. The three mental approaches are the samādhi of suchness, which is clear with respect to emptiness and selflessness, the samādhi of all-embracing appearance, which is clear with respect to the four immeasurables, and the causal samādhi, which is clear with respect to the body of the divinity, seed syllables and light rays. The eighteen branches of attainment are: six branches of common attainment; six branches of supreme attainment; and six branches of exceptional attainment. Through these, one enters.
As for the practical action: in the bodily action, one practices the mudrās; in vocal action, one recites the mantras and bījas; and in mental action, one contemplates the three forms of samādhi. This is the practical action.
The view to be realized is like the moon arising [as a reflection] in water, or a rainbow appearing in the sky: all of the principles (
bön) comprising the container and its contents, the round and transcendence are primordially auto-cognizing gnosis. One realizes the entire container that is the world to be a divine palace, and all the living beings that are its contents within to appear in the bodies of gods and goddesses. And one comprehends that to be apparent, but without substantial nature.
2.4. Fourth, the entranceway of the Primordial Shen is an entry via the expanse and gnosis. There, the “expanse” is the unwavering ground-of-all, while gnosis is awareness that is limpid and incessant. Thus, one enters via clarity, without agitation.
The practical action: the host of the pure divinities are entirely perfect with respect to their marks and signs; and to be entirely perfect, without adulteration, is the practical action.
The view that is to be realized is this: one comprehends that from the unborn space of appearance, awareness arises incessantly, or that the expanse and gnosis are nondual.
Thus far, the four Bön of the result have been taught. Here, it is appropriate that the distinctions of cause and effect, or higher and lower vehicles, be put forth; and these should be known from the Summary Commentary on the View (Tawé Gongdrel).
3. Among them, this text [i.e., Nine Secret Cycles of the Enlightened Mind] is the general excellence of all of those vehicles. It is general, because there is none among the eight vehicles [just explained] that is not embraced in the expressive play of this Great Vehicle. And it is excellent because there is nothing at all superior to the realization of this Great Vehicle.
Hence, first concerning the entranceway of this, the Great Vehicle, being the general excellence of the ninefold sequence of vehicles and having been designated [as a vehicle] so as to resemble the preceding eight vehicles, it is not entered, as are the lower vehicles, via conceptual activity or with [the duality of] subject and object. Rather it is entered via the self-emergent great gnosis that is an equilibrium without duality.
The practical action is unlike that of the lower vehicles, in that there is no activity involving efforts; rather, one practices the four actions of the view, namely, oneness, plainness, open absence, and spontaneity.
The view that is to be realized, unlike that of the lower vehicles, is not a view involving objective orientation.
Because the meaning of these is taught at length below, it is unnecessary to do so here. That explains the Bön of the Great Vehicle. Thus far, the greatness of the proper text of [this vehicle] has been explained.
[The Byang sems gab pa dgu skor, trans. MTK, in “The Commentaries of the Four Clever Men: A Doctrinal and Philosophical Corpus in the Bon po rDzogs chen Tradition,” East and West 59 (2009): 107–130.]
If in the Zermik, the “Clear Eye,” with which this chapter opened, the story of Bön’s founder, Shenrap, is told in great detail, in the Ziji, the “Glorious,” his teachings are set down extensively. These two texts are often regarded as complementary classics of the Bön tradition. A fourteenth-century work in twelve large volumes, the Ziji is a sort of Bön encyclopedia, which organizes Bön thought and practice into nine ways, introduced in the preceding selection, but with far more thorough development: 1) Prediction (or Augury) deals with divination, and includes knot sortilege, astrology, predictive rituals, and medical diagnosis; 2) The Visual World (the Shen of Appearance) includes Shenrap’s teachings on exorcism, divinity, demons, local divinities, and practices to do with such divine beings such as ransoming one’s life from them; 3) Illusion (the Shen of Marvels) details the various means to dispose of one’s enemies; 4) Existence describes the intermediate state between life and death; 5) Virtuous Adherers (or Laymen) prescribes a tenfold set of virtues for laypeople; 6) Great Ascetics treats monastic conduct; 7) Pure Sound (the Pure A) moves to tantric practice, including instruction for the ritual using maṇḍala, or sacred circles; 8) Primeval Shen prescribes suitable Bönpo masters and ritual partners, and details such practices as maṇḍala preparation and meditation; finally, 9) The Supreme Way defines Bönpo theology within a threefold rubric of the basis, path, and result of spiritual practice. The following is a brief excerpt from the first of the nine ways, Prediction, in which Shenrap instructs his audience on the ethical aspects of predictive technologies, counseling them to always keep in mind the “Thought of Enlightenment”—the wish to help all living beings—even when learning the intricacies of prediction. A notable feature of Bönpo teaching as presented in the Ziji is precisely the strong emphasis it maintains on the Mahāyāna conception of the enlightened aspiration to attain liberation for the benefit of all. KRS
Again the Teacher (Shenrap) said:
Listen, Lekgyel Tangpo, listen!
Those items have been ordered in lists.
Now secondly as for setting to work and practicing,
at the start of the process of setting to work raise your Thought towards Enlightenment and keep compassion as your basis,
and with your mind intent on benefiting living beings,
whatever you learn of sortilege, calculation, rites, and diagnosis,
be clever and learn so as to know it!
A clever man should turn harmful things to good use.
If others would condemn you, stay stern.
If people agree with you, take a right measure in their regard.
If some show devotion, instruct them well.
If some oppose you, cut off future trace of them.
If there are arguments, be long-suffering.
If others would vie with you, be indifferent to them.
Although you benefit others, avoid pride.
Although you cause harm, get rid of despondency.
If things turn out well, accept them as they are.
If things turn out ill, find a method to avoid them.
Do not turn your face away from an angry man.
Do not show a smiling countenance to one who comes with deceiving words.
Do not laugh in wonderment at a man who deceives.
Do not reply to one who tempts you.
Do not conceal your words from a man who speaks honestly.
Do not give reply to deceiving words.
Do not follow after false rumors.
Although you reach a high position, protect lowly people.
Although you are great, protect lowly people.
Although you are clever, guide those who do not know.
Although you are experienced, watch your own measure.
Although large offerings are made to you, do not act the big man.
Although the offerings are small, raise your Thoughts towards Enlightenment in the proper way.
Where no one is patient, continue to act kindly.
Apply yourself suitably in due measure and with skill.
Do not do too much. Treat your learning as precious.
But do not do too little. Explain things truly.
If as a general rule both in the Bön of Cause and the Bön of Effect, you do not raise your Thought towards Enlightenment as your basic intent, you will not gain anywhere the higher effects of the worldly causes. So how should one obtain the highest truth?
Although one is concerned here with the Bön of Cause, keep going all the time with the Thought of Enlightenment.
Thence benefit will come to living beings.
Avoid unskillful precipitancy.
Avoid the self-esteem of thinking one knows.
Avoid the pride of thinking one is clever.
Avoid pricking thorns into others.
Avoid the relaxation of being pleased with yourself.
Avoid the insolence of one who does not know.
Avoid acts which do not fit the occasion.
Avoid ritual items which are unsuitable.
Avoid untruths of things unseen.
Avoid ignorant gossip.
Avoid ignorant ‘big talk.’
Avoid news of where you have not been.
Avoid techniques in which you are inexperienced.
Avoid unsuitable activities.
Avoid desiring what you do not possess.
In all things be free from deceit.
In the company of fools a clever man appears foolish.
To those who do not know he seems quite ordinary.
To the ignorant gold may seem as stone.
Therefore it is good for a clever man to be among clever men.
Sortilege, calculation, ritual, diagnosis, whichever of these you do, you must follow the required order, avoiding or accepting as occasion demands in starting this work and in the order of instruction.
Thus by being skilled and accomplished,
experienced and self-reliant, clever in method and skillful,
such a man will be honored for his skill.
As for what spreads forth from this, he acts thereby as guide in the Way of the Shen of Prediction, producing happiness in the phenomenal world and causing it to spread wide and boundless.
Again he said:
Listen, Lekgyel Tangpo, listen!
The way of setting about this work is as above.
Now next we deal with the order of operation.
Of sortilege, calculation, ritual and diagnosis,
first we consider the prognostics of sortilege.
On a piece of white felt which serves as the basis
one places the “sprinklings” of green barley,
and one sets up the “symbol of life,” the bronze-tipped arrow, to which is attached a turquoise ornament.
There are wafts of smoke from the incense-wood,
marking the way taken by the sweet-smelling incense.
Worship with an offering of the sacrificial heap of barley-flour and butter.
Worship with the sacrificial offering of consecrated chang.
The officiating priest should recite the exposition.
Worship the great god Puwer Karpo.
Invoke the knot-sortilege of Yesi Trül.
Produce within yourself the clairvoyance of Yekhyen Trala.
Reflect upon the dream of Yejé Mönpa.
Effect the soothsaying of Yewang Lha.
Name everything that has happened in the past of your client.
Set in order everything referring to the future.
Write down evils and benefits to come and the length of his life.
Distinguish in a straightforward way the good and the bad, the fair and the foul.
Truth and falsehood there may be, but make true distinction.
Such is the way of benefiting people,
according as each may require.
Secondly for calculating the horoscopes,
on a cloth made of a piece of brocade silk
one must set the squared calculating board,
arrange the white and black pieces.
Worship Yesi Lhawang Gyelpo.
Requite the goddesses of the Elements and Time-Periods.
Pray to Wangchen Dakpo.
Then make an estimate and calculate.
Look in the mystic mirror of the horoscope.
Work the Parkha Mewa Circle.
13Calculate the cycles of the Elements and the Time Periods.
Examine the combinations occurring by the method Juzhak.
14Examining them, identify and distinguish them knowledgeably:
the former, past and present state,
the way it comes about from major and minor causes,
the way events and prayers have corresponded,
ways of change in Time, Existence and the Elements,
the way these influence former combinations,
ways of change in the Four Seasons,
strength and weakness of gods, demons and Lungta.
15Avoiding and accepting the effects of evils and benefits,
an estimate of good and bad and of length of life,
the characteristics of increase and decrease
of the years, the months, the days, the hours,
a wise man must do this and calculate it quietly.
He must identify harm wherever it is,
and explain benefits wherever they are,
and arrange whatever combinations can be brought into accord.
He must write down whatever will happen,
and so bring benefit to living beings.
Thirdly as for making cures by means of rites
for living beings, ignorant creatures,
when Parkha, the Year-Cycle, the Mewa sphere,
and antagonistic elements are in disarray,
one must perform the “Awry” Rite for the Universe in disarray.
Draw a magic circle with clean sand,
a circle drawn with sand of five colors.
Set up twigs with colored wools and silk of five colors.
Make a first offering of a pure sacrificial cake made from different grains, and of the three milk and the three sweet substances.
Worship the goddesses of the Elements and the Time-Periods.
Recite as a prayer some true expositions of the Conqueror.
Thus the completely disarrayed elements will be quietened,
And everything disarrayed will be put in place.
In order to produce long life, happiness and good fortune for those creatures wretched men,
Perform the “Striking” Rite, combining use of ritual devices.
On some clean place as working-base draw a Svāstika in grain.
Prepare the devices for the rite, the implements and talismans.
Offer libations, gifts and consecrated chang.
Worship the eight gods of Prediction and Good Fortune
and bring all phenomenal elements into interrelation.
Pronounce the blessing of interrelationship,
and beings will be cured with benefits and happiness.
When beings of the Six Spheres
are struck with an impediment and come near to death,
in order to save them from impediments and reverse this evil, use the “Stinging” Rite which works by knowledge of prognostic signs.
For devils, fiends, she-demons, spirits of death,
devils which attack man’s length of days, sprites which cause impediments, and devils which attack the life-force,
against these establish life-ransoms, life-pledges and amulets.
Pay debts of evil with life-ransoms as payment for life.
Worship the eight gods who preserve life and happiness.
Reverse the troubles that befall men and save them from their impediments.
Thus he is ransomed from death and fixed up with an amulet,
and so you produce benefits, joy and happiness for living beings.
For all living beings,
afflicted with attacks by the eight kinds of sprite,
by hating and consuming gods and demons,
you must perform the ‘Exchange’ Rite of transposing two equal things.
Prepare the ritual devices and ritual items,
the right sized figurine as ransom for the patient’s body,
the sky symbol, the tree symbol, the arrow, distaff, and the ritual stakes,
the male figure, the female figure, the rock-plant tsé, and mustard-seed,
a model of the house and its wealth, the things one desires.
If they are exchanged as equal things, the ransom will be good.
If they are transposed as equivalents, they will be chosen as payment.
To the hosts of noble buddhas
make salutation, offerings and prayer for refuge.
Then offer the items of ransom, explaining them truly.
Although your patient is about to die,
you can delay his death for the space of three years.
In order to benefit beings, profit them by means of these rites.
They will make you happy with offerings and fees.
So the benefits of ritual have now been explained.
Fourthly in caring for others by means of diagnosis,
when the ignorant beings of the Six Spheres
suffer from diseases arising from molestations (kleśa),
in order to benefit them in their illness by diagnosis,
the physician with his Thought set on Enlightenment,
should raise his thought to the four immeasurable virtues,
take refuge in the hosts of buddhas,
and offer a maṇḍala in thanksgiving and worship.
He should worship the King Bedu Gyanö (Vaiḍūrya) and his eight fellow buddhas, gods of medicine.
Then he should diagnose the major and minor causes in all that can be seen,
and identify the disease by diagnosis of the connecting channels.
Diagnose from the urine what is of benefit and what is of harm.
Diagnose from the appearance all signs of death and signs of cure.
Thus identifying the disease,
Heat or cold, phlegm or bile, or some combination,
the medicine is then applied, cooling, warming, equalizing,
powder, pills, or syrup,
potion, ointment, or butter-mould.
Medicine for every man must fit with the disease.
All feverish conditions are counteracted by the cooling kind,
all cold conditions by the warming kind,
all phlegmatic conditions by the dispersing kind,
conditions of bile by the uniting kind,
combination disturbances by the equalizing kind.
For the 21,000 types of combinations
one applies 21,000 types of medicine,
and so expels the afflicted conditions of ignorance.
Treatment is of four main kinds:
treatment with medicine of elixir,
treatment with medicine for bodily cure,
treatment with method and practice,
treatment in unprescribed ways.
Curing is of four main kinds:
medicine, bleeding and branding,
tranquilizing with method and spells.
Whatever is required must accord with the type of disease.
After absorbing the medicine come taste and effect,
pleasance of taste and force of effect.
After absorption it is gentle and pleasant.
For the disease, vomiting and excretion are the after-effects,
drawing it forth by vomiting and purifying by excretion,
and the after-state is tranquil and pleasant.
Food may be suitable, harmful, or indifferent.
Keep to what is suitable and avoid what is harmful,
taking the right measure of the part that is indifferent.
In diagnosis we have the connecting channels, the urine and the general appearance.
Watch the channels, examine the urine,
and diagnosing from the general appearance, let the result coincide.
If you are sure you see signs of death,
urge him to the practice of virtue.
If he is cut off by karmic effects, ritual and diagnosis are useless.
If it is certain his time of death has come,
Even food which should nourish the body may be his life’s enemy.
But if it is not such a case, and he suffers from an accident or a sudden disease,
you will save him by treatment and medicine.
If your skill and cleverness of method
have not been perfected by practice,
you will not produce medicine, but poison.
You will not cure the sick man and he will die before long.
So skill and cleverness of method are very important.
So by practicing, setting about and understanding these four, sortilege, astrological calculation, ritual and diagnosis,
living beings must be benefited.
Keep this in mind, O Chashen Lekgyel.
This is what he said.
[David H. Snellgrove, The Nine Ways of Bon (London: Oxford University Press, 1967), 27–41.]
The Bönpo were successful in establishing an alternative tradition of myth, ritual, doctrine, and institutional life in Central Tibet from the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries, but this success did not come without a price. Buddhists in Central Tibet were often extremely critical of this rival tradition and took pains to point out its faults. The story of Shenrap was either, in the view of some Buddhists, a pale copy of the life of the Buddha or a nefarious tale meant to trick the unwitting populace into following an aberrant cult. The many scriptures attributed to Shenrap were said to be simply forgeries based upon authentic Buddhist scriptures, and the many practices collected within the “Nine Ways” of Bön and detailed in works such as the Ziji backward folk practices with no more place in proper ritual life than the animal sacrifices of Hindus! Such Buddhist polemical diatribes against the Bön tradition could be vicious, as is this short piece attributed (likely falsely) to the scholar of the Zhalu tradition, Butön Rinchendrup (1290–1364). The passage occurs just after an equally derogatory and dismissive chapter on the treasure traditions of the Nyingma school, whose practices of revelation were often unfavorably likened to the Bön revelations of figures such as Shenchen Luga. KRS
In ancient times before the supreme Teaching of the Buddha spread in the Snowy Land, the divinities and spirits of Tibet each taught their several ways to make offerings and ritual services. This was called Nangzhen Bön. Although it was of no benefit for future rebirths, for present life it had slight benefits.
After this, the succession of Dharma kings came and spread the teachings of the Buddha. Bön was left to decline. They made a strict law, “No Tibetan subject should practice it.” Later on Tibet’s royal rule declined. During the resulting anarchy, fools full of deception composed several perverse textual traditions which were called Result Bön. Unfortunate simpletons endeavored and persisted in joining them. “This is more precious than Nangzhenpa [“attachment to appearances,” a deliberate misinterpretation of the Bönpo expression Nangshen, the second of the nine vehicles (p. 261 above)] they said. Their pride and renown roared like thunder. The classes of patrons low in intellect and low in fortune busied themselves rendering them honor and services.
Just look at this amalgam of two different things! However much they believe in Bön—while they may venerate the Nangzhen which aids a little the present life, this thing called Result Bön is no help for either this or future lives—to join is a mistake.
This was the chapter on Bön.
[Dan Martin, Unearthing Bön Treasures: Life and Contested Legacy of a Tibetan Scripture Revealer, with a General Bibliography of Bon (Leiden: Brill, 2001), 125.]
The Bön religion, like the Buddhist Nyingmapa tradition, regarded itself as maintaining learning and practice that had been transmitted in Tibet over hundreds of years, but was not at all isolated from or immune to the new currents of religious scholarship and ritual that arrived from India and flourished in Tibet during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. A striking example of this is the present selection, from a Bönpo work of the Great Perfection teaching entitled
The Authenticity of Open Awareness. Despite the insistence of the Great Perfection instructions upon the realization of an ineffable, nonconceptual realization born from profound contemplation, this work adopts the eminently effable and conceptual methods of doctrinal debate in order to promote the teaching of the Great Perfection. In this it no doubt reflects, however distantly, the rise of philosophical studies during the twelfth century at centers such as Sangpu (see
chapter 12), where monastic debate, based on Indian practice, had become the linchpin of the educational system. Nevertheless, this piece reflects the originality of Bönpo authors in adopting the new traditions of learning diffused in Tibet. Though it was perhaps inspired by the current vogue of debate practice, as developed at Sangpu and other Buddhist centers, it is not a direct imitation of known Indian models and emphasizes a remarkably holistic view of the world. This it explores in terms of a particular concept of the tantric Great Perfection tradition, the “great seminal essence” (
tiklé chenpo), translated here as “unbounded wholeness.” This is also designated as “mindnature” (
semnyi), the underlying reality of awareness in virtue of which all consciousness is possible. MTK
Regarding this, in terms of overcoming an opponent’s criticism of the view, namely [of] the natural state which is the actual meaning of the basis: Because of the thesis that there are many diverse perspectives, it follows that the bön-subject,
16 all of sa
ṃs
āra and nirv
āna, is the primordial ancestor, the great vehicle, unbounded wholeness.
If, regarding this, someone says the bön-subject is not established, we answer that cyclic existence is established by direct perception, and nirvāna is established by inference. This is so; the bön-subject nirvāna actually exists because special scriptures [which say so] are observable like, for example, fire and smoke. (In both cases, if there is one there will be the other.)
If someone objects that our reason is not established, we answer that it follows that the perspectives of the nine vehicles are established by inference because they rely on scriptural reasoning.
In a similar way, diverse forms, sounds, and so forth are established by direct perception. The appearance of the six realms is also established by inference. This is so, for it follows that as regards the bön-subject, appearances, ways of seeing the six realms’ appearances are diverse, because it is so stated in scripture. The Scripture of the Blissful Samantabhadra says:
Beings of the six realms see water six ways.
The Treasure of Three Primordial Existences says:
Appearances to the six wanderers differ, therefore
Actual external objects appear in those ways.
Also, Sun Pervading the Thousand Directions says:
Because appearances are not definite as one
Perceptions arise differently for the six wanderers.
[This concludes the statement of the text’s own position on the establishment of the natural condition and, by extension, all of cyclic existence and nirvāna. Now follows the section on refuting objections an opponent might pose.]
OBJECTION: Even though there are many diverse perspectives, what would be wrong if there were no great all-suffusing mindnature of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa [so that diverse appearance did not comprise unbounded wholeness]? Your pervasion is not established [i.e., your contention that once there are many diverse perspectives there is necessarily an unbounded wholeness has not been proven].
RESPONSE: Since there are many diverse perspectives, it is impossible that there not be a whole, all-suffusing mindnature which is the basis. For example, once there is smoke, it is impossible that there not be fire.
OBJECTION: That is not comparable because fire and smoke have a relationship of one arising from the other; no such relationship exists here [i.e., between saṃsāra and nirvāṇa on the one hand, and mindnature on the other].
RESPONSE: They have the relationship of one arising from the other here, because the base, the mindnature, which is the all-suffusing wholeness, is not constrained in any one direction. Various sense perceptions arise [from it]; therefore many discordant appearances arise. Further, the Mirror of Mind-nature Treasure says:
Appearances are different, diverse, and so
Extend through all mindnature, saṃsāra and nirvāṇa;
Because they always self-arise [from] wholeness,
These things are related with, rise from, reality.
This is clear. Moreover, it follows that the bön-subject, the great primordial ancestor asserted [in the syllogism] is ascertained as actually existent because proof exists and there is no disproof. The bön-subject is established [as a basis for debate] by agreement [that it is the topic under examination].
OBJECTION: The reason stating “because the proof exists” is not established because [if it were], it would it be established by direct perception, inference, or by scripture.
RESPONSE: It [the reason denying unbounded wholeness] is not [disproved by any of these three. Unbounded wholeness is] established by direct perception.
OBJECTION: If established by direct perception, it would have to be established by farsighted [yogic] direct perception or shortsighted [ordinary] direct perception.
RESPONSE: It is established even by nearsighted direct perception.
OBJECTION: It [unbounded wholeness] is not established by that [nearsighted direct perception] because unbounded wholeness is not an object of direct perception.
RESPONSE: It [unbounded wholeness] is established even by that [direct perception]. Although not an external object, it is manifestly clear for reflexive open awareness which knows it[self] clearly, nonconceptually, and thinglessly. For external superimpositions are eliminated from the beginning.
[Anne C. Klein and Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Unbounded Wholeness: Bon, Dzogchen, and the Logic of the Nonconceptual (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 231–233. Edited, with the authors’ permission, by MTK.]
