Bön Teachings from Ancient Zhang Zhung

Excerpt from “Opening the Door to Bön”

by Latri Nyima Dakpa Rinpoche

Tönpa Shenrab turned the wheel of Bön in three gradual periods: Firstly, up to age twelve, he specifically taught on relative truth [kunzob denpa.] Secondly, from age thirteen to thirty-one, he mainly gave teachings on absolute truth [dondam denpa;] thirdly, from age thirty-two to eighty-two, he gave teachings on the ultimate state of liberation [dol lam.]  Thus, Tönpa Shenrab turned the final wheel of Bön by teaching jointly on both relative and absolute truth.

The Bön teachings are often categorized as four doors, with the fifth door as the treasure [Go Zhi Zoed Dang Nga.]  However, all the Bön teachings are inclusively taught in the nine gradual stages, known as the Nine Ways of Bön [Bön Tekpa Rim Gu.] These are further divided into four causal and five result or fruition ways as follows:

Known as the causal ways [Gyui Tekpa Zhi,] these practices engender inspiration and trust.  One becomes well grounded in one’s daily life through these practices.

1. *Cha Shen Tekpa
   

2. *Nang Shen Tekpa
   

3. *Trul Shen Tekpa
   

4. *Sid Shen Tekpa
   

Known as ways of fruition or result [Drewu Tekpa Nga,] these are higher-level based on the faith and trust developed through the first four ways. The ninth is the highest and most secret esoteric way of fruition.

1. *Ghe Nyen Tekpa
   

2. *Drangsong Tekpa
   

3. *Ahkar Tekpa
   

4. *Yeshen Tekpa
   

5. *Dzögchen Yang Tsei Lamed Kyi Tekpa
   

These nine ways contain all levels of teachings from the simplest to the highest view, and are well known in all regions of Tibetan society.

Examples of Bön practices include putting up prayer flags, making purification smoke offerings to the protectors and deities, making medicine, and performing divinations and astrologic readings. Also included are many ritual ceremonies such as those for healing, long life, weddings and harmonizing the environment and the universe.  Esoteric practices include death-ritual ceremonies to liberate dead persons from suffering as well as exorcism,, consecration and empowerment. But Bön practices are not limited to ceremonies and rituals only. There are higher-level teachings of a very esoteric nature, in both Tantra [Sang Ngag] and the Great Perfection [Dzögchen.] Sang Ngag includes visuallization and generation (kyermin) and perfection [zogrim] stages and the practice of channels [tsa,] wind [lung,] and physical exercise [trulkhor] as gradual practices on the wheels or chakras [khorlo,] energy points in the body. The most secret Bön practice is Dzögchen, the great perfection. All of these traditions are still preserved and practiced today.

                                        Eighteen hundred years after the passing of Tönpa Shenrab, Mucho Demdug came from heaven to Olmo Lung Ring as the speech emanation of Tönpa Shenrab.  Mucho Demdug turned the wheel of Bön so that all the teachings of Tönpa Shenrab would be organized and classified.  He taught many students, the best known of which are referred to as the Six Great Scholars or the “Six Ornaments of the World” [Zamling Khepi Gyendug.]  They translated the Bön teachings into their own languages and spread them throughout their native lands. These six great masters are: Mutsa Tahe, Tritok Partsa and Huli Paryag from Tagzig; Lhadag Ngagdo from India; Legtang Mangpo from China; and Sertok Chejam from Trom.

The Bön teachings were by now well established in Zhang Zhung where the northwestern part of modern Tibet is today. As noted above, Zhang Zhung was an independent state with its own language, literature, and culture.  It was divided into three sections referred to as the “Three Doors”; inner [phugpa,] outer [gopa,] and middle [barpa.]  The inner door is Olmo Lung Ring, the middle door is Tagzig, and the outer door is Zhang Zhung itself. In the eight century, the assassination of the Emperor Ligmincha by the Tibetan king Tirsong Dewutsen ended Zhang Zhung’s independence.  Thereafter, Zhang Zhung’s land and culture were assimilated into Tibet, and eventually disappeared.  However many zhang Zhung words from ancient Bön texts still exist in the modern languages of Kiannur, Lahul, Spiti, Ladakh, Zanskar, and some Himalayan regions of Nepal.

The Zhang Zhung language had three different scripts, referred to as the wild [dag yid,] small [mar yig chungwa,] and big [mar yig chewa] scripts.  Tibetan script was derived from the Zhang Zhung mar yig scripts. Many Tibetan and western scholars belive that there was not a written language before the time of Songtsen Gampo, the King of Tibet in the seventh century A. D.  Bön scholars do not accept this view, holding that its proponents have not adequately researched the early origins of the Tibetan language and the history of Tibet.

During his original trip to Tibet, Tönpa Shenrab mainly taught the causal teachings of Bön, because he found the Tibetans were not ready to receive the higher teachings. At that time, Tönpa Shenrab prophesized that there would come a time when the nine levels of Bön teachings would be given throughout Tibet.

In the tenth century B.C., many Bön teachings were translated from the Zhang Zhung language into Tibetan by the “Four Great Scholars” [Kehpa Mi Zhi;] Tong Gyung Thu Chen of Zhang Zhung, Shari Wuchen of Tibet, Gyim Tsa Ma Chung of De, and Chetsa Kharwu of Menyak.  Their translations of these teachings, which spread throughout Tibet, are still practiced today. In approximately 1075 B.C., the secret of fruition teachings began to spread more widely, especially during the reign of Mutri Tsenpo, the second King of Tibet, who received these teachings from Namkha Nangwa Dhok Cen of Tagzig.

King Mutri Tsenpo was a great practitioner and master of Bön, and most Bön lineages of the esoteric teachings passed through him. This demonstrates that there was already a rich and developed Tibetan literature at that time. For this reason, Bönpos believe that Tibetan culture did not begin in the seventh century A.D., because teaching and translation from the Zhang Zhung language could not have taken place without first having a language to translate to.

Buddhist first came to Tibet from India at the middle of the seventh century A.D.  The spread of Buddhism resulted in the decline of the native Tibetan culture and religion, Bön.  The first persecutions of Bönpos began in approximately A.D. 684, during the reign of Drigum Tsenpo, the seventh king of Tibet.  The second persecution of Bönpos was during the eight century, during the reign of Trisong Dewutsen, the thirty-seventh king of Tibet. Many Bön texts and spiritual places were damaged or destroyed during these two periods, and many Bönpos faced great adversity.  Bön practitioners were typically given the choice of converting from Bön to Buddhism, leaving Tibet, or being put to death.