|
|
 |
 |
|
THE BÖN TRADITION
Before the advent of Buddhism, the religion
of Tibet was Bön. Today three different forms of Bön are
distinguished: the oldest was a shamanistic form of Bön, then Yungdrung
Bön, and much later a newer
form of Bön evolved.
As in most parts of the world, the original religion of Tibet was shamanism.
The rituals were diverse,
very much related to local beliefs, particular practices, and spirits, and varied
according to regions.
These practices were called Bön, and the priests who carried out these shamanistic
practices were called
Bönpos.
|
 |
According to Yungdrung Bön,
the origins of their tradition are traced back
to the enlightened teacher, Tönpa Shenrab Miwoche. He lived in the land
of Öl-mo Lung-ring, by some accounts 3000 years BCE, and has the same
status as that of Buddha Shakyamuni in Buddhism. The Bön believe that
theBuddha Shakyamuni, founder of Buddhism, is Tönpa Shenrab’s student
Tamba Thoka. He received all the teachings, empowerments and
transmissions from Tönpa Shenrab, and was sent to India to eradicate the
wrong views prevalent at that time. This is also why the Yungdrung Bönpos
have faith in and respect the actual teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni.
There are only three written texts that relate Shenrab’s Biography.
The earliest and shortest is the Dodu and is a translation from the
language of Zhang-zhung .. |
The second is the Zermik, a major
text of the
Bön canon and the most important of the three accounts, and the third is
the Zhiji, a text considered an
oral transmission written in an epic form. It is believed that Tönpa Shenrab,
together with two brothers,
first studied the Bön doctrine in heaven, after which they asked the God
of Compassion, Shenlha Odkar,
how they could help living beings who are submerged in the misery and sorrow
of suffering. This is why
Tönpa Shenrab became the teacher of this world age and propounded the teachings.
According to legend, in 127 BCE, the king Nyatri Tsenpo united several small
kingdoms into one country,
and this became Tibet. Certain sources mention that Nyatri Tsenpo was an Indian
king who lost a battle
in the great Indian epic of Mahabharata and then fled to Tibet; some canonical
texts speak of Nyatri
Tsenpo miraculously appearing from the sky. Be that as it may, Nyatri Tsenpo
became the first historical
king of Central Tibet, and under his reign many small kingdoms were united.
At that time many such kingdoms existed in what today is considered South Asia
and Central Asia; one
of them was Zhang-zhung. From Zhang-zhung sages were invited to Central Tibet,
and their teachings as
well as the whole canon of Tönpa Shenrab Miwoche was translated.
|
 |
The first Bön scriptures came from Zhang-zhung, and certain texts
were translated during the time of the
second king Mutri Tsenpo. In the 7th century CE, King Songtsen Gampo conquered
Zhang-zhung, and
the country as well as the language gradually disappeared. Followers of this
religious tradition are called
Yungdrung Bönpos. This tradition did not originate in Tibet, but was introduced
from Zhang-zhung, to
which it came, according to history, from Persia.
As a whole, Yungdrung Bön remains unchanged, although it underwent some
changes and adaptations.
It is probable that Bön itself embraced foreign elements such as Persian
cosmology before its
appearance in Zhang-zhung. In the 7th century, Tibet was a dominant military
force in central Asia, and
also tried to control regions that were Buddhist. Due to that, Bön-Tibetan
culture had contact with basic
doctrines of Indian Buddhist philosophy such as the law of cause and effect,
cyclic existence and a state
beyond suffering, and adopted some of these principles.
Historically, the Bön religion experienced two severe persecutions (excluding
the Cultural Revolution,
which they consider to be the third). The first occurred during the reign of
the 7th king, Drigum Tsenpo,
after which the tradition was revived and enjoyed patronage by the following
kings. In the 8th century CE,
it faced a second persecution during the reign of Trisong Detsen: with the emergence
of the first
Buddhist monastery in Samye and the official installation of Buddhism as Tibet’s
religion, Bön suffered
another setback and went into hiding. All the texts were hidden to prevent their
destruction, and some
priests converted to Buddhism out of fear, but without religious conviction.
Almost all historical works on
Bön, and even some Buddhist texts, talk about an official persecution of
Bön during the late 8th century.
Little is known about the development of Bön between the 9th and 11th centuries.
The revival and
re-establishment of Bön is attributed to Shenchen Luga, who in 1017 CE discovered
an important number
of the hidden texts. With his discoveries, Bön reemerged as a fully systematized
religion.
|
 |
Shenchen Luga had a large following, to whom
he entrusted the three different traditions of cosmology
and metaphysics, teachings and practices, and the tantric teachings. During that
time, the first Bön
monasteries were built with the intent to study and practice the tradition. These
monasteries, close to
Shigatse Yeru, were Wensakha (after a flood destroyed it in 1386, it was replaced
by Menri),
Kyikhar Rizhing, andZangri. Since the Bön communities were rather small,
they never posed a thread to
the institutionalized Buddhist traditions and they could establish themselves
in Tibet. Later many more
monasteries were built in Khyungpo, Kham, and Amdo (all together over 330), while
the aforementioned
monasteries remained the most important Bön monasteries until the Chinese
takeover in 1959.
However, with the Chinese invasion of Tibet, Bön - like the other spiritual
traditions - suffered an
irreparable loss. Traditionally the abbots of Menri monastery have been successive
holders of the entire
transmissions and teachings of all Bön lineages, and over time have been
considered the heads of the
Bön tradition. Today, with the encouragement of His Holiness the Dalai Lama,
the Yungdrung Bön
tradition is still alive after successfully re-establishing the main Menri Ling
Monastery near Solan in
Himachal Pradesh, India, as well as several other monasteries and learning centers
in India and Nepal.
The third tradition of Bön is an altered and newer form of Bön; it
evolved through a combination of
Buddhist and Bön philosophy. As Lopön Tenzin Namdak explained: ‘During
the time of King Trisong
Detsen, many writings and instructions of both Bön and Indian Buddhist origin
were collected and
condensed by scholars such as Vairocana. As the king became aware of this, he
did not agree with this
mixing of traditions: he wanted to have a clear and pure Buddhism without incorporation
of any other
tradition. Since these writings and scriptures were not allowed, they were hidden
until they were
rediscovered in the 14th century. These texts are called ‘terma’ ,
and they are still around. If one were to
ask what kind of scripture these are and to which tradition they belong, then
one has to say they are Bön.
However, these texts are not of traditional Bön origin, nor are they Nyingma.
There is a difference in the
origin and context of each of these texts. This is why this new tradition, which
is a mixture of old Bön
and Buddhism, is called New Bön (Bönpo Sarma).’
|
|
|
|
