Visionary Heart Alchemy

Vajrayana and Bon

In the previous post I mentioned Bon as a fifth school to be counted among the Buddhist schools of Tibet. The word Bon is a label for the spiritual/religious practices most prevalent in Tibet before the spread of Buddhism there. Bon is still practiced in Tibet and is divided in two streams. One is called lower Bon and is a shamanistic in style and often includes animal sacrifice which is prohibited in all styles of Buddhist Practice (and Yungdrung Bon). The Other is called Yungdrung Bon or Eternal Bon or Higher Bon. Yungdrung Bon is, in many way, practically indistinguishable form Vajrayana Buddhism particularly the Nyingma School. There are multiple accounts for the origin of this similarity. The Nyingma (which literally means ‘ancient’) is the first school to take shape in Tibet. According to one account within the Nyingma lineage (which recognized Yungdrung Bon as a functional Path to Liberation in the sense it is understood in the Buddhist view) One of the first of the fully realized Buddhist master indigenous to Tibet., Vairochana, expressed the Vajrayana teachings in the Language of the Bon in order to make it accessible to those with karmic connections to the Bon path. Recalling that Yungdrung Bon is considered to be a genuine path to liberation, two thing should be noted about this. First that Vairochana’s capacity to give expression of a genuine liberation path in a different context (Bon) then how he achieved his liberation (Nyingma Vajrayana Buddhism)came from his realization not just some scholastic study. Second, that despite that, from one point of view, the Bon system for liberation could be said to be contrived, it is fully functional. Really it not contrived at all, but another expression of how the Buddha spontaneously arises in innumerable expressions

The Yungdrung Bon Masters have a different story (or stories) that explain the similarities. I am not fluent in the details but it includes something along the lines that Yungdrung Bon predates Shakyamuni (the historical) Buddha and Shakyamuni Buddha was student of a Lord Shenrab (the Enlighten Being that brought Yungdrung Bon into this world) in a previous life.. Thus Buddhism is actually and expression of Yungdrung Bon. Further more the Bon say that Padmasambhava, who is the main source of the Nyingma Lineage was born the son of a great Bon master. You can read what the Bon Master Lopon Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche has to say about this topic.

The point is not that one story is true and the other isn’t. They both are stories that give recognition of the validity of other relative methods to achieve a goal they both share but they do it from within their own context. Because of the Understanding of the Principle of the Two Truths, masters of both systems can recognize the functional validity of the other system.

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