The 5 Divine Families of Bön

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kalden yungdrung
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The 5 Divine Families of Bön

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THE 5 DIVINE FAMILIES IN BON
BY
RAVEN CYPRES WOOD




Within the Yungdrung Bön tradition, there are five ancient family lineages that are said to have originated with the gods and whose descendants have made profound contributions to the preservation and continuation of the Yungdrung Bön tradition throughout history.

These 5 Divine Families of Bön are the lineages of:

- Mu-Shen
- Dru
- Pa
- Zhu
- Me’u.


Bon- shen-lineage-lama-tsukpu-namdrol-rinpoche-on-throne.jpg
Bon- shen-lineage-lama-tsukpu-namdrol-rinpoche-on-throne.jpg (233.27 KiB) Viewed 3560 times
Foremost among these is the lineage of Mu-Shen, the lineage of Lord Tönpa Shenrap Miwoche founder of the Yungdrung Bön tradition.
His father was Mugyal Gyalbön Tökar, King of the Mu clan. Because Lord Shenrap introduced the Yungdrung Bön tradition, he was the first and the most high Shenrap or lama.

Therefore, this began the Lineage of Shen. Much later in history, the descendants relocated to the area of Tsang in Tibet and became known as Shen-Tsang. These direct descendants of Lord Tönpa Shenrap Miwoche continue to this very day.


http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdlehe_bon-clan






The lineage of the royal Dru family:

has two main branches:

- Sa Dru
- Nam Dru.

From the branch of the Nam Dru, the essence of all Enlightened Beings in the form of Özer Dangden descended from the celestial realm of Ogmin in order to benefit sentient beings. Perceiving that a demon was causing great harm to human beings in the area of Tibet, he magically rode upon his drum and was guided by a priest of the Yangton lineage. The king of Togar felt great faith in him and asked that he be given a meaningful name. Therefore, he was given the name Drusha Namse Chitol. He was called ‘Dru’ because he descended from the celestial realms. Drusha Namse Chitol went on to subdue the demon and convert all of his companions to the practice of virtue. One of the esteemed descendants of this lineage was Dru Gyalwa Yungdrung (1242-1290 A.D.) who composed the practice manual for the Dzogchen teachings of the Zhang Zhung Nyen Gyü. The Dru family founded many monasteries including the first organized monk college of Yeru Wensaka in 1012. It was destroyed by a massive flood in 1386, but rebuilt in 1402 by Nyamme Sherap Gyaltsen and renamed Menri Monastery. After the Chinese destruction of this monastery in modern times, Menri Monastery was rebuilt in Dolanji, India.
However, the Dru family’s influence and contribution in the Bön tradition have all but disappeared due to the recognition of two Panchen lamas in the family. The first, Pachen Lozang Yeshe 1663-1737, was recognized by the Fifth Dalai Lama as a way to establish the reincarnation lineage of Panchen lamas. At the same time, the Fifth Dalai Lama encouraged the family to continue to practice their own religion. When the second reincarnation, Panchen Tenpa’i Wangchuk, was recognized within the same family lineage, the Dru family seat was incorporated into the estate of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, the traditional monastery of the Panchen lamas.


The lineage of the holy Pa family:
The lineage of the holy Pa began with Lha Bu Pa Wa who was the son of Sangpo Bumtri, one of the Four Transcendent Lords of Yungdrung Bön. He descended to the god realm and turned the wheel of Bön. From there, he descended into the land of Zhang Zhung and went to a crystal cave on Mt. Tisé (Mt. Kailash) where he meditated upon the yidam Zhang Zhung Meri for three years. There are many esteemed lamas in this lineage including the Thirteen Excellent Pa Lamas who were located in Western Tibet. Later, their descendants migrated to the Amdo area of Eastern Tibet in the region of the Hor Ye Tha clan. Here, the Pa Tsang Monastery, formally known as Pa Tsang Gön Yungdrung Rabten Ling, was established in 1847 by Patön Yungdrung Namzang. The monastery contains many murals of Yungdrung Bön deities and protectors. Presently, the monks of Pa Tsang Gön are known for their expertise in their twice annual sacred cham dances.


The lineage of the Zhu family:
One of the most renowned descendants of the Zhu family lineage is the holy lama Zhu Ye Lekpo. Born into the divine Zhu family, he heard of the Great Shen who had discovered Bön texts and who was the catalyst for a resurgence of the Yungdrung Bön tradition. This Great Shen was Shenchen Luga. Zhu Ye Lekpo went to Shenchen Luga and requested teachings. Shenchen Luga tested his faith by having him act as an attendant for eight years before giving him any teachings or transmissions. However, Zhu Ye Lekpo became Shenchen Luga’s main disciple and responsible for the dzogchen teachings and practice. He founded Ri Zhing Monastery in the eleventh century. This monastery became very famous. At one time, the Tibetan government donated to it more than a dozen estates and it housed over three hundred monks. It was completely destroyed during the Chinese cultural revolution. In the 1980’s, members of the Zhu family began restoring one of the hermitages connected with the monastery. The descendants of the Zhu family now live in India.


The lineage of the Me’u family:
The lineage of the Me’u family began with another descendant of Sangpo Bumtri who descended from the god realm and had two sons: the first was called Ma and the second was called Me’u. Me’u had a son who exhibited many miraculous signs and among his descendants in the divine Me’u lineage is The Saint, Gongdzo Ritropa 1038-1096, founder of the dzogchen lineage of A Tri. Although he was married at a young age, he was able to leave married life and devote himself completely to spiritual practice

Throughout history, these Five Families of Bön have had a profound impact on the continuation of the Yungdrung Bön tradition in countless ways including ensuring the continuation of teaching and lama lineages, building monasteries and hermitages, and in the commission of creating statues, murals, thangkhas and the printing of texts.
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Re: The 5 Divine Families of Bön

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Yungdrung Gyaltsen Rinpoche @Gonphuk Monastery - 00.jpg
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Yungdrung Gyaltsen Rinpoche (At the left), is a reincarnated Tulku, Bönpo Geshe and a descendant of Zhutshang family lineage (one of the 5 most important family lineages of Bön).

He is known as "Meme Tulku" in Mustang and "Zhula Rinpoche" amongst other Bonpos. In Lubrak he did meditation for 2 years in Nyamlen Phuk (meditation caves) and now resides and practices at Gonphuk monastery in Lubrak Village.


ཞུ་བླ་གཡུང་དྲུང་རྒྱལ་མཚན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ནི་བོན་གྱི་གདུང་རྒྱུད་ཆེ་ལྔའི་ནང་ཚན་ཞུ་ཚང་གི་སྲས་པོ་དང་ཀླུ་བྲག་དགོན་པའི་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་དེ་བཞིན་སྨན་རིའི་གླིང་གི་དགེ་བཤེས་ཀྱང་ལགས། ཡོངས་གྲགས་སུ་ཁོང་ལ་ཞུ་བླ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཞུ་ཡང་གློ་སྨོན་ཐང་དང་དེ་བཞིན་སེ་རིབ་ཕྱོགས་སུ་ཁོང་ལ་མེས་མེས་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་ཞེས་སུ་འབོད། ཁོང་གིས་ཀླུ་བྲག་ཉམས་ལེན་ཕུག་པར་མི་ལོ་གཉིས་ལ་སྐུ་མཚམས་བཞུགས་རྗེས་ད་སྐབས་ཀླུ་བྲག་གི་དགོན་ཕུག་ཏུ་ཉམས་ལེན་དང་འགྲོ་དོན་སྐྱོང་བཞིན་འདུག
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Re: The 5 Divine Families of Bön

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Last edited by kalden yungdrung on Sun Jul 30, 2017 12:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The 5 Divine Families of Bön

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Pretty neat, any example of how the families teachings and methods differ?

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Re: The 5 Divine Families of Bön

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CedarTree wrote:Pretty neat, any example of how the families teachings and methods differ?
All 5 families did contribute on their way, to the Bön teachings.
The most families did support monasteries and others found the A Tri Dzogchen Lineage. (See above).
But one of the most important thing is that there are direct descendants of Lord Tönpa Shenrap Miwoche still present under us.
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Re: The 5 Divine Families of Bön

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kalden yungdrung wrote:
CedarTree wrote:Pretty neat, any example of how the families teachings and methods differ?
All 5 families did contribute on their way, to the Bön teachings.
The most families did support monasteries and others found the A Tri Dzogchen Lineage. (See above).
But one of the most important thing is that there are direct descendants of Lord Tönpa Shenrap Miwoche still present under us.
Can you detail a bit about maybe some of those contributions and more about Bon and it's approach to Dzogchen and other practices that may differ from how they are presented within Tibetan Buddhism :)

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Re: The 5 Divine Families of Bön

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Re: The 5 Divine Families of Bön

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CedarTree wrote:
kalden yungdrung wrote:
CedarTree wrote:Pretty neat, any example of how the families teachings and methods differ?
All 5 families did contribute on their way, to the Bön teachings.
The most families did support monasteries and others found the A Tri Dzogchen Lineage. (See above).
But one of the most important thing is that there are direct descendants of Lord Tönpa Shenrap Miwoche still present under us.
Can you detail a bit about maybe some of those contributions and more about Bon and it's approach to Dzogchen and other practices that may differ from how they are presented within Tibetan Buddhism :)
Tashi delek,

Dzogchen does not differ qua essence , from other Dzogchen , because the source of Dzogchen is the Adi Buddha Kuntu Zangpo (translated into Sanskrit would be Samantabhadra) and all Dzogchen teachings stem from this Adi Buddha.

Then every sentient being has the essence inherent present or Bodhicitta (absolute) which is also the essence of Kuntu Zangpo.

So all Dzogchenpas in the Tibetan Dzogchen Traditions, can attain the Rainbow Body and here we do not see any discriminations in the attainment or fruit.

What differs that are the Lineages and certain Dzogchen approachings based on the personal experience of the Master. But even these Lineages come together at some points , via certain Dzogchen Masters.
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Re: The 5 Divine Families of Bön

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What about the general Bon teachings not related to the Tantric path and the Sutras? Are they standard Mahayana Sutras?

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Re: The 5 Divine Families of Bön

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CedarTree wrote:What about the general Bon teachings not related to the Tantric path and the Sutras? Are they standard Mahayana Sutras?
Tashi delek,

We have in Bön:

- Sutra
- Tantra
- Dzogchen

Some say in Bön:
My behavior is Sutra
My meditation is Tantra
My view is Dzogchen

The teachings are interdependent and lead somehow to the highest teaching in Bön, namely Dzogchen.
This is all based on the understanding of the related form of Emptiness.
Sure there are in Sutra the Mahayana principles, like that of the way /path of the Yungdrung Sempa translated in Sanskrit Bodhisattva and the development of relative Bodhicitta.
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Re: The 5 Divine Families of Bön

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kalden yungdrung wrote:
CedarTree wrote:What about the general Bon teachings not related to the Tantric path and the Sutras? Are they standard Mahayana Sutras?
Tashi delek,

We have in Bön:

- Sutra
- Tantra
- Dzogchen

Some say in Bön:
My behavior is Sutra
My meditation is Tantra
My view is Dzogchen

The teachings are interdependent and lead somehow to the highest teaching in Bön, namely Dzogchen.
This is all based on the understanding of the related form of Emptiness.
Sure there are in Sutra the Mahayana principles, like that of the way /path of the Yungdrung Sempa translated in Sanskrit Bodhisattva and the development of relative Bodhicitta.
So same Mahayana Sutras and Meditation methods as standard Mahayana Buddhism and in particular Tibetan Buddhism?

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Re: The 5 Divine Families of Bön

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CedarTree wrote:
kalden yungdrung wrote:
CedarTree wrote:What about the general Bon teachings not related to the Tantric path and the Sutras? Are they standard Mahayana Sutras?
Tashi delek,

We have in Bön:

- Sutra
- Tantra
- Dzogchen

Some say in Bön:
My behavior is Sutra
My meditation is Tantra
My view is Dzogchen

The teachings are interdependent and lead somehow to the highest teaching in Bön, namely Dzogchen.
This is all based on the understanding of the related form of Emptiness.
Sure there are in Sutra the Mahayana principles, like that of the way /path of the Yungdrung Sempa translated in Sanskrit Bodhisattva and the development of relative Bodhicitta.
So same Mahayana Sutras and Meditation methods as standard Mahayana Buddhism and in particular Tibetan Buddhism?
The principles are the same , the fruit is the same namely Buddhahood which is the target in Buddhism.

- Lineages are different and the Buddha.
- Buddhas do not fight with each other
- We humans are the only ones who discriminate and make fights / war.
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Re: The 5 Divine Families of Bön

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kalden yungdrung wrote:
CedarTree wrote:
kalden yungdrung wrote:
Tashi delek,

We have in Bön:

- Sutra
- Tantra
- Dzogchen

Some say in Bön:
My behavior is Sutra
My meditation is Tantra
My view is Dzogchen

The teachings are interdependent and lead somehow to the highest teaching in Bön, namely Dzogchen.
This is all based on the understanding of the related form of Emptiness.
Sure there are in Sutra the Mahayana principles, like that of the way /path of the Yungdrung Sempa translated in Sanskrit Bodhisattva and the development of relative Bodhicitta.
So same Mahayana Sutras and Meditation methods as standard Mahayana Buddhism and in particular Tibetan Buddhism?
The principles are the same , the fruit is the same namely Buddhahood which is the target in Buddhism.

- Lineages are different and the Buddha.
- Buddhas do not fight with each other
- We humans are the only ones who discriminate and make fights / war.
I am not coming from a judgemental side :) I just want to know if its the same Mahayana Sutras and meditation techniques :)

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Re: The 5 Divine Families of Bön

Post by kalden yungdrung »

CedarTree wrote:
kalden yungdrung wrote:
CedarTree wrote:
So same Mahayana Sutras and Meditation methods as standard Mahayana Buddhism and in particular Tibetan Buddhism?
The principles are the same , the fruit is the same namely Buddhahood which is the target in Buddhism.

- Lineages are different and the Buddha.
- Buddhas do not fight with each other
- We humans are the only ones who discriminate and make fights / war.
I am not coming from a judgemental side :) I just want to know if its the same Mahayana Sutras and meditation techniques :)
Well these are non judgements but remarks.

- We know in Bön Madyamaka debates which are approved by Gelug as ok.
- Meditation like Vipassana and Samatha is also same beat

----------------------------------------

Here some interpretations by Samten Karmay / Paris

It is for the first time that a study of the Madhyamaka philosophy in its Bön interpretation has now been published.
In this regard Dr Seiji Kumagai is to be congratulated for this most arduous work and making available a critical edition of the relevant Tibetan texts as well as providing their English translation.

The Bön tradition, of course, derives its inspiration of this philosophy from Buddhism. The Yogacara Madhyamaka was introduced into Tibet by
Santarakshita in the 8th century A.D.

It was the main philosophy in Buddhist institutions such as bSam yas Monastery.

Until the advent of the Prasanggika Madhyamika school in the 11th century with the translation of the Madhyamakavatara of Candrakirti by Pa tshab Lotsawa Nyi ma grags (b.1055), the Yogacara Madhyamika school was prevalent in Tibet.

However, the dbu ma philosophy of the Bön tradition originates from Me ston Shes rab 'od zer (according to the Bön chronology, his dates are 1055-1132, but Dan Martins proposes 1118-1192). His dBa ma bden gnyis was the first of its kind in the Bön religious movement, but it was only about two centuries later that a commentary of it was written by mNyam med Shes rab rgyal mtshan (1356-1415).

Seiji Kumagai has also made an English translation of this commentary which is regarded as the main work for teaching the dbu ma philosophy in Bön monasteries.

However, there also exists an auto commentary written by Me ston of his own work the dBu ma bden gyis. Although the existence of this commentary is mentioned in the catalog of the bKa' brten by Nyi ma btsan 'dzin (b.1813) it is curiously not referred to in the commentary by mNyam med Shes rab rgyal mtshan.

The recent discovery of an old manuscript containing the auto commentary by Me ston is, therefore, a major event for the study of the dbu ma philosophy of the Bön tradition.

Seiji Kumagai intends to study and make an English translation of it in the near future.

The notion of the middle way (dbu ma 'i lam) is, in fact, prevalent in the teachings of sTon pa gShen rab. lt is attested in the major Bön works such as the gZer mig (Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1991, pp.714, 755-756).

This is arguably not the Indian Buddhist Madhyamaka philosophy properly speaking, but in my view there is no doubt that works like the
gZer mig served as the basis on which Me ston adopted a Bön approach of the Buddhist Madhyamaka philosophy.
Last edited by kalden yungdrung on Sun Jul 30, 2017 8:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The 5 Divine Families of Bön

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Interesting

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Re: The 5 Divine Families of Bön

Post by kalden yungdrung »

CedarTree wrote:Interesting

Thasi delek C,

If you want to know more about the 2 Truths in Bön, then look here. For me it is was very educative, to study this book.
If one is well known with Madyamika , Yoga chara /Citta matra, Prasangika Madyamika, then the 2 Truths in Bön is easy to follow.

http://www.indologica.de/drupal/?q=node/1775

Best wishes and a nice day.
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