An Overview of Rime Bon

Tonpa Sherab Appears from Olmo Lungring to Expound the Nine Ways

1 Introduction

The history of Bon teachings are vast, and so are the complexities by which they came into the Rime, consisting of large categories of teachings. Many Bon Lamas were supportive of the Rime founders work, and gave empowerments and transmissions to them. Others were more closed concerning their traditions.

If we were to categorize it we could say:

Bon consists of the meaning of the word in an ancient way and in a modern way.

The ancient way means any non Buddhists - inclusive of Hindu, Islam, Christian etc, all these are Bon.

The modern way means systems having a root within Tibet, or that came to Tibet, that may have different Mahasiddhas or Buddhas at their core than Dharma schools.

In that latter definition we can frame three different lineages and two different religions. These are:

1. Bon Nying

2. Yungdrung Bon

3. Bon Sar

Of these, the View can be seen as eternalistic Bon and Middle Way Bon.

2 The Three Lineages

A. The Bon Nying:

Meaning older Bon, these are largely Shamanistic systems inherited from both indigenous Tibetan practices and various practices coming from Mongolia and the Siberian steppes.

These systems usually didn’t have as well defined cosmologies but when they did they were various varieties of polytheism and eternalism, the latter being influenced greatly by the Zhang Zhung empire.

But mostly these were focused on magic and sorcery for oneself and one’s community

In the ninefold system of Yungdrung, Bon Nying is considered only the first four Shen, or vehicles of divination, magic, possession and the rest.

Shen is an ancient name for a kind of shamanistic high priest that knows and officiates ritual, similar to a Ngakpa in other terminologies. All forms of Bon use this term especially when referring to ritual practices or methods in the Tantras.

B. Yungdrung Bon

Yungdrung is the Tibetans name for a svastika. Even in Buddha Dharma in Tibetan Yungdrung refers to this symbol.  Here is where you find the divide between the Middle Way and Eternalism.  To some Yungdrungpa’s there is an eternal creator, and this power of eternal creation is embodied by the Yungdrung.

In the Middle Way Bon, the eternal Yungdrung is interdependence, which is always present in all phenomena.

Among Yungdrung teachers, there are a vast variety between the eternalists and Yungdrung, and not always a clean divide. Most of the teachers surrounding Menri, the central institution, are Middle Way Bonpa.

They invented the Nine Ways of Bon framework, including the first four Shen of Sorcery, the last five Shen that we would see as Refuge all the way to Dzogchen.

C. Bon Sar

New Bon, or Bon Sar,  is the youngest of the three overall lineages. It consists only of Yungdrung who not only accepted the Middle Way as the foundational teachings of Bon, but also began to discover more and more Bon Treasures. Some treasures existed also in Yungdrung, but Bon Sar continues it as a major part of their tradition.

Because of this, they have a completely different framework of the Nine Ways of Bon. Further, many Yungdrung lineages were carried over into Bon Sar, and so they hold unique transmissions of lineages like the Zhang Zhung and the A-Tri.

3 History with the Rime



The roots of the Bonsar stretch back beyond the 18th and 19th century, and many Nyingma Tertons were also Bon Tertons.  One well-known example is Dorje Lingpa. This is one of the five Buddha Tertons, and one of the most important treasure revealers in Nyingma history. 

And yet, he revealed many cycles of Bon Treasure that are preserved in his collected transmissions, and certainly came down to be held in the Rime lineage, practiced and codified by the three founders in their own arrangements. Like many Rime Bon treasure revealers, he is considered an emanation of Vairocana Lotsawa. His treasures are also considered an aspect of the Bon Sar as well to this day. 


Bon Sar Lamas were the most supportive of the Rime Movement. Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen was one of the greatest Bon masters of the 19th century, and also one of the most non-sectarian.  His life intersects with that of my own teacher through profound interconnection. 

Norbu Rinpoche’s root Guru was Changchub Dorje. The root Guru of Changchub Dorje was Nyala Padma Dudul. Though he was a Nyingma master, he was also the root Guru of Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen, and never discriminated against him in any way for being a Bon master, and made him one of his heart students and helped him reveal treasure. 

Due to this, Shardza’s lineage through Changchub Dorje also finds its way to us through in fact being one Vajra family that to this day is not broken. 



Shardza Gyaltsen Rinpoche is often said to be a Yungdrungpa, but this is not really the case. He was always a Bon Sarpa, due to preserving both new treasure and Yungdrung teachings such as Zhang Zhung Nyen Gyu. He also revealed many treasures, largely in the classification of Dzogchen.  

The Rime founders also revealed Bon Treasure which considers the way the local gods of Tibet experienced the power of Padmasambhava, the repositioning of Padma in these treasures as the brother and son of a great Zhang Zhung sorcerer.  Jamgon Kongtrul was considered to be an embodiment of Vairochana Lotsawa, who was a Bon Lama before he converted under Guru Rinpoche. Kongtrul la also therefore reveals treasures where Padma asks Vairochana to continue to teach Bon without eternalism, burying treasures to later be discovered by Kongtrul la himself. 

As you can see through this, the amount of Bon transmission preserved in the Rime is vast.

4 Four Gates and One Treasury



The overall structure of both Yungdrung Bon and Bon Sar is arranged as a framework of Nine Ways, which bears passing similarity to the Nine Vehicles in the Nyingma. To preserve that structure all these divisions of teachings are preserved in various collections. The largest of these is the Bon Kangyur, which is shared by both Yungdrung and Sar, but through the Rime often have a differing commentarial tradition. 

Another common collection, which often contains a distillation of the above, giving the most important teachings of all Nine Ways, is called ‘The Four Gates and One Treasury.’  

The decisions of what is in these collections may differ between the Yungdrung and Bonsar, though one should keep in mind that because many Bonsar also hold Yungdrung (including our Rime Kula) both are accepted. Rime Bon lineages often teach the Bon Sar formulation more commonly, however. 

In both Yungdrung and Bonsar, the Four Gates and One Treasury are:

 Chab Kar - The White River Gate concerns the Bon Tantras and their practice. 

Chab Nag - The Black River Gate concerns the application of rituals to help beings in Samsara - that is, magic. 

Phen Yul - The Gate of the Land of Ribbons concerns the Great Vehicle teachings of monks, Bodhicitta, Prajnaparamita and the like.  

Pon Sey - The Gate of the Great Masters concerns upadesha teachings, largely of Dzogchen. 

Tho Tok Dzo - The Summit of All Treasuries concerns the distilled teachings of all the Gates. 



However, in our Rime Bonsar, the collection arranges these as Do Kor (Sutra Cycle), Ngak Kor (Mantra Cycle), Dzogchen Kor (Cycle of Great Perfection) and Rig Ney Kor (Cycle of Sciences).  

To show how close and interconnected these lineages are, this arrangement in our Rime Lineage calls itself ‘The Collection of All Yungdrung Teachings.’  One must remember how the lineages are always flowing in and out of one another over time. 



5 The Nine Ways in Yungdrung



The largest differentiation between the Bonsar and Yungdrung Bon concerns how the Nine Ways are taught. 

In the Yungdrung they are like this:



The Way of the Shen of Prediction: Rituals of divination and diagnosis in medicine. 


The Way of the Shen of Appearances: Rituals concerning usual local gods and spirits. 



The Way of the Shen of Sorcery: Magical Application and Exorcism.



The Way of the Shen of Existence: Rituals for Preserving Life, Helping the Dying and Conducting Funerals. 

The Way of Virtuous Followers: Principles for Lay Followers of the teachings, sutric in nature. 

The Way of Ascetics: This concerns practices of monks and retreatants

The Way of the White AH: Tantric practice comparatively similar to everything from Kriya Tantra to Mahayoga Tantra in the Nyingma lineage. 



The Way of the Primordial Shen: Very similar to Anuyoga Tantra in the Nyingma. 

The Unsurpassed Way: This is the teachings of Bon Dzogchen



6 The Nine Ways in Rime Bonsar



The presentation in the Rime Bonsar differs, but is in no way a repudiation of the former, rather, this framework was revealed as Terma:



The Vehicle of Relying on Other Gods and Humans:  This is teachings of how to listen to Bon Teachings and reduce harm through vows, similar to Sravakayana in the Buddha Dharma. 



The Vehicle of the Self-Realized Shenrab: Realizing interdependence for one’s own benefit, similar to the Pratekyabuddha. 



The Vehicle of the Greatly Compassionate Jangchub Sempa: Gives rise to the wish to benefit and act to liberate all beings before oneself and takes the gradual path of analyzing the mind and generating merit. 



The Unelaborate Vehicle of the Yungdrung Sempa: Realizes the vows and the Bonku (Dharmakaya) is beyond concepts and practices the ten perfections. 



The Vehicle of the Primordial Shen of Pure Practice and Action: Uses elaborate purification and the many systems of astrology to accomplish deity practice to realize one’s own nature. Similar to Kriya and Upaya Tantra in Buddha Dharma. 



The Vehicle of All-Knowing with Clairvoyance: Deity yoga, with many ritual mudras, very similar to Yogatantra. It is focused on the result of becoming a Yungdrung Sugata for others. 



The Vehicle of the Play of Compassion and Actual Generation: Similar to Mahayoga. 



The Vehicle Which is All-Perfect and Very Meaningful: Similar to Anuyoga.



The Vehicle of the Unsurpassed Peak of the Primordial Great Perfection: This contains the Dzogchen teachings. 



This framework is a Terma originally taught by Vairochana, and I will likely teach this framework very soon in a one day class that gives the transmission as well as lays the groundwork for those who wish to learn more Rime Bon teachings. 



7 The Conclusion



In both the Yungdrung Bon, and in the Rime Bon Sar that includes the Yungdrung teachings, all these vehicles of the teachings are arranged in the three cycles of common, uncommon, and particular in the following way:



The Outer Common Teachings of Sutra


The Inner Uncommon Teachings of Mantra


The Secret and Particular Teachings of Dzogchen



In this way, we can see that they are unified in intent together, and with the Buddha Dharma in general, without any bias.  As Vairochana himself taught, the only distinction to make is between those Bonpo who teach the two worldly vehicles of the outer Extremists and the nine of the inner Shenrabpas. 

Those outer worldly vehicles are said by Vairochana Lotsawa to come from a previous dimension of the gods, where some gods taught eternalistic creationism and others taught that beings live and die without continuance or connection.   

As he states:



“Now, all the stages of the vehicles, if condensed and explained, are gathered into two types: the outer Extremists and the inner Shenrabpa. The Extremist views, when condensed, are of two types: those renowned in the realms of gods above that arose previously, and those renowned in the human realms below that followed subsequently.”



Therefore, in this way there are those that accept the four seals, which may call themselves Buddhists or Bonpos, but are the same concerning the view and therefore without differentiation, and those accept nihilism or eternalism, some of which call themselves Bonpos, but are not aligned with the View of Buddha Dharma, and cannot be said to be unified in intent with the Rime.  



Understanding this, we can see why the Rime also held and contained the Inner Shenrabpa teachings. These were taught by Buddha Tonpa Shenrab, the founder of this form of non-extremist Bon. 
In our Buddha Dharma Rime lineages we have many Buddhas that arise and give teachings. Buddha Shakyamuni is the founder of the teachings in our world, but there have been many before and many after. Buddha Tonpa Shenrap is also one such Buddha, and gave rise to these teachings. 



Therefore, with folded hands, we take refuge in that Great Shenrab, whose name employs the old term Shen, high priest or master ritual officiant, seeing him as a Buddha, arranging all circumstances of Body, Speech and Mind for the liberation of all beings!



May the Inner Shenrabpa teachings, like the wheel of all things arising ceaselessly, that perfect Yungdrung, luminously turn until all are free. 



Mutsuk Marro!