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The four Portals and the Treasury as Fifth

MAIN • PHILOSOPHER • BON • 4 Portals of Bon

The bonpos often refer to their full complement of doctrines and practices not only as the 'BON of the Nine Stage Way', but also as the BON of the 'Four BON Portals and the Treasury as Fifth':
bon sgo bzhi mdzod lnja dang theg pa rim dguhi bon.

This term sgo bzhi mdzod lnja has no easy explanation . The four 'portals' are dpon-gsas, chab-nag, chab-dkar, and hphan-yul. The first , dpon-gsas , may be safely translated as 'Master-Sage'. It is the term used for the hermit sages of the Zhang-Zhung snyan-rgyud . As one of the four 'portals' of bon it refers to their teachings of the 'Great Perfection' ( rdzog-chen ).

As for chab-dkar and chab-nag , chab remains uncertain in meaning. Tenzin Namdak accepts these names as technical terms without any proper meaning, and so, while he and other educated bonpo know what the terms refer to, they remain quite uninterested in the origin of the terms themselves.

Chab has two meanings: (i) royal sway of power and (ii) the honorific term for water. The compound chab-sgo means an 'imperial portal' and perhaps this might encourage us to choose the first meaning. The 'White Sway' and the 'Black Sway' would make quite good translations. But in our selected texts chab is clearly interpreted as though it meant 'water'. I have therefore taken the term provisionally in this meaning. The term is used only as a label in any case. The 'White Waters' refer to higher tantric practice and the 'Black Waters' to magic rites of all kinds.

European writers have often referred to 'White Bon' and 'Black Bon', but clearly without any intended reference to chab-dkar and chab-nag.

hPhan-yul is a well-known place-name in Central Tibet, but once again my bonpo helpers insist that this term which regers to their 'Perfection of Wisdom' teachings, has nothing to do with the hPhan-yul Valley. But I think they are mistaken. The name hPhan-yul often occurs in bonpo texts both as a place name and as a term referring to particular doctrines. Before the 'Teacher gShen-rab' spread the teachings in the world of men he is supposed to have taught hPhan-yul texts in the realms of the serpents ( klu ), furies ( gnyan ), mountain-gods ( sa-bdag ), and rock-gods ( gtod ). One wonders if there is some connection here with the well-knwon story of Nagarjuna's visit to the nagas (=Tibetan klu ) to obtain his 'Perfection of Wisdom' teachings. There is no doubt that in bonpo usage hPhan-yul means 'Perfection of Wisdom' texts and therefore it might have seemed suitable to give this name to texts which gShen-rab was suppsed to teach to seprents and others. I mention this possibility merely since I suspect that it is just such a haphazard association of ideas that often accounts for the use of many terms in bonpo material, and we may well be wasting our time looking for more scholary associations.

As for the special meaning that the bonpos gve to hPhan-yul , perhaps it was here in this place, which was cerainly important in the early spread of Buddhism in Tibet, that they first learned and studied 'Perfection of Wisdom' literature. It is perhaps fair to add that Tenzin Namdak discounts such an idea altogether. As for the special bonpo menaings of these terms, he has kindly drawn my attention to some very good definitions occuring in gZer-mig :
The 'Master Sage' belongs to the BON of precepts and inspired teachings. It purifies the stream of knowledge, avoids word and concentrates on the meaining.

The 'Black Waters' belong to the Bon of the stream of existence. It purifies the stream of knowledge. By means of many verbal accounts which arise there, much is accumulated for the good of living beings under three (headings): the outer stream of death rites and funural rites , the inner stream of sickness rites and ransom rites, and the middle stream of diagnosis rites and rituals.

The vast hPhan-yul belongs to the BON of the Hundred Thousand (Verse Text) in the Sutras. It purifies the stream of knowledge. It tells of monastic disipline and vows. This BON has two aspects, as a series (Sanskrit: parivarta) and as recitation. Again the series has two aspects, the series of the phenomenal world and the series of passing from sorrow (Skr. Nirvana). The recitation is of two kinds again, recitation that enunciates and originates in the words of enunciation, and enunciation that is consecrated to the food of living beings and serves for ceremonies. Being read and recited, it accumulates much (merit) for living beings, and it should be be used only for ceremonies.

The 'White Waters' belong to the BON of potent precepts and spells. It purifies the deep stream of knowledge. It embraces the profound 'reliance' and 'performance'. As for this BON, when one has been consecrated, one becomes of the self-nature of fivefold buddhahood. As effect one has in the Body the five symbolic gestures of the self-nature (of buddhahood): as effect in the Speech one recites spells continuously: as effect in the Mind one practises the profound meditation of the 'Process of Emanation' and the 'Process of Realization'. As effect in one's Accomplishments, one accumulates and delights in ritual items. As effect in one's acts one praises the buddha-names in recitation.

Defined in this way, the 'Four Portals' cover all the types of religious practice included in the 'Nine Ways'.
  • The 'Master Sage' Portal represents the Ninth Way.
  • The 'Black Waters' Portal represents the First, Second and Fourth Ways.
  • The hPhan-yul Portal represents the Fith and Sixth Ways.
  • The 'White Waters' Portal represents the Seventh and Eight Ways. It also includes the Third Way in so far as this is directed towards the 'Bon of effect'.
Thus these 'Four Portals' seem to represent an earlier and quite coherent attempt by the bonpos to arrange their accumulated religious materials into four groups:
  1. Precepts and teachings of sages and hermits, e.g. Zhang-Zhung snyan-rgyud and other rdzog-chen literature.
  2. Ways of predicition, death ceremonies and magical rites of all kinds (viz. The 'original bonpo material')
  3. Texts and practices connected with monastic religion. (One may observe that the reading of 'Perfection of Wisdom' literature as a meritorious rite was as poular then as now).
  4. Text and practices of the tantras.
As for the 'Treasury which makes the Fifth' , this is the 'Pure Summit' (gtsang mtho thog ), which once again is best defined by a quotation from gZer-mig:

As for the 'Pure Summit', it goes everywhere. As insight it belongs to the BON which is a universal cutting off. It urifies the stream of knowledge in all the 'Four Portals'. It simply involves that insight into the non-substantiality of appearances. It understands the deluding nature of the 'inner essences'. In terms of absolute truth non-substance, too, is an absurdity.