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BON - HOW IT CAME TO TIBET AS A RELIGIONMAIN • PHILOSOPHER • BON • - To Tibet Regarded in this way Bon is a strange phenomenon, and what we really want to know is how it began to develop in its early stages. The bonpos themselves concede that their religion as practised in Tibet consisted in the first place of little more than ritual magic, and they believed that gShen-rab himself established these practices there. A clear account is given of the story in chapter XII of gZer-mig , which recounts how the demon Khyab-pa -lag-ring sends his followers who steal the seven horses of gShen-rab from the sacred city of hol-mo lung-ring . In the previous chapter it was related how this demon had carried off gShen-rabs daughter, gShen-bzah ne-chung, and forcibly married her. Their two children were then abducted by gShen-rab and concealed at hol-mo lung-ring . At the beginning of chapter XII the demon sends his followers to see where the children are. They cannot be found, so he gives orders for the theft of the horses as a form of reprisal. Rather than keep the horses in his own realm (bdud-yul min-pahi glin ), he plans to keep them in rKong-po, and he sends messengers to make arrangements with the two rulers of rKong-po , named rKong-rje dkar-po and rKong-rje dmar-po . gShen-rab himself together with four followers comes after them, not (as he explains) in order to get the horses only, but because the time has come to spread the doctrine in Zhang-Zhung and Tibet. The demons block his way with snow, then fire, then water, and then sand, but he disperses them and reaches Zhang-Zhung. gShen-rab gave to the bonpos of Zhang-Zhung as bon (doctrine) the 'inspired teaching' ( lung ) about bombs and spells , and as ritual items he instructed them in the 'Divine Countenance of the Celestial Ray' and in black and white 'thread-crosses'. Then he went in to Bye-ma lu-ma dgu-gyes ('The ninefold Spreading of the Desert Spring') in gTsang , where he pronounced this prayer: 'Now it is not the occasion for establishing the doctrine among all the bonpos of Tibet, but may „Bon of the Nine Stage Way" spread and be practised there some time!' As he said this, a group of demons were subjected to him. gShen-rab gave to the bonpos of Tibet as bon (doctrine) the 'inspired teaching' concerning prayers to the gods and the expelling of demons, and as ritual items he showed them various small aromatic shrubs, the use of barley as a sacrificial item and libations of chang. Nowadays the bonpos of Tibet, summoning all gods and demons by means of bon, get their protection, and by worshipping them send them about their tasks, and by striking them prevail over them. This is the prood of gShen-rab 's having subdued them when they beheld his countenance. In historical terms this account simply means that before Indian religious ways spread to Tibet, Tibetan religion consisted of magical rituals ( of the kind enumerated in the Second Way of BON) performed by priests known as bon and as gShen. The full doctrine (referred to as the 'BON of the Nine Stage Way') came later and -except for the rituals that were already practised in Tibet- through translations- The bonpos were certainly impressed by the need for translations. Thus BON teachings, they claim, were translated into 360 languages and taught throughout the known world, which for them consisted of India generally, the states of north-west India in particular, Central Asia states and peoples, Nepal, and China. Lastly, it reached Tibet, again from the West through translations from the language of Zhang-Zhung. This Bon that spread west, south and north of Tibet was of course Buddhism, and it is quite conceivable that the Tibetans of western Tibet, whose ancestors first made contact with the forms of Buddhism popularly practised in Jalandhara ( za-hor ) and Kashmir ( kha-che ), in Uddiyana ( o-rgyan ) and Gilgit ( bru-sha ), were unaware of its direct connection with the Buddhism officially introduced into Tibet in the eighth century by King Khri-srong-lde-btsan. The bonpos are insistent that their teachings came from the west , and there are good reasons for believing that Buddhist yogins and hermits, and probably Hindu ascetics as well, had already familiarized the villagers of western Tibet with Indian teachings and practices before Buddhism was formally introduced by the Tibetan religious kings. Moreover, these 'informal' contacts continued over several centuries. Perhaps the main original difference between bonpos and rNyingma-pas (Tibetan Buddhist of the 'Old order') consists in the fact that the rNyingma-pas acknowledged that their doctrines, despite the earlier promulgation, were nevertheless Buddhist, and that the bonpos never would make this admission. Fundamental to an elucidation of this interesting problem is a comparative study of the tantras and the rDzog-chen ('Great Perfection') literature of these two oldest 'Tibetan Buddhist' groups. The organizing of their religious practices into the 'Nine Ways' must have come somewhat later, perhaps by the tenth century. The rNyingma-pa set of nine begins with the three 'ways' of conventional Indian Buddhism, the sravalaana, the pratyekabuddhayana, and the boddhisattvayana. The other six ways are even higher stages of tantric practice, viz. Kriyatantra, upayatantra, and yogatantra, and finally, the mahayogatantra, anuyogatantra and atiyogatantra. Thu the rNyingma-pas , recognizing their connections with the newly established official religion, were content to organize themselves as tantric adepts of Buddhism. The bonpos, despite their ever increasing cultural and literary contacts with the official religion, persisted in claiming that this religion had really been theirs from the start. Drawn very early, cerainly already in the eight century, into a position of opposition, they set to work to organize a full-scale religion of their own, using all their own remembered indigenous resources and all they could acquire from their opponents The magnitude of the task was really astounding, if judged only by the vast bulk of literature which they so speedily accumulated. The 'Nine Ways of BON' is a mere summary of their achievements. |
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