Bon

“We are always saying that this nature is like the sky or the space. It has no edge and no center. There is a saying that an elephant cannot enter into a mouse hole...Our mind is compared to this being only small like a mouse hole and therefore only good for trapping small things within its hole. It therefore cannot catch the whole thing, the nature. This shows the meaning of the nature being completely beyond the mind and consciousness…

This nature is always with us. Not only with us but also within everything and everybody, always being integrated within this nature. This nature has no size and no from... This basic nature is everywhere and it is integrated with all different beings. But even though it is like that it doesn't help if one does not know it. Being beyond explanation the nature is spontaneously perfected…

To realize this you keep in meditation without thinking. First of all you leave your mind free of thoughts and doing nothing. With your eyes open you stay in your state… How you can keep this state without changing anything, without focusing? There is no subject and no object, only the state itself. It has clarity, emptiness and unification. Everything is within there, but you don't have to check. It is naturally there but it is very important to realize this basic real nature. Once you realize this as clear as you can be it is completely perfected with everything.

In order to explain the state as being spontaneously perfected we often use the example of milk. Butter is already perfected within milk... In the same way, when we are meditating in the natural state, all the qualities are naturally and spontaneously perfected within…”

~ Lopön Tenzin Namdak (born 1926) is a Tibetan religious leader and the most senior teacher of Bon, in particular of Dzogchen and the Mother Tantras. After the 1959 Tibetan uprising, many lamas, including the 14th Dalai Lama, 16th Karmapa, along with Tibetan refugees departed their homeland to seek refuge in India and Nepal. Tenzin Namdak also tried to reach safety in India, but was shot and captured by Chinese Communist soldiers and imprisoned for ten months. He later escaped to Nepal via the small principality of Mustang. In 1991 he was invited by the Dalai Lama to represent the Bön tradition at the Kalachakra Initiation in New York. In this way, Yongdzin spread Bönpo teachings in many countries.

~ Bon, also spelled Bön, is a Tibetan religion. It is almost indistinguishable from Tibetan Buddhism in terms of doctrines and rituals, but differs in religious authority and history it accepts, which has led to its practitioners and scholars considering it to be a distinct religion.

“…Bön was rooted long before the arrival of Buddhism. Bön practices were adapted to include those tenets of Buddhism that contributed to their worldview and furthered their aims on the path. For example, the higher form of Bön, Dzogchen, very closely resembles the Dzogchen of the Nyingma, which is the oldest of the four main school of Buddhism. Both are very high spiritual doctrines. Bön is an ancient religion, but one still very alive and well today. Bonpos aim to harmonize the microcosm with macrocosm. The more the individual, family and society are in alignment with the cycles and forces of nature, the less suffering and the more success there is in life. The Bonpos believe that there is divinity in all of nature—in the elements, as well as in each of us. Therefore, it is important to develop positive relationships between the individual and the various aspects of nature. In this way, the spirits and forces of nature can help us by removing obstacles and supporting us on our path of self-awareness.

Dzogchen, one of the highest teachings, is also part of the Bön tradition. The goal of Dzogchen, or The Great Perfection, is to enter the natural state of mind, which is pure light and wisdom. There is nothing to try, nothing to accept or reject, and nothing to transform. It is a self-perfected state in itself, and it is accessible to us because it is our nature…”