Why is it important to preserve Yungdrung Bön teachings through translations and edited transcripts?

བདེ་སྡུག་རྩ་བ་རང་གི་སེམས་ལགས་པས།། Your own mind is the root of both happiness and suffering; བཙའ་སྐྱོང་ཤེས་ན་ཕན་བདེའི་གཞི་མ་དང་།། Knowing how to train it in the positive way, that is the basis for happiness རང་ཁར་གཏོང་ན་སྡུག་བསྔལ་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་གཞི།། Merely following the passions of your mind, that is the basis for the ocean of miseries and sufferings. ཇི་ལྟར་འདམ་ཁ་ཤེས་ན་སྐྱེས་བུ་རབ།། Thus if you know how to choose the right way, you are an excellent person. ཡོངས་འཛིན་རིན་པོ་ཆེས་ཞལ་གདམས། Oral instruction by Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche (Trnsl. Kh. Gelek Jinpa, C. Ermakova & D. Ermakov) Since leaving Tibet during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Yongdzin Rinpoche has devoted his whole life to preserving his lineage for future generations, and an important aspect of this is publishing books. His first mission in exile was to collect the scattered copies of the Bön Kanjur and Katen which had either been miraculously smuggled out of Tibet or had survived in ancient Bön temples in Nepal. Yongdzin Rinpoche’s aim was to gather and reprint the necessary texts to re-establish the Geshe training programme in exile, and it is thanks to his tireless efforts that many contemporary Bönpo lamas now have the knowledge and qualifications to teach. Here in the West, we are very fortunate. We can simply browse the internet or look in a bookstore to find many books on Buddhism, and even a few on Bön. However, authentic translations by erudite masters are very rare indeed, so it is our joint responsibility to do all we can to ensure the teachings of great master, Yongdzin Rinpoche and other erudite Bönpo lamas, are recorded intact, seriously and respectfully, not only as study and practice aids for ourselves, but also as an invaluable legacy for future generations. As Yongdzin Rinpoche is the current, supreme lineage holder and because many contemporary Bönpo lamas received empowerments, transmissons and instructions from him, his teachings and translations are especially precious as they are imbued with the powerful blessings of the living lineage transmission. For over 20 years, our Founding Members Carol Ermakova and Dmitry Ermakov have been working closely with Yongdzin Rinpoche and other lamas transcribing and editing Bönpo texts. They have recently been joined by a team of translators for Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Russian. All our staff are unpaid volunteers. As Yongdzin Rinpoche says: ‘Books are my friends.’