FPYB is 5 Today!
Dear Friends,
Today Foundation for the Preservation of Yungdrung Bön is celebrating its fifth anniversary as a registered charity seeking to preserve the teachings of Yungdrung Bön and produce top quality materials for practitioners as well as scholars.
At the request of Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche, we have transcribed many of the teachings he has given in English, and also translated several sadhanas and prayers with him. We also work closely with other Bönpo lamas and are particularly grateful to Drubdra Khenpo Tsultrim Tenzin and Khenpo Gelek Jinpa.
Texts, Transcripts and Teaching Materials
Since our official registration five years ago, FPYB has been constantly expanding our work, and we do our best to respond to your requests. Last year, for example, we launched our first eBooks, and this year we released our first major e-publication, Magyud Tsalung and Tummo: https://yungdrungbon.co.uk/ebooks/
We have also prepared practice texts and teaching materials at the request of the lamas; for example, Khenpo Gelek asked us to translate with him the full Du Tri Su practice manual for the wonderful retreat held in Shenten in 2018. We also prepared a manual on The Five Buddha Bodies (restricted) for a retreat taught by Khenpo Tenpa Yungdrung in Germany (2018).
The bilingual Tibetan-English Drenpa Namkha tsog (The Secret Practice of Khöpung Drenpa’s Innermost Essence / ཁོད་སྤུངས་དྲན་པའི་སྙིང་ཐིག་གསང་སྒྲུབ་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་བཞུགས་པ་ལེགས་སོ།། compiled by Yongdzin Rinpoche is used regularly in Paris, UK and even in the new Thegchen Zhide Dargye Ling Bönpo monastery in Mongolia. Lama Sangye of Yeshe Sal Ling, Austria has also led a retreat on this tsog offering.
Our most recent publication is Commentary on Bringing Dreams onto the Path from The Compassionate Sun of the Mother Tantra.
Responding to Crisis
During the initial stages of the global corona virus pandemic, we collaborated with the School of the Four Medicine of Early Tradition to obtain a supply of Sipai Gyalmo herbal pouches. Each shipment was blessed by Yongdzin Rinpoche personally, and we were able to mail hundreds of these herbal pouches all over the world. We included some gains of rice blessed by Yongdzin Rinpoche in each envelope, and miraculously, not one packet was lost. Thanks also to Instytut Śardza Ling and Jungdrung Ten Gye Dü De for facilitating shipment in Poland and Hungary.
We also published Instructions on The Essential Point of the Wrathful Mantra of Sipai Gyalmo (restricted) by Yongdzin Rinpoche, as well as a transcript of his instructions on how to practise Guru Yoga with Sipai Gyalmo for those without transmission for the full sadhana:
To support the good health of Yongdzin Rinpoche, last year we made his teachings on Long-Life Practice of Tsewang Rigdzin available gratis:
And this year, in response to the outbreak of war in Europe, we made a short practice and special prayer to the Loving Goddess Jamma available gratis, as well as teachings by Yongdzin Rinpoche on the importance of praying for peace.
Helping Others
We have an ongoing commitment to support our fellow Bönpos in Tibet and Nepal. Last year, for example, we ran a successful Help Dhorpatan Appeal, coordinated with Norzin Ling and Triten Norbutse Monastery, to supply emergency food and other much-needed humanitarian relief to villagers affected by locust swarms and devastating mudslides. Thanks to your generosity, we raised over £5,400 GBP. FPYB also made a contribution of £450: https://yungdrungbon.co.uk/2020/10/24/help-dhorpatan-campaign-successfully-completed/
This year, FPYB has donated almost one third of revenues from book sales to Triten Norbutse via Association Triten Norbutse. Most of these funds were dedicated to building the new temple there.
International Sangha
Over the years, we have developed good relations with several international Bönpo organizations, and our materials have been translated into Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese Polish, Russian, and Spanish. Next month we plan to release our first publication in French.
Shenten Dargye Ling is offered a unique discount on all our new publications, and we have signed publishing contracts with Vajra Books, Kathmandu, which also offers the Triten Norbutse bookshop a discount on FPYB materials.
Our most recent collaboration is with a Russian Bönpo organisation «Исследовательский центр Юнгдрунг Бон (Вечное учение)» / Research Centre Yungdrung Bön (Eternal Teaching and includes a project for the translation and publication of several books and other materials into Russian.
Multimedia
We have a lively YouTube channel with almost 3 thousand subscribers. Some of our videos have been watched well over 14 thousand times. Another popular video is GYALWA SHENTSANG / རྒྱལ་བ་གཤེན་ཚང་། : The Living Descendants of Buddha Tönpa Shenrab, filmed by Khenpo Gelek who asked us to help with the subtitles. English subtitles: https://youtu.be/wYc_yqSqCFk Русские субтитры: https://youtu.be/7k-dJ_z3CRE
Our FPYB Multimedia page offers a wider range of lectures and slide shows, in several languages.
Academia
This year alone, founding member Dmitry Ermakov (author of Bө and Bön) was invited to represent the Bön tradition at an international conference: 5th International Conference on the Phenomenon of the Holy Mt. Kailash organised by Hamburg University. Dmitry’s video presentations and proceeding articles were published on FPYB website’s Articles and Multimedia pages as well as on Academia.edu @ https://independent.academia.edu/Ermakov. The articles been translated into Chinese, published on Weixin and are stimulating keen discussion in China and Tibet. A few weeks earlier, Dmitry gave a presentation Бöн Религии (The Bön Religion) in Saint-Petersburg, Russia.
Bönpo Texts in British Libraries
Thanks to our contacts in Oxford University Library, we were able to fulfil Yongdzin Rinpoche’s wish and organise shipping of Bön Kangyur to the British Library, London. The following year, thanks to Geshe Samten Tsukphü’s help, we arranged shipment of two volumes of the thangka book གྱུང་དྲུང་བོན་གྱི་ཞལ་ཐང་ཀུན་འདུས་ཆེན་མོ། / Great Collection of Yungdrung Bon Thangkas. They can now be viewed in Asian & African Studies Reading Room.
In keeping with UK publishing law, copies of any book produced in UK must be sent to 6 British libraries. This means that teachings on many aspects of Bön, including Dzogchen, are now held in libraries all over Britain.
How you can help
FPYB is a very small charity run by a handful of busy volunteers. As a non-profit organisation, we rely on your generosity to continue our work. Although two of the founding members cover all overheads (electricity, Wi-Fi etc) and equipment (computers, printer etc.), FPYB faces annual running costs to maintain our website and keep it safe for our users, plus expenses for the software we need to produce our books and other materials. While some of these costs are met by revenue from book sales, we still need donations because we keep our prices as low as possible.
Some Stats
Over the last 5 years: 23 books; 3 eBooks; 5 collections of prayers and practices available gratis; 17 short teachings by Yongdzin Rinpoche; 12 articles; 8 videos; 8 languages.
In the last year: over 10 thousand visitors to our webpage; almost 30 thousand page views.
Last month (June 2022): over 10 thousand minutes of YouTube views.
People visit our website from all over the world. Here are some figures from just one month: June 2022
Nepal 38
India 25
Bhutan 2
China 60
Mongolia 1
South Korea 2
Japan 10
Kazakhstan 2
Uzbekistan 1
Russia 13
Ukraine 6
Georgia 1
Poland 78
Romania 9
Moldova 1
Slovenia 4
Slovakia 1
Croatia 1
Hungary 20
Austria 11
Switzerland 14
Finland 34
Norway 5
Sweden 15
Denmark 10
Netherlands 60
Belgium 5
France 60
UK 92
Ireland 8
Portugal 7
Spain 21
Greece 10
Turkey 3
Israel 3
UAE 2
USA 360
Canada 29
Mexico 47
Costa Rica 8
Colombia 16
Brazil 54
Chile 5
Argentina 2
South Africa 1
Official accounts and reports available on UK gov website
5 Responses
Well, happy birthday and many happy returns of the day🥳🥳
Thanks!
A
Congratulations!
Thank you!