18041th Anniversary of Tönpa Shenrab Miwo’s Birth and Birthday of Kongtsa Yungdrung Wangden
Tönpa Shenrab – whose original name was Mura Tahen (Tib. Dmu-ra ta-han) – was born on the fifteenth day of the first month of Spring (Tib. me-stag-gi zla-ba) in the country of Olmo Lungring (Tib. ‘Ol-mo lung-ring), the central region of the larger country of Tagzig (Tib. Rtag-gzigs/Stag-gzig). It was in the Wood Male Mouse Year i.e. in 16,017 BC according to traditional Bönpo Chronology (Tib. Bstan-rtsis).
So this year, 25 January 2024, marks the 18041th anniversary of the First Deed of Yungdrung Bön’s Buddha Tönpa Shenrab Miwoche (Tib. Ston pa Gshen rab Mi bo che) – the Deed of Birth (Tib. Sku bltams-pa’i mdzad-pa).
The very first Teaching Tönpa Shenrab gave after he achieved the state of Buddha was Dzogchen:
༧སྟོན་པ་རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་གཤེན་རབ་མི་བོ་མཆོག་གིས་བར་ལྷ་འོད་གསལ་གྱི་གནས་སུ།
TÖN-PA DZOG-PAI-SANG-GYE SHEN-RAB MI-WO CHOG-GI BAR-HLA WÖ-SAL GYI NE-SU
The Supreme and Perfect Buddha and Teacher Shenrab Miwo was staying in the realm of the Sky-Gods of Clear Light
KHOR GYI DAM-PA YE-SHEN YUNG-DRUNG-SEM-PA NAM-KHAI BA-DEN-CHEN LA KA-TSAL-PA
འཁོར་གྱི་དམ་པ་ཡེ་གཤེན་གཡུང་དྲུང་སེམས་དཔའ་ནམ་མཁའི་བ་དན་ཅན་ལ་བཀའ་སྩལ་པ།
surrounded by a sublime retinue of Primordial Shen and Heroes of the Unchangeable and Perfect Mind when he spoke to Namkhai Badenchen:
NE-LUG CHYI RIG-PA JEN-PAR NE-PA LA
གནས་ལུགས་ཀྱི་རིག་པ་རྗེན་པར་གནས་པ་ལ།
“Remain in the naked awareness of the Natural State
SHE-JYAI DRI-MA LO DANG BRAL ZHING LO-LE-DE-PAR GYI SHIG ZHE-SUNG
ཤེས་བྱའི་དྲི་མ་བློ་དང་བྲལ་ཞིང་བློ་ལས་འདས་པར་གྱིས་ཤིག་ཞེས་གསུངས།།
which is free from the deluded workings of ordinary mind and is beyond any concepts!”. Thus he spoke.
Translated by Dmitry Ermakov for Khenzur Nyima Wangyal Rinpoche, “Journey to Meditation”, 2019.
Today is a particularly auspicious day to recite the prayer to Tönpa Shenrab which can be downloaded gratis here:
This day also marks the anniversary of Tönpa Shenrab’s son Kongtsa Yungdrung Wangden (Tib. Kong-tsha G.yung-drung dbang-ldan) from whom the Mushen (Tib. Dmu-gshen) blood lineage of Tönpa Shenrab descended and which is still alive today in Tibet. This family upheld the teachings of Yungdrung Bön for millennia and produced such illustrious masters as, for example, great tertön Shenchen Luga (Tib. Gshen-chen klu-dga’).
Watch “GYALWA SHENTSANG / རྒྱལ་བ་གཤེན་ཚང་། : The Living Descendants of Buddha Tönpa Shenrab”: