Birthday Anniversaries of Tönpa Shenrab Miwoche & His Son, Prince Kongtsa Yungdrung Wangden
According to traditional Bönpo Chronology (Tib. Bstan-rtsis) Tönpa Shenrab Miwoche (Tib. Ston pa Gshen rab Mi bo che) – whose original name was Mura Tahen (Tib. Dmu-ra ta-han) – was born in the country of Wolmo Lungring (Tib. ‘Ol-mo lung-ring), the central region of the larger country of Tagzig (Tib. Rtag-gzigs/Stag-gzig), in the Wood Male Mouse Year (i.e. in 16,017 BC), on the fifteenth day of the first month of Spring, the Fire Tiger month (Tib. me-stag-gi zla-ba).
So this year 1st February 2026 marks the 18,043rd anniversary of the First Deed of Yungdrung Bön’s Buddha Tönpa Shenrab Miwoche – the Deed of Birth (Tib. Sku bltams-pa’i mdzad-pa).
First Teaching of Buddha Shenrab Miwo
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, the great tertön Shenchen Luga (Tib. Gshen-chen klu-dga’).
Watch “GYALWA SHENTSANG / རྒྱལ་བ་གཤེན་ཚང་། : The Living Descendants of Buddha Tönpa Shenrab” narrated by Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche:
In tandem with this family line, BuddhaTönpa Shenrab’s precious teachings have come down to us thanks to a living lineage of masters. Here, Yongdzin Rinpoche explains the importance of finding a lama who is truly qualified to guide us.
Teaching by Yongdzin Rinpoche: Finding a qualified lama
It is difficult to know whether a lama is qualified or not; it is not easy to realize this. Generally, don’t follow anywhere quickly. It is better to have time to check. The best thing is to read something which you mainly intend to practise – whatever religion or object you want to practise seriously. Then according to this text, who is able to teach properly and clearly? That is one thing.
The second thing is that it, as says in the text, generally one way to be sure is to check as you would with any kind of bush. Usually, if the roots are poisonous then the leaves, flowers and everything will be poison. If the root is medicine, then the trunk, leaves, flowers and everything is medicine. That is an example, a proverb. This is similar. If you are wondering about whether someone is going to be your own Master or not, you can take time to look and check whatever he is doing, saying and thinking; you can have time to check. If he is similar to a normal being, a normal public person, nothing special, then he is not a qualified man. But if he is clearly able to tell you what you want to learn and can correct you, then that person is suitable to be your own Master.
You should check these kinds of things. Even in the text it says that it is rather difficult to find a qualified master in these modern times; a perfectly qualified one is very rare, difficult to find. But nevertheless, you must find someone who is at least able to explain clearly the essential things which you particularly want to learn; that is a suitable Master for you.
That is a brief summary on how to find a qualified master.
Extracted from Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche, Trnscr. & ed. Carol Ermakova and Dmitry Ermakov. Nine Ways of Bön: A Compilation of teachings in France, Volume II, GENYEN THEGPA, (Blou: Shenten Dargye Ling, 2008).
Featured image: Tönpa Shenrab at the age of 8. Image courtesy of Yongdzin Rinpoche.