Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche

File:Tonpa Shenrab.jpg

Tonpa Shenrab

File:Tonpa Shenrab - Life Story 19th century, Collection of Rubin Museum of Art..jpg

Tonpa Shenrab life story, 19th-century painting, Rubin Museum of Art

File:Tonpa Shenrab - Life Story 19th century Collection of Rubin Museum of Art.jpg

Tonpa Shenrab life story, 19th-century painting, Rubin Museum of Art

File:Homeland of Tonpa Shenrab Miwo Olmo Lungring. Tibet, 19th century, Rubin Museum of Art.jpg

Olmo Lung Ring, homeland of Tonpa Shenrab Miwo, 19th-century painting, Rubin Museum of Art

Tonpa Shenrab (Tibetan: Template:Bo-textonly, Wylie: ston pa gshen rab་ mi bo, Template:Literally), also known as Shenrab Miwo (Wylie: gshen rab mi bo), Buddha Shenrab, Guru Shenrab and a number of other titles, is the legendary founder of the Bon religious tradition of Tibet. The story of Tonpa Shenrab was revealed in a fourteenth century terma of Loden Nyingpo.

Etymology

The name Shenrab Miwo is in the Zhang-Zhung language, which is a relative of Old Tibetan; while many suggestions have been put forward as to its meaning, it appears to be the Zhangzhung word "bodhisattva" (equivalent to Tibetan shégya sempa, Wylie: shes rgya sems dpa').

Shenrab's life according to Bon traditions

According to Bon doctrine, Tonpa Shenrab lived 18,000 years ago, predating Gautama Buddha. Practitioners of Bon believe that he first studied the Bon doctrine in Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring, at the end of which he pledged to Shenlha Okar, the god of compassion, that he would guide the peoples of this world to liberation.

Like Gautama, Tönpa Shenrab was of royal birth. Tonpa Shenrab renounced his royal inheritance at the age of thirty-one to travel the path to enlightenment. Tonpa Shenrab embraced the life of a renunciate and commenced austerities, spreading the doctrine of Bon; at length, he arrived in the land of Zhangzhung near what is widely held to be Mount Kailash.

Accounts of Tonpa Shenrab's life are to be found in three principal sources, the Dodü (Wylie: mdo 'dus), Zermik (Wylie: gzer mig), and Ziji (Wylie: gzi brjid). The first and second of the accounts are held to be terma discovered by tertön in the 10th or 11th century; the third is part of the oral lineage (Wylie: snyan brgyud) transmitted from teacher to disciple.

Aspects of Shenrab Miwoche

Shenrab Miwoche is said to have three aspects or forms:

• the tulku (Wylie: sprul sku) or nirmaṇakāya, Shenrab Miwoche;
• the dzokku (Wylie: rdzogs sku) or sambhogakāya, Shenlha Okar and
• the bönku (Wylie: bon sku) or dharmakāya, Tapihritsa.

Sources

• Bellezza, John Vincent. (2010). "gShen-rab Myi-bo, His life and times according to Tibet’s earliest literary sources." Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines Number 19 October 2010, pp. 31–118.
• Unknown author (2005). The Bonpo's Tradition. (Accessed: January 17, 2007).

External links

• 61 episodes in the life of gŚen-rabs mi-bo