Shenrab's Life According To Bon Traditions
According to Bon tradition, Tonpa Shenrab predates Padmasambhava and the Buddha Sakyamuni. It is held that Tonpa Shenrab first studied the Bon doctrine in Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring (which for economy may be equated with space, heaven and the aetherial realm), at the end of which he pledged to Shenla Odkar (Tibetan: gshen lha 'od dkar), the god of compassion, that he would guide the peoples of this world to liberation.
Like the Buddha Śākyamuni, 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, entitled Do-dü (mdo 'dus), Zer-mik (gzer mig), and Zee-jee (gzi brjid). The first and second of the accounts are held to be terma (gter ma) discovered by Bon tertön (gter ston) in the tenth or eleventh century; the third is part of the "aural lineage"(nyen jü, snyan brgyud), transmitted via disciplic succession.
Read more about this topic: Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche
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