By Vicki Jenkins Ph. D.

“We came into this world not to suffer, but to help relieve the suffering of all beings.”

With the energetic arc of those words, Tibetan Bon Lama Geshe Chongtul Rinpoche reminded the gathered students that although the three-year Tse Dup Yang Bod teaching was coming to a close, our journey as healers should radiate out in the ongoing service of love and compassion.  What now remained was to receive the final Tse Dup Yang Bod transmission and empowerment from the current spiritual head of the Tibetan Bon tradition, His Holiness Lungtok Tenpai  Nyima, the 33rd Menri Trizin, who had made a special journey to the States for this occasion.  The energetic arc shimmered with compassionate intensity as the students were connected to the unbroken lineage of Tse Dup dating back to its roots in an 8^th century Tibetan Bon text.

The Tibetan Bon tradition has its spiritual origins in the teachings of Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche, the enlightened teacher of the ancient Zhang Zhung kingdom, who is said to have lived over 18,000 years ago.  Tonpa Shenrab compassionately dedicated his life to the practice and teaching of “Yungdrung Bon” or “Eternal Bon” for the benefit of all beings.  The essence of his teaching was the recognition of one’s true nature and the realization of the inherent wisdom and compassion that enables one to abide peacefully and joyfully.   After Tonpa Shenrab’s passing at 81, his dedicated disciples tirelessly organized and spread his teachings throughout the Zhang Zhung kingdom as well as to the adjacent lands of India, Kashmir, Nepal, China, and ultimately Tibet, where Yungdrung Bon flourished.

The arrival of Buddhism in Tibet in the late 7^th century created many complex challenges for Bon.  However, with the dedication of many great masters, the Bon teachings were carefully preserved.  Drenpa Namkha, an 8^th century Zhang Zhung self-realized teacher and important preserver of the Bon teachings, had extraordinary twin sons:  Tsewang Rigzin and Yungdrung Thongdrol.  Yungdrung Thongdrol, also known as Padmasambava, is the founder of the Nyingma Buddhist tradition.  Tsewang Rigzin is revered as the main long life deity of Bon.  Born enlightened, Tsewang Rigzin studied with his father as well as with many other famous disembodied masters, for among his siddhis was the special gift of communication with nonphysical masters.  As an embodiment of the highest life force energy, Tsewang Rigzin was the first Bon master to teach how to enhance and retrieve the life force and soul.

Although there are numerous Bon teachings for long life and prosperity, the 8^th century text, Tse Dup Jha Ri Ma, contains the special soul healing teaching that was transmitted orally to Tsewang Rigzin by the dakini Yum Chen Thuk Je Kundrol while he was in deep meditation.  The Tse Dup Jha Ri Ma has three distinct ritual components:  the long life empowerment rituals, soul retrieval (la ghuk), and life force retrieval (tse ghuk).

There is a long tradition of Bon rinpoches traveling to towns to perform the rituals of the Tse Dup Jha Ri Ma to help bring good health and long life to the people.  Bon rinpoches still perform these rituals to help facilitate healing and harmony when times are troubled due to strife, environmental disasters, or widespread sickness.  Soul retrieval (la ghuk),  life force retrieval (tse ghuk) using the ritual arrow with five colored ribbons (dhadar), and carrying a piece of turquoise as a representative of one’s soul, all continue to be very popular in Tibetan Bon society.  The Bon understanding of the soul (la) is unique.

 Since the Tse Dup Jha Ri Ma is so significant in Bon, it was the vision of Chongtul Rinpoche,  a lineage holder of this practice, to authentically adapt this teaching to a more modern and accessible format. He also realized the importance of sharing this teaching with Westerners, as many consider this to be the origins of Reiki.  Dedicated to preserving its authentic Bon spiritual foundation, in 2007 Chongtul Rinpoche created a thirty day teaching, “Tse Dup Yang Bod: Bon Soul Healing”, spread out over three years, to train students in the fundamentals of this complex healing system.  Tse Dup Yang Bod provides a comprehensive, integrated teaching about how to recognize the energetic relations among the internal organs and external elements, how to recognize soul loss, and how to restore soul energy from each of the five directions.  Invoking the healing power of the Long Life meditation mantra, channeling the five different types of healing energy, performing ritual soul retrieval and soul ransoming from evil spirits, provide the energetic heart of the Tse Dup teaching and practice.

 In May 2008, Chongtul Rinpoche taught the first year of Tse Dup to an internationally diverse group of students, masterfully laying the historical, spiritual and energetic foundations for that amazing transmission by His Holiness Lungtok Tenpai Nyima three years later.

INTERVIEW WITH CHONGTUL RINPOCHE:

What does the teaching title “Tse Dup Yang Bod” mean?

  Literally translated, Tse means life force, Dup means to intensify, Yang refers to the energetic essence of the soul, life force, and five elements, and Bod means to call or retrieve through respectful practice.

Thus, through long practice of specific meditations and the focused recitation of many mantras, we are connecting with and intensifying in ourselves the ancient, empowered life force energy of Tsewang Rigzin.  We are learning how to call and embody the highest essence of the energies from the different directions so that we can restore vitality and brightness to the soul, life force, and life.

Could you clarify the Bon concepts of soul (la), life force(tse) and life(sog) ?  How are they interrelated?

  The soul (la) is ultimately known directly.  Through cultivating an inner sensitivity and awareness, one comes to more clearly know and recognize the soul (la) of someone.  It is a brightness of mind, a vitality and radiant shining, the most essential energy of someone or something.   When we “look into” a person and see a shining or a dullness, we are catching a glimpse of the soul, that highest essential energy of someone.  In that glimpse we are also registering the yang of the soul: does it shine with a powerful radiance or is it energetically dull, like a fading light bulb.  It is possible for the soul energy to lose its vitality, indeed to be totally lost, but for a person to still be alive.

The life force (tse), refers to the life force energy of sentient beings.  When the soul energy is low, the life force is weakened.  Susceptibility to accidents and disease, a weakened immune system, and lack of interest in life can be indications of a weakened life force.  People can still be alive without this life force, for example, those in a deep coma.  They are just breathing and existing, unable to move, eat, communicate, or engage in life activities.

The life (sog) refers to biological life, and is most directly connected to the breath. One can still have life without the presence of the soul or life force; however, without life, death swiftly and inevitably results.

Rinpoche, based on years of extensive personal practice and research, you consolidated the rituals, prayers, and teachings of the Tse Dup Jha Ri Ma into a more accessible, modern format which you call “Tse Dup Yang Bod: Bon Soul Healing”.   Can you provide an overview of Tse Dup Yang Bod?

  This Tse Dup teaching is about how our soul, life force, and life are carried by the body.  The foundation of life and good health is strong, balanced communication among the five organs of spleen, lung, liver, kidney and heart, with the five inner elements of flesh, breath, heat, blood, and mind, with the five external elements of earth, wind, fire, water and space.  When our life is strong, then our life force has a vitality that shines as the strength of our soul.  When our soul is strong, we are healthy.  Conversely, when an organ is weak due to disease, trauma or stress and its connection to these elements is blocked, loss of soul energy can occur.

 From the Bon perspective, it is ultimately the five poisons of anger, attachment, jealousy, pride and ignorance that create suffering in samsara. The five poisons give rise to physical manifestations of imbalance and disease that weaken our energy and make us vulnerable to attacks on our life force, soul, and life.   We become increasingly unable to generate wisdom and life energy, and so we weaken. When instead we embody the five wisdoms of compassion, equality, openness, generosity and self-awareness, our mind and body are healthy, and negative energies can’t penetrate.  We have a strong life force and soul and are able to help others.    At the deepest level, Tse Dup is about reducing these five poisons in our self and in others, for this is the true root of all disease and soul loss.

  In Tse Dup one learns how to determine the root of the disease and to provide the root of healing.  One learns how to build healing energy, how to work with the energetic essence of the five elements, how to effectively utilize the energetic connections and communication pathways between the organs, elements, and soul energy.  Tse Dup is based on the ancient, ethnic Tibetan style of building healing energy from a deep understanding of the complex details, source and root. As a Tse Dup healer, one sends a specific healing energy based on this deep understanding, in contrast, for example, to Reiki, which channels a generalized healing energy.

Might you say a little more about the key elements that are addressed in each year of this Tse Dup Yang Bod teaching?

   In the first year, students learn to use the Long Life mantra to build healing energy, as well as to master detailed understandings of the identifying characteristics and connections among the five directions, external and inner elements, organs, inner poisons and wisdoms.  Students learn how to recognize specific signs of soul and life force loss, as well as how to collect and generate the specific type of energy needed for healing by using the ritual arrow (dhadar) and mirror (melong). Basic yoga techniques (trul khor) to open energy channels are introduced.  And it is so important that students learn how to bring peace and compassion to the negative energies that are weakening or holding a soul so that they, too, might be released from suffering.

 The second year builds on these teachings, with a special focus on learning how to generate in one’s palms the distinctive essence of each of the five elemental energies.  Students work with the yang, the highest quality of these energies, rather than with the elements themselves.  Students also learn more advanced techniques for reading soul energy, as well as traditional Bon divination techniques to determine if the soul energy has been successfully retrieved or if more healing work needs to be done.   Such divination can also help clarify whether the soul has not returned because the person is nearing death.  If that is so, then there is no need for more practice of Tse Dup; rather, one needs to help the person find a peaceful acceptance of the situation.

 The third year training represents a spiritual and energetic culmination of much detailed practice and dedication.   Students learn a technique for assessing soul dynamism that provides further insight into the effectiveness of what has been done so far and what type of healing might yet be needed.  There is an overall synthesis of the Tse Dup practice for returning the soul to the life force, returning the life force to the life, and integrating the life into the Ni syllable, the representation of the base consciousness.

  Although learning these energetic healing techniques is an important focus each year, there is deeper work as well.  The most fundamental task for the student is opening to the deep wisdom within.  Through dedicated practice of special meditation and healing mantras, students learn to “dust the mirror”, to see and become more familiar with their own inherent wisdom.  The Tse Dup student’s responsibility is to help others, and to do that effectively, it is most important to develop and strengthen one’s own inner wisdom.

Since learning and performing the Preliminary Practices (Ngondro) of Bon are a significant component of the Tse Dup teaching and student commitment, would you clarify the relation between spirituality and this healing practice?  Does one have to become a practicing Bonpo to learn the Tse Dup healing system?

Some people think that all Tibetan teachings are related to a religious purpose. But it is certainly not required to be a Bonpo or even to be a religious person to practice Tse Dup.  One might be a spiritual person or just have a strong interest in wellness.  The important thing is to have an open mind and heart: there is no need to believe in God or deities that will help you.  Each person already has the tools to help all sentient beings, each person has the seeds of enlightenment.  But without practice it is difficult for people to realize this.  Learning and performing the Preliminary Practice mantras helps build our soul energy, slowly purifying our inner poisons and helping to transform them into wisdom.   Reciting these mantras does not, in itself, mean that someone is a Bon practitioner.

To study this teaching is to study the heart of compassion; it is to learn how to develop and bring this healing energy into the world to help others. The foundation must be compassion: without compassion, there is no Tse Dup.  Compassion is the seed: without this seed nothing will grow in the field, even if there is water, good soil, and plenty of sunshine.  So, too, the Tse Dup healer must cultivate a heart seed of compassion; otherwise the energy sent is just energy.

What is your vision in bringing this teaching to Western students? 

The West has a very impressive physical medical system that skillfully treats diverse diseases and conditions.  However, there are many occasions when the patient does not respond to this medical treatment, and comes to exist in an increasingly listless and chronically ill state.  This ancient healing technique of Tse Dup Yang Bod provides a direct energetic working into the essential Mind that is seen to be the real root of disease. It provides very strong and effective healing for the soul and the life force. Throughout my life I have seen how this healing has helped Tibetans when physical medicine was ineffective.  I was very interested in bringing it here so that others could learn and benefit from this complete healing system for the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual components of life.

Because of the growing interest and need for access to this healing system, I am looking forward to once again teaching the entire three-year Tse Dup Yang Bod course myself, starting in May, 2013.  When approached with dedication of body, mind and spirit, the Tse Dup teaching opens the student to the infinite healing energy of compassion that is the heart of the universe, that is our true nature.

STUDENT PERSPECTIVES

Struck by the powerful, quite palpable, healing force of the compassionate energy that Chongtul Rinpoche radiated and threaded through the Tse Dup training, all his students felt connected to this teaching from the very first day.   Without exception, students have noted a greatly increased energetic sensitivity and ability to generate healing energy that carry over into other healing practices such as Reiki and Qi Gong.  Many report success in addressing physical ailments, including debilitating migraines, chronic back pain, vertigo, as well as profound shifts toward sustained emotional peace and stability. Although some students initially resisted the spiritual demands of this practice, it has become clear to all that the healing practice of Tse Dup heals oneself as much as it heals others.

  As student Cheri Brady observes:

“I have studied many healing modalities over the years, but it was Tse Dup Yang Bod that incorporated all the components into a beautiful interwoven tapestry of healing and spiritual awareness… Learning techniques to access and direct the vibration and frequency of this spiritual healing energy at the soul level brings a harmonious balance for self-healing as well as for helping others on their healing journey.”

Luminous Body Retreat

༄༅།།   བླ་མེད་རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་ཉམས་ལེན་ལས་འཇའ་ལུས་འོད་སྐུ་གདམ་ངག་ཆེན་མོ་་མན་ངག་སྒྲོན་མ་དྲུག་གི་སྐོར།

May 25-29, 2012

West Cornwall, CT

Meditation is a fundamental key to creating inner peace and peace in the world.  There are many ways to meditate. Closing one’s eyes, being in silence, holding the correct hand gestures and body position while maintaining an empty mind, produce a satisfying meditation. However, silence and a calm mind are not enough for the liberation meditation path.

Some practitioners never progress beyond the calm  mind. Others become so entranced with the empty mind that they do not continue to expand their awareness of wisdom.   Without deepening one’s wisdom, the mind is not fully grounded, and it can become unstable in many ways. Learning the techniques of effective meditation can help you create and maintain inner peace, health and ultimately attain the Luminous Body.

For this, we need to go beyond empty mind meditation.  We must look instead toward the strength of self-awareness meditation, which allows us to grow in wisdom more easily. With this proper introduction to the nature of the mind, you will learn ways to develop and recognize the natural wisdom inherent in your mind.

This “Luminous Body” teaching comes from an ancient Tibetan tradition with an unbroken lineage in Dzogchen teaching.  Dzogchen focuses on self-liberation and shows us that all phenomena come from the mind, stay in the mind, and dissolve into the mind.  All of our life experiences—happiness, suffering, struggling—are created by our mind. Since all of these experiences exist within the mind, our mind has the power to modify happiness into suffering, suffering into happiness, and ultimately to transform our physical body into a Luminous Body.

The wisdom of the mind is self-awareness.  This means that all phenomena, including the body and any afflictions, can be transformed into light and at the final stage, we can liberate ourselves into the Luminous Body(also known as the Rainbow Body).

In the Dzogchen tradition, these teachings are called A Tri, Nyengyue and scripture Dzogchen.  Special NyenGyue Dzogchen knowledge was passed along through oral teachings for over 2000 years in Zhang Zhung. This lineage produced 23 masters and the last of these, Tapihritsa (the “Luminous Boy”), was the first to write down these teachings, known as the “Six Diamonds” Teaching. This foundational Dzogchen teaching guides one in the most effective way to realize self-awareness and attain the Luminous Body or Dzogchen enlightenment.

This teaching will be very helpful for both experienced and novice practitioners.

For more details, please contact Bon Shen Ling retreat manager, Cheri Brady:

Email: cheri@bonshenling.org

Phone: 413 525 1698

Direct line: 413 636 8681

Retreat Cost:

*Bon Shen Ling Sustaining Members receive a 10% discount; Supporting Members receive a 5% discount

Please Note:  Due to the number of early registrations that have come in and the increased interest in this retreat, there are now only double occupancy rooms available.  If you desire a single room, please note your request in the “comment section” of the registration form.  There will be a waiting list for single rooms should they become available.  The waiting list will be kept according to when the registrations come in.  The earlier you register the higher your name is on the waiting list.  If all the rooms are not filled and a single room is available you will be notified and billed for the difference in price.

If you want a specific roommate, please note their name in the “comment section” of the registration form.  Trinity has one room with three beds and it will be used as double occupancy unless otherwise requested.  The price for triple occupancy is the same as the double room.

We hope to accommodate all retreat participants at the Trinity Conference Center, however if there is an overflow we will direct you to nearby B&Bs and hotels.

 Registration through April 20, 2012: Single $809 (not available) / Double $621 / Commuter $439

Registration after April 20, 2012: Single $884 (not available) / Double $696 / Commuter $514

Cancellation Policy: 10% nonrefundable administrative fee; within 20 days of event, 75% refund after administrative fee; within seven days, no refund.

Register Now

June 16-17, 2012: Five Energy Rays, San Francisco, CA

July 2-3, 2012: Indigenous Healing Traditions, a Meeting of the Mountains: Peru-Tibet, New York, NY

August 15-19, 2012:  Tsi Dup 5, West Cornwall, CT

September 13-23, 2012: Golden Spoon, Moscow & St. Petersburg, Russia

November 10-11, 2012: Medicine Buddha, Hanover, Indiana

Nov 30-Dec 2, 2012: Eight Loving Mother, Bloomfield, CT

May 24-June 2, 2013:  Tibetan Soul Healing – Tse Dup Yang Bod, Bloomfield, CT

July 26-29, 2013: Dark Retreat Study, Bloomfield, CT

Nov 7-10, 2013: Dance of Mother Universe, Bloomfield, CT

Its foundation is based on compassion for all living beings, and the recognition that suffering and one’s mental and physical well being can be affected by many forms of obstacles which can be related to energetic imbalances.

It was taught by Geshe Chongtul Rinpoche, a Tulku in the Bon tradition, who now lives in the United States. Rinpoche has a foundation in the US called Bon Shen Ling, which is committed to the preservation of the Bon culture and its teachings. He believes the time is right for these traditional secret teachings to come to the West as the world experiences more personal, economic and environmental challenges; and believes this practice in particular can be of great benefit, not only to the practitioner, but also those in the service of helping others. The healing technique is also known as Bon Soul Healing and is based on the five elements, Fire, Water, Air, Earth and Space, which are represented within the body as well as the world around us. These elements inside the body are affected by stress, trauma, or karma, and as a result, a form of soul loss can occur. If not brought back into balance, this can lead to mental, emotional or physical complications, illness, or even death. The training is quite comprehensive and students are taught the ways of developing the five inner elements as five specific types of energy, each having its own individual characteristics, which can be tested. The practice then involves learning to channel each element or compassionate energy, based on where the soul loss has occurred relating to certain organs and disease points. The essence is that when the element or elements are returned to balance, the soul and life force which were fragmented return to wholeness and the energetic disturbance ceases. Components of these instructions also contain Trul Khor, divination, energetic exercises including mantra recitation, and meditation, to name a few. Students were required to make a serious commitment to the studies and trainings, which included Preliminary Practices (the accumulation of 900,000 mantras of nine practices), the memorization of the ritual and life force ceremonies, and teacher-required conventions. The empowerment ceremony was made all the more auspicious as His Holiness the 33rd Menri Gyalwa Trizin, Lungtok Tenpai Nyima the Supreme Head of the Bon tradition, came from India to initiate the students, and these practitioners received the title “Drup Shenpa” which means “healer” in this tradition. Practitioners who have completed this intensive will be listed on the Bön Shen Ling website, and should you wish to consult this type of ancient Tibetan healing you may find out more at www.bonshenling.org, including details about the next three-year study with Chongtul Rinpoche, which will be in 2013. Published in Snow Lion Magazine, Winter 2011: http://www.snowlionpub.com/pages/N93_16.html

• Phowa practice
• Taking Refuge vows, which means opening the spiritual path
• Recognizing your own spiritual protector of the Bon lineage (Sungma)
• Your special tutelary deities (Yidam) who have always been with you since your Bardo time, while you looked for a new life, your rebirth, and constantly take care of your spiritual journey and protect you from any obstacles.
• Accumulation of the Preliminary Practices.

To this end, the daily retreat schedule will be:

• 7-8AM: Phowa practice in the gompa with the group.
• 9:30-10:30AM: One hour morning teaching.
• 11AM-12PM: Phowa practice in the gompa with the group
• 3-4PM: One hour evening teaching
• 5-6PM: Preliminary Practice
• 7-8PM: Phowa practice in the gompa with the group

The refuge vow rituals, Sungma and Yidam will occur only on the 6th day of the retreat.

Registration is open only to those students who have completed the first three years of Tsedup training. These students who wish to continue along this path of training may register online at www.bonshenling.org or by calling Paul in the Bon Shen Ling office. ( 646 524 7119 )

Cost:

• 995 for Single Room
• 900 for Double Room

To Register:

1. Online Now
2. info@bonshenling.org
3. (646) 524-7119