Tonpa Shenrab (Tibetan : སྟོན་པ་གཤེན་རབ་མི་བོ་།, Wylie : ston pa gshen rab་ mi bo, lit. 'Teacher Shenrab'), 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. [1]
"[Shenrab Miwo] occupies a position very similar to that of Śākyamuni in Buddhism, but ... we have no available [or pre-10th century] sources with which to establish his historicity, his dates, his racial origin, his activities, and the authenticity of the enormous number of books either attributed directly to him or believed to be his word." [2]
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'). [3]
According to Bon doctrine, Tonpa Shenrab lived 18,000 years ago, predating Gautama Buddha. [4] 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.
Shenrab Miwoche is said to have three aspects or forms:
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The Trikāya doctrine is a fundamental doctrine within Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism that delineates the multidimensional nature of a Buddha's existence. This concept posits that a Buddha has three distinct bodies or aspects, each representing a different facet of enlightenment. The first body is the Dharmakaya, often referred to as the "Dharma body" or ultimate reality. This embodies the essence of enlightenment itself, encompassing concepts like emptiness, Buddha nature, and pure existence beyond material and spiritual forms.
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