A seed syllable frequently used in mantras and visualization. When standing alone it can be the symbol of Dzogchen, or nature of mind.

The mind that strives toward awakening, empathy, and compassion for the benefit of all sentient beings.

One with the intention to become a Buddha in order to liberate all other sentient beings from suffering

A Bön practitioner, sometimes written bonpo.

An enlightened one who is completely purified of defilements and who has achieved all the qualities of perfection, su

Literally meaning ‘Boundlessness’. Its essence is the truth that pervades throughout time and space and is the miracle that manifests in every moment.

As the indigenous spiritual tradition of Tibet, the Yungdrung Bön tradition originated with Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche, but the Old Bön tradition, which was more shamanic, existed earlier. The Bön tradition, found in eastern Tibet today, synthesises Yungdrung Bön with some practices from the Nyingma tradition.

It includes teachings and practices applicable to all parts of life, including our relationship with the elemental qualities of nature; our ethical and moral behavior; the development of love, compassion, joy, and equanimity; and Bön's highest teachings of the "Great Perfection," dzogchen.

According to the tradition, Buddha Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche came to this world and expounded his teachings in the land of Olmo Lungring. Ol symbolizes the unborn, mo the undiminishing, lung the prophetic words of Tonpa Shenrab, and ring his everlasting compassion. Some modern scholars have identified Olmo Lungring with Zhang Zhung, the country surrounding Mount Kailash in Western Tibet and the cradle of Tibetan civilisation.

Tonpa Shenrab is said to have taught Bön in three successive cycles of teachings. First he taught the "Nine Ways of Bön"; then he taught the "Four Bön Portals and the Fifth, the Treasury"; and finally he revealed the "Outer, Inner, and Secret Precepts." In the final cycle of teachings; the outer cycle is the path of renunciation, or sutric teachings; the inner cycle is the path of transformation, or tantric teachings; and the secret cycle is the path of self-liberation, or dzogchen teachings. This division into sutra, tantra, and dzogchen is also found in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.

Followers of Bön receive oral teachings and transmissions from teachers in a lineage unbroken from ancient times until the present day. In addition, most of the scriptural texts also have been preserved. While much in modern Bön is similar to Tibetan Buddhism, Bön retains the richness and flavor of its pre-Buddhist roots.

(tib: khor-lo; skrt: chakra) Literally 'wheel' or 'circle.' Chakra is a Sanskrit word referring to energetic centers in the body. A chakra is a location at which a number of energetic channels (tsa) meet. Different meditation systems work with different chakras.

(tib: tsa; skrt: nadi) The channels are the 'veins' in the system of energetic circulation in the body, through which stream the currents of subtle energy that sustain and vivify life. The channels themselves are energetic and cannot be found in the physical dimension. However, through practice or natural sensitivity, individuals can become experientially aware of the channels.

(tib: ch"s; skrt: dharma) A very broad term, dharma has many meaning. Most commonly, dharma is both the spiritual teachings that ultimately derive from the Buddhas and the spiritual path itself. Dharma also means existence.

tib: ch"s sku; skrt: dharmakaya) A buddha is said to possess three bodies (kaya): dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nirmanakaya. The dharmakaya, often translated as the "truth body," refers to the absolute nature of the buddha, which all buddhas share in common and which is identical with the absolute nature of all that exists: emptiness. The dharmakaya is non-dual, empty of conceptuality and free of all characteristics. (See also sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya.)

(tib: rdzogs chen) The "great perfection" or "great completion." Dzogchen is considered the highest teaching and practice in Tibetan Buddhism. Its fundamental tenet is that reality, including the individual, is already complete and perfect, that nothing needs to be transformed (as in tantra) or renounced (as in sutra) but only recognised for what it truly is. The essential dzogchen practice is "self-liberation"; allowing all that arises in experience to exist just as it is, without elaboration by the conceptual mind, without grasping or aversion.

Dzogchen was traditionally a very secret tradition, and would only have been shared with practitioners who had already spent years of preparation using the techniques of sutra and tantra, for while Dzogchen is very simple and direct, it is difficult to fully realise without having done practices to purify and stabilise the mind.

(Tib. ཡེ་ཤེས་ལྔ་, yeshe nga; Wyl. ye shes lnga) Wisdom of Emptiness, Mirror-like Wisdom, Wisdom on Equanimity, Wisdom of Discrimination, Wisdom of Accomplishment.

The five aspects of primordial wisdom

Sogyal Rinpoche writes:

“You can also think of the nature of mind like a mirror, with five different powers or 'wisdoms.' Its openness and vastness is the wisdom of all-encompassing space [or dharmadhatu], the womb of compassion. Its capacity to reflect in precise detail whatever comes before it is the mirror-like wisdom. Its fundamental lack of any bias toward any impression is the equalizing wisdom [or wisdom of equality]. Its ability to distinguish clearly, without confusing in any way the various different phenomena that arise, is the wisdom of discernment. And its potential of having everything already accomplished, perfected, and spontaneously present is the all-accomplishing wisdom.” (The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, p. 157)

(Tib. དུག་ལྔ་, duk nga, Wyl. dug lnga) Desire, Anger, Ignorance, Pride and Jealousy. These five can be further condensed into the three poisons: Pride as a combination of Ignorance and Desire, and Jealousy as a combination of Desire and Anger.

A monastic academic degree in the Bön tradition, awarded at the conclusion of lengthy studies lasting nine years or more.

(tib: las; skrt: karma) Karma literally means "action," but more broadly refers to the law of cause and effect. Any action taken physically, verbally, or mentally, serves as a "seed" that will bear the "fruit" of its consequences in the future when the conditions are right for its realisation. Positive actions have positive effects, such as happiness; negative actions have negative effects, such as unhappiness. Karma does not mean that life is determined, but that conditions arise out of past actions.

(tib: bag chags) Every action -- physical, verbal, or mental -- undertaken by an individual, if performed with intention and even the slightest aversion or desire, leaves a trace in the mindstream of that individual. The accumulation of these karmic memory traces serve to condition every moment of experience of that individual, positively and negatively.

The abbott of a monastery. Note that the meaning of khempo in the Kagyu tradition is different, meaning a monk who has completed a three year training retreat.

The three Kleshas of ignorance, attachment, and aversion are identified as the root or source of all other poisons and are mental states that cloud the mind and manifest in non-virtueous actions. They are seen as the very roots of cyclic existence (samsara).

The literal translation is All-Good. Generally this means the pure state of the Primordial Enlightened One. Many times Kuntuzangpo is illustrated as a naked blue Buddha, and understood to be a symbol of the dharmakaya.