Raven Cypress Wood is a Tibetan translator, author, and Yungdrung Bön practice teacher and mentor. Over the course of many years, Raven Cypress Wood has had the opportunity to study and practice with many esteemed Yungdrung Bön masters including His Holiness 33^rd Menri Trizen Rinpoche, His Holiness 34th Menri Trizin Rinpoche, His Eminence Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche, and His Eminence Menri Pönlop Yangtön Thrinley Nyima Rinpoche. These teachings have included sutra, tantra, and dzogchen, as well as teachings from both Causal Ways of Bön and the Fruition Ways of Bön. She assisted with the installation of the first Yungdrung Bön Stupa in North America and assisted many Yungdrung Bön lamas with a variety of sacred rituals and healings.

She was born into a Christian family in the southern United States and throughout childhood into adulthood, she was focused on gaining spiritual knowledge and experience and was interested in the role that religion and spirituality played in people’s lives. For many years, she assisted people with healing and inner development regardless of their religious beliefs through her spiritual counseling practice that integrated personal ritual as a means of transformation. In 1999, she felt that it was time to focus more single-pointedly on her own spiritual path. She made a vow that for 100 days she would pray each morning to meet and connect with an authentic spiritual guide. In the first half of this 100 days of prayer, she met Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and felt an immediate connection. A couple of years later, having received many teachings from both him and other Yungdrung Bön lamas, and having accepted a position as retreat coordinator on the Ligmincha Council, she dissolved her thriving counseling practice and stopped her teaching and lectures related to ritual and healing. She moved from Massachusetts to Virginia and spent three months serving practitioners at Serenity Ridge Retreat Center who were undergoing the dzogchen practice of dark retreat. Afterwards, she lived at the retreat center for over six years and also acted as one of the caretakers in addition to her role as retreat coordinator.

When Raven began practicing the Yungdrung Bön tradition, she wanted to make more of the precious Tibetan language texts available in the English language, so she began to self-study classical written Tibetan. In order to translate the Tséwang Chokdu Jarima text which includes the commonly known practices of longevity and soul retrieval, she learned to read the Tibetan umé, or head-less, script along with its many hidden letters. In order to accurately translate Yungdrung Bön prayers and texts, she continually studies the historical, cultural, and political contexts specific to Yungdrung Bön and its ancient origins. In 2011-2013, she assisted with the creation and implementation of Ligmincha International’s 1^st Two-year Causal Vehicle Program teaching in-depth the rituals of longevity, soul retrieval, and death ransom from the Tséwang Chokdu Jarima as taught by the Yungdrung Bön ritual specialist, Murig Khenpo Geshe Nyima Künchap Rinpoche.

In her translations, with few exceptions, Raven does not use Sanskrit language words except for those that have come to be part of the general English lexicon. In this way, Raven’s English translations aim to stay true to the Yungdrung Bön and not be mixed with Buddhist contexts. This was the wish of His Eminence Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche. Similarly, when translating texts such as supplications that are written as poetry, she aims to translate the accurate literal and implied meaning as well as to convey the poetic beauty and tone of the original text. She has translated hundreds of Yungdrung Bön prayers, poems, practice texts, and commentaries. Many of her translations from Tibetan have also been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, French, Russian, Italian, and/or Thai. She is the author of:

• Indestructible: The Longevity Practice of Lama Tséwang Rikdzin
  • For those practitioners who have received the transmission, there are also two training manuals that cover the complete ritual practices of longevity, soul retrieval, and death ransom.
• Sacred Smoke: The Ritual Practice of Fumigation and Offering in the Yungdrung Bön Religious Tradition
• Forty-Three Trainings for an Enlightened Mind and Other Divine Writings
• A Blazing Mala of Wish-Fulfilling Jewels: A Compilation of Daily Prayers from the Yungdrung Bön Religious Tradition

Since 2013, she has been writing articles and offering information on the practice of Yungdrung Bön religious tradition as well as its history and culture on her website Nine Ways. This website has been also translated into the Spanish and Portuguese languages.

This bio was kindly requested by and translated into Tibetan by Geshe Chaphur Lhundrup Rinpoche.

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