Category Archives: Uncategorized

Special Day for Healing Waters Practice

His Eminence Menri Yongdzin Pönlop Yangtön Thrinley Nyima Rinpoche gives blessed water for cleansing obscurations and bestowing blessings to the school children of the Tapriza School in Dolpo, Nepal.

The 5th lunar day of the 7th month each year is a powerful day for receiving blessed water or for practicing with water for cleansing or healing. In 2025, this lunar date corresponds with August 28th. Healing from blessed water or other types of medicine taken on this day will continue to have amplified power for seven days.

A belief shared among many religious traditions is that particular bodies of water can bestow purification, healing, eternal youth, or special knowledge. Within the Yungdrung Bön religious tradition, there are many rituals to imbue water with the blessings and power of the enlightened ones in order to wash away negativities and provide healing and protection. This kind of water and its associated ritual cleansing is known as trü [Tibetan: khrus]. There are daily practices of ritual washing that are performed at dawn in order to cleanse the body, speech, and mind. In particular, this is one of the practices adopted by genyen, or lay practitioners with vows. In Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen’s Thirteen Daily Yogas, he gives instructions for external, internal, and secret cleansing using water. According to one’s current practice, the source of purification is from Buddha Sherap Jamma, Shenlha Ökar, or Küntu Zangpo.

“OM, From the nature of enlightened body, speech, and mind from the mandala of the completely pure Bön essence, a stream of three tiklés descend. This is water of the great unborn enlightened body. May the stains of the physical body become purified! This is water of the great unceasing enlightened speech. May the stains of speech become purified! This is water of the great undeluded enlightened mind. May the stains of mind become purified! Having purified the obscurations of body, speech, and mind of myself and the limitless sentient beings, may we be endowed with the completely pure three trainings!”

— From Stainless Majestic Splendor

One of the most widespread healing practices using water is Nampar Jompa’s Healing Waters Mantra practice. The enlightened deity Nampar Jompa has a wrathful appearance with a blue-colored body with serpents as ornaments on his arms, legs, waist, and hair.

Nampar Jompa

“I, myself, as the deity Nampar Jompa hold in my right hand a vessel filled with elixir.  In my left hand, I hold a mirror which removes all illness and injury.  Having washed with this healing water, I clearly imagine that any remaining contamination is washed away because of this medicine.”  

— From The Practice of the Washing Rite within Nampar Jompa’s Healing Waters Mantra

At the conclusion of the practice after the practitioner has transformed into the deity Nampar Jompa, empowered the water with mantra, and then washed with the water, the practice text concludes with a notation emphasizing the power of the practice.

“Thus, through this supplication prayer of the washing rite, having purified all traces of previous illness and negative external influences, just like the overflow of water from a crystal vessel, imagine that all negativity and illness leave from the tips of the fingers and toes, the nostrils and the secret place.

There is no place what-so-ever for the creation of even the smallest thing to arise.  Not even a single atom remains that needs to be purified!”

Sigyal Drakngak Walmo, the enlightened deity who protects from contagious disease through empowered water

During the global pandemic of Covid-19, many Yungdrung Bön lamas advised their disciples to engage with the mantra and practice of Sigyal Drakngak who is one of the most wrathful manifestations of Sipé Gyalmo who specifically protects from infectious disease through the use of empowered water. Translation of this text, The Heartdrop of Si Gyal that is All-pervasive and Clears Away Afflictive Emotions and Illness, has been published in both English and French. Because this is a restricted text, it is available only for those who have received transmission for the practice. (If you have received transmission and would like to order a copy of the translation, email Raven Cypress Wood at the email address listed below with the name of the teacher and the year that you received transmission and you will be given the ordering information.)

“OM! This water of nectar has the nature of wisdom and medicine. May all negative karma, afflictive emotions and discursive thoughts of migrating beings be washed away! May all illness, external negative forces, karmic potentialities, and contaminations be purified!”

— From The Heartdrop of Si Gyal that is All-pervasive and Clears Away Afflictive Emotions and Illness

In addition to the practices specifically using water as a method of purification, healing, or empowerment, there are practices and mantra that can be used to transform water from an ordinary substance to one that is imbued with extraordinary qualities. Again in Shardza Rinpoche’s Thirteen Daily Yogas, he suggests using the following mantra for all daily liquids in order to transform them into nectar: SO OM MA MA MU YE A OM HUNG TING NAM DÜTSI SO TA. One should recite the mantra seven or twenty-one times, blow onto the liquid, and then drink while visualizing that it has become the nectar of wisdom. 

Also, the great mantra, OM MA TRI MU YÉ SA LÉ DU, has extraordinary power and can be recited one hundred times or more, without the interruption of ordinary speech, then blown onto clean water used for drinking or cleansing. According to the chapter within the MA TRI tantra entitled The Thirty-two Benefits of the Sufficient Recitation of the Precious Lamp:

“Anyone affected by contaminated energy, latent karmic potentialities, misfortune, or defilements, having recited this MA TRI mantra into pure, clean water, if they ritually wash for seven mornings, even karmic defilements will be purified.”

— From The Thirty-two Benefits of the Recitation Practice of the Precious Lamp

The Heartdrop of Jamma is an aural transmission from Khandro Sherap Lo Pélma who is a manifestation of Sherap Jamma and a deity who is specifically practiced in order to develop the intellect. In The Heartdrop of Jamma, the practitioner uses the power of the mantric syllables to transform each aspect of their body into one of Jamma’s countless manifestations. This text is commonly recited by Yungdrung Bön families after the final meal of the day. This texts lists many benefits of its recitation including the use of water.

“If you recite the mantra to good quality water mixed with powdered, medicinal incense containing blessed medicine and the six excellent substances, and then cleanse with that water, all illness and sickness caused by negative forces will be pacified and all defilements and contaminations will be purified.” 

— From The Heartdrop of Jamma

The English, Spanish, and French translations of The Heartdrop of Jamma have been published and are available to anyone through this link: https://www.lulu.com/search?page=1&q=raven+cypress+wood&pageSize=10&adult_audience_rating=00

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His Eminence Yongdzin Rinpoche: Cremation of the Holy Physical Remains and Fire Offering Rites

The Sacred vessel containing the Holy Physical Remains of His Eminence Yongdzin Tendzin Namdak Rinpoché

Since the parinirvana of the esteemed and greatly beloved master, His Eminence Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoché, the worldwide Yungdrung Bön community has been observing a 49-day period of veneration, prayers, and offerings to receive blessings and accumulate great spiritual merit. On Friday August 2, 2025 this 49-day period concluded. From August 4th to August 9th, an extensive fire offering rite according to the cycle of the Künrig Le Zhi Gyün Nga‘i Jin Sek will be performed. During this time on August 6th, the actual cremation of the holy physical remains will take place. The Künrig Le Zhi Gyün Nga‘i Jin Sek, is one of the primary texts in the Yungdrung Bön religious tradition used for cremation rites and the continuous fire offerings that take place. For this, a great variety and quantity of offerings are being prepared. Among these offerings are many large and small boards written with mantras and prayers that will be read by the officiating lama, consecrated with blessed substances, and then placed into the fire.

Offerings for the fire offering rites
Offerings for the fire offering rites
A great accumulation of fire offerings

During these rites, the holy physical remains will be cremated in a specially built chorten [Sanskrit: stupa]. After the conclusion of the ritual, once the ash from the offering rites has cooled, it will be carefully collected along with any relics and saved to be placed into a reliquary chorten that will be built to hold the relics along with a variety of other sacred objects and substances. Additionally, many sa tsa will be made that will be filled with some of the cremation ash and distributed to faithful disciples and supporters.

Construction of the cremation chorten at Triten Norbutsé Monastery

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610th Anniversary of the Parinirvana of The Second Buddha Nyammé Sherap Gyaltsen Rinpoche

Statue of Nyammé Sherap Gyaltsen Rinpoche in Amdo, Tibet. Photo credit: Unknown

The 8th lunar day of the 6th month is the anniversary of the parinirvana of the founder and first abbot of Menri Monastery, The Second Buddha, Nyammé Sherap Gyaltsen Rinpoche. In 2025, this date coincides with August 1st. He was born in 1356 C.E. in the Gyalrong region of Tibet into the esteemed Dru family lineage. He passed into Nirvana in 1415 C.E. at the age of 60. He is also known as Lord Rinpoche or The Second Buddha. He is renowned for many reasons, including his ability to unite the lineage of sutric, tantric, and dzogchen transmissions into a single lineage that has now been transmitted directly through the lineage of Menri Monastery abbots reaching to the current 34th abbot of Menri Monastery, Khenchen Lungtok Dawa Dargyal Rinpoche. (For more information about Nyammé Sherap Gyaltsen Rinpoche, see previous article: https://ravencypresswood.com/2022/03/06/666th-birth-celebration-of-the-second-buddha-h-h-the-1st-menri-trizin-nyamme-sherap-gyaltsen-rinpoche/ )

Title folio to The Wish-fulfilling Jewel of Inner Accomplishment of Lord Rinpoche

Although the unrivaled. Nyammé Sherap Gyaltsen Rinpoche spent time traveling, teaching, and performing his duties as abbot and leader of the Yungdrung Bön community, he was also able to complete an extensive collection of writings. These, along with the compositions of the 23rd Menri Trizin, Khenchen Nyima Tenzin, make up the bulk of the compositions allowed to be part of the Yungdrung Bön dialectic college.

The Writings of His Holiness Nyammé Sherap Gyaltsen Rinpoche*

Cycle of Supplication and Aspiration Prayers

  • Praise of the Four Supreme Places of Refuge
  • Offering and Praise to Mawé Sengé
  • Supplication Prayer to the Mawé Sengé Lineage
  • Praise of Venerable Essence of [the] Dru [Family Lineage]
  • Eight Characteristics of Tséwang’s Eight Sacred Places
  • Stages of Chanted Supplications
  • Eight-branched Aspiration Prayer, A Ladder to Freedom
  • Homage to the Charactristics of the Aural Transmission Shenraps
  • The Gift of the Physical Body
  • Condensed Peaceful Chö of Gifting the Body
  • Command for the Gods and Demons                            

Cycle of Fumigation and Fulfillment

  • Stages of Preliminary Practices for a Completely Pure Fumigation Offering
  • A Small Collection Regarding the Medicine Deity Generation Stage
  • Supplication and Requesting Consideration from the Marvelous Ones
  • Invocation of the Practice Lineage
  • Special Fulfillment
  • A Completely Pure River of Requesting Consideration and Supplication
  • Burnt Offerings of the Treasury of Precious Terma
  • General Fulfillment from a Bundle of Precious Terma
  • A Precious Mala of Fumigation Offerings
  • Fumigation Offering to the Powerful Ones
  • Fumigation Offering to Sigyal
  • Fumigation Offering to Black Mule Sigyal from the Precious Terma
  • Sigyal’s Manifested Realization
  • Sigyal’s Threadcross Practice
  • A Brief Paper on Sigyal’s Threadcross
  • A Brief Paper on Black Mule Sigyal’s Feast Offering
  • Short Fulfillment Practice of Black Mule Sigyal
  • Practice of the Black Net Threadcross
  • The Shining Lamp of Realization of the Red and Black Threadcross
  • Commandments for the Avowed Guardians of the Teachings
  • Important Points regarding the Fulfillment of Midü Jampa
  • Fumigation Offering to Midü
  • Offering and Fulfillment to Drak Tsen
  • Fumigation Offering to Drak Tsen
  • Invocation of Nyipangsé
  • Command for Nyipangsé
  • Command for the Queen of the Drala
  • Gyalpo Sheltrap Torma Offering and Fulfillment
  • A Brief Invocation of Sheltrap
  • Praise in Appreciation of the Fumigation Offering
  • Supplement to the Fumigation Offering
  • Generation Stage for the Fulfillment Torma

Cycle of Supplementary Texts for the Practices of Accomplishment

  • Destroying the Door to Negative Rebirths
  • Realization of the Completely Pure Lotus of the Vast Expanse
  • Mantric Accomplishment of Shenrap Nampar Gyalwa
  • Fire Offerings of Nampar Gyalwa
  • Realization of the Yungdrung Sutra of the Vast Expanse
  • Going for Refuge according to the Vast Expanse
  • Practice of Künzang’s Luminous AH
  • Stages of Meditative Stabilization
  • Text for Künzang’s Luminous AH
  • Stages of Realization for Walsé
  • Accomplishing the Essential Through the Realization of Walsé
  • Purification and Increase of Torma
  • Accomplishment of Sending Out and Gathering Back with Mantra Accumulation
  • Practice of the Secret Mantra Lineage
  • Realization of Black Garuda Walsé
  • Clarifying the Realization of Black Garuda Walsé
  • Expanding the Realization of the Amazing Trowo 
  • Secret Quintessential Instructions for the General Practice of the Amazing Trowo
  • Invitation, Homage, and Confession of Wrongdoing for the Reversal Practice of the Great Red Trowo
  • Inviting the Wisdom Zema
  • Aspiration Prayer for Threadcross Practice
  • A Lamp that Clarifies the Meditative Focus of Secret, Greatly Wrathful Gekhö
  • Supplication to the Gekhö Lineage
  • Complete Supplication, A Rainshower of Blessings
  • Practice of the Secret Wrathful Lineage
  • The Irreversible Mantra of Gekhö, A Golden Razor
  • Supplement to Presenting Offerings to the Gekhö Deities
  • Realization of Walpur, Ornaments of Fire
  • Fulfillment of the Walpur Lineage
  • Outline for the Empowerment and Teachings of Walpur, A Rainshower of Blessings
  • Empowerment and Teachings of Walpur, A Rainshower of Blessings
  • Realization of Tséwang Tartuk
  • Accomplishment of Tséwang Tartuk
  • Fire Offerings to Tséwang
  • Introduction for Empowerments
  • Musical Notations for Festivals

Cycle of Science

  • Tikles and Channels of Relics and the Physical Body of Those Gone to Bliss
  • Clarification regarding the characteristics of colored powders, A Magical Mirror

Cycle of Authoritative Commentaries

  • Analyzing the Characteristics of The Magical Lamp Text
  • Analyzing the Characteristics of The Magical Lamp Autocommentary
  • Clarification of the Limits of All Knowable Things
  • Commentary Regarding the Sutric and Tantric Explanations of the Stages of the Vehicles
  • Text of the Grounds and the Paths
  • Autocommentary of Text of the grounds and the paths
  • A Clear Lamp for the Path of Liberation
  • Commentary Regarding the Clear Explanation of the Abridged Kham Gyé
  • Commentary Regarding the Two Truths in the Middle Way, A Magical Lamp
  • A Commentary of Clear Advice Regarding Monastic Discipline
  • Commentary of Condensed Discipline
  • Renewing Monastic Discipline
  • Commentary Regarding Cosmology
  • Clarifying Secret Points
  • Detailed Analysis of the Secret Vows
  • Hidden Commentary on the Mind of Enlightenment, Mandala of the Sun

* Although this list is extensive, it is not complete

Raven Cypress Wood ©All Rights Reserved. No content, in part or in whole, is allowed to be used without direct permission from the author.

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96th Anniversary of the Birth of His Holiness the 33rd Menri Trizin Lungtok Tenpé Nyima Rinpoché

Close-up of traditional scroll painting depicting His Holiness the 33rd Menri Trizin Lungtok Tenpé Nyima Rinpoché

His Holiness the 33rd Menri Trizin Lungtok Tenpé Nyima Rinpoché was born in Tibet on the 15th day of the 5th lunar month in the Western year 1929 in the village of Kyongtsang in the far eastern province of Amdo. In 2025, this date corresponds with July 10th on the Western calendar.

When he was eight years old, his father took him to the nearby monastery of Phuntsok Dargyé Ling where he learned to read, write and chant. At the age of fourteen, he received instructions on the preliminary practices of dzogchen and completed the nine-hundred thousand accumulations three times. In 1945 at the age of seventeen, he received novice monk vows from Kyangtsang Lama Sherap Tenpé and was given the name Sherap Namdak. He completed his Geshé Degree at the age of twenty-five under the guidance of Lopön Tenzin Lodro Gyatso Rinpoché. The following year, he traveled South to the Bön province of Gyalrong, where he printed copies of the Bön Kanjur from traditional woodblocks. After gathering a vast amount of material and using mules to carry more than 100 volumes of the sacred texts, he made an arduous six-month journey back to his monastery. In 1956 at the age of twenty-eight, he traveled to the famous Yungdrung Ling Monastery and received monk vows from the Pönlop and was given the name Sangyé Tenzin. In 1960 at the age of thirty-two, as he passed through Mustang and Dolpo on his way to India, he borrowed many rare texts in order to reprint them in India and ensure their preservation.

In 1968, many esteemed Yungdrung Bön lamas gathered together in order to coordinate the process of selecting a successor of the late 32nd Menri Trizin. After several days of extensive prayers and rituals, Sangyé Tenzin’s name emerged as the one to hold the lineage of Nyammé Sherap Gyaltsen. In 1969 at the age of forty, after extensive preparatory initiations, he assumed his duties as the 33rd Abbot of Menri Monastery and began leading the effort to re-establish Menri Monastery in Dolanji, India.

His Holiness the 33rd Menri Trizin Rinpoche. Photo credit: Unknown

In 1970, he began construction of the main temple of Pal Shenten Menri Ling in Dolanji and lead efforts to restore Menri Monastery in Tibet. In 1972, he opened a dispensary at Pal Shenten Menri Ling that distributed medicine freely to the monks, the Tibetan settlers in the nearby village, as well as to the local Indians. In 1975, he began a school for the Bönpo children, and in 1978 he founded the dialectic school to continue the tradition of in-depth education of the traditional and philosophical sciences that results in the esteemed degree of geshe.

After many years of indescribable and tireless efforts on behalf of the Yungdrung Bön tradition as well as the worldwide Bön community and all sentient beings, he displayed the truth of impermanence and passed into nirvana on the 27th day of the 7th lunar month in the Western year 2017. The auspicious occasion of the celebration of his birth is an opportunity to generate great merit through spiritual practice and virtuous activities of body, speech and mind.

“EMAHO!

To the lama who is the embodiment of all of the victors and spiritual masters, who acts principally through the accomplishment of Bön for sentient beings who are as limitless as the sky,

I offer prostrations with my body, prostrating with my arms, legs and head!

I prostrate with my speech, chanting with a joyous and inspired melody!

I prostrate with my mind, paying homage with single-pointed motivation and devotion!

May the negative actions and defilements of my three doors become purified!

AH OM HUNG CHI PAR RAYNA KO PUNG AKSHO TRI TSE GU DÜN HRUN”

— From Offerings for the Lama

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Summer Ritual at Menri Monastery: The Great Secret Dō Ritual of The Vast Sky

Representation of the phenomenal world with its wondrous and desirable contents created at Menri Monastery

During the 12th-16th lunar days of the 5th lunar month, Menri Monastery together with the Rayna Menling Nunnery will conduct the annual Kha Long Sangwé Dō Chen, The Great Secret Dō Ritual of the Vast Sky. In 2025, these dates correspond with July 7th-11th. The purpose of this elaborate ritual cycle is to pacify or expel obstacles and malevolent energies, rebalance the five elements, attract good fortune, longevity, and positive circumstances, and to bring healing and harmony to the environment and its seen and unseen inhabitants. This ritual was taught directly by the enlightened Lord Tönpa Shenrap Miwoché as a skillful method to work with external, worldly forces that interfere with the happiness and success of sentient beings. These teachings are part of the Second Way of Bön, The Way of the Shen of the Phenomenal World. As in every teaching and ritual of the Yungdrung Bön, the foundation of the practice is unbiased, unlimited compassion. Even when so-called “malevolent spirits” are expelled because of their unwillingness to stop harming others, the expulsion is from a base of compassion for both those being harmed as well as for those causing the harm. By interrupting their harmful actions towards others, it also prevents them from accumulating negative karma. Additionally, every ritual concludes with prayers of aspiration that all beings be happy and peaceful, and ultimately to realize the ultimate state of enlightenment that is beyond any kind of suffering or unhappiness.

To support the ritual of The Great Secret Dō Ritual of the Vast Sky, a representation of the phenomenal world is created along with all the good and precious things within it. These things are offered to the enlightened ones, the worldly protectors, powerful spirits, and all the six kinds of sentient beings. By offering to the deities, the accumulation of merit is increased and previous negative actions are purified. By offering to the worldly protectors, they are delighted and continue to fulfill their vows of protection and bestowing abundance. By offering to the powerful spirits, we bring harmony to our relationship with them and pay any debts that might invoke their retribution. By giving to all the six kinds of sentient beings, we fulfill their desires and their minds become peaceful and satisfied.

His Eminence Menri Pönlop Thrinley Nyima Rinpoche instructing the monks in creating namkha

About Namkha

In addition to the many offerings of torma, precious gems, foodstuffs, flowers and greenery, fragrant smells, soft materials, and so on; this ritual makes abundant use of the ritual object known as a namkha. The Tibetan term namkha literally translates as “sky” or “external space.” This term is often translated as “thread-cross.” There are many different kinds of namkha that have a diversity of form and function. Just as the shape, color, ingredients, and use of a torma is determined by its ritual purpose, so is the shape, color, and function of a namkha determined by its ritual purpose. As for the actual construction, a namkha is created by affixing thin pieces of bamboo or wood together to establish a frame. Then, beginning at the center and working outward, strands of colored wool, yarn, or thread are used to weave a net-like pattern over the frame. The length of the wood or bamboo is notched to allow the colored strands to catch and stay in place. There is a great variation in framework and patterns. For example, if the namkha is being used as a temporary abode of a deity or spirit, the pattern and colors used will be representative of the physical characteristics and hand objects of that deity or spirit. Namkha are used as a dwelling for deities or spirits during a ritual, to attract or repel specific energies and qualities, for protection from danger and disease, and as offerings, among other purposes.

Namkha created for the fire ritual of the deity Duk Kar, the White Umbrella Goddess

Dō Rituals

Buddha Tönpa Shenrap Miwoché taught 365 different types of rituals. The Great Secret Dō Ritual of the Vast Sky is categorized as a type of ritual. Because many of the dō rituals make use of namkha, some Western scholars have erroneously stated that the terms [Tibetan: mdos] and namkha are synonymous. This is incorrect. There are dō rituals that do not use namkha, and there are many namkha that are used in rituals other than those categorized as dō. In general, dō rituals are the most important of the ransom rituals used for eliminating harm to the life force, diseases, danger, and other disturbances from nonhuman beings. In general, the nonhuman beings causing harm are offered an exchange of desirable things for the release of those being harmed. Namkha are used to invite the enlightened deities who are the objects of refuge for the ritual, and the protectors who subdue the malevolent forces. Other types of namkha are made as offerings to the deities and gifts of exchange for the ransom. Still other types of namkha act as supports for the return of the life force, and the rebalancing of the external, internal, and secret five elements. There are different kinds of dō rituals in order to appeal to the variety of nonhuman beings that create disturbances for humanity and the environment.

Namkha of various auspicious symbols

The scripture for the Kha Long Sangwé Dō Chen is almost one thousand pages in length. It includes chapters dedicated to instructions for the construction of ritual items, texts for the ransom rituals for men, women, and children, rituals for stopping and healing illness and contagious disease, rituals for renewing and fulfilling sacred vows, rituals for calling upon the magically powerful and benevolent worldly protectors, rituals for strengthening the life force and prosperity, rituals for appeasing the many kinds of nonhuman spirits, rituals for forcefully repelling negative forces, and so on. The overall purpose of all of these rituals is to bring peace and happiness within the world of appearances, and to generate faith in the Yungdrung Bön teachings which will guide all sentient beings to the ultimate goal of liberation from all the suffering of cyclic existence.

Raven Cypress Wood and Khenpo Nyima Künchap Rinpoche prepare namkha for an elaborate ritual offering to the lu [Sanskrit: naga]

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