The 15th day of the 12th lunar month is the 18,043rd birth anniversary of the founder of the Yungdrung Bön religious tradition, Buddha Tönpa Shenrap Miwoché. In 2026, this lunar day coincides with February 1st. This is an especially auspicious time to perform acts of virtue and take sacred vows.
In the ancient past, there were three brothers named Dakpa, Salwa, and Shépa who lived in a pure world and who had studied and mastered the Yungdrung Bön teachings. With the power of their clairvoyance, they could see sentient beings within the three thousand-fold universe creating karma and experiencing suffering by being trapped in the cycle of birth, aging, sickness, death, and rebirth. They felt great compassion for these beings and went before the god of compassion, Shenlha Ökar and asked how they could help rescue sentient beings from their suffering and misery. Shenlha Ökar instructed them to go into the world one after another in order to guide beings out of suffering with the Yungdrung Bön teachings. Dakpa, being the eldest, went first to the planet Earth and ministered to sentient beings. Dakpa was born as a human being and took the name Togyal Yékhyen. For a thousand years, he taught both humans and non-human beings and countless sentient beings were liberated. Afterward, he presented an account of his time on earth to various wisdom deities and asked how it might be possible to liberate those beings who he had been unable to tame. The wisdom deities responded that even though the Yungdrung Bön was all that was needed, even the light of the sun that pervades everywhere cannot illuminate a windowless house, or a north-facing cave. Thus, sentient beings that persist in their wrongdoing because of being afflicted with the passion of their five poisons are very difficult to tame. Thus, Buddha Togyal Yékhyen wrote his teachings down with turquoise ink on ivory-colored paper and then went to see the middle brother, Salwa. He addressed him with these words:
“Although countless sentient beings have been liberated through my activities, I have left the earth and cyclic existence. After some time has passed, it will be appropriate for you to begin your work of liberating sentient beings from cyclic existence through the teachings of Yungdrung Bön.”
Time passed, and as acts of virtue declined on the earth, so did the energy of loving kindness. The generations of benevolent kings passed and the teachings of Buddha Togyal Yékhyen faded from the world. As the era came to an end, there was destruction of the land and civilizations by floods, fire, and earthquakes. After a period of emptiness, a new time period began. Salwa left his pure abode and descended to the realms of the gods to prepare for a birth of flesh and blood as a human being. He was born on earth in the land of Tazik Olmo Lungring as a prince in the Southern palace of Barpo Sogyé 18,043 years ago. He was given the name Shenrap because he was born into the Shen clan and was the highest within this clan, Rap. He was named Miwoché because he had taken a great human form. His personal name was Künlé Namgyal, Completely Victorious Over Everything. A total of seven buddhas had manifested in cyclic existence in the eons prior to his birth. This is why he is known as the eighth buddha, or the eighth guide of sentient beings. Because he was already an enlightened being and beyond cyclic existence, his taking birth in the human realm is considered a great deed of compassion.
He was born just before sunrise on the 15th day of the 12th lunar month to King Gyalbon Thökar and Queen Gyal Zhema. He had all of the major and minor marks of an enlightened being. A gathering of gods from above, a gathering of deities from intermediate space, and a gathering of powerful earth spirits all circumambulated the palace and proclaimed that they had arrived in order to be the first disciples of Tönpa, The Teacher.
This is an especially auspicious day to recite the following Homage to Tönpa Shenrap Miwo. Many masters, including Menri Pönlop Yangtön Trinley Nyima Rinpoche, recite this prayer before giving teachings.
སྟོན་པའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་འཁོར་བ་འདྲེན་པའི་དཔལ། མུན་པའི་ཚོགས་རྣམས་འཇོམས་བྱེད་སྒྲོན་མེའི་འོད། མ་རིག་ནད་གདུང་སེལ་བ་སྨན་པའི་གཙོ། མི་ཡི་མཆོག་ཏུ་གྱུར་པ་དམུ་ཡི་རྒྱལ། དུག་ལྔའི་འདམ་དང་མཚོ་སྐེམས་མེ་ཆེན་དཔུང་། མཚན་དང་དཔེ་བྱད་སྡན་པའི་གཟི་འཕགས་པོ། དཀའ་བ་སྣ་ཚོགས་དང་དུ་བླངས་ནས་ནི། མཛད་པ་སྣ་ཚོག་མཐར་རུ་ཕྱིན་མཛད་ཅིང་། གཟིགས་ཚད་བཞི་དང་དགོངས་ཚད་དྲུག་གཉིས་ཀྱིས། བྱམས་པ་ཆེན་པོས་འཁོར་བ་སྒྲོལ་མཛད་པའི། གཤེན་རབ་སྤྲུལ་པའི་སྐུ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།
tön pé gyal po khor wa dren pé pel, mün pé tsok nam jom jé drön mé ö, ma rik né dung sel wa men pé tso, mi yi chok tu gyur pa mu yi gyal, duk ngé dam dang tso kem mé chen pung, tsen dang pé jé den pé zi pak po, ka wa na tsok dang du lang né ni, dzé pa na tsok tar ru chin dzé ching, zik tsé zhi dang gong tsé druk nyi kyi, jam pa chen pö khor wa dröl dzé pé, shen rap trül pé ku la chak tsal lo
“Homage to the Eighth Guide of the Universe, Sangyé Tönpa Shenrap Miwo
King of Teachers, you are a glorious guide out of cyclic existence. A lamp who dispels all darkness, you are the principal physician who clears away the torment of ignorance and illness.
Most supreme among humanity, you are a King of the Mu lineage. You are a mighty fire that dries up the ocean and swamp of the five poisons and you have the major and minor marks of a noble sage.
Having undertaken many various hardships and having completed a diversity of activities, by means of the four kinds of valid perception and the six kinds of valid enlightened intention, and through great love, you liberate from cyclic existence. I prostrate to the emanated body of the highest Shen!”
Bring Meaning & Benefit to 2026 by Taking a Vow of Nonviolence for 1 Day, Multiple Days, or a Full Year
The auspicious day of March 3, 2026 is the first full moon of the Year of the Fire Horse and marks the birth anniversary of His Eminence Menri Pönlop Yangtön Trinley Nyima Rinpoche. This is an especially auspicious time to perform virtue and receive vows because the power of the activity is greatly multiplied. By taking a vow of nonviolence to abstain from eating meat from compassionate loving kindness during this time, unimaginable spiritual merit and benefit for both self and others is generated. One can accept this vow for a single day, multiple days, or for the entire Fire Horse year. The names of all those who take the vow will be offered to His Eminence Menri Pönlop Rinpoche on February 27th for the benefit of his long life and indestructible good health. Follow this link for more information and to fill out and submit the form for your personal vow of nonviolence. https://ravencypresswood.com/2026/01/24/bringing-meaning-benefit-to-2026-by-taking-a-vow-of-nonviolence-for-1-day-multiple-days-or-a-full-year/
In this short video, Raven Cypress Wood talks about how taking the vow, even for a single day, can bring meaning to your life and develop the Four Immeasurable Qualities: https://youtu.be/8jQlrNXFmvU
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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