Blog Archives

The Sacred One Year Anniversary of the Parinirvana of His Eminence Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche

His Eminence Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche

On the 16th day of the sacred Saga Dawa month in the Tibetan Wood Snake year, June 12, 2025, at 7:45 AM, His Eminence Menri Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche, master of the three lineages and spiritual elder of the Yungdrung Bön religious tradition, passed beyond this life and entered into a state of deep meditation, tukdam at his lama residence at Triten Norbutse Monastery. The one year anniversary of this sacred event coincides with June 1st, 2026. Disciples worldwide are honoring this sacred occasion through prayers, offerings, and engaging deeply in the practices they were given by this revered master. It is an especially auspicious time to accumulate the supplication prayer to His Eminence, make offerings and recite the Offerings to the Lama, perform guru yoga or any act of virtue or spiritual practice, especially as it was taught by His Eminence.

Supplication to the Lord of Refuge, Menri Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche

How marvelous! Teacher of the three trainings and protector of migrating beings, you are an emanation of the omniscient Nyiwang who perfects enlightened intention with dynamic energy. Having the total perfection of the abiding nature of sutra and trantra, you hold and protect the teachings through your completely pure enlightened activities. To Yongdzin Mawé Wangpo I supplicate!

Written by the supreme Lord of Refuge, the 33rd Menri Trizen Rinpoche on the 8th lunar day of the 3rd lunar month.

སྐྱབས་རྗེ་སྨན་རིའི་ཡོངས་འཛིན་སློབ་དཔོན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཆོག་གི་གསོལ་འདེབས།

༄༅།། །ཨེ་མ་ཧོ།   བསླབ་གསུམ་བསྟན་པའི་བདག་ཉིད་འགྲོ་བའི་མགོན། ཀུན་མཁྱེན་ཉི་དབང་རྣམ་རོལ་དགོངས་རྩལ་རྫོགས། མདོ་སྡེ་སྔགས་ཀྱི་གནས་ལུགས་རྫོགས་པ་ཆེ།  བསྟན་པ་འཛིན་སྐྱོང་འཕྲིན་ལས་རྣམ་པར་དག། །ཡོངས་འཛིན་སྨྲ་བའི་དབང་པོར་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས།།  སྐྱབས་རྗེ་སྨན་རིའི་ཁྲི་འཛིན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཆོག་གིས་ཕྱི་ཟླ་ ༣་ཚེས་༨་ལ་བསྟོད་པའོ།།

é ma ho, lap sum ten pé dak nyi dro wé gön, kün khyen nyi wang nam röl gong tsal dzok, do dé ngak kyi né luk dzok pa ché, ten pa dzin kyong trin lé nam par dak, yong dzin ma wé wang por söl wa dep

Offerings to the Lama

Prostrations

How marvelous! To the lama who is the embodiment of all of the victors and spiritual masters, principally by Bön practitioners, but including all sentient beings who are as limitless as the sky; we offer prostrations with our body, prostrating with our arms, legs, and head! We prostrate with our speech, chanting with a joyous and inspired melody! We prostrate with our mind, prostrating with single-pointed motivation and devotion! May the negative actions and defilements of our three doors become purified! AH OM HUNG CHI PAR RAYNA KO PUNG AKSHO TRI TSE GU DÜN HRUN

Receiving the Accomplishments

You, my Lama, who has brought cyclic existence and nirvana under your power, I, and your other followers, pray: please bestow benefits that are as limitless as the sky to migrating beings!  Please grant our wishes to be continuously without separation from your presence! Continuously hold us with your unequalled compassion, we pray!

Aspiration Prayer

Until I obtain complete enlightenment, not born in a negative place, may I obtain a body of renunciation with the advantages of the leisures and fortunes. Having practiced the three trainings and loosened the mind stream,  and having traveled the paths and the grounds, from the state of complete buddhahood, may I accomplish benefit that is equal to the vastness of the sky!

Extracted from Completely Pure and Changeless Offerings to the Lama, an Ornament of Wish-Granting Jewels as published in A Blazing Mala of Wish-Fulfilling Jewels, A Compilation of Daily Prayers from the Yungdrung Bön Religious Tradition
In honor of the one year anniversary, Bon Handicraft in Kathmandu, Nepal has designed four statues of His Eminence.

“Because the root of happiness and suffering is our own mind, if you know that and are careful and watchful, it is the basis of happiness and well-being. Or if the mind is left on its own, it is the cause for an ocean of suffering and misery. In that way, if you know how to make a choice, you are the best kind of person.”

Heartdrop Advice of the Master, A Compilation of Advice Given by Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche
Life-like statue of His Eminence that was created in 2025
Nine Ways is supported by a mandala of kind and generous donors. Because of their generosity, the work continues.

Have a Question about Something You Read? Ask Raven.

← Back

Thank you for your message.

Posted on | Image

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

Did you enjoy this content? This article is made possible by generous donors who want content like this to continue to be available.

Join the mandala of Nine Ways supporters by following this link: https://ravencypresswood.com/donate/

It’s easy through Paypal, Zelle, or Venmo.

Don’t want to miss a post? Scroll to the bottom and click “Follow this blog.”

Posted on | Image

Offerings to the Lama in Praise of His Enlightenment

Shrine at Triten Norbutse Monastery near Kathmandu, Nepal

On the 16th lunar day of the sacred Saga Dawa month in the Tibetan Wood Snake year, June 12, 2025, at His Eminence Menri Yongdzin Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche passed beyond this life and entered into a state of deep meditation known as tukdam. As of June 18th, his exalted presence remains in a state of tukdam while the faithful worldwide Yungdrung Bön family offerings prayers of praise, supplication, and aspirations. One of the primary prayers being recited during this time is Offerings to the Lama, also known more formally as Lama Practice, An Ornament of Wish-granting Jewels. The English language translation of the recitation portion of the prayer was made publicly available through a previous article. Now, the preliminary visualization practice, the Tibetan language, and phonetics for chanting the Tibetan have been added. This expanded translation can be downloaded and used for personal use through this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FOa8sFpWyxXBqJ4swyHTJju6sUbAFlUL/view?usp=share_link

Observation of 49 days of prayers and offerings began on Sunday June 15th and will conclude on August 8th. Each Saturday during this time will mark a special weekly day of prayer. By reciting this prayer with heartfelt devotion and requesting blessings from the holy presence of Yongdzin Rinpoche, one can receive inconceivable blessings from the master.

His Eminence Yongdzin Rinpoche in tukdam after his outer breath has ceased. Photo shared only after similar photos were widely distributed by the monastery and abbot.

Once the internal winds cease, the channels collapse, the physical body slumps, and the warmth dissipates from the heart center, chants related to the cleansing of the sacred body will be recited while the physical remains will be ritually bathed with water mixed with special herbs. Sacred seed syllables will be written on the body, and the body will be wrapped in a pure white cloth and placed in a ku dung, a receptacle for sacred remains.

His Holiness the 34th Menri Trizen and His Eminence Menri Pönlop Rinpoche arriving from Menri Monastery in India to pay their respects to the holy presence of His Eminence Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche.

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


Did you enjoy this content? This article is made possible by generous donors who want content like this to continue to be available. Join the mandala of Nine Ways supporters by following this link: https://ravencypresswood.com/donate/


Don’t want to miss a post? Scroll to the bottom and click “Follow this blog.”

Posted on | Image