The Dzogchen tradition in Bön: l'avis d'un connaisseur
Publié : 22 juillet 2012, 10:58

The dzogchen tradition in found not only in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, but also in the Bön tradition as well. These two lineages of dzogchen are extremely similar. Bön is the ancient religion of Tibet, present there before the spread of Buddhism. However, it is not clear how widespread it was in ancient times and whether, before the advent of Buddhism, it had a full system of a view of reality, meditation and modes of behavior. But after the coming of Buddhism to Tibet, the Bön tradition became more extensive. For example, Bön has equivalents not only of dzogchen but also of the Buddhist Ka'gyur canon, including hundred-thousand-stanza and eight-thousand-stanza Prajnaparamita sutras. There are also Bön equivalents of pramana, or valide cognition, with full systems of epistemology, logic and debate, as well as of madhyamaka, the middle way view of voidness.
The question arises, Was Buddhism modeled on Bön, or Bön on Buddhism ? Buddhism flourished in India for over a thousand years before it came to Tibet, and its scriptures were translated from Indian languages into Tibetan. Since we can certainly say with decisiveness that Buddhism in India was not modeled on Bön, we can say with equel decisiveness that the features of Bön in Tibet that are similar to those found in Buddhism were modeled on Buddhism. But, if we look from the point of view of the original stock of teachings that are at its core, we have to say that Bön is a separate tradition from Buddhism. We can not consider it one of the Buddhist traditions since then it would need a traceable Buddhist source. Nevertheless, externally it transmits many practices that are modeled after Buddhist ones. Since these practices contain mixed with them ultimate guidelines concerning the correct view of reality, anyone properly practicing them is doing what I think amounts to Buddhist practice, whether or not they call it that.
For example, if we look at the Bön tradition of dzogchen, it has many similarities with the Nyingma presentation. But for the same reasons as above, we cannot say that the Buddhist tradition of dzogchen is modeled on the Bön tradition. The Nyingma tradition of tantra flourished in Tibet for a long time before the new translation period began, during that old translation period, the Bön and Buddhist traditions had intimate contact. Furing that period, then, Bön undoubtedly adopted many dzogchen techniques from Nyingma Buddhist tantra. After all, it was during this time that Bön adopted the Nyingma classification system of nine vehicles to structure its own teachings into nine vehicles.
Concerning Bön dzogchen, the terminology is different from that used in Nyingma dzogchen, but the meaning of its terms undoubtedly follows the Nyingma guideline instructions they borrowed. Thus in general, Bön is not a Buddhist system, but regarding specific practices, some seem to be Buddhist, while others seem not. Moreover, there are some Buddhist practitioners who perform certain ceremonies according to Bön ritual procedures, for example propitiating local deities, extending life span and so on, and there is nothing inappropriate with that. Thus both the Tibetan Buddhist and the Bön traditions contain practices that originated in the other.
Sa Sainteté le Dalaï Lama, The Gelug/Kagyü Tradition of Mahamudra (Snow Lion, pp. 227-9).
