Is Bonpo Buddhism?

mantra0

I think it's a blur line .....

It has many Buddhist elements, but it's not Buddhism.
It's just like Buddhism has many Hindu elements, but it's not Hindu sect.

Some Bon followers think Tibetan Buddhism is a part of Bon, and vice versa.

SherabDorje

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%B6n

shenpennangwa

Moder n. Bon looks nothing like the Bon of pre-Buddhist Tibet. The Bonpos have co_opted a lot of Buddhist practices and iconography in order to survive as a religious tradition.

mantra0

SherabDorje wrote: »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%B6n

It doesn't help.
It only shows blurred line.

SherabDorje

"Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth Dalai Lama, recognizes the Bön tradition as the fifth principal spiritual school of Tibet<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference">[5]</sup>, along with the Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu, and Gelug schools of Buddhism, despite the long historical competition between the Bön tradition and Buddhism in Tibet."

mantra0

SherabDorje wrote: »

"Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth Dalai Lama, recognizes the Bön tradition as the fifth principal spiritual school of Tibet<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference">[5]</sup>, along with the Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu, and Gelug schools of Buddhism, despite the long historical competition between the Bön tradition and Buddhism in Tibet."

He mentioned "the fifth principal spiritual school of Tibet", not 5th tibetan Buddhism school. And he says "Bon VS Buddhism" the long historical competition.

so it's still open whether they are the same.

According to the book the lotus lady (Yeshe Tsogyal Biography), Bon and Buddhism were 2 different religions in the past. But I think that was before Boen adapting Buddhism teachings.

SherabDorje

I think this blurred line is as close as you're going to get. Some things are just never either/or.

mantra0

It's like.... Jediism.

caz

The short awnser is no Bon is not Buddhism.
Buddhism comes from Shakyamuni Buddha.

kc39850p

Bon is very old, and though it has adapted, I would say it originally was nothing like buddhism. As a matter of fact, the Red Hat sect actually went to war with the Bon people, using propaganda to seem like they were fighting demons. It's one of the more deplorable aspects of Buddhism gone wrong in my opinion. So no, Bon just adapted to buddhism to survive (as stated above), Bon originally was much more of a Shamanistic faith.

mantra0

I think the war thing is complex.
The red hat might be fighting with a fraction of bon.
Possibly Gyu bon, not inner bon.

the new bon is quite similair to Nyingma as they practice Dzogchen.
some of them attain rainbow bodies as well.

shenpennangwa

mantra0 wrote: »

I think the war thing is complex.
The red hat might be fighting with a fraction of bon.
Possibly Gyu bon, not inner bon.

the new bon is quite similair to Nyingma as they practice Dzogchen.
some of them attain rainbow bodies as well.

Its not just similar to Nyingma though.
Although the Bonpos co-opted a lot of the practice style of the Nyingmapas they also have taken a lot from the Sakyapa's (red hats). One of the main Bonpo yidams looks exactly like Hevajra which is a primary Sakya tantric cycle from Virupa in India.