Kunsang Gar Wisdom Program

Bön teachings help us develop a better understanding of our true nature by studying the ancient wisdom teachings and integrating them into our spiritual practice. Our mental difficulties and painful feelings arise, but are temporary. They are dependent upon causes and conditions which do not exist in our original nature. Geshe has distilled from Bon and Buddhist traditions’ methods for dispelling problems into the Kunsang Gar Wisdom Program in three categories: Foundational Wisdom, Mental Development and Quintessential Wisdom.

Those with strong faith in the Dharma can purify the negative karma and obscurations accumulated in the past through the activities of body, speech, and mind by striving on the paths realized by past great beings, such as compassion (karuṇā) and wisdom (prajñā).

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​Natural Mind Meditation in Dzogchen:
Quintessential Wisdom  

The main practice at Kunsang Gar is Pure Dzogchen (rdogs: perfection, chen: great) or meditation on the Natural Mind. We turn our awareness inward to find profound happiness, prepare ourselves for dying, and ultimately, transform ignorance on this path of enlightenment.

On the basis of actual practice, not simply belief, one can not only overcome negative emotions, but attain direct experience. Pure Dzogchen, not influenced by sutra and tantra, naturally reveals the spontaneous qualities of luminosity and clarity within us.

Those with busy lives can greatly benefit by integrating Dzogchen into their practice. Obscured through ignorance, like not seeing one’s own face, this series of practices enables one to see and experience the recognition of the Natural State.

The first stage of teachings is the introduction to the mind, recognizing it, and then becoming certain that all phenomena are included within it, like all the planets and stars exist in the sky, thereby giving rise to conviction. Second is the stage of connecting one’s appearances with that inner essence.

Dzogchen instructions, also called yang sang (innermost secret), were historically kept very secret because of the difficulty for students to connect with their own body, speech, and mind. Similarly, there are very few people who can clearly and accurately teach others, even if they know how to practice themselves.

Bön masters said that if a person is knowledgeable in sūtra, tantra, and many fields of knowledge, they will be able to understand Dzogchen purely and be able to explain what they have learned to others when studying it.

Geshe studied with many Dzogchen teachers in Tibet when he was young. When he left Tibet, he had a great desire to continue cultivating his practice, and studied with more deeply with Lopon Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche, accomplished Dzogchen master of Bön outside of Tibet.

In ancient Bön, there are many historical accounts of rdzogs chen practitioners attaining the rainbow body (jā-lus). In recent times, in Tibet in 1935, the rdzogs chen practitioner Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen and afterwards many of his disciples attained the rainbow body.

Teachings include: 

1.   Special Dzogchen Ngondro (Rushan)

2.   Mind recognition

3.   Natural Mind

4.   Luminosity on Dzogchen

5.   Mantra of Dzogchen

6.   Purification in Dzogchen

7.   Spiritual songs 

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Mental Development: Changing the Mind

Mental development includes teachings that uncover the essential view that everything lacks a self-existent nature.

By freeing ourselves from extremes and clearing our obscurations through the teachings, we can clarify the nature of emptiness (śūnyatā) in all phenomena, enabling us to create a source of confidence in the potential for realizing Buddhahood within ourselves.

These programs include teachings on transforming one's mind from that of an ordinary person into one that is calm, compassionate, altruistic, content, harmonious, and courageous.

Topics describe concepts such as:

1.      Loving kindness and compassion

2.      Mindfulness

3.      Calm abiding and special insight

4.      Emptiness and bodhichitta  

5.      Mind training

6.      Buddhist psychology

7.      Ten perfections

8.      Yogas of Body, mind, deity, dream, and death.

9.      Holy mantras

10.   Intention and dedication of  Ceremony and rituals

Included here are meditative practices such as śamatha (calm abiding) and vipaśyanā (insight). Methods for working with energy such as yogas of the body and breath, dream yoga and training for death can develop deeper, more liberating experiences. In addition, deity yoga  and mantra or connecting with enlightened beings, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and their maṇḍalas, can provide protection, temporary and ultimate, creating unbreakable happiness even through emotional experience.

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Foundational Wisdom:
Understanding the Universe and Infinite Energy

Fundamental Bön teachings address a detailed cosmological understanding, along with healing practices to create well-being and harmony in the relative world. Basic topics include:

1.  The connection between elements and spirits

2.  Recognition of deities and demons

3.  Effects of karma and reincarnation

4.  Meaning of life and soul

5.  Liberation from samsara

6.  Establishing proper devotion and motivation

7.  Purification through preliminary practice [ngondro]

These teachings address concepts such as compassion, karma, samsara and nirvana, our interdependent nature, the nature of our mental and physical bodies, the view of reincarnation, relative and ultimate truths, what causes suffering and how to liberate it.