Meditation retreat with Tibetan Bön Master Lopon Tenzin Namdak (Blog)

Shenten Dargye Ling – France

In August 2018 I was in France at Shenten a Tibetan Bön Monastery for a 6 Days partly silent retreat with a great master in the Tibetan Buddist Bön tradition his name is Lopon Tenzin Namdak and Khenpo Tenpa Yungdrun, the abbot of Triten Norbutse monastery in Nepal. Lopon is a 92 years old master in Bön teachings.

I felt fortunate to meet him as I only came to known of him in May 2018 during a 30 days silent retreat in Guatemala.

The topics of the teachings were about the 24 masters in the tradition of Zhang Zhung Nyengyud. This is one of the four cycles of instructions in the Tibetan bön tradition. Each of these 24 masters reached the rainbow body, or you could say a state of enlightenment. These masters were aware of their natural state of mind through practising meditation.

The transmission was experimental. Each of these 24 masters left a pit instruction about what the natural state of mind is. A pit instruction is a to the point description of what the natural state of mind is according to their experience.  Then either Tenzin Namdak or Khenpo Tenpa Yungdrun gave comments on these pit instructions after that Khenpo Tenpa Yungdrun guided us into practising the natural state of mind.

The clarity of this practice and the mediation was awe-inspiring and gave so much more depth to my meditation practice.

The result after his retreat

When I came back to Amsterdam after this retreat.  Amsterdam was bathing in light. And I Still, have this feeling or clarity that for the first time, seeing Amsterdam without any stories. And that was the result after only a six days retreat with these masters.

The teachings on the 24 masters was one of the best explanation of the natural state of mind I ever had, and I am feeling very blessed and grateful for these teachings.

Dzogchen is the highest state of meditation in the Tibetan Bön tradition. Dzogchen refers to the absolute state of mind beyond any system or beyond any concepts.

Books and links

Shenten Dargye Ling also sells the most amazing books on the natural state of our mind.

The pit instruction is also available on Amazone by clicking on this link: Masters of Zhang Zhung Nyengyud although I would recommend making a practice retreat at Shenten Dargye Ling

Below you find an explanation of what Bön Dzogchen is: