Remembering Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche

It is with deep sadness that we share the passing of the great Bön teacher, Yongdzin Lopon Tenzin Namdak.

The great Bon teacher Lopon Tenzin Namdak passed away at 100 years old on June 12, 2025.

See also the article from Buddhist Door.

Below you will find several books he contributed to or reference him, as there are few teachers and works of Bon from the past decades that do not relay and refer to this great master.

Paperback | Ebook 

Heart Drops of Dharmakaya: Dzogchen Practice of the Bon Tradition

by Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen, commentary by Yongdzin Lopon Tenzin Namdak

Here for the first time in English is a complete Dzogchen meditation manual from the ancient religious tradition of Tibet known as Bön. The Kunzang Nying-tig by Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen is a powerful and practical instructional text, which cuts to the heart of Dzogchen meditation. Dzogchen is regarded by Bonpos as the highest and most esoteric religious practice. Written in the style of personal instruction from Shardza to his students, the manual is supplemented with a commentary by Lopon Tenzin Namdak who is himself an acknowledged master of Dzogchen. The translation was carried out by Lopon in the course of teaching the text to Western students at his monastery in the Kathmandu Valley. The book has four parts: preliminary practices, the practice of trekcho, the practice of togal and bardo, and phowa practices. Also included are a discussion of the rainbow body, a short history of Bön, and biographies of the authors.

Paperback | Ebook 

Wonders of the Natural Mind: The Essense of Dzogchen in the Native Bon Tradition of Tibet

By Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

An excerpt:

"I remember seeing Lopon Tenzin Namdak when he first arrived from Delhi. I went to greet him with a number of people, and I immediately felt a close connection with him. After some time he called me and told me that since one of his close disciples, Sherab Tsultrim, was ill and needed help, I should come and stay in his house to help him. Then one morning Lopon Tenzin Namdak called me and told me about a dream he had had. In the form of a black man, the deity Midu Gyampa Trangpo had come into his room, opened a partition curtain and, pointing at me, had told him, 'You should take care of this young boy; he will be of future benefit.'

Lopon said this was an important dream and added that, as this deity was connected with Walse Ngampa, one of the five main Bon tantric deities, and as I was connected with these two deities, I should do the practices of these deities more assiduously.

When I lived in his house, Lopon Tenzin Namdak looked after me like a son; we slept in the same room, he cooked for me, and even sewed my clothes. At first I was the only person living there, then an old monk called Abo Tashi Tsering came to live with us and cook for us; eventually three other young boys came to live with us, and Lopon often jokingly referred to us as his 'four sons without a mother.'

One of these boys was a fellow student at the Dialectic School, and we became close friends. He is Geshe Nyima Wangyal, who accompanied Lopon to the West in 1991. When I first went to live with Tenzin Namdak he was already a
lopon. He went to Lopon Sangye Tenzin' s teachings because he wanted to refresh and improve his understanding of Dzogchen. We used to go together to receive the teachings and initiations. While I received the formal Dzogchen teachings of the Zhang Zhung Nyan Gyud from my first (in time) master, Lopon Sangye Tenzin, most of my personal growth came about in the period I spent with my second master, Lopon Tenzin Namdak."

Paperback | Ebook 

The dramatic practice of chöd, in which the yogin visualizes giving his or her own sacrificed body to the gods and demons as a way to cut the attachment to self and ordinary reality, offers an intense and direct confrontation with the central issues of the spiritual path. The chöd practices of the Bön tradition, a tradition that claims pre-Buddhist origins in the mysterious western lands of Zhang-zhung Tazig and Olmolungrig, are still less well-known.

Paperback | Ebook 

Lopon Tenzin Namdak appears throughout.