The root founder of Bön, Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche, is honored as "the teacher who tames beings." Legend says that countless eons ago, seeing beings sinking, he manifested from great compassion as a prince, displaying a life of birth, practice, teaching, and liberation, setting a perfect model of practice and altruism for later generations. His "Nine Ways of Bön" guide layer by layer, from worldly ritual to supreme realization.

The priest practices the founder's rite not as distant worship of a deity but as heart-to-heart communion with this pure lineage. Seeing Tonpa Shenrab as one with Shenlha Okar, he plants a pure cause of alignment with the lineage for the dedicatee—lighting a lamp for later generations through the founder's power.

• **Lineage alignment.** Aligning with the founder's rite aligns with the entire pure Bön lineage; merit and wisdom grow swiftly.
• **Purifies karma, plants cause.** Purifies the dead's obscurations and plants good causes for the living—a twofold good.
• **Refuge and ease.** Taking the founder as refuge, daily anxiety and rootlessness find a peaceful home.

The founder's rite proceeds thus:

• **Set the focus.** Provide for whom and why; pay respect to Tonpa Shenrab before the mandala.
• **Visualize union.** The priest sees the founder as one with Shenlha Okar, intones the founder's mantra, resting in the view of compassion-wisdom.
• **Nine-Ways practice.** Practice per the "Nine Ways of Bön" ritual, planting a pure cause for the dedicatee.
• **Dedicate and settle.** Dedicate all merit solely to the vow—that one accords with the founder's wisdom-light, the mind luminous.

You need not be present—only revere that great-compassion founder in your heart; the priest's practice connects your lamp for you.