These Nine Ways can be organized into Four Doors and a Fifth Treasury.

Four Doors and a Fifth Treasury

• The First Door of Bon, is the Door of Dzogchen teachings and practices.

• The Second Door of Bon, is the Door of Divination, Medicine, and Bardo/Death teaching and practices.

• The Third Door of Bon, is the Door of the Bodhisattva Way -- The Perfection of Wisdom teachings.

• The Fourth Door of Bon, is the Door of Tantra teachings and practices.

• The Fifth Treasury is left undefined.

To enter any of these doors of Bon is to walk the path of Bon. Regardless of which Door of Bon you choose, all who walk the path of Bon follow the four wheels of Bön.

The Four Wheels of Bön

Found in Zijyi, the long biography of Tönpa Shenrab Miwoche, the Buddha of Yungdrung Bön. Below is a short abbreviated outline of the contents of the Four Wheels of Bon. The Four Wheels are:  

• Take the highest view.  

• Step up your activities, starting from the smallest virtues.  

• Whatever practice you do, take compassion as the base. 

• Practice the Ten Paramitas with determination.

We can examine each of these four wheels to help us better understand the aim and practice of Bonpos.

The First Wheel - The View (Tawa)

The first wheel teaches four main elements: 

• The root of suffering (cause) -- our own ignorance (self) 

• Ignorance -- our mistaken belief in a solid existing entities 

• How to purify ignorance -- the way out of this ignorance which is to realize emptiness 

• The Nine Ways of Bon (Cause & Result) -- the practices that help us realize emptiness.

The Second Wheel - The Activities

The second wheel teaches ethical and moral conduct, specifically following the: 

• Avoiding the Ten Negative Actions 

• Practicing the The Ten Virtues

🔹Ten Negative Actions

🔹Three Negative Actions of the Body

• • Killing

  • Stealing

  • Sexual misconduct

🔹Four Negative Actions of Speech

• Idle talk & gossip

• Wrathful speech

• Slander

• Lies

🔹Three Negative Actions of the Mind

• Jealousy/Envy

• Bearing grudges

• Holding wrong views 

🔹The Ten Virtues

🔹Three Virtuous Actions of the Body

• Not Killing, but saving lives

• Not stealing, but practicing Generosity

• Refraining from sexual misconduct through practicing Moral Discipline

🔹Four Virtuous Actions of Speech

• Peaceful speech

• Pleasant words

• Telling the truth

• Avoiding slander

🔹Three Virtuous Actions of the Mind

• Altrusistic mind

• Loving-kindness

• The opposite of holding wrong views, holding right view

The Third Wheel of Bon - Compassion

The third wheel of Bon teaches compassion practices such as: 

The Four Immeasurables 

• Immeasurable compassion 

• Immeasurable loving-kindness 

• Immeasurable equanimity 

• Immeasurable happiness 

The Seven Points of Bodhichita 

• All beings are our mother (Ma She) 

• The need to repay our mother's kindness (Drin Dren) 

• How to repay your mother (Drin du Zo) 

• Have loving-kindness towards all sentient beings (Jampa) 

• Have great compassion towards all sentient beings (Nying Je) 

• Have the strong altruistic intention to lead all sentient beings from Samsara to Nirvana (Lhak Sam) 

• Generate the intention to achieve Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings- full Bodhichitta (Jang Chub Sem)

The Fourth Wheel of Bon - The Ten Paramitas

The fourth wheel of Bon teaches the practices of the Bodhisattva which are: 

• Generosity (Jin pa) 

• Moral Discipline (Tsultrim) 

• Patience (Zopa) 

• Determination (Tsondru) 

• Contemplation (Samten) 

• Power/Strength (Tob) 

• Loving-kindness (Nyingje) 

• Prayer (Monlam) 

• Method (Tab) 

• Wisdom (Yeshe)

Those who practice Bon (Four Doors and a Fifth Treasury) live by and uphold these Four Wheels of Bon in their lives (actions of body, speech, and mind.)

One way you can think about these four "wheels" is that they act like physical wheels to help move us along the path. If we are traversing down the path of Bon, we need to turn each of these four wheels. If we do not turn these wheels, then we won't go anywhere -- our practice will not produce any results. We can do whatever practice we know, chanting, reciting, meditating but if we are not turning these four wheels, it will be as useless as driving a car without wheels.

So no matter what our practice is (no matter the door or way of Bon) in order to produce the results of practice, we must constantly be turning these four wheels.