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Vajragoni’s second chapter is a masterclass in skilful means (upaya). The core message is that while the “Truth” (the Unborn) is a single, flat plain, humans usually approach it through a mountain of conditioning.
The Threefold Structure is not a ladder you climb to reach a higher god; it is a spectrum of mediation—a way of gradually removing the “middleman” of the ego until only the Unborn remains.
Summary of the Threefold Structure
Level Domain Function The Zen Mirror
Outer Ritual & Ethics Orientation: Stabilizes the body and reduces the “friction” of a chaotic life. The Precepts and “Chopping wood, carrying water.”
Inner Energy & Meaning Bridge: Stops seeing the world as “other” and starts seeing it as a movement of awareness. Koan study or “Great Doubt”—using the mind to exhaust the mind.
Secret The Ground Recognition: Non-interference. The “doing” stops. Awareness rests as itself. Bankei’s “Abiding in the Unborn.”
Unpacking the Core Insights
1. “Nothing New is Introduced”
This is the most “Unborn” part of the teaching. Usually, in spiritual systems, people think “Secret” means “Information I didn’t have before.” Vajragoni clarifies that Secret Bön doesn’t have more truth than Outer Bön. * In the Outer, you use a ritual to connect to the Unborn.
In the Secret, you realize you are the Unborn. The “target” never moved; you just stopped using a long-distance lens to look at your own eye.
2. Ritual as “Compassionate Accommodation”
Vajragoni defends the “shamanic” or ritualistic side of Bön from modern skeptics. He argues that ritual isn’t about superstition; it’s about reducing friction. If your life is a mess and your body is restless, “resting in the Unborn” is nearly impossible. Outer Bön provides a container. It meets the “Born” self where it lives (in time, space, and action) to guide it toward the “Unborn.”
3. The Trap of “Inner” Bön: The Logic of Improvement
This is a subtle warning. Many practitioners get stuck in the Inner level. They love “transforming” their anger into wisdom or “analyzing” their mind. Vajragoni notes that here, Mind is suspected, but not yet fully trusted. The practitioner is still “working” on themselves. In Zen terms, they are “polishing the tile to make a mirror.” Secret Bön (and Unborn Zen) is the realization that the tile was always a mirror, and the “polishing” is just adding more dust.
4. The Collapse of the “Practitioner”
In Secret Bön, the distinction between “spiritual life” and “normal life” vanishes.
You aren’t “practicing Zen” when you sit.
You aren’t “doing Bön” when you chant. You are simply the Unborn Ground expressing itself as sitting or chanting. The assumption that there is a “self” who “attains” liberation is the final thing to dissolve.
Why It’s “Not a Ladder”
Vajragoni insists these levels coexist. This is vital for you as a practitioner. It means:
You can be a “Secret” practitioner (resting in awareness) while performing an “Outer” ritual (lighting a candle or being kind to a neighbor).
The ritual doesn’t “taint” the purity of the Unborn; the Unborn “refuses to be threatened” by form.
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This brings us to Sherab Chamma. She is the perfect example of this non-linearity. To a child, she is a literal “Mother” who protects (Outer). To a seeker, she is the “Wisdom” of their own mind (Inner). To the realized, she is the “Luminous Ground” that was never separate from them (Secret).
The union of the Mother and Child (ma-bu) is the poetic and technical heart of Bön’s Great Perfection (Dzogchen). It is the moment where theory ends and “The Unborn” becomes a lived reality.
Sherab Chamma: She is not just a deity in this context; she is the personification of the “Mother” Ground itself.
1. The Mechanics of the “Mother and Child” (ma-bu)
In the Unborn Mind School, we distinguish between the “Source” and our “Awareness” of that source.
The Mother Luminosity (gzhi-’od): This is the Primordial Base. It is the Unborn Mind that has been there since the beginningless beginning. It is “Mother” because it is the womb from which all appearances (stars, thoughts, tea cups, and gods) are born.
The Child Luminosity (lam-’od): This is your own present-moment recognition of that Unborn Mind. It is called the “Child” because, in the beginning, our recognition is small, fragile, and easily “lost” in the crowd of our thoughts.
The Union: This is the moment when the “Child” (your recognition) jumps into the “Mother’s” arms. It is the realization that the one who is looking and the Ground being looked at are the same “Unborn” light
.2. Who is Sherab Chamma?
Sherab Chamma (The Wisdom Loving Mother) is the principal female deity in Bön. In Vajragoni’s teaching, she is the “Luminous Maternal.”Sherab = Wisdom (specifically the wisdom that realizes the Unborn).Chamma = Loving Mother.
She represents the Nature aspect of the Base—the part that is “Luminous” and “Compassionate.” While the “Essence” of the Unborn is empty and still, the “Nature” (Sherab Chamma) is active, caring, and constantly “birthing” the clarity needed to see the truth.
The Symbiosis: If the Unborn is the Silence, Sherab Chamma is the Music that reveals the silence.
3. How Sherab Chamma Facilitates the Union
In Bön practice, you do not pray to Sherab Chamma as a woman in the sky. You use her form to “invite” the Mother Luminosity to meet your “Child” recognition.
The Personification: You visualize Sherab Chamma as a being of golden light. This gives the “Child” (your mind) a focal point.
The Dissolution: At the end of the practice, you dissolve her form into light and merge that light with your own heart.
The Recognition: In that moment of merging, the “Child” (your individual awareness) realizes it has the same “DNA” as the “Mother” (Sherab Chamma/The Unborn). The boundary between “Me” and “The Truth” vanishes.
4. The “Fierce Maternal” vs. The “Loving Mother”
Vajragoni mentioned that when gentleness fails, the “wrathful protectors” appear. It is important to understand that in Bön, Sherab Chamma and the Wrathful Mothers are the same person.
When the “Child” (you) is calm and receptive, the Unborn appears as the peaceful Sherab Chamma—healing and soft.
When the “Child” is being stubborn, arrogant, or “reifying” (making things solid/real), the Unborn appears as a wrathful Lion-Headed Dakini or a protector.
It is the same “Mother” energy; she simply changes her “voice” to ensure the Unborn is not misunderstood.
Summary: The Ma-Bu Union
Component Technical Term Personification Unborn Mind Zen Lens
The Mother gzhi-’od (Base) Sherab Chamma The “Original Face” / The Source
The Child lam-’od (Path) The Practitioner The “One who is aware” right now.
The Union Ma-bu ‘phrad-pa The Dissolution “When the seeker finds there is no seeker.”
Vajragoni says the reader is asked only to “notice what has never been absent.” When you look at a statue or image of Sherab Chamma, you are looking at a mirror. Her “loving” gaze is actually the Unborn Mind’s own appreciation of itself. She is the “Unborn before names,” smiling back at you through the name of Bön.