Think of the Nine Vehicles as a carefully arranged playlist guiding anyone from the very first steps of Bon practice right up to its most sky-wide revelations. Each “vehicle” or yana offers a unique doorway, yet all nine doors lead to the same open field of awakened mind.

1. Foundational Sutra-Style: Ethics, scriptural study and basic meditation. Like building a house on solid rock, this phase lays down moral conduct and a clear view of reality.
2. Secret Mantra Introduction: Simple rituals and mantra recitation enter the scene. Subtle energy channels begin to get a gentle workout.
3. Fully Secret Tantra: Complex chants, mandalas and deity visualizations deepen the toolkit. Inner winds (lung) awaken more vividly.
4. Bodily Method (Kriya-like): Emphasis on posture, breath control and outer purity. A bit like tuning up an instrument before a concert.
5. Speech Method (Charya-like): Mantras take center stage again, mixed with ritual gesture and a dash of meditative reflection.
6. Mind Method (Yoga-like): Dropping the elaborate props, focus shifts to unbroken awareness and subtle body yogas—mental landscapes unfold like shifting clouds.
7. Integrated (Ubhaya-like): Body, speech and mind practices blend seamlessly. No more “this” or “that,” just a natural flow of energy and awareness.
8. Instant Accomplishment (Anuyoga-like): All techniques collapse into the present moment. Subtle winds dissolve into pure clarity.
9. Great Perfection (Dzogchen of Bon): Rigpa, or nondual awareness, stands revealed just as it is—vast, open and untouched by thought.

Across Tibet, Bon monasteries from Menri to Triten are revisiting these nine steps, offering online streams so global students can follow the journey in real time. Modern seekers often compare it to an app’s leveling-up system: each stage unlocks fresh insights, leading ultimately to the sky-like expanse of the Great Perfection. Even at this year’s Buddhist-Bon Cultural Symposium in Kathmandu, scholars highlighted how these nine gates still guide hearts toward genuine freedom—proof that a thousand-year-old map can still light today’s path.