Chapter 3. Nyingma and Dzogchen¶

Nyingma (rnying ma, "ancient" or "old") is the oldest of the Tibetan Buddhist schools and the hardest to fit into a neat account. It is "old" in relation to the New Translation schools that arose during the Later Diffusion. Nyingma grounds its legitimacy in the translations and transmissions of the Early Diffusion, the imperial period from the seventh to ninth centuries. It regards Padmasambhava as its spiritual founder, treasures (terma) as its distinctive means of generating and transmitting knowledge, and Dzogchen (rdzogs chen) as its highest teaching.

The chapter first examines Nyingma's historical formation. It then presents the system of knowledge organized in the nine vehicles before focusing on the philosophical content of Dzogchen.

1. Historical identity: the oldest and thus the most contested¶

Being "the oldest" cuts both ways for Nyingma. It can claim the longest history among Tibetan Buddhist schools and the most direct connection to the first transmissions from India to Tibet. Yet its principal texts come from the Early Diffusion, separated from the Later Diffusion by two centuries of history. The authenticity and continuity of its lineages have therefore remained targets of New Translation criticism.

Nyingma actually emerged as a distinct "school" only gradually during the Later Diffusion. In the Early Diffusion, there was no self-designation "Nyingma school," only groups transmitting various tantric and practical traditions of that period. As the New Translation schools, including Kadam, Kagyu, and Sakya, arose in succession during the Later Diffusion, the holders of the old translations began to define themselves as "old." Nyingma gradually took shape as a distinct school around the tenth to twelfth centuries.¹

Nyingma's historical formation leaves it without a clearly identifiable founder, founding date, or founding place. It is more like a community brought together by shared textual origins and a common sense of lineage. Its internal traditions are diverse. Although there is considerable agreement on its central teaching, Dzogchen, there are also enormous differences in styles of practice, monastic traditions, and treasure revealers.

Padmasambhava's mythic image and historical identity. As the preceding two chapters noted, Padmasambhava's historical identity is quite obscure. Over several centuries, Nyingma developed his mythic image as the Second Buddha, the ultimate source of all treasures, and a sacred presence accessible at any time through prayer. The book considers the construction of the image understandable. Faced with persistent challenges to its legitimacy, a tradition needs a source of authority beyond historical verification. The narrative that "Padmasambhava foresaw later needs and concealed all the necessary teachings in advance" responds precisely to the challenge that "your texts have no traceable Indian source." Understanding the function of the narrative does not negate the value of Nyingma's traditions of practice.

2. Three types of transmission¶

Nyingma has a standard classification of the sources of its lineages, called the "three types of transmission" (transmission lineages, brgyud pa gsum):

The distant transmission includes many traceable historical chains of successive teachers and disciples, though their furthest, Indian links are often difficult to verify. The close treasure transmission is Nyingma's most distinctive and contested means of producing and transmitting knowledge and deserves a section of its own. Pure vision is the hardest type to assess from outside. The book records it without judging the authenticity of the experiences involved.

3. The treasure tradition: Tibetan Buddhism's most distinctive way of producing and transmitting knowledge¶

What are treasures?¶

Treasures (terma, gter ma) are doctrinal texts or practical instructions deliberately concealed for later generations to discover at the appropriate time. According to Nyingma tradition, eighth-century masters such as Padmasambhava and Vimalamitra foresaw that Langdarma's persecution would endanger many precious teachings. They therefore concealed the teachings in various forms, in the earth, in rocks, beneath lakes, or in disciples' minds. The teachings would await particular occasions and particular treasure revealers (tertön, gter ston).

Tradition holds that the revealers who discover treasures are reincarnations of Padmasambhava's disciples from previous lives. They have a karmic connection with particular treasures, and only they can discover and transmit those particular teachings. Discovery takes various forms. Some treasures are material texts, sometimes "yellow scrolls" containing only a few lines that the revealer can unfold from memory after reading them. Others are "mind treasures" (dgongs gter), arising directly from the depths of the mind without a material medium.²

The historical significance of treasures and the disputes over them¶

The institution of treasures serves several important functions in Tibetan Buddhist history:

First, the treasure tradition provides legitimacy for Nyingma. When the New Translation schools charge that "your texts have no Indian sources," the treasure narrative offers a reply. It presents Padmasambhava, a master from India, as the source of the texts. He simply chose treasure concealment as his means of transmission rather than direct textual circulation. The narrative shifts the question of legitimacy into a domain where historical methods can neither verify nor falsify it.

Second, it answers present needs. The treasures discovered by each revealer are regarded as "teachings prepared especially for the beings of this age." The treasure tradition thus provides an organic means of renewal. When a religious tradition needs new formulations under new historical conditions, treasures make innovation possible within the framework of traditional authority. A new teaching can be described as "hidden by Padmasambhava over a thousand years ago for the present day," without having to call it "this teacher's creation."

Third, it maintains a direct connection to experiences of practice. Treasure discoveries are usually accompanied by experiences such as dreams or appearances in meditation. The experiences keep the treasure tradition more directly connected to practice than transmission through books.

The central dispute is whether the "authenticity" of the texts can be established historically. The general answer of modern Buddhist scholarship is that, judging by style, language, and doctrinal content, most treasure texts were composed in the age of their revealers, rather than in the eighth century. The conclusion does not negate their value for practice. It only means that the historical claim that "Padmasambhava personally concealed them" is difficult to sustain on historical grounds. Nyingma does not use the historical framework to assess its own lineages. The dispute involves two different standards of legitimacy and should not be reduced to a question of "true or false."

Major treasure revealers¶

Nyingma histories speak of "108 great treasure revealers," a symbolic number. Among the most influential are the following:

4. The nine vehicles, Nyingma's classification of paths of practice¶

Nyingma developed a distinctive classification of the stages of practice, the "nine vehicles" (theg pa dgu). It divides all Buddhist paths into nine levels, from the most basic to the highest:

The ninefold classification is Nyingma's way of bringing all Buddhism, from the path of liberation in the Southern tradition to the highest Dzogchen teachings, within its own framework. The first three vehicles, śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, and bodhisattva, are included but classified as "shared vehicles," the common foundations of all Buddhist traditions. The last six are tantric, and through them Nyingma places itself above Mahāyāna. The classification expresses Nyingma's own doctrinal ranking and differs from those of other schools, especially Gelug's classification of tantra.

5. Dzogchen, primordial awareness, and primordial purity¶

Dzogchen (rdzogs pa chen po, "Great Perfection" or "Great Completeness") is Nyingma's highest teaching and one of the most philosophically distinctive and contested traditions in all of Tibetan Buddhism.

Three divisions¶

Dzogchen is divided into three series (Sde gsum):

• The Mind Series (Sems-sde) begins with direct recognition of "the nature of mind" (sems nyid), emphasizing that "mind" is primordially awareness.
• The Space Series (Klong-sde) begins with recognition of the basic expanse of all phenomena (klong, space), emphasizing emptiness and boundless awareness.
• The Instruction Series (Man-ngag-sde, Upadeśa) uses direct pointing out. Through a teacher's direct transmission, the disciple recognizes primordial awareness (rigpa) in the present moment. It is regarded as the highest division of Dzogchen, especially known for the two practices of Trekchö and Tögal.⁵

Primordial awareness as the central concept¶

The central concept in Dzogchen philosophy is primordial awareness (rigpa; Sanskrit: vidyā). To understand the term, we must first distinguish it from "awareness" in its everyday sense:

Everyday awareness has an object, as in "I know that this is a table." It involves a knowing subject, an object known, and an activity of discriminating awareness.

In Dzogchen, primordial awareness (rigpa) means awareness in its original condition. It is free of discrimination and grasping, neither coming nor going, yet vividly clear. It differs from blank dullness or an indeterminate state, and also from awareness with some special content, which would still be a discriminating mind with an object. It is the immediate presence of awareness itself, clear, unobscured, complete, and self-sufficient.

Dzogchen's basic claim is that primordial awareness does not need to be "created" or "acquired" through practice. It is already the true condition of the nature of mind, primordially pure (ka dag). Saṃsāra occurs because beings fail to recognize primordial awareness, and "loss of recognition" (rang ngor ma shes pa, not recognizing oneself) arises within it. A teacher's direct guidance and a practitioner's recognition expose the failure, allowing primordial awareness to be recognized directly. Such recognition is what Dzogchen calls "liberation."

Trekchö and Tögal¶

The Instruction Series has two central forms of practice:

Trekchö (khregs chod, "cutting through completely") cuts through all contrived thoughts, efforts, and discriminations, allowing the mind to rest in the natural state of primordial awareness. It does not mean doing nothing. The emphasis is on pursuing no state and rejecting no thought, simply allowing awareness to be naturally present here and now. Trekchö corresponds to the aspect of "primordial purity" (ka dag).

Tögal (thod rgal, "direct crossing") builds on the foundation established by Trekchö. Through particular postures, eye positions, and lighting conditions, it allows appearances of light ('od) to arise directly in the meditator's perception, ultimately leading to recognition of the primordial purity of all appearances. Tögal corresponds to the aspect of "spontaneous presence" (lhun grub), the natural and complete manifestation of purity without needing to posit anything further.

Together, according to Nyingma tradition, these practices form the path to the "rainbow body" ('ja' lus). The bodies of highly accomplished Dzogchen practitioners are said to dissolve into light at death, leaving only hair and nails. Such accounts are extensively documented in the Nyingma tradition. The book records them without judging their truth or falsity on historical grounds.

Dzogchen's relationship to Madhyamaka and Yogācāra¶

The relationship of Dzogchen philosophy to Madhyamaka and Yogācāra is one of the enduring philosophical disputes in Tibetan Buddhist history.

Its relationship to Madhyamaka. A historical criticism of Dzogchen arose among the New Translation schools (gsar ma). An especially significant example was the Eighth Karmapa of Karma Kagyu, Mikyö Dorje (1507 to 1554), who criticized an account in the Zur lineage of Nyingma. Dzogchen's "ground" (gzhi), together with "primordial awareness" (rigpa) and "the nature of mind," sounds as though it posits something permanent and self-subsistent prior to consciousness and as its precondition. On that reading, the position is incompatible with Madhyamaka's claims of no intrinsic nature and no self, and risks eternalism, an ātman-like substantial self. Nyingma's reply is that primordial awareness is not "something with intrinsic nature." It is no entity that can be fixed or objectified. It is the original openness of all phenomena and thus the most thorough emptiness. The book holds that the dispute has not been conclusively resolved. Both sides have ample textual grounds. Their differences arise partly from differing interpretations of primordial awareness and partly from the two traditions' different ways of describing liberation.³

Its relationship to Yogācāra. Dzogchen is sometimes read as close to the Yogācāra position that "mind is the basis of everything." Nyingma usually rejects this reading. Yogācāra treats consciousness (vijñāna) as something established in some way by its own characteristics, whereas primordial awareness in Dzogchen is not "consciousness with intrinsic nature" in any sense. Yet their proximity on the "centrality of inner awareness" has prompted continuing debate within the traditions.

Self-emptiness and other-emptiness. Tibetan Buddhism also has a dispute over classification centered on emptiness. Nyingma and traditions such as Jonang (Jonangpa) are sometimes placed in the camp of "other-emptiness" (gzhan stong). Here, what is empty is the "other," namely afflictions, while tathāgatagarbha itself has positive existence. The position contrasts with Gelug's "self-emptiness" (rang stong), according to which all phenomena, including buddha-nature itself, are empty. The label is not fully accepted within Nyingma, and its lineages take different positions. The dispute will be examined further in 11.7.

6. Longchenpa, the philosophical high point of Dzogchen¶

No one in the Nyingma tradition holds a position comparable to Longchenpa (Klong-chen Rab-'byams, 1308 to 1364). He was its greatest systematic thinker and the most profound exponent of Dzogchen philosophy.

Longchenpa wrote prolifically throughout his life. His most important works include:

• The Seven Treasuries (mDzod bdun): seven independent major treatises that synthesize the whole of Nyingma doctrine and Dzogchen philosophy. The Precious Treasury of the Dharmadhātu (Chos dbyings rin po che'i mdzod) is regarded as the deepest verbal expression of Dzogchen.
• The Trilogy of Resting (Ngal gso skor gsum): three treatises on mind, meditation, and primordial purity respectively, offering a more accessible introduction to Dzogchen.
• The Four Heart Essences (sNying thig ya bzhi): a compilation of the foundational texts of the Heart Essence (Nyingthig) tradition and core material of the Dzogchen Instruction Series.⁶

Longchenpa organized Dzogchen materials previously scattered among treasures and lineages into a coherent and philosophically rigorous system. He drew extensively on the philosophical languages of Madhyamaka and Yogācāra to explain Dzogchen, while insisting on its distinctiveness. Dzogchen was neither another formulation of Madhyamaka nor a version of Yogācāra. It was a distinctive mode of direct recognition of reality (chos nyid, the nature of phenomena).

Jigme Lingpa (1730 to 1798) was the most important Nyingma thinker after Longchenpa. He saw Longchenpa three times in contemplative visions. Jigme Lingpa himself classified the three encounters in terms of body, speech, and mind. The first belonged to "body" and included an account of physical contact with Longchenpa, whose manifested form was also more definite. Through these encounters he discovered and transmitted the Longchen Nyingthig (Heart Essence of Longchenpa). It is currently the most widely transmitted Nyingma practice lineage worldwide. Jigme Lingpa's lineage leads directly to many Nyingma teachers active today.⁴

7. Nyingma's historical position¶

Nyingma's place in Tibetan Buddhist history can be described from several angles:

The oldest tradition, but also the one with the most complex historical layers. Nyingma is rooted in the Early Diffusion, but took shape as a distinct school only in the Later Diffusion. Some of its textual tradition belongs to the Early Diffusion. Other texts emerged in new forms through treasure revelation, while still others were newly composed in the Later Diffusion. Distinguishing the layers clearly is a prerequisite for understanding Nyingma.

Dzogchen is one of the most contested high points of Tibetan philosophy. Its central concepts, primordial awareness and primordial purity, have prompted continuing debate throughout Tibetan philosophical history. Its tension with Madhyamaka has not yet been fully resolved. The challenges come from more than one direction and should be considered separately. The line of criticism associated with Mikyö Dorje, discussed in section 5, belongs to the New Translation schools' challenge to whether Dzogchen's "ground" has become a substantial foundation. The broader tension between Gelug Prāsaṅgika Madhyamaka and Dzogchen arises from Gelug's consistent wariness of all reifying interpretations. The two criticisms are different matters, and the book does not merge them into a single dispute. The tension itself expresses the philosophical vitality of Tibetan Buddhism.

Nyingma's practice traditions are among the most active sources of modern Tibetan Buddhism's spread to the West. From the twentieth century onward, many Nyingma teachers who left Tibet or came from exile communities taught Dzogchen to Western disciples. The transmission changed Western understandings of Tibetan Buddhism and brought new interpretations and transformations. It is a subject of 11.8, on modern and contemporary Tibetan Buddhism.

The next chapter turns to Kagyu, whose lineage structure is entirely different. It does not depend on textual origins in the Early Diffusion but centers on direct transmission between teacher and disciple (transmission of the mind) and present experience (Mahāmudrā).

Further reading¶

• Matthew T. Kapstein. The Tibetan Assimilation of Buddhism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. xviii–xix, 122, 129–134, 147, 158, 163–179. (The historical context of relations between Nyingma and the New Translation schools.)

References¶