The Nyingma Lineage.
The first transmission of Buddhism to Tibet was initiated by a series of Tibetan monarchs that ruled the land at the height of its prestige and influence—in the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries CE. King Songtsen Gampo was the first of these rulers.
In addition to building numerous Buddhist temples, Songtsen Gampo formed links with the Buddhist cultures that bordered Tibet through his marriages to Chinese and Nepali princesses.
Perhaps the most important development during his reign, however, was the creation of the Tibetan alphabet.
In the middle of the seventh century, the king sent one of his ministers, Tönmi Sambhota, to India to study the Sanskrit language.
The alphabet system created by Sambhota later allowed for the translation of the entire Buddhist canon into the Tibetan language and also served to bridge the geographic and cultural chasms that existed in Tibet at the time.
Though Songtsen Gampo is often credited with beginning the process of bringing Buddhism to Tibet, it was during the reign of his descendent, King Trisong Deutsen, that the Buddha’s teachings truly took root in Tibetan soil. King Trisong Deutsen, who ruled the country in the eighth and ninth centuries and vastly expanded the Tibetan territory with fierce military campaigns, undertook the arduous tasks of building a major monastic center, translating the Buddhist canon, and inviting teachers from India to transmit the Buddha’s teachings.
The king also invited the abbot Shantarakshita and tantric adept Padmasambhava from India. Together, these two masters worked under the king’s patronage to establish Samye, Tibet’s first monastery.
Trisong Deutsen’s work was later continued by his grandson, King Ralpachen, the third of Tibet’s three “Dharma Kings.”
Along with many other scholars and translators, these monarchs inaugurated a tradition of Buddhist study and practice that continues to this day.
According to the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, Samantabhadra is the supreme embodiment of buddhahood. Samantabhadra transmitted the Dzogchen teachings in the three heavenly realms of Akanishtha, Tushita, and the Realm of the 33 Gods.
About 50 years after Buddha Shakyamuni’s mahaparinirvana, the sambhogakaya buddha Vajrasattva — who is inseparable from Buddha Shakyamuni — transmitted the 6,400,000 tantras of the Great Completion to the first human guru of the Vajrayana, the Awareness-Holder Garab Dorje.
After this flourishing of Buddhist activity during the seventh to ninth centuries, the spread of Buddhism suffered a major setback at the hands of Langdarma, the brother of King Ralpachen.
Langdarma was bitterly opposed to the spread of Buddhism, which he saw as a threat to the indigenous Bön tradition. During his short reign, Langdarma worked to undo the efforts of his predecessors.
His violent persecution dismantled the community of ordained monks and nuns—nearly destroying Tibet’s fledgling Buddhist community—and plunged the country into a period of political and cultural fragmentation.
Buddhism was not entirely wiped out during this dark period, however. While Langdarma and his cohorts decimated most of the monastic community, a few monks escaped to Amdo in northeastern Tibet, where they preserved the lineage of monastic ordination.
The community of lay practitioners survived as well, and many tantric lineages that were transmitted by Padmasambhava and other Buddhist masters continued to be taught and practiced in secret.
Thus, despite the great upheavals that took place in the ninth century, the work of Songtsen Gampo, Trisong Deutsen, and Ralpachen made a lasting impact in Tibet.
The lineages that stem from this first spreading of Buddhism to Tibet came to be known as the Nyingma, or Ancient School.
The Nyingma tradition holds unique teachings that are not found in other lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. Among its distinct teachings are the Tantra of the Secret Essence and the Great Perfection.
In the Nyingma school, the Tantra of the Secret Essence is regarded as the most significant work on Buddhist tantra, a form of spiritual practice that stresses using all facets of life as avenues to awakening. The teachings of this text present the main principles of tantric practice.
Despite the renown of the Tantra of the Secret Essence, it is the Great Perfection, or Dzogchen, that is the hallmark of the Nyingma lineage.
Though the term “Great Perfection” can be used to refer to the fundamental nature of reality as well as the state of buddhahood, it most commonly refers to a continually evolving set of spiritual instructions and the lineage of enlightened beings who have mastered these teachings and passed them down through the ages.
This radically direct approach points out the mind’s fundamental nature of luminous purity. According to its teachings, enlightenment is not a distant goal to strive toward, but an immanent reality that must be recognized in the present moment.
Effort and agendas only serve to obscure the true nature of mind. Once this nature has been recognized, however, problems and negativity automatically dissolve, leaving the open space of pure awareness, in which the qualities of enlightenment spontaneously unfold.
Garab Dorje transmitted the combined essence of the words, meanings, and esoteric instructions of Dzogchen to the great pandita Master Manjushrimitra, who in turn passed the teachings in one single lineage to his principle disciple Shri Singha.
From Shri Singha the Dzogchen teachings passed to Jhanasutra, Guru Padmasambhava, and Vimalamitra — who was the principle teacher of the 500 great panditas of India at that time — and later to Vairochana.
The Second Buddha Guru Padmasambhava established a lineage of oral transmission known as the Kama, which passes from teacher to disciple. The Kama continues unbroken up to the present. Guru Padmasambhava and the great wisdom Dakini Yeshe Tsogyal also concealed various types of spiritual treasures known as Terma, which are discovered by revealers of spiritual treasure known as tertons. This is known as the Terma lineage.
The transmission of the teachings from Garab Dorje until now is known as the individual oral transmission lineage. The oral transmission lineage is the way we receive teachings in the human world.
The mind-to-mind transmission lineage is in the dharmakaya, and the symbolic transmission lineage is in the sambhogakaya.
However, the oral transmission lineage contains the mind-to-mind transmission lineage and the symbolic transmission lineage. It is not separate from them; it embodies them.
The oral transmission lineage is also called the nirmanakaya lineage.
For example, Guru Padmasambhava, Garab Dorje, Manjushrimitra, and all the eight great vidyadharas are nirmanakaya buddhas. It is through the nirmanakaya buddhas that the teachings have come to us.
When the oral transmission lineage came to Tibet, it was transmitted in three different ways: through the Kama lineage, the Terma lineage, and the pure vision lineage.
Nubchen Sangye Yeshe Rinpoche was one of the nine heart-like students of Guru Padmasambhava. According to the Nyingma history, after Guru Padmasambhava came to Tibet there were three famous lineage holders, of which Nubchen Sangye Yeshe was one.
Nubchen Sangye Yeshe was born into the Nub clan in Central Tibet during the reign of King Trisong Deutsen.
At an early age he met Guru Padmasambhava and received instructions from him, as well as from the famous master Shantarakshita. Nubchen Sangye Yeshe was a genius, and because of his abilities he became a great master at a very young age.
Nubchen Sangye Yeshe is renowned for saving the Dharma, and particularly the tantric teachings from the anti-Buddhist King Langdharma.
After living for about 125 years, Nubchen Sangye Yeshe transformed into the wisdom rainbow body. He had many reincarnations who came back to Tibet as great tertons, scholars, and meditation masters.
Some of the most renowned reincarnations of Sangye Yeshe Rinpoche were Dumja Shang Trom, Drimed Kunga, Tsasum Lingpa, and Mipham Rinpoche.
The Great Terton Tsasum Lingpa was born in the 17th century in Kham eastern Tibet near a pilgrimage mountain called Jowo Zegyal.
He was born into a lower middle-class family among many miraculous signs, and he grew up as an ordinary person.
He never stayed for a long time at any particular school or monastery; his knowledge and realization came through his Dzogchen meditation.
Tsasum Lingpa’s lifestyle and character were that of a crazy-wisdom yogi; he was not a normal, regular person.
His way of acting was very crazy, as was his way of discovering the terma teachings.
He never stayed in one place for a long time gathering students, and he traveled alone. He discovered many terma teachings and ritual objects. He was famous for recovering the terma teachings from objects.
He discovered terma in rock mountains, the earth, and lakes. He also discovered terma in old temples, in the ceilings, and between pillars and beams.
Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche (1846-1912) was a great Nyingma master and writer of the last century, a student of Jamgon Kongtrul,
Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, and Patrul Rinpoche.
Blessed by Manjushri, he became one of the greatest scholars of his time. His collected works fill more than thirty volumes.
