The Nyingma School and the Dzogchen Tradition

The Nyingma ("the ancient ones") tradition considers itself the direct continuation of the earliest, "early diffusion" (nga dar) transmission of Buddhism to Tibet under Trisong Detsen, tracing its authority to three principal early masters: the abbot Shantarakshita, who established monastic ordination; Padmasambhava, revered as the tantric master who subdued obstructive local spirits and taught the highest tantras; and the Kashmiri scholar Vimalamitra, credited with transmitting Dzogchen teachings directly. Unlike the later "new translation" (sarma) schools — Sakya, Kagyu, and eventually Gelug — which trace their tantric scriptures to translations undertaken from the eleventh century onward during the "later diffusion," Nyingma bases its tantric canon on translations it holds were made in the eighth and ninth centuries, later compiled into a collection called the Nyingma Gyubum ("Hundred Thousand Tantras of the Ancients"). Nyingma organizes the entirety of Buddhist teaching into a ninefold vehicle (theg pa dgu) hierarchy, culminating in Atiyoga, more commonly known as Dzogchen, above the six lower sutra and tantra vehicles, a classificatory scheme distinctive to Nyingma and, in a parallel form, to Bon. Because many of Nyingma's foundational tantras lack clear Sanskrit originals or attested Indian textual pedigree, later Sarma-school critics questioned the authenticity of some Nyingma scriptures as genuinely Indian in origin rather than composed in Tibet.