Tradition · oldest Tibetan Buddhist school · India
Nyingma — the Ancient Translation school
Also known as rNying ma pa, Old Translation School
Nyingma, 'the Ancient Translations', the oldest of the four principal schools of Tibetan Buddhism, tracing itself to the first transmission of Vajrayāna from India to Tibet by Padmasambhava, Śāntarakṣita and Vimalamitra in the 8th century at the court of King Trisong Detsen. Nyingma centres its teachings on the Nine Yānas culminating in Dzogchen (atiyoga, 'the Great Perfection'), the direct recognition of the nature of mind, and on the terma or 'treasure' tradition — texts and ritual objects hidden by Padmasambhava and recovered by later tertön masters. The six great mother monasteries are Dorje Drak, Mindrolling, Palyul, Kathok, Dzogchen and Shechen; the current head is the Mindrolling Trichen lineage.
- Periods
- Regional Flourishing, Republic and Living Practice
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Connections (3)
- Founder ofPadmasambhava
Padmasambhava, the Vajrayāna adept of Oḍḍiyāna, was invited to Tibet by King Trisong Detsen in the 770s. His tantric initiations and the terma treasure-text system he inaugurated are the root of the Nyingma school and of every subsequent Tibetan Buddhist lineage. Across the Himalaya he is simply Guru Rinpoche — the 'Second Buddha'.
- Founder ofŚāntarakṣita
Śāntarakṣita, Bengali Mahāyāna abbot of Nalanda, laid the philosophical foundations of Tibetan Buddhism from the 760s. He ordained the first seven Tibetan monks at Samye, debated the Chinese Chan school in the 790s and established the Indian gradualist path. Padmasambhava gave Tibet its tantra; Śāntarakṣita gave it its scholastic grammar.
- Institutionalised atSamye Monastery
Samye Monastery on the Tsangpo at Dranang, consecrated 779 by Padmasambhava and Śāntarakṣita under King Trisong Detsen, is the mother house of the Nyingma school and the oldest Tibetan Buddhist monastery. Its three-storey main temple is laid out as a Mount-Meru maṇḍala, with four continents arranged around a central shrine. Every Nyingma lineage traces to this consecration.
On these journeys
Sources
Standard reference; Wikipedia Tibetan Buddhism.
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