Overview of the Nyingma Order
Originating from Guru Padmasambhava
Guru Rinpochey, as he is popularly known, bound all evil spirits by oath and
transformed them into forces compatible with the spread of Buddhism.
In collaboration with the great Bodhisattva Abbott Shantarakshita, Guru Rinpochey
then built Samyey monastery, which became a principal centre of learning and
the site where many of the texts that would make up Tibet’s vast Buddhist
literature were first translated into Tibetan.
Guru Rinpochey also gave widespread teachings from the highest classes of
tantra and in particular to his twenty five principal disciples. These first
Tibetan adepts are reknowned for their spiritual accomplishments, for example:
Namkhe Nyingpo for his feat of traveling on beams of light, Khandro Yeshe Tsogyal
for reviving the dead, Vairochana for his intuition, Nanam Yeshe for soaring in
the sky, Kawa Peltseg for reading others’ thoughts and Jnana Kumara for his
miraculous powers.
Contemporary Indian masters Vimalamitra, Buddhaguhya, Shantipa and the tantric
adept, Dharmakirti, also came to Tibet to spread tantric teachings.
So although the study of logic and Buddhist philosophy was not yet
prevalent, the practice of tantra in extreme secrecy was much favored. Even the
work of translating such esoteric texts as Kun-byed rg yal-po, mDo-dongs-‘dus
and the Mahamaya cycle of teachings by Vairochana, Nyag Jnana Kumara, Nubchen
Sangye Yeshe and others, was carried out in great secrecy.
Seeing the disciples unripe and the time inappropriate for many of the other
teachings he had to reveal, Guru Padmasambhava hid hundreds of Treasures in the
forms of scriptures, images and ritual practices, with instructions for their
revelations for the benefit of future generations. Subsequently, more than one
hundred masters have revealed these Treasures and taught them to their
disciples.
