The ‘Eight Chariots’ were the original eight major streams of vajrayana transmission flowing from India to Tibet. Each stream was, in itself, a confluence of tantras taught and translated by the great Indian and Tibetan masters of the eighth to twelfth centuries CE. Since then, historical, geographical and political factors have crystallised the Buddhism of Tibet into four major lineages: those of Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya and Gelug. All incorporate the fundamental teachings of the Buddha (hinayana). Equally, but with slight variations of interpretation or of style of presentation, they all preach his special teachings of the bodhisattva path (mahayana). Their real differences lie in the vajrayana traditions they perpetuate.
Its name means 'ancient', as it was the first Buddhist tradition to take root in Tibet, as described in some detail in the preceding pages. Established in magnificence in the eighth century, through the royal patronage of King Trisong Detsen, the wisdom of India's greatest scholar of the time, Santaraksita, and the might of its most powerful guru, Padmasambhava, it brought Buddhism to Tibet in a very dynamic and magnificent way. Padmasambhava taught many tantras, from the wealth of his knowledge of Indian vajrayana, and concealed many treasure-texts (terma) to be unearthed in later years. He established three major practice centres of Samye, Yerpa and Chuwori and had twenty-five outstanding disciples among his hundreds of gifted followers. Masters Vimalamitra and Vairocana also taught tantra in that seminal time.
The early glory of this tradition lasted for some sixty years, until the hostile (and probably insane) monarch Langdarma destroyed the majority of its vestiges. Although it did gradually re-establish its monasteries and sangha, it had to vie at first with the animist Bön religion for influence and then later with the new lineages (sarma) arising from the work of AtiÑa, Marpa and other eleventh century renovators. It was during that period that it became referred to as the ‘ancient’ (rnying.ma) school.
The Nyingma tradition views Buddhism as a whole as falling into nine distinctive trends and sees itself as the result of three streams of spiritual transmission:
the ‘remote’ canonical lineage, transmitted by an uninterrupted line of humans
the ‘close’ lineage of hidden spiritual treasures and
the ‘profound’ lineage of pure vision.
The first of these is the traditional guru-to-disciple transmission of teachings, by empowerment, word of mouth and example, as found in other schools. The tantric speciality of the Nyingma focusses, in its formal stages of training, on primordial Buddha Samantabhadra, on the form of Guru Rinpoche and on the wrathful winged Vajrakila, among others. Beyond these, the formless zenith of its training is known as the Great Perfection. As these teachings date back to the Buddha, they are known as those of ‘remote’ origin.
The ‘close’ teachings are those hidden, along with sacred objects, by Padmasambhava and his consort, Yeshe Tsogyal, in rocks, caves, lakes, images, temple pillars and other extraordinary places, to be discovered and given to the world when the time was ripe. These are known as ‘treasures’ (terma) and the masters who find them are known as 'treasure-revealers’ (tertön). Most are considered reincarnations of one or another of the twenty-five main disciples, who had been initiated into the meaning of each teaching in their seminal life with Padmasambhava. Not all terma are physical. Sometimes they simply arise in the mind of the master. The third type of transmission comes through the pure vision of a tertön, who actually sees Guru Padmasambhava come to him and give teaching.
The Nyingma tradition fosters an inbuilt love of going as quickly as possible to the heart of the matter. Offering, for those who are ready, some of the deepest teachings on the nature of reality, it still maintains that ring of majesty and magic of its unique origins and has found a considerable following in the West.
4. The mantrayana practices based on positive and purifying acts of the
kriya tantra
5. The mantrayana practices based on skilful means of the
carya tantra
6. The vajrayana practices of inner yoga of the
yoga tantra
Some of the most famous Nyingma monasteries were those of Katok, Dorjé Drak, Palyul, Mindroling, Dzogchen and Secchen. Among its greatest masters were Longchenpa (1308-1363), who made the first systematic compilation of their doctrine, Mingling Gyurdo (1646-1714), who preserved their canon, Jigme Lingpa (1729-17980, Patrul Rinpoche (1808-1887), Lama Mipham (1846-1912), Jamyang Chentse (1820-1892) and Jamgon Kongtrul (1813-1899).
