The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism

To this day the legacy of suppression of Nyingma scriptures as unauthentic and the discounting of treasure finders continue. It was against this historical background that the contemporary Nyingma scholar, dzogchen meditation master, and treasure finder, His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche Jigdal Yeshe Dorje, composed two influential works on the philosophical coherence and the historical authenticity of the Nyingma. The first volume of The Nyingma School consists of English translations of these two works.

The work on philosophical doctrines, entitled Fundamentals of the Nyingma School, presents a comprehensive account of traditional philosophical views, both secular and religious, non-Buddhist and Buddhist. It also includes an extended discussion of the validity of the esoteric scriptures and the special (tantra) distinctions of the Nyingma. In the second translated work, entitled History of the Nyingma School, Dudjom Rinpoche directly addresses the legacy of criticism of the Nyingma tradition in a special section entitled “A Rectification of Misconceptions Concerning the Nyingma School.” He responds to various charges against the authenticity of the Nyingma tradition and provides a discussion of the “Great Perfection” (dzogchen) view. He also explores the continuity of the Nyingmapa tradition and its impact on the other schools, the shortcomings of logical argumentation, prophecies found in the treasure tradition, and the relationship between the Nyingmapa and the “pre-Buddhist” tradition of the Bonpo. In his reply to critics, Dudjom Rinpoche has a section entitled “On the ‘Bad Luck of the Nyingmapa,'” wherein he characterizes the ideal Nyingma practitioner:

Even if a thousand buddhas were to appear in a vision and say to such a person, “Your doctrinal tradition is wrong. Abandon it and practice another!” not even the tips of that one’s hairs would waver.

The translators and editors of these volumes had the good fortune to have studied and consulted with the author, Dudjom Rinpoche, over many years. Both Gyurme Dorje (University of London) and Matthew Kapstein (Columbia University) are to be congratulated for accomplishing the nearly impossible feat of presenting to the literate public a readable, systematic introduction to the whole of Buddhism from the viewpoint of contemporary Nyingma scholarship.

It should be borne in mind that with the Chinese invasion of Tibet in the 1950s and the forced diaspora which followed, the very survival of an eleven-hundred-year-old cultural heritage was endangered. Indeed, as the translators tell us:

These treatises were composed [by Dudjom Rinpoche] during the years immediately following [his] arrival in India as a refugee. His intention in writing them… was to preserve the precise structure of the Nyingma philosophical view within its own historical and cultural context, in a period of great uncertainty and instability.

The original scope of the project was limited to providing an accurate and readable translation of the treatises. As the translation project proceeded, however, it soon became apparent that the encyclopedic range of subject matter addressed in these two works, much of which has never before been studied by Western scholars, necessitated the addition of supplementary material to aid the reader. This reference material, found in the second volume, includes extensive annotation, glossaries of technical terms, indices of personal names and locations, maps drawn on the basis of extensive field work in Tibet, line drawings of the major Nyingma figures, and, when available, color plates of sacred places, persons, and objects. There is a special section on artifacts and material treasures that lists amulets, images, relics, stupas, sacred pillars, robes, masks, and jewels which are linked to the traditions of the treasure finders mentioned in the first volume. In addition, there are over one hundred pages of specialized bibliographies and an introductory bibliographic essay. This essay can be profitably read as a guide to the problems of research into the vast literature of Tibetan Buddhism.

The compilation of all these materials has involved the cooperation of virtually the entire worldwide community of Nyingma masters and scholars. Since the Nyingmas have been poorly and inaccurately represented in so many “official” histories and surveys of philosophy written in Tibet, this project was seen as an ideal and unprecedented occasion to preserve this spiritual tradition and present it to the West. Sadly, as if to signal just how endangered and fragile this spiritual tradition is, His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche passed away before the completion of the project.

Given its length, and the burgeoning supplemental material, the translators faced difficult choices at every turn. While the amount of information included is staggering, not every reader’s demands could be satisfied: a phonetic Tibetan-to-English index is provided for the general reader, but specialists are denied a transliterated index, which would have greatly facilitated scholarly reference to other Tibetan sources.

A comprehensive table of contents provides a detailed outline of all the topics and is followed by a thoughtful, well-written introduction. It now seems clear that this publication supports a larger purpose; signaling the beginnings of a renaissance in Nyingma studies, these volumes are destined to serve as an enduring resource for the institutional study of Nyingma philosophy and history.