Tantric Nying-Ma Buddhism

[Sturmrabe]

where does it fit in?

I keep reading about all the different offshootings of Hinduism and Bhuddism in this section and I was wondering if someone could place it for me historically...

my friends uncle is Jeffery Hopkins, and I've read a couple of his books a long time ago...

thanks

[Yeshi]

it corresponds to oldest buddhist dissemination in Tibet, continuing the teachings of tantric mage Padmasambhava who was there in the 8th century. Nyingmas are called also red hats, as a distinction to yellow hats or today's official religion in tibet, the Gelukpas (Dalai Lama's School).


Wikipedia's your friend ;) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyingma)

[Vajradhara]

the Nyingma tradition is called the Initial Spreading, in Tibet, and it is the teaching that Padmasambhava brought to Tibet.

as an aside, this is the tradition that i happen to practice.

that being said, the Second Spreading is when the other three schools of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism arose which are the Kagyu, Sakya and Gelugpa.

generally speaking, the main difference between these schools is the method of yoga which they employ and the terminology which they use. if one is given to a strong sectarian bent, then other differences are sure to surface... for instance, the Nyingma, until very recently in their history, had no monastaries.. it was a tradition that the laiety practiced. the other teachings were all initially within a monastic setting, though recently, the Gelugpas, in particular, are making teachings available to the laiety as well.

of course these are generalizations, but hopefully should address the query to some extent.

the interested reader is directed to this link for more information on the 4 Tibetan Buddhist schools and the Bon-po religion:

http://www.tibet.com/Buddhism/budintro.html