Nyingma

Nyingma means "the ancient ones", and it is the oldest of the Tibetan schools, tracing itself to the first transmission of Buddhism to Tibet in the eighth century and to Padmasambhava.

Its best-known teaching is Dzogchen, the great perfection, which starts from an unusual place: that the mind's awake nature is already complete and does not have to be built. Practice is then less construction than recognition, which sounds easy and is not.

Nyingma is also the home of the terma tradition — teachings said to have been concealed to be found in a later age, by a treasure revealer who is ready for them. And unlike the other schools it has always carried a strong non-monastic line: the ngakpa, married yogic practitioners with long hair and full training, standing alongside the monasteries rather than beneath them.