The buddhadharma was carried across the Himalayas from India to Tibet in the Eighth Century, according to Tibetan tradition, by Padmasambhava (“the Lotus Born”), also known as Guru Rimpoche (“Precious Teacher”). This great being, whom Tibetans consider a “Second Buddha” adapted the Mahayana approach of Indian Buddhism to the untamed, largely desolate Tibetan Plateau with practices specifically directed to a widely scattered, illiterate (Tibet had no written language at this point) people in a rough climate of stark contrasts. These practices, which did not require a preexisting refined (in the Indian sense) culture or large educational and social institutions, formed the basis of so-called Vajrayana--also known as Tantrayana or Mantrayana--practices.
It is important to point out that these terms (Vajrayana, Tantrayana, Mantrayana) do not purport a divergence from the Mahayana-Bodhisattva buddhadharma practices that predate them or even an “improvement” on them (in the same way that Hinayana and Mahayana are distinguished as different orientations to the buddhadharma). Rather, the Vajrayana practices of Tibetan Buddhism are more correctly understood as methods of practicing the Bodhisattva Way, as the Mahayana is often called. This “Way” is the path of one who aspires to work for the happiness and welfare of all beings and who takes as his or her practice the service of others over self-cherishing-absorption.
Tibetan Buddhism can thus be seen as a great umbrella term for an immense variety of specific practices that have been, are, and can still be tailored almost literally to each individual. In other words, the basic orientation of Tibetan Buddhism is highly idiosyncratic. This should not be too surprising if one remembers that Tibet has been until this Century, and still is (largely) made up of widely scattered small (by Euro-Asian standards) groups of individuals. Therefore, individual instruction by a teacher, or lama, became and remains largely the norm.
Nevertheless, Guru Rimpoche also brought across an original feature of Indian buddhadharma, monasticism, which is, of course, communally, versus individually, oriented. By thus combining monastic communality with individual instruction, this remarkable historical and cultural collusion gave birth to several brilliant schools, or lineages, of which there are four main ones (in the sense of having the greatest number of students, rather than in a sense of being better, or truer, or more authentic). These are the Nyingma (which means “old”) school and the Sarma (which means "new") schools of the Kagyu, Sakya and Gelug. The latest founded was the Gelug School, in the 15th Century, and it is from this lineage that the Dalai Lamas are found.
By the last Century, many of these schools had become not only quite distinctive in their development but also quite competitive in their approach to the other schools. This gave rise to a Reformation-like nonsectarian approach, called rimay in Tibetan, the aim of which has been to de-emphasize competitiveness while invigorating diversity and individuation that had always characterized the Tibetan buddhadharma and is, in a sense, its genius. Today, all the Tibetan schools, or lineages, acknowledge the wisdom of this “enlightened” approach to practical diversity in unity of purpose or goal.
For example, each of the four main schools is headed by a teacher who bears the title His Holiness. Currently, Tendzin Gyamsto, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, is the Fourteenth “Holder of the Lion‘s Throne,” the official title of the political ruler of Tibet. He is not, however, the head of the Gelug lineage. The Fourteenth Dalai Lama has of course also been well recognized for his immense spiritual qualities as a teacher, having himself studied with and under the greatest teachers of all the other schools, not just his own, and accords his being regarded by many devotional titles, none of which imply exclusivity, or even, by his own persistent insistence, preeminence. Nevertheless, owing to his great political and spiritual gifts, of all the living Tibetan teachers, he is perhaps best known and revered as a world leader for peace and harmony among all peoples and all religious traditions on Earth.
Tibetan Buddhist practices are too numerous and variegated to adequately summarize without doing great injustice to this engaging, if not sometimes bewildering, diversity. It would be like describing a huge garden of 1,000 flower species as “red, white, green, blue, and yellow”--accurate as that may be. However, if one had never seen the garden, describing it that way is virtually useless. Nevertheless, few inquirers would be satisfied with nothing.--except perhaps a Zen buddhist--and so something must be said about that which only too much can be said.
There are, in broadest possible terms, practices for training the body, speech, and mind of the seeker within the categories of visualization (mind), mantra (speech), and physical activity (body), all of which, separately and together, are intended and designed to lead the practitioner to the deepest awareness and greatest unfoldment. Two terms for the goal of highest spiritual accomplishment, according to Tibetan Buddhism, are mahamudra, a Sanskrit word that can be translated as “Great Seal,” and dzogchen, a Tibetan word that can be translated as “Great Perfection.” These two terms are just that, terms, not states of being (or non-being). Both refer to the practice of non-duality. As such, it can be said, they are not two and not one. If one were to say or think one is better than the other, that would be dualistic and therefore not mahamudra/dzogchen. All the innumerable practices of body, speech and mind of the Tibetan buddhadharma are oriented to this end, which is endless (and, therefore, beginningless).
The four main schools or lineages (the Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya and Gelug) prefer generally one of these two (not-two/non-dual) terms. For the Nyingma-pa (one who is a Nyingma practitioner) it is dzogchen. For the Sakyapa and Gelugpa, it is the Kagyu mahamudra. To make matters somewhat more (or less) confusing (depending on one‘s point of view), many teachers--and for a Tibetan Buddhist, one must have a teacher or teachers--consider themselves, in the spirit of rimay, “Nyingma-Kagyu”--meaning they have studied and perhaps mastered both mahamudra/dzogchen practice methods. From a Tibetan Buddhist point of view, one might say, “How can you miss?” Only if one doesn‘t try. As the historical Buddha said (paraphrasing), “don‘t believe because I say so; explore, engage with effort and commitment, and find out for yourself.”
For more information:
Recommended reading:The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, by Sogyal Rinpoche.