Within the Nyingma school, Padmasambhava, or Guru Rinpoche, is regarded as the founding master and primary source of its spiritual life. Together with other early figures, he is credited with establishing Buddhism in Tibet, and Nyingma in particular traces its origins and distinctive doctrines directly to his presence and activity. The tradition understands him as the root tantric guru whose teachings and transmissions form the bedrock of its identity. In this sense, he is not merely a historical teacher, but the central founding figure around whom the Nyingma vision of the Dharma coheres.

Nyingma holds that its characteristic teachings—especially the tantric corpus, the system of nine vehicles, and the Great Perfection (Dzogchen)—were transmitted and systematized by Padmasambhava. These are seen as the highest and most subtle expressions of the path within this school, and they are remembered as having been entrusted to select disciples during his time in Tibet. The school’s self-understanding as the “Ancient” tradition is bound up with this early wave of transmissions associated with him, which it seeks to preserve and embody.

Equally central is Padmasambhava’s role in the terma, or “treasure,” tradition. Nyingma holds that he concealed teachings—both as physical texts and as imprints in the minds of disciples—to be revealed in later generations by tertöns, or treasure revealers. Through this, he is regarded as an ongoing, living source of doctrine, whose voice continues to resound whenever a genuine treasure teaching is brought to light. The terma tradition thus becomes a hallmark of Nyingma spirituality, linking present practitioners back to the original guru.

In devotional and ritual life, Padmasambhava stands at the heart of Nyingma practice. He is visualized as the embodiment of the compassion of all buddhas and as the personification of the guru principle itself. Guru-yoga and other major liturgical cycles revolve around him, treating him as the ever-present guide whose blessings make the path effective. For Nyingma practitioners, the relationship to Padmasambhava is therefore not only historical or doctrinal, but profoundly relational: he is simultaneously founder, teacher, and intimate spiritual refuge.