The suggested inference of this article is that Mani is the source of the Dzogchen teachings of Tibetan Buddhists. Beginning with an ancient Persian from of Zarathustrianism which penetrated the Tibetan region in the 5th Century BC, and followed by a heretical Pudgalavadin form of Buddhism in the 3rd century BC, both of which pave the way for the influx of the teachings of Mani in the late 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th centuries AD.

This Manichaean faith became totally dominant in northern Tibet  when the Uighur King converted to Manichaeanism in 762 AD. The deeper teachings of this Manichaean mix also came to be known as Dzogchen and survived in southern Tibet in the form of the Nyingma tradition incorporated by the Indian Padmasambhava into his own system when he taught in the area in 747 A.D. Later Tibetan schools look with some suspicion on this earlier form of teaching which has many elements foreign to their own viewpoints but harmonious with the Manichaean world view of the Order of O:N:E:..

"According to Kuznetsov, Bon was introduced to Tibet in the fifth century BC, when there occurred a mass migration of Iranians from Sogdhiana in north-east Iran to the northern parts of Tibet.." .....June Campbell: "Traveller in Space".. Bon was existent in Padmasambhava's time when he organized the Tibetan people and although Nyingma is said in later terma treasure times to have originated with Padmasambhava, it is more likely that such goes farther back to at least the time of the influx of Manichaeanism into the area. The similarities of Bon to Nyingma, once thought to have been borrowed after Padmasambhava's time, is now seen by the most astute scholars to be signs of their mutual antiquity in the pre-Padmasambhava landscape of central Asia.

In the 3rd century B.C.E. emerged the Pudgalavadins from the Hinayana school of Buddhism, who derive their name from the word pudgala, meaning 'person'. The Pudgalavadins claimed that for reincarnation to take place, there had to be a continuous person who was reincarnated again and again, thus requiring a kind of individual soul, not an autonomous self, but a soul in constant transformation. This view was criticised by other Buddhist sects who said that Pudgalavadin teaching implied the reality of a self and, therefore, contradicted the basic Buddhist teaching of anatman (no self). These Pudgalavadins were persecuted in India but flourished in Central Asian Bon areas where they, with the possible influence of Mani and Manichaeanism, seem to have developed into, or merged with, the Dzogchen teachings of the Great Perfection in Tibet. An  early form of this Dzogchen then possibly evolved into Ch'an and Zen and spread eastward.

Manichaeanism entered into Tibet and northern India at the end of the third century A.D.  By 670-692  existed in strength  in eastern Turkestan where the Uighur Turks were intermixing with Iranians and Scyths. Manichaeanism, along with Buddhism, became extremely prevalent in this area. Manichaeanism tended to express itself in Buddhist terminology in this land and itself was part Buddhist, yet Manichaeanism has many elements considered inharmonious with traditional Buddhist ideas.  This Buddhist Manichaeanism mix, of which Mani would have been proud, possibly had a profound influence on Mahayana Buddhism which would soon become the dominant form of Buddhism. Manichaean elements are especially discernible in Buddhist schools such as the pure land sect and continued to influence the unique development of Vajrayana Buddhism in Tibet. Thus these forms of Buddhism speak of a central deity, a light land, 5 elements in need of redemption, and other traditional Manichaean teachings.

Dzogchen, The Supreme Highest Yoga Tantra, Atiyoga, Dzogchen, or Great Perfection is said,according to both early Bon and Nyingma sources, as well as by  Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye (19th century Nyingmapa scholar and adept)  to have come from the northwest into Tibet.  Dzogchen is also said by these early writers to come from Persian sources and to have existed in Tibet before Padmasambhava came in the eighth century. We concur with this assessment and suspect that Dzogchen originated with the insights of Mani the Persian Messenger of Light and the Manichaean message which came into the area from the northwest.

There is also a tradition that Dzogchen,a nd Padmasambhava,  come from a place called Oddiyana in Shamballa. Texts from this same Tun huang site identify Oddiyana as "Shamis en Balkh" in modern day Balkh, Afghanistan where many ruins, Buddhist stupas and monasteries exist. This is the town oft associated with Padmasambhava, and Rabia and Rumi as well. Although Padmasambhava is usually thought to be Indian, it is possible that he is from the Afghanistan region also associated with his name.

Later Bon is perhaps the mixture of older Iranian Bon with the Pudgalavadin Buddhism that entered Tibet before more traditional forms of Buddhism. We are told by Kongtrul and Longchenpo that Nyingma split off from the Bon Religion when the "new translations" period began in Tibet after Padmasambhava.  Scholars are now concluding that Padmasambhava did not begin Nyingma as later tradition asserts, only incorporated it from the older Bon/Nyingma tradition that preceded him. They also report that the Central Asian Dzogchen View is common to and found within not only Bon, but also the Nyingmapa lineage, as well as in some northern Indian elements of the Sikhs, Nathas, and Bauls.

In 645 Tibet Buddhism was established in Llasa where it mixed with Bon and Dzogchen (Manichaeanism?) which had entered into Tibet from the west and north, creating the Path of Vajrayana, or Tibetan Tantric Buddhism.

The eighth century saw the glorious rise of Padmasambhava and Yeshay Tzogyal in the land of Tibet where they vivified the Manichaean and Buddhist mixture that came to be known as Vajrayana, the third and highest vehicle of Buddhism. Their particular expression became so strong by 747 that more outward and traditional forms of Manichaeanism no longer prevailed in the more southern portions of their land of snows except under its Nyingma form. In the northern Tibetan regions  Manichaeanism  was still the strongest and the state religion of the Uighur Kingdom which by 757 stretched from northern Tibet all the way to the Yellow River in China.

Recent discoveries in Tun huang caves seem to indicate that a pre-Buddhist form of Dzogchen teachings in the Tibetan region and Central Asia area became the Taoist alchemical tradition of yoga that evolves into Ch'an and Zen. Both Zen and Dzogchen teach the concept of sudden enlightenment in contrast to other Buddhist schools that teach gradual unfoldment. Within Tun huang texts we also seem to see non-Taoist texts transforming into Taoist texts and Central Asian Buddhist liturgy transforming itself into Taoist liturgy. One scholar writes that this type of pre-Buddhist Zen like Dzogchen teaches that there is no permanent self nor immortal part nor reincarnation. One must first develop an immortal body and personhood by uniting solar and lunar souls. This last teaching is similar to to some Mandaean and Manichaean teachings on the soul and Ziwa and Noorah light bodies.  A early form of  Dzogchen may possibly have evolved into the Ch'an and Zen traditions that one encounters farther eastward.