The main entry notes Dzogchen has faced the charge of resembling the Chinese Chan position "rejected at the Samye debate," a reference significant to Tibetan self-understanding and to Dzogchen's own history of defending itself.
The Samye debate, dated to the late eighth century, is remembered in Tibetan historiography as a contest between the Indian gradualist Kamalashila, representing a Madhyamaka position that enlightenment is reached through a structured path of ethical conduct and refined analysis, and the Chinese Chan master Moheyan, representing a "sudden" position requiring the cessation of conceptual thought rather than gradual cultivation. Tibetan tradition holds Kamalashila won and Moheyan's approach was rejected, an outcome foundational to how Tibetan Buddhism presented itself as committed to a gradual path, whatever the actual facts, which modern scholars, working from Chinese sources at Dunhuang, have shown more ambiguous than the triumphant narrative suggests.
Dzogchen's emphasis on primordial purity requiring only recognition placed it in tension with this narrative, since its critics, including in Sakya Pandita's charge against Mahamudra discussed elsewhere, drew the comparison directly. Nyingma defenders responded that Dzogchen's recognition of rigpa, unlike the Chan position as characterized by critics, requires extensive prior ethical and tantric preparation and a teacher's direct introduction, a defense that has kept Dzogchen recognized as orthodox.