What is Buddhist Lineage?

When we begin exploring Buddhism from a non-indigenous perspective—meaning we weren't born into a Buddhist culture like Tibet or Thailand—we encounter many concepts that can feel foreign at first. One of the most important yet misunderstood of these is lineage. But here's the thing: lineage isn't actually foreign to Western thought. It's just been lost or deemphasized in our modern culture.

Lineage Lives in Western Culture Too

Lineage did and does exist in Western culture, particularly through the tradition of apprenticeship. In European cultures, and perhaps still today in some places, apprenticeship was quite common. You'd learn a trade by working with a master for a certain period. Once you became skilled, you and the master would decide you were ready to work independently or start your own practice. Eventually, you'd take on apprentices yourself.

This apprenticeship model captures part of what lineage means in Buddhism. It's not the complete picture, but it's a foundation we can relate to. The challenge is that as hyperindividualism has taken over, we've become less comfortable relying on others and building these deeper relationships.

The Student-Teacher Relationship

From a Buddhist perspective, this idea of apprenticeship and lineage began in India and continues today whenever we enter into a teacher-student relationship—whether spiritual, musical, or in dance. We're entering into a long-term exchange and relationship. There's an explicit recognition that we value what this person has accomplished in their art, trade, or spiritual practice. We're willing to sit with them and learn.

Sometimes (in the past), especially in the spiritual realm, this didn’t mean receiving meditation instructions right away. You might start by sweeping floors, learning through observation and service. Buddha Dharma is a way of life, a way of being we transform into. We often learn more about this through non-verbal communication than through words alone, though teachings and practices are certainly involved too.

This is relatable because at some point, if we want to become students of life, we need to rely on others who have done the work before us. This doesn't mean creating unhealthy hierarchies, but it does mean recognizing that someone might know more than us and have actually mastered something we want to learn. If we want that mastery too, we can rely on them—especially if they're compassionate and wise people who will guide us in healthy, helpful, and ultimately transformative ways.

Transmission: The Living Heart of Lineage

Buddhist lineage functions this way with our personal teachers. We meet them, and through them we're exposed to the dharma. Many of us might start with books, YouTube videos, or guided meditations, but if we want to go deeper, we eventually need human teachers. What this involves goes beyond words—we witness a way of being, and through that, transmission begins.

This transmission is another crucial aspect of Buddhist lineage. Ideally, it comes from someone who hasn't just mastered words and techniques, but has actually realized the dharma. They've freed themselves from suffering and its causes and can transmit that realization along with the verbal teachings and practices. This lineage of transmission is what brings Buddhism to life, passed from person to person through human connection.

We also have textual transmission—the lineage of written teachings and texts—which is equally important. But human transmission is something we can't fake or get from artificial sources. It doesn't come from books or techniques alone. It emerges from relationship, built carefully over time.

This isn't something we rush into. We check the teacher to see if they actually have the mastery they claim. More importantly, we examine ourselves: Are we proper students? Are we proper vessels? There are qualities required for being a student, and a teacher with genuine mastery is also evaluating us, looking to see if we have the capacity to follow this path and achieve results in practice.

A Stream of Compassion and Wisdom

I like to think of lineage as a stream of compassion and wisdom—the kindest thing someone could do for us. Sure, people can buy us meals, help us when we need it, or be loving partners. But these pale in comparison to the kindness of helping us become free from suffering (completely). That's an entirely different level of care.

A lineage is actually a stream of beings who have transformed themselves, gained unchanging realization, and pass that on through this ultimate form of kindness—teaching us how to be free. The lineage doesn't do the work for us, but it helps evoke our own internal blessings, what we call our Buddha nature. This is like a seed of awakening that's already there, waiting to be watered and given sunlight.

The lineage—both our physical teachers and those awakened beings we can't see but can supplicate and receive blessings from—helps water the seed of our Buddha nature. It helps bring it forth, along with dharma study and meditation practice.

Overcoming Hyperindividualism

This element of hyperindividualism has affected me most of my life, as it's more or less the cultural context of the modern West. The implicit teaching is that you are your own being, responsible for everything, and can do everything on your own. I'm not saying individuality is bad, but when it becomes hyperindividualism, we struggle to rely on others and relate to the fundamental truth of interconnection—that everything is connected and we're constantly being influenced by things around us.

We can seek out positive influence, and in Buddhism, this comes through lineage. We can study texts, but when we see those texts embodied in another person who has realized the actual content—who has truly transformed their mind and conduct—it has far greater impact than words on paper.

The obstacles to this, for me, have been related to hyperindividualism and pride. Pride is sneaky—it's not always obvious arrogance. Sometimes it's the subtle sense of "I can do it on my own. I don't need others." This mixture of hyperindividualism and pride makes it difficult to open to lineage, because lineage is also community.

I use the word "stream," but I also think of it as community—a community of realized beings we're tapping into, as well as a community of practitioners on the path working on their development. This is valuable because we see people at various levels and can locate ourselves somewhere in that continuum. If everyone were a Buddha, it would be hard to relate to, so thankfully, in Vajrayana lineages, we believe Buddhas sometimes appear in seemingly normal human forms we can connect with and find hope in.

Wisdom, Not Blind Faith

Buddhism doesn't advocate blind faith or naivety. Our best security is learning the dharma. When we study dharma—even from books and texts—we develop the ability to judge who might be a worthy practitioner to apprentice with. We don't want to accept just anyone. We need to investigate, and to know what we're looking for, we must study the dharma.

We're not operating on blind faith or cultlike following—that's its own trap. But if we're so stuck in hyperindividualism that we refuse to connect, receive, and surrender to something greater, that can equally harm our progress in meditation and spiritual development.

The Unseen Dimension

I view lineage as profoundly positive—not as a hierarchy of control or religious domination, though of course it can be misused. As organized religion becomes more institutionalized, it takes on human fallibilities. But we're not looking for those fallibilities; we're seeking the dharma within lineage, within the mind streams of beings practicing today, as well as those who are unseen.

Just because someone is no longer alive doesn't mean we can't connect with their mind stream, their enlightened awareness. In Vajrayana Buddhism, we have practices for this. For instance, we might supplicate Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) with the belief that we can tap into his essence and receive help. This moves into faith and religious territory, which might be challenging for some, but there's a whole science behind it once we explore it deeper.

Jinlap: The Blessings of Transmission

We usually use the word "jinlap" to describe what we receive from transmission. This doesn't translate well into English—we use "blessings," but that's somewhat awkward. Jinlap is essentially that which helps uncover our Buddha nature, loosening what obscures it. Not because others are doing our work for us, but because our mind, through the interdependence of supplication and devotion, begins opening to new dimensions of its own reality.

This works like anything else—a sunny day affects our mind, as does a rainy day. When we supplicate and interact with lineage, both seen and unseen, it influences our mind. If something is constantly reflecting awakened nature, it will affect us just as anything else would. There's a practical way to understand this that isn't purely based on esoteric faith—there's a science to it.

Making Lineage Come Alive

One of the best ways to connect with lineage is reading biographies of past masters. There are wonderful translations now giving us access to complete biographies of masters from all the Tibetan lineages—Nyingma, Kagyu, Gelug, Sakya.

These biographies are incredibly helpful because they introduce us to the community we're tapping into. Who were they? Who are they? Some stories are inspiring and more than human, others are very human and help us understand not just the dharma but feel more connection with our practice. It's not just technique or cold words on a page—it's alive, living, and very much active in the world.

Pilgrimage is another powerful way to connect with lineage. When we visit sacred places where past masters practiced, studied, and engaged in liberation activities, we tap into that reality in a tangible way. You feel it when you go somewhere Padmasambhava practiced—you taste the place, smell it, experience it directly, even though it's probably very different than a thousand years ago. There's still a thread, a connection. This makes lineage real—not just stories or fantasies, but something we connect with through our feet on the ground, literally.

This exploration only scratches the surface of lineage—it's a vast topic worthy of deep study and direct experience. The invitation is to approach it with both openness and wisdom, allowing this ancient stream of compassion to support our journey toward freedom.