Samding Dorje Phagmo A lineage in Buddhism is a line of transmission of the Buddhist teaching that is "theoretically traced back to the Buddha himself.
In the Long Scroll of the Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices and the Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks, Daoyu and Huike are the only explicitly identified disciples of Bodhidharma.
[11]The Denkoroku gives 28 patriarchs in this transmission,[12][13] and 53 overall: Twenty-four different Zen lineages are recorded to be transmitted to Japan.
After receiving Dharma transmission in the Caodong school, he returned to Japan and established the lineage there, where it is called the Sōtō.
Unlike the other Buddhist lineages, Pure Land Buddhism does not maintain a strict master-disciple relationship, however, in various countries, certain teachers and monks have been acknowledged as having furthered the tradition either through new insights, or through promulgation of the teachings.
In the Chinese Buddhism, the thirteen patriarchs that promulgated the Pure Land tradition in China are:[14] In Jōdo Shinshū and Jodo Shu Buddhist traditions, "Patriarch" refers to seven Indian, Chinese and Japanese masters leading up to the founder of their respective schools.
The 14th Dalai Lama, in the foreword to Karmapa: The Sacred Prophecy[19] states:Within the context of Tibetan Buddhism, the importance of lineage extends far beyond the ordinary sense of a particular line of inheritance or descent.
The vital link through which the spiritual tradition is nourished and maintained is the profound connection between an enlightened master and perfectly devoted disciple.
1924),[23] in a purport to Karma Chagme, conveys Dilgo Khyentse's 'samaya', diligence and humility in receiving Vajrayana empowerment, lineal Dharma transmission and rlung, as rendered into English by Wallace (Chagmé et al., 1998: p. 21): With respect to oral transmission, even if the lineage is impure, it is not a problem.
[26] One namtar (hagiography) asserts that shortly after Kamalaśīla won his famous debate with Moheyan as to whether Tibet should adopt the "sudden" route to enlightenment or his own "gradual" route, Kamalaśīla enacted phowa, transferring his mindstream to animate a corpse polluted with contagion in order to safely move the hazard it presented.
The mindstream of Kamalaśīla was unable to return to his own kuten and so was forced to enter the vacant body of Dampa Sangye.