Daniel J Scharpenburg:
Do you think there is really an authentic lineage that can trace itself back to the Buddha?
I made the argument that there isn't in this article:
Authentic Lineage?What do you think?
Just read your article... well written and sorry for repeating whatever you just said haha
I personally think lineage or sectarianism of any kind is problematic if it closes us from learning from a wider spectrum of teachings, and also as you said it can be used wrongly, like putting teachers (who are imperfect beings) on the pedestal. (e.g. I'm not fond of the idea of "crazy wisdom" and I think it is usually just an excuse to make their teacher into an idol of a "perfect being" whose actions are unquestionable rather than very human flaws that can be improved. This is very silly imo.) On the other hand it is useful to 'keep the purity of the teachings of the lineage' - however how 'pure' or how much in accord with Buddha's dharma is that so called lineage teachings to begin with? That is another question. Futhermore, even lineages within themselves are subject to evolution over time. And as we know, no lineages can be traced back to Buddha, so it is more accurate to call it "the lineage of X patriarch's interpretations of Buddha Dharma" rather than falsely claiming that it is Buddha's lineage. Some of these patriarches and the lineages that follow may indeed be very insightful and the tradition (backed by hundreds/thousands of years of experienced yogis with valuable practical advises/experience/literature etc) may itself be a very good and valuable resource of teachings, and may well deserve to be 'preserved' in a working tradition and it can be beneficial to a lot of people.
However other unhealthy sides to lineage and authority - i.e. putting teachers on pedestal etc, may not be such a good thing, the lineage thing may be misleading because it can give 'teachers' the image of being 'the authority of dharma' (when in actuality there is no real 'authority' of dharma that is being appointed by Buddha - instead we should really judge that person based on qualities/practice/insight/etc based on the Dharma, that I mentioned rather than 'lineage'), on the other hand it is also partly due to unhealthy projections of teachers by the teachers and students themselves (the idea that dharma teachers imply perfected beings or fully enlightened etc - also what does full enlightenment mean? do they mean ten fetter model of enlightenment or..?), and we should all strive towards having a better view of the role and our relationship with teachers. What are we trying to get out of the teachers? It is one thing to attain certain insight into the nature of reality and another thing to expect that the teacher have perfected their practices and are free from of all afflictions/fetters/immoral behaviors and so on, there is almost always room for improvement in one's practice.. It is highly unlikely that one will find a teacher that is a perfect role model of the Buddha's teachings in all aspects of shila/samadhi/prajna so one should be have a more realistic expectation of what one wants to learn from this particular teacher. One could also learn from a number of teachers on different areas of expertise. This is in fact Buddha's advise sometimes - for example he would advise those who have samadhi but no insight/lack insight to look for insight masters, those who mastered insight without/lacking samadhi to look for samadhi masters, those who lack both to look for those who mastered both, etc. In any case one should have a very clear understanding of 1) what the teacher is good at, what we can learn from him/her (may have nothing to do with whether the said teacher has 'lineage authority'), 2) what we really want/can/need or should achieve at this point of development, 3) have a realistic idea/relationship/expectation of the teacher and not put him/her on pedestals, etc. Having a clearer and more pragmatic relationship with a teacher is better than having a mythic-magic idea about teachers (like my mother who thinks her guru is sort of a perfect Buddha-like being). As for the teachers themselves, they should not let their 'lineage' and 'teacher' position blind them from further progress and learning, as ego is often involved/developed in that position (there are some rare exceptions that I have seen though such as an Australian zen teacher at a zen center I've been visiting from time to time and I am inspired by him). Teachers should also not fuel unhealthy ideas about themselves and provide clearer information about what their students can expect to learn from him/her.
This also brings me to another point regarding lineage/sect etc. There is an argument that it is unhealthy to look into too many schools and instead one should just choose a focus in one's practice. Although having a focus in one's practice at any given point in one's practice may be pragmatically useful and necessary (e.g. you can't possibly divide a 30 minute session of meditation into a mixture of ten different techniques, or rather it may not be very practical to do so), in my experience my focus of practice develops as my practice and insight develops, and I find that being overfly focused on one particular teaching/practice/tradition/etc is in fact usually highly limiting and prevents one's progress in various aspects/fronts practice, insight, etc. There also comes a time when I do feel that there are not much I can learn any further from many established lineages and teachings/teachers on certain fronts like insight (and I reflect upon this years ago with some sense of disappointment/sadness rather than pride, like, "if only Buddha were around"... later a dream of clarity arose where I saw that everything is in fact the face of my teacher - everyone and everything whether perfect/imperfect in life, is in fact my teacher! even in the dream I realized its meaning and this cleared away my misguided notion that a teacher has to be a perfect being in everything, there are things we can learn from everyone, and we can learn even from the flaws of others).
In any case, I don't really like to be caged in any particular tradition, I prefer to pick and choose the teachings that work out for me - Rather than setting up cages and boundaries out of lineages, I prefer to follow the example that some Tibetan teachers give - be like a bee collecting nectar from all the flowers. Rather than limiting oneself to a certain teacher/teaching/etc. This does not mean setting yourself up in a prideful position like, "I do not need any lineage/teachers at all" or "I'm above all these silly lineage stuff" but rather, from a humble perspective seeing everyone/everything/the universe as teacher, there is no need to be limited or confined in any way at all, including by identification to lineage. There is no need to give overdue significance to "lineage". We just learn what we can from what we find.