Why is Lineage important?

[vajrastorm]

It is stated in the Lamrim (Liberation)that the "Dharma you practice must the one taught by Buddha, proven by the pandits, and utilized in the meditations of great and powerful adepts to produce realizations and insights in their mindstreams".

When the teachings come down to us through an unbroken lineage, via our Spiritual Guide, we are reassured that they are authentically Lord Buddha's teachings and bear the above characteristics. They are proven by adepts(past great masters of the lineage) to produce results of "realizations and insights" in the mindstream. They carry the blessings of all the lineage masters beginning with Buddha Shakyamuni.

Hence Lineage is important.
     

[dsiluvu]

Why is lineage important? Because it guarantees us that the path that we have taken is one that has been proven to be the right path and that people have walked down that path have experienced positive results and that it is the way. If we practice something that does not have a lineage, then we would not know what the teachings are based on, and whether or not the teachings will bring any effect, or would it lead us to the wrong path. Having a lineage eliminates those risks.

It's really what my answer would be as well... although today we find many new weird, funny, new, faiths and beliefs popping out and up like mushrooms. I think BUddhism has presented it self to me the most logical, with a broken track record of results that we ourselves can see and experience from our Guru. And from there, to his Guru, his Guru, his Guru and all the way back. There is a past history, past experience, past wisdom that flows down continuously in an unbroken purity which somehow we are connected to and have the affinity with... that is why we are here in the first place... drawn to a particular lineage I suppose.

I would not look or change to any other faith... especially one without any proven lineage. It's important simply because, well I wanna know what I'm learning comes from someone who has achieved positive results for a proven record of times that it does work and I do not want to go off my nanas learning something without a proper experienced guide.

A simple analogy for me is: If we are gonna fly on a jet plane, we better make sure our pilot knows how to fly the jet and knows where he's going. And that he has done his studies with those who have experienced (his teachers are pilots too), he goes to the correct school and got his certificates and has some experience flying right? We would not hire to get on a jet with someone that has no qualifications, no clue, no background would we?

[Ensapa]

Without a lineage, Buddhism would be just a cover for closet atheists who just want to rebel against society. I have witnessed many times of how some odd people create their own version of Buddhism by making up the rules and taking sutras out of context. Personally I find that quite sad and funny but in reality, there is much potential in materials like these that will mislead people in general. It could even be a cover for people who just want to swindle money and trust from others. If we go for a master without a clear lineage (such as the name of his ordination master or the monastery he was ordained at) then we are putting ourselves at risk. So why do that to ourselves?

[DS Star]

It is stated in the Lamrim (Liberation)that the "Dharma you practice must the one taught by Buddha, proven by the pandits, and utilized in the meditations of great and powerful adepts to produce realizations and insights in their mindstreams".

When the teachings come down to us through an unbroken lineage, via our Spiritual Guide, we are reassured that they are authentically Lord Buddha's teachings and bear the above characteristics. They are proven by adepts(past great masters of the lineage) to produce results of "realizations and insights" in the mindstream. They carry the blessings of all the lineage masters beginning with Buddha Shakyamuni.

Hence Lineage is important.

VajraStorm, I like your answer   Lamrim is of course the 'authority' we can rely on for question such as this.

Lamrim is a special set of instructions that includes all the essential teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni arranged in such a way that all Buddha's teachings from all traditions can be put into practice in a single meditation session.

It was compiled by the great Indian Buddhist scholar, Lord Atisha, who was invited to Tibet by King Jangchub Ö in AD 1042, and who spent the rest of his life there spreading pure Dharma.

Lord Atisha’s Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment became the prototype and main textual base for the Lamrim tradition. It was subsequently adopted by all schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

There is a completely pure and unbroken lineage of these Lamrim instructions from Buddha Shakyamuni up to our present day Spiritual Guides.

[ilikeshugden]

The teachings must be pure and authentic because if they are not pure, they are ineffective. The lineage of the teachings must be clean. If a son of a liar who also is a liar told you a certain product is good, would you buy it? No! Because the 'lineage' would be unclean. People like to look into the history of things. If there is no history, there is nothing to be learnt and thus the teachings would be ineffective.