Written by René Fay

As a meditation teacher who is also Buddhist, I am frequently asked about lineage and my relationship to it. I understand the sub-questions: What lineage was I trained in? Where can I trace the teachings back to? How do I relate to the teachers in this lineage?

I enjoy these questions, and some answers are fairly clear. I can talk about how I received formal Buddhist training and the context in which I took my refuge and bodhisattva vows. It’s said that we can trace these teachings of specific Tibetan lineages back to Naropa and Tilopa.

But there are also questions I try to meet with curiosity instead of concrete answers. I think of myself as an agnostic Buddhist, with everything subject to change with new information or a shift in context and circumstance.

In Buddhist tradition, lineage connects us to a living transmission of practice and reminds us that countless other humans have sought and found refuge in it. The very act of meditating connects us to practitioners across centuries who, like us, have engaged in this practice. But for the most part in Western society, Buddhism is a lineage that is transmitted rather than inherited. We choose our teachers and practices.

Many of us in the West opt into these teachings, and therefore can opt in — or out — of a certain lineage. Some approach meditation from a purely secular perspective. While inherited lineages, like familial ones, inherently pass along ways of being, patterns of thought, and perhaps even trauma and resilience from those who raised us, transmitted lineages can be cultivated, chosen, or discovered through affinity and commitment. The common thread is that lineages are held and passed along by humans. Imperfect, struggling humans.

When I think of the various lineages I am part of, I've learned to be grateful for what those who came before me have passed along, without mistaking those people for the teachings themselves. I look at the lineage as a vehicle, instead of doctrine, that allows me to receive teachings that help me deepen my practice and better understand my fundamental worthiness.

As I intentionally take my seat as a holder of various lineages, I can learn just as much from the parts that resonate with me as the ones that don’t. From that open but informed place, I can make choices about how I pass along these lineages to the next generation as responsibly as possible.

How one engages with lineage is deeply personal, and also gets to be nuanced. Buddhism requests that we take nothing for granted or without a discerning, inquisitive, and curious lens, and lineage is no exception.