The concept of “transmission” by means of an “authentic” and “unbroken lineage” plays a pivotal role in Vajrayāna Buddhism, since it is regarded as the chief means by which the realizations of past masters are said to remain accessible in unadulterated and undiluted form right to the present day. The “transmission” of a set of associated meditative practices is “authentic” when its formulation originates from a Buddha, somebody—in fact anybody—who has overcome all and every cognitive obscuration and emotional defilement and therefore knows how to help others achieve the same feat.

A lineage is “unbroken”, when this set of practices has been passed without interruption to exceptional students, who, in turn, cultivate and “realize” the instructions fully, and in reaching the same attainments as their tutor, thereby become the next “lineage holder” entitled and able to transmit the meditation practices received to the next generation without any loss of potency. If we employ the term “lineage” as it features in Western languages, we may also refer to the different “reincarnation lines” of outstanding practitioners, or “Tülkus”. These are exceptionally advanced practitioners, who due to the heightened clarity of perception gained through prolonged meditative practice, are able to predict the specifics of their next birth, and choose to relate them to their inner circle, so that the transmission between student and disciple can be upheld in future lifetimes. Historically, the first instalment of such a “reincarnation line” has been the recognition of Karma Pakshi (1204–1283) as the previous “Black Hat Lama”, Düsum Khyenpa (1110–1193). Soon, masters of other schools adopted the system of faithfully guiding and serving their students throughout successive lifetimes, and the lineage of the Dalai Lamas, the Panchen Lamas, and other figures arose, some more public, some tending to be more reclusive.

The Buddha

Roughly two and a half millennia ago, Siddhārtha Gautama, prince of the Śākya clan, had been stirred so profoundly by a series of sudden and unexpected confrontations with the harsh and uncompromising reality of old age, sickness, death that he left his courtly life of cultured refinement, politics and pleasurable distraction with the singular intention of finding a way to uproot all forms of suffering—once and for all. Inspired by a fortuitous meeting with a world-renouncer on the last of his four portentious outings with his trusty charioteer Chandaka, Gautama declared:

“In pursuit of the welfare of all that lives,
I, having attained Enlightenment and the state
Where there is no old age, illness, and death,
Shall bring deliverance to the world.
Such was the vow I made long before,
And the time of fulfilling it has now come.” (Butön’s “History of Buddhism” )

In the following years, the twenty-nine year old prince from Kapilavastu, a town in what is now Southern Nepal, took to the life of a renunciate mendicant, begging for alms, and practicing meditation under the instruction of the Brahmin anchorite Ārāya Kālāma, a master of the Sākhya school. Soon surpassing his elder, the young seeker left his tutor in order to train under Udraka Rāmaputra in refined and advanced states of meditation that—while intensely enjoyable—did not lead to the final cessation of all sources of suffering.

The early years of extreme asceticism took a heavy toll on the emaciated practitioner, who, according to legend, had gradually become so weak that he had become almost skeletal in appearance. In accepting the sweet rice pudding that was offered in good faith by the village girl Sujata, who hailed from a Hamlet across the River of the Bodhi tree, he lost the companionship of his fellow ascetics, who, mistakenly believing that his fervour had waned, abandoned him. Instead, Prince Gautama found that the “Middle Way”—a golden mean between extreme abstention and reckless overindulgence, was much more conducive to both his practice and his health.Vowing that he shall not stir before having awakened to the truth that ends all suffering, he sat under a nearby pipal tree, collected his mind, and after seven weeks of intense meditation, became achieved his purpose in become the Buddha, the “awakened one” who had transcended suffering, together with its sources. For the remaining 45 years of his life, the Buddha taught the way to Nirvāna, the “extinction” of the `fires’ of suffering: the `fire of anger’, `the fire of craving’, and—above all—“extinction” of the fundamental source of anguish, a mistaken perception of a `self’ as an inherently existent, substantial entity.