Mon, 26 Jun 2006
Lineage in Gong Chik
I've put more of my notes from the Spring Retreat online. This time they're from Khenpo Tsultrim's teaching on Gong Chik and the importance of lineage.
The lineage of transmission should be unbroken from Buddha himself. It's not enough to have a proper lineage transmission. The lineage must be endowed with blessings. Even if a lama can give instructions, he should have transmission. When we say the transmission must be endowed with blessings, it means it should be free from broken vows and commitments of samaya. It's said the lineage should not be carried by a dog, which means a samaya breaker. We have to be careful with samaya. One Drukpa lama died because two samaya breakers attended his teaching. In old days teachers charged for attending an empowerment so the students would take them seriously. We think an empowerment is like a weekend vacation and relax. So we practice and don't get any result, because we take it too casually. That's the reason Marpa gave Milarepa a really hard time. If we don't get results that's not a problem of the time, it's a problem of how we do things.
