1. Shakyamuni Buddha encouraged practitioners to have only the teaching as a refuge, as recorded in scripture: “[…] for the Realised One there is nothing, Ānanda, of a closed teacher’s fist in regard to the Teaching. To whoever, Ānanda, this thought occurs: ‘I will lead the Community of monks’ or ‘I am the instructor of the Community of monks’ let him speak, Ānanda, regarding the Community of monks. But to the Realised One, Ānanda, this thought does not occur […] Therefore, Ānanda, live with yourself as an island, yourself as a refuge, with no other refuge, with the Teaching as an island, the Teaching as a refuge, with no other refuge.” - Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta (Digha Nikaya 16), tr. Ānandajoti.
  2. Lineage and Dharma transmission are a later invention: “We have no evidence that those interested in lineage in China ever consulted the earliest Pāli canon statements on authority and succession […], which were translated into Chinese in the fourth century. Instead, it is the Aśokāvadāna, translated into Chinese around 300, that marks the first known appearance in Chinese of a notion of succession of leaders within Buddhism. It is also the earliest text among the many works from which later writers of lineage texts culled names and stories. […] Curiously enough, all these early attempts at establishing a reliable and legitimate connection to the wellspring of true Buddhism result in rather creative narratives. […] [L]ineage, projected into the past, served easily as the material for invention.” - Morrison, Elizabeth A 2010, The Power of Patriarchs: Qisong and Lineage in Chinese Buddhism, p. 24.
  3. Lineage and Dharma transmission were invented to serve a specific purpose in a specific historical context: “[…] [P]atriarchal succession was a device drawn from the accumulated repertory of native and imported stratagems for dealing with the vanishing past that already existed in mediaeval China. But the force which threaded together the separate pearls and the continuous string, the two components of that succession, was the force of necessity. There were patriarchs because there had to be […] the patriarchs are there because they embodied spiritual authority, an authority which T’ang China desperately needed.” Barrett, Timothy H 1990, “Kill the Patriarchs!”, The Buddhist Forum, p. 97.
  4. The formal lineage system excludes many individuals. For example, gender non-conforming people and disabled people may not feel welcomed in monasteries, and some lineages exclude women, yet it is self-evident that there are fully enlightened gender non-conforming people, disabled people, and women. Furthermore, there are many examples of senior Buddhist practitioners who have received Dharma transmission, yet who are clearly not wise masters – for example, senior monastics who have been proven guilty of sexual misconduct.
  5. Therefore, transmission of the Dharma in a formal lineage is neither sufficient nor necessary for mastery of the Dharma.

Resources for further reading:

  • The Monastery of Open Doors, online: treeleaf.org/open-doors-monastery
  • Bartone, Shaun 2019, “Conduct Unbecoming: A Transqueer Experience of the Dharma”, in Manders, Kevin & Marston, Elizabeth, Transcending: Trans Buddhist Voices