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Zen Buddhism maintains records of their historical teachers who, according to the traditional history of that school, have passed the Dharma from generation to generation in an unbroken line since the time of the Buddha. This vertical line is a lineage of ancestors, also called patriarchs, which provides validation of the Zen experience of the teachers of the present generation. Bodhidharma, for example, is considered the first Zen (Ch'an) patriarch, and the twenty-eighth successor to the Buddha.

The idea of lineage also occurs in other Buddhist traditions; for example, the requirements for ordination as a bhikkhu include the presence of at least five other bhikkhus, one of whom must be a fully-ordained preceptor, and another an acharya (teacher). Thus a monastic lineage is established reaching back to the Buddha. Vajrayana Buddhism also lays great importance on the continuity of a teaching lineage. Therevada uses the term sangharaja for patriarchs. In Jodo Shinshu the term patriarch refers to seven Indian, Chinese and Japanese masters before its founder Shinran.

The act of passing the dharma to a new teacher and thereby extending lineage is referred to as dharma transmission.

Some of the links in the Chan/Zen transmission-chain have been seriously challenged by historians such as Charles Yampolsky. In particular, there is little or no other evidence linking any of the Indian teachers before Bodhidharma to the Zen sect specifically. Even so, the concept of lineage remains useful. Even if a lineage cannot verifiably be linked all the way back to the time of the Buddha, at least having several generations of undeniably unbroken Dharma transmission provides some validation of the consistency of the experience and teaching that is transmitted along that line.

For the Chan and Zen traditions the first Patriarch in the lineage after the Buddha was Mahakasyapa. Thereafter there were another 26 ancestors in India before Bodhidharma travelled to the East to carry the Dharma to China in the 5th century CE.

Six generations later Huineng was the famous 6th Chinese Patriarch (33rd in line from the Buddha) in the 7th century CE. As Chan subsequently flourished in China there were many branches in the lineage, some of which later died out and some of which continue unbroken to the present day.

Some of these lines were transmitted to Japan, establishing the Zen tradition. Perhaps the most famous of these transmissions to Japan was that of Dogen who travelled to China for Chan training in the 13th century CE, and after receiving Dharma transmission in the Caodong line he returned to Japan and established the Soto line. The Linji line was also transmitted to Japan where it became known as the Rinzai line.

Chinese Ch'an Buddhism was introduced to the Nyingmapa in three principal streams: the teachings of Master Kim, Kim Ho-shang, (Chin ho shang) 金和尚 transmitted by Sang Shi^[1] in c750 CE; the lineage of Master Wu Chu, 無住 of the Pao T'ang School was transmitted within Tibet by Ye shes dbang po; and the teaching from Mo Ho Yen, 和尚摩訶衍 (Tibetan: Hwa shang Mahayana) that were a synthesis of the Northern School of Ch'an and the Pao T'ang School.^[2]

Tibetan King Khri srong lde btsan (742–797) invited the Ch’an master Mo-ho-yen (whose name consists of the same Chinese characters used to transliterate “Mahayana”) to transmit the Dharma at Samye Monastery. Mo-ho-yen had been disseminating Dharma in the Tun-huang locale, but lost an important philosophical debate on the nature of emptiness from the Indian master Kamalashila, and the king declared Kamalashila's philosophy should form the basis for Tibetan Buddhism.^[3]

There is a morality tale, allegory and teaching story inherent within the transmission of Chöd to Tibet. Chöd is a fruit of the entwined transmissions of both Indian and Chinese Dharma into the Himalaya. For simplicity, the Indian tantric transmission may be characterised as "gradual" and the Chinese Ch'an transmission may be characterised as "direct". It needs to be emphasized that this neat dichotomy in characterization of these two approaches to the Dharma, is only valid for the historical context of the great debate between Kamalashila and Mo Ho Yen, arranged by Trisong Detsen. Kamalashila, a mahapandita and scholar advocated the "gradual" process to enlightenment; whereas, Mo Ho Yen, as a trance and meditation master advocated the "direct" awakening of original mind through the nirodha or cessation of discursive thought, the mind of ideation. Kamalashila was very handsome and a great orator and historically "won" the debate. Though it cannot be conclusively ascertained as to whether or not Kamalashila was vain, it is pointed that directly after this debate with Mo Ho Yen, as he was making his way down from the Himalaya to the Indian lowlands, that he was induced to resort to phowa on compassionate grounds, transferring his mindstream into a truly dead corpse polluted with contagion. Thereby in compassion, animating the corpse, he moved it to a safe location - as nobody wished to move the dangerous corpse in fear of disease. As the mindstream of Kamalashila was otherwise engaged, a Mahasidda by the name of Padampa Sangye came across the vacant kuten or "physical basis" of Kamalashila. Padampa Sangye, was not karmically blessed with an aesthetic corporeal form, and upon finding the very handsome and healthy empty body of Kamalashila, which he perceived as a newly dead fresh corpse, transferred his mindstream into Kamalashila's body. Padampa Sangye's mindstream in Kamalashila's body continued the ascent to the Himalaya and thereby transmitted the Chöd. The mindstream of Kamalashila upon endeavouring to return to his kuten was unable to do so and resorted by necessity to the vacant body of Padampa Sangye.^[4] The mindstream of Padampa Sangye continued in this body, and it is in this body that the transmission of Chod was made to Machig Labdrön.^[5]

• Religious order
• Wang (Tibetan Buddhism)

1. ^ Sang Shi later became an abbot of Samye Monastery.
2. ^ Barber, A. W.(1990). The Unifying of Rdzogs Pa Chen Po and Ch'an. Chung-Hwa Buddhist Journal. Vol.3, 04.1990. PP.301-317. Source: [1] (accessed: October 20, 2007).
3. ^ Yamaguchi, Zuihō (undated). The Core Elements of Indian Buddhism Introduced into Tibet: A Contrast with Japanese Buddhism. Source: [2] (accessed: October 20, 2007)
4. ^ Thrangu, Khenchen & Klonk, Christoph (translator) & Hollmann, Gaby (editor and annotator)(2006). Chod – The Introduction & A Few Practices. Source: [3] (accessed: November 2, 2007)
5. ^ Source: [4] (Thursday, November 5, 2007)

• Schools of Zen Buddhism at the Zen Buddhism WWW Virtual Library
• Zen Ancestors in China - The Five Houses
• Caodong and Linji lineage chart of present day Chan Master Sheng-yen