This graphic shows the sources of the various Buddhist lineages and the sixteen lineages from seven different cultural traditions that exist in some form in the West. A few of them were discussed at the January 11, 2025 ZOOM class on Expounding the Absolute Truth through the Heart Sutra. They were also discussed in brief at earlier classes including the January 4, 2025 class when a roadmap to LFBCA class C41(A)-Three Principal Stages & Paths of Buddhist Practice was explained as summarized in this 25 minute video:
There is also another article on C41(A) that included other related articles and charts including a video on “How Buddhism Came to the West” and the more detailed video I did in 2013 shown below on the evolution of Buddhism in this world and how it migrated throughout Asia and finally came to the west. It also provided a perspective on what is meant by the “Five Time Periods of Shakyamuni Buddha’s Teaching” and the “Dharma Ending Age.”
The above video, done before we had the benefit of a preliminary draft of Expounding the Absolute Truth through the Heart Sutra, is a bit dated, but was updated in the simplified and shorter version “How Buddhism Came to the West” provided below. This version focused more on why C41(A) was developed to feature both Je Tsongkapa and H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III and has an important message at the end.
These three somewhat redundant videos are offered to provide different ways of viewing how the Dharma has come to us and how H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha encourages following all the legitimate lineages that came from Shakyamuni Buddha. However He also encouraged us to use the guidelines He provided in the Supreme and Unsurpassable Mahamudra of Liberation (LFBCS course D35(A)-128 Views) to test the various teachings and offered advice on how to look for the principles in even the sutras and not necessarily the actual words. See article on “Correct Use of the Sutras and Other Holy Works.”
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