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The Rimé movement’s ecumenical collection of texts helped save a plethora of Tibetan lineages from disappearing, allowing them to be transmitted in the 20th and 21st centuries. Lineage plays a huge part in Tibetan Buddhism. It is through unbroken lines of teachers, stretching back to the Buddha that the instructions and practical experience of awakening are passed from teacher to student, generation after generation. This is one of the things that is said to make Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism so powerful. While this was sometimes described perjoratively in China as “lamaism”, a term picked up by European scholars in the 19th century, the fact remained Tibetan Vajrayana was known for its speed and efficacy. Whereas practitioners of Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism (the first and second waves of Buddhism) were said to take many lifetimes to achieve awakening, Vajrayana practitioners could potentially accomplish it in one.

Put another way, if Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism were Ford Mustangs and Dodge Chargers, Vajrayana Buddhism was a Ferrari, a beautifully designed, specialized car built for extremely high speeds. This metaphor suggests a few things. First, not everyone should drive the Ferrari. Many people are better off with the earlier cycles of teachings, the Mahayana and Theravada. Mustangs and Chargers are, after all, terrific cars. Second, to drive the Ferrari, you really need an experienced instructor. Third, like a Ferrari, the Vajrayana requires specialized maintenance. Qualified people need to work on it and it requires specialized parts. This involves the transmission of texts, called lung, ritual empowerments for meditative practices and rituals, called wang, and instructions by qualified teachers, called tri.