On Mahayana Patriarchs

Mahayana Buddhism has a special class of teachers called Patriarchs. They have the following characteristics:

1. They are enlightened teachers. This means that they were certified as enlightened by an enlightened patriarch, unlike many of the teachers of our era who call themselves “enlightened” without having received this crucial certification. They may be able to fool ordinary people, but they cannot mislead the genuine Buddhist sages. Except for the real patriarchs, enlightened teachers would rarely admit that they are enlightened in private, let alone proclaim so in public. 
   
2. Patriarchs are certified teachers, meaning that they were certified by another patriarch. As such, the first Mahayana Patriarch, Ven. Mahakashyapa, was certified by Shakyamuni Buddha. Ven. Mahakashyapa then designated Ven. Ananda as second Patriarch. And the Orthodox Buddhism lineage of patriarchs was thus passed on from generation to generation. 
   
3. The Mahayana Patriarchs are responsible for propagating the Orthodox Buddhism (theory), or the so-called Proper Dharma. In other words, their teachings are consistent with the Buddha’s teachings. Therefore, students new to Buddhism are better off by starting to learn from the Patriarch’s teachings to obtain the proper reference points and build the proper foundation for their practice. Thus, one fundamental task for an Orthodox Buddhism Patriarch is to help interpret and explain the Buddha’s profound teachings which we’d otherwise be unable to fathom.
   
4. The last known Mahayana Patriarch (and the first American Patriarch) is Master XuanHua who founded the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association. Before he entered Nirvana, he designated the second Patriarch who still hasn’t revealed himself at the time of this writing (25 years after Master XuanHua’s death).
   

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Mahayana Buddhism consists of both theory and practice. Consequently, the academics may understand the theory but do not understand the practice. Practice requires special training from certified teachers. Traditionally, the main lineage of Orthodox Buddhism (started by Shakyamuni Buddha) relies on Chan meditation as its main form of training of certified teachers.

Patriarchs have differing levels of enlightenment. While most of the Patriarchs are responsible for the continuance of Mahayana (propagation of the theory), the greater Patriarchs, like Master XuanHua, excel at teaching us how to become enlightened (practice vs. theory) because he left behind a lot of enlightened students in his wake.

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