If for example you had a couple of season’s playing premiership football at Manchester City recently, it would be a good thing to put on your CV. There would be an automatic few brownie points added mentally. Your power by affiliation to a “top” team gives kudos. People would not imagine you, a priori, a shite player. Likewise if you studied at a pukka university and did research in the group of a Nobel Prize winner, people might imagine you clever, good and perhaps competent. The CV then gives some notion of provenance. Where did you learn your trade and who taught it you? The quality of teaching may be far higher at a lower kudos university but human mind likes bragging rights. An Imperial College graduate commands top whack salary and employment in the UK. In France because of the lack of Harry Potter affiliation it is not such a big deal.

Put simply this is a form of reputational prejudice. Affiliation to brand can be paid for and claimed. Reputation, though often relied upon, is no guarantee.

I personally have interacted with an academic lineage and a martial arts lineage. Studying at a groovy place with high reputation did not make me any better. In terms of the martial arts lineage it did convey a connection with a real and lethal martial tradition. It is/was not in the ring kick boxing nor caged MMA. When the sensei says, en passant, that it was not unusual in the 1960s and 1970s for people to still die during training, or that they had undertaken a 100 man kumite, it is a different ballgame. In many senses here, the fewer words, the less show and less overt marketing the more “real” the tradition. Action speaks louder than words and need not be advertised and sold. For a westerner to be given the keys to a “Ryu” hundreds of years old, is a high honour and a mark of respect. I know that I only saw maybe 5% of what that sensei was capable of even though I was close to dan grade. I have by experience respect of the profound depth of what a direct transmission lineage might hold; I did not see it fully but I sure as hell sensed it. There was a lineage of marked lethality over and above regular combat skills. Perhaps of limited and specialised use these days.

Within a genuine lineage there can be found knowledge and skill beyond the ordinary and mundane. The preservation of this can become an obsession and not all elements are “time of man” appropriate.  The arcane knowledge is highly specialised and perhaps incredible, unbelievable to modern “scientific man”. If you have been choked out and revived on the judo mat and had an injury healed by Mr Miyagi “hands on” you may have a little more respect and less of a tendency to scoff. We do not regularly have the time for complex and extensive Vajrayana rituals in our 21^st century day to day. This does not mean they have no value. They do. Though the number of skilled practitioners of such things will wane. Everything needs some kind of modernisation. Sparsity of ritual can in fact enhance the intent and power thereof.

Because of the Western obsession with advertising PR and branding, those who might be called “spiritual” practitioners have been persuaded that they need jazzy web sites and recounting of lineage back to the founding fathers. Go Daddy may even have a “guru” template to get you started. In this respect claimed Zen lineages are core to the initial marketing effort. Everyone seeking a connection back to the twirling of a flower on vulture peak. Much like the kings of England sought a bloodline back to claim their divine right to the throne. Lineage is good marketing and appeals to some would be punters / clients / devotees.

However interacting with a true lineage carries with it something extra, not bargained for. If you are susceptible and open, the thought forms and aged collected intent of the lineage has an added “dimension”. The thought forms, built by mind after mind, transmitted between minds, have a power far in excess of the face value. If you are a knob or a bellend, you will be unable to receive and/or assimilate. To put it in another way, somehow the lineage itself discerns who is a worthy recipient.

It is unfortunate sign of our times that unless the advertising or PR aligns with expectation we do not “buy” or trust. We have become prejudiced to a certain form of inane packaging. There is often a ginger and a brown person in the advert. Sometimes this is saccharin woke. Not all advice is good advice. People are forever chasing a buck and may try to persuade you otherwise.

Being of a certain age I have come up with a new service. I will offer end of life insurance to pay for it {no medical questions}, a no fuss cremation plan, the construction and positioning of a bench in a country location with your name plaque, and a vetted agent to take your ashes on a SAGA Norwegian fjord cruise there to scatter them on a wind of your choosing.

I think that there is mileage in this…the trouble is I have nor provenance or lineage for so doing. I am pretty sure that I could come up with a catchy brand and use a template design web site which I can pay to have SEO optimised.

“Blowing in the Wind” our bespoke end of life package for the discerning over 60s…