I’m in Drikung Kagyu and have a lama in that lineage and find the Gelug approach to emptiness to be extremely helpful to viewing emptiness. I know all these philosophies in Rime point to the same truth, but I still wonder how its viewed to hold philosophical positions from another lineage but of course keeping the practice your lama outlines for you? I’ve read Tulku Rinpoche book on Rime and in the beginning it says to keep integrity of lineages, but obviously now many lamas receive teachings from multiple lineages. Am I ok in viewing emptiness from a Gelug pov as a Drikung Kagyu if it’s helpful for me?

In Hinduism the traditional master-disciple relationship in the transmission is very important, which means that a student can go and learn from a teacher [whose initiatory lineage goes back directly to Adi Shankara](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shankaracharya) for example. I would have liked to know if there was such a thing in Buddhism, and if so, what were the oldest lineages still in place? With the master-disciple initiation chain unbroken. Is there one that can be traced back to the Buddha himself? I hear a lot about the Forest Tradition, [but it only dates back to the 20th century](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_Forest_Tradition#Formative_period_(around_1900)) .

Are there Sanghas(in the more broad meaning of the word) of those who practice like monks but aren't officially monks and have not been ordained as monks by monks? If they could call themselves "Bunks" or something besides "monks", would this be problematic? Are there any scriptures related to this?