al importance. Europeans are ready enough to
admit that Buddhism is changeable and easily corrupted but it is not
singular in that respect[31]. I doubt if Lhasa and Tantrism are further
from the teaching of Gotama than the Papacy, the Inquisition, and the
religion of the German Emperor, from the teaching of Christ.

A religion is the expression of the thought of a particular age and
cannot really be permanent in other ages which have other thoughts. The
apparent permanence of Christianity is due first to the suppression of
much original teaching, such as Christ's turning the cheek to the smiter
and Paul's belief in the coming end of the world, and secondly to the
adoption of new social ideals which have no place in the New Testament,
such as the abolition of slavery and the improved status of women.

Buddhism arising out of Brahmanism suggests a comparison with
Christianity arising out of Judaism, but the comparison breaks down in
most points of detail. But there is one real resemblance, namely that
Buddhism and Christianity have both won their greatest triumphs outside
the land of their birth. The flowers of the mind, if they can be
transplanted at all, often flourish with special vigour on alien soil.
Witness the triumphs of Islam in the hands of the Turks and Mughals, the
progress of Nestorianism in Central Asia, and the spread of Manichaeism
in both the East and West outside the limits of Persia. Even so Lamaism
in Tibet and Amidism in Japan, though scholars may regard them as
singular perversions, have more vitality than any branch of Buddhism
which has existed in India since the seventh century. But even here the
parallel with Christian sects is imperfect. It would be more complete if
Palestine had been the centre from which different phases of
Christianity radiated during some twelve centuries, for this is the
relation between Indian and foreign Buddhism. Lamaism is not the
teaching of the Buddha travestied by Tibetans but a late form of Indian
Buddhism exported to Tibet and modified there in some external features
(such as ecclesiastical organization and art) but not differing greatly
in doctrine from Bengali Buddhism of the eleventh century. And even
Amidism appears to have originated not in the Far East but in Gandhara
and the adjacent lands. Thus the many varieties of Buddhism now existing
are due partly to local colour but even more to the workings of the
restless Hindu mind which during many centuries after