lization in Japan, from about
580 to 620; the rise of Siam, and of Tibet, into strength and
culture and Buddhism, in the first half of the seventh century;--
then, looking westward, the wonderful career of Mohammed in
Arabia, who gave the impetus that rescued civilization first
in West Asia and then, when in the thirteenth century a new
European manvantara was ready to open, in Europe also: rescued
civilization first in West Asia and then, when in the thirteenth
century a new European manvantara was ready to open, in Europe
also; an impetus which worked on the intellectual-cultural plane
until it had brought things to the point where H. P. Blavatsky
might come to give things a huge twist towards the spiritual,--
and where Katherine Tingley might accomplish that which all the
ages had been expecting, and the whole creation groaning and
travailing to see. Oh, on brain-mind lines you can trace no
connexion; but then the plane of causes lies deeper than the
brain-mind. We may understand now, I think, what place the
Buddha holds in human history: how it was not for nothing that he
was _the Buddha,_ the central Avatar, the topmost and Master
Figure of humanity for these last twenty-five hundred years, with
what other sublime men appeared as it were subordinate to him,
and the guides of tributary streams: Laotse and Confucius
preparing the way for him in China; Pythagoras carrying his
doctrine into the West.... Well; here is scope for thought; and
for much thought that may be true and deep, and illuminative of
future ages; and _yet not convenient to write down at this time._

But to Bodhidharma again.

H. P. Blavatsky affirmed that Buddhism had an esoteric as well as
an exoteric side: an affirmation that was of course disputed.
But here is this from a Chinese writer quoted by Edkins:

"Tathagata taught great truths and the causes of things. He
became the instructor of men and devas; saved multitudes, and
spoke the contents of more than five hundred books. Hence arose
the Kiaumen or Exoteric branch of the system, and it was believed
to hold the tradition of the words of the Buddha. Bodhidharma
brought from the Western Heaven the seal of truth, and opened the
Fountain of Dhyana in the east. He pointed directly to Buddha's
heart and nature, swept away the parasitic growth of book
instruction, and thus established the Esoteric branch of the
system containing the doctrine of the heart, the tradition of the
Heart of B