Such men as these three ought not to be associated with those who claim to teach "esoteric" Buddhism.[22] There is really no such thing; "I have preached the Law without making any distinction between exoteric and esoteric doctrine," said Gautama, "for I have no such thing as the closed fist of the teacher who keeps some things in reserve."[23]
Now so long as these unequally yoked teams are drawing the Buddhist chariot, there is bound to be a smash; when one studies, for instance, the history of the propagandist literature they have put out, one finds that it is one long story of fitful beginnings and spasmodic effort, almost all of them failing to survive for more than a few years. Of these periodicals, Professor Poussin writes as follows: "Propagandist reviews like Buddhism of Rangoon and the Open Court of Chicago are useful when Mrs. Rhys Davids condescends to contribute to them, but she finds in them strange neighbours indeed, fully worthy of the indescribable Mahabodhi Society!"
Buddhists everywhere are finding new inspiration by going back to the authority of Gautama; let the Christian Church go back to Jesus Christ, and, taking Him as the full and perfect revelation of the nature of God and man, rethink and restate its theology. And secondly, let its missionaries study the great religion of Gautama—which is still, after twenty-five centuries, a mighty power, with strong capacity for revival, and which is still strangely misunderstood; and let them see to it that they and the Christian "native" pastors and catechists are as carefully trained as the Buddhist monks who each year are receiving a more systematic preparation for the task of defending and propagating the Dhamma.
[17] Reprinted from The East and the West.
[18] Hibbert Lectures, 3rd edition, p. 184.
[19] The Zen Sect of Buddhism, p. 11.
[20] There is fortunately a marked improvement in this respect in missionary methods: but the old order has not yet given place to the new. The present writer was recently classed, in a public address in Rangoon, with the Kaiser and Antichrist—as a "Sign of the Times."
[21] The full form of service and a biographical sketch of its author is published by the Open Court, Chicago, U.S.A.
[22] They are, fortunately, even now parting company: the "bishop," for example, has been obliged to start a rival "church" in San Francisco.
[23] From the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, the oldest and most authentic of the Buddhist scriptures.