"Buddhism is now split into two distinct Churches: the Southern and the Northern Church. The former is said to be the purer form, as having preserved more religiously the original teachings of the Lord Buddha. It is the religion of Ceylon, Siam, Burmah and other places, while Northern Buddhism is confined to Tibet, China and Nepaul. Such a distinction, however, is incorrect. If the Southern Church is nearer, in that it has not departed, except perhaps in some trifling dogmas due to the many councils held after the death of the Master, from the public or exoteric teachings of Sâkyamuni—the Northern Church is the outcome of Siddhârta Buddha’s esoteric teachings which he confined to his elect Bhikshus and Arhats. In fact, Buddhism in the present age, cannot be justly judged either by one or the other of its exoteric popular forms. Real Buddhism can be appreciated only by blending the philosophy of the Southern Church and the metaphysics of the Northern Schools....Correspondentially they stand in their relation to each other as Protestantism to Roman Catholicism. Both err by an excess of zeal and erroneous interpretations, though neither the Southern nor the Northern Buddhist clergy have ever departed from truth consciously, still less have they acted under the dictates of priestocracy, ambition, or with an eye to personal gain and power, as the two Christian Churches have."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
H.P. Blavatsky, The Theosophical Glossary, (1892)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Buddhism
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Buddhism
49 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Buddhism →
Related Quotes
"There is, in the Buddhist philosophy, a wonderful sentence of the Lord Gautama Buddha, where he is striving to indica…"
"Early in the present century a Florentine scientist, a skeptic and a correspondent of the French Institute, having be…"
"A detailed account of this adventure, attested with the signature of this eye-witness, was forwarded to Paris, but th…"
"To go from mortal to Buddha, you have to put an end to karma, nurture your awareness, and accept what life brings."
"If only I could throw away the urge to trace my patterns in your heart, I could really see you."
"If beings knew, as I know, the results of sharing gifts, they would not enjoy their gifts without sharing them with o…"
"The Buddhist doctrine of impermanence includes the notion that there is no self... It holds that the idea of a separa…"
"Schumacher ... rightly saw that in the world today Buddhism is a more potent basis for resisting the economism that r…"
"Whereas traditional Christianity calls for the subordination of all other commitments to the commitment to God, Buddh…"
"If one wanted to summarise the essence of Buddhism in one sentence, it could only be this: everything that is transie…"