Hitherto, in the main, we have seen (except in China) a downward trend of cycles; from this point an upward trend began.  We have been dealing, latterly, with dullish centuries, and history in a febrile and flickering mood;—­but give this wonderful change time to take effect, and the centuries begin to flame up, and history to become a roaring conflagration.  We might here spy out into that time, which will lie beyond the scope of these lecture; and see the glory of the T’angs begin in China in 618; Corea’s one historic age of splendor, in art and also in military prowess, at its highest point about 680; the era of Shotoku Daishi, saint, sage, prince and protagonist of civilization 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 Buddha.  Yet the two branches, while presenting of necessity a different aspect, form but one whole.”