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 the Christian era continued to invent for it novelties in metaphysics and mythology.

The preservation of a very ancient form of Buddhism in Ceylon[32] is truly remarkable, for if in many countries Buddhism has shown itself fluid and protean, it here manifests a stability which can hardly be paralleled except in Judaism.  The Sinhalese, unlike the Hindus, had no native propensity to speculation.  They were content to classify, summarize and expound the teaching of the Pitakas without restating it in the light of their own imagination.  Whereas the most stable form of Christianity is the Church of Rome, which began by making considerable additions to the doctrine of the New Testament, the most stable form of Buddhism is neither a transformation of the old nor a protest against innovation but simply the continuation of a very ancient sect in strange lands[33].  This ancient Buddhism, like Islam which is also simple and stable, is somewhat open to the charge of engaging in disputes about trivial details[34], but alike in Ceylon, Burma and Siam, it has not only shown remarkable persistence but has become a truly national religion, the glory and comfort of those who profess it.

11. Rebirth and the Nature of the Soul

The most characteristic doctrine of Indian religion—­rarely absent in India and imported by Buddhism into all the countries which it influenced—­is that called metempsychosis, the transmigration of the soul or reincarnation.  The last of these terms best expresses Indian, especially Buddhist, ideas but still the usual Sanskrit equivalent, Samsara, means migration.  The body breaks up at death but something passes on and migrates to another equally transitory tenement.  Neither Brahmans nor Buddhists seem to contemplate the possibility that the human soul may be a temporary manifestation of the Eternal Spirit which comes to an end at death—­a leaf on a tree or a momentary ripple on the water.  It is always regarded as passing through many births, a wave traversing the ocean.