Esoteric Buddhism

birth, the enjoyment of its fruits, good or evil, in
a subjective or spiritual state of existence prior
to the re-incarnation of the spiritual monad in
this or any other world, the loitering of the
unsatisfied souls or human shells in the earth
(Kamaloca), the pralayic and manwantaric periods, . . . are not only intelligible but are even
familiar to a great many Hindoos, under names
different from those made use of by the author
of ‘Esoteric Buddhism.’ ” So much the better
from the point of view of Western readers, to
whom it is a matter of indifference whether the
exoteric Hindoo or Buddhist religion is nearest
to absolutely true spiritual science, which should
certainly bear no name that appears to wed it
to any one faith in the external world more
than to another. All that we in the West can
be anxious for is to arrive at a clear understand-
ing as to the essential principles of that science,
and if we find the principles defined in this
book claimed by the cultured representatives of
more than one great Oriental creed as equally
the underlying truths of their different systems,
we shall be all the better inclined to believe the
present exposition of doctrine worth our atten-
tion.

In regard to the complaint itself, that the
teachings here reduced to an intelligible shape
are incorrectly described by the name this book