Fair enough, but you understand the OP was historical and
   sociological and not primarily philosophical? I don't mind that
   you're all pursuing that direction instead but perhaps it points
   to a deeper flaw in the OP (beyond the obvious Chopra flaw I
   made) whereby I did not convey properly the intentions. == There
   are fads in every institution. The way things are "supposed to
   work" and the way things "actually" work are influenced by
   surrounding culture and internal politics. I'm speaking of the
   messy world of humans rather than ideals. == No no, not directly
   causal in such a simple way, no. It's not a+b=b+a. Ok. At some
   point in the near future today, should I get some freer time,
   I'll do a little background research and translate the OP in a
   form that has more of a 'textual' rather than 'contextual'
   flavor. = a) Buddhism isn't a pure thing. b) The form of
   Buddhism that entered the USA was a watered down version. c)
   This form of Buddhism that was watered down has SINCE become
   further watered down and has had the religious component
   extracted from it and turned into a thing called "Buddhist
   Philosophy". This is a modern usage. Now the trajectories should
   be easy enough to trace. It's likely I'll be able to trace them
   through a few simple individuals and make a branching tree of
   theories that came off from their roots, many of which we take
   for granted today, but in, say, 1961, 1964, wouldn't even be
   considered worth anybody's time to publish in the journals. ==
   There might be deeper roots, but I wish to postulate that these
   roots would not even be under consideration today had it not
   been for their critical connection being made THEN. In short,
   had these not occurred, you would not be asking these questions.
   == It's unsubstantiated at present but you threw down the
   gauntlet successfully and at some point when life distractions
   get out of my way today, you can expect a little research from
   me because now *I'm* curious.. I like a good challenge smile
   emoticon == Buddhism is not the same everywhere. There are
   families, sects, historical movements that can be easily traced.
   These things didn't exist as they are at present out of nowhere.
   They have histories that can be traced. = I'm not saying that
   knowledge can't be transmitted. I'm talking about the movement
   of education among peoples. =