chapotraphouse

That's like some very specific variants of Buddhism. It was originally supposed to be very straightforward.

Like they were almost literally hanging out cheat sheets with the Four Noble Truths, Three Marks of Existence, Eightfold Path...even later traditions like Zen were just about "stfu, sit down, and just try to get enlightened"

There also was a long standing tradition that enlightenment is just someone one can only experience for themselves when they actually do praxis instead of talking about it. That's probably where this mysteriousness came from: most people just want the cheat sheets so they never learn. Either that, or tantric practices, but that was a different kind of esoteric imo