Each culture has different sins that prevent the understanding of Buddhism

From the time of our birth our true nature has been clothed in the five aggregates (skandhas) which only act to conceal this true nature.  These aggregates are empty, hollow and insubstantial.  Still, we cling to them like a drowning man clings to straw. 

We do not want to relinquish our hold upon them.  However, there are those who are able to relinquish their hold upon the aggregates and see their true nature or self (ātman) which is luminous (prabhāsa).  At the least they have the faith that this nature is real and is worthy of contemplating. 

Even though Buddhism is truly a spiritual religion that asks mankind to see and behold spirit, directly, each culture has different sins, so to speak, that clothe this pristine spirit or nature. This false garmet has to be removed entirely and suddenly—a naked seeing. In Zen we call this sudden enlightenment. 

Because each culture is different, Buddhism seems to be different but it is not.  The adept still has to relinquish the false garmet to behold the unconditioned like Siddhartha did long ago.  The strength and demands of any culture can act as a barrier that is difficult to penetrate through. 

Modern culture is a techno-materialist culture that makes it difficult to relinquish.  It only accepts what the senses perceive together with what the intellectual mind can conceive of using the imagination.  It knows of no higher knowledge that has to be gained by direct intuition (dhyāna). 

Virtually all cultures are more or less trapped by the dualizing consciousness which in Buddhism is vijñāna.  Subject and object, observer and observed never meet to become one which is the original source of this duality which in turn gives rise to our illusory cosmos.  Every culture more or less guards this dualizing consciousness (all illusion depends upon this kind of consciousness).

Only those who are naturally oriented towards the spiritual path can transcend this consciousness through intuition thereby realizing the One Mind or spirit that brings the disparate sides of consciousness together (ekatva).