the Buddhism I encountered was a very straight forward and honest variety. Just as in science, where you cannot know something until you've seen it yourself, the Buddhas teachings are the same. You can't just read it and then try to preach it, you have to practice it and see the results for yourself. There was a heavy emphasis on what you, individually, know through your practice vs what you have read about in the sutras, or heard about from some one else's more advanced practice. Even the monk who founded the place, who most people believe to be on a high level of enlightenment, exhorted his followers to not believe what he said simply because he said it, but to examine it themselves to see whether it is true or not.