[Buddha-l] Re: New trans. of poetry of the Sixth DL

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Fri, 2005-06-24 at 20:34 -0400, curt wrote:

> Let me end by saying that "Buddhist Thought" is a great
> book - I will reread it many times. I have only recently started
> "Mahayana Buddhism" and it looks to be even better.

Williams was a student of my thesis supervisor, who told me he found
Williams the most intensely intelligent student he had had. While I have
not read all his work, what I have read has been well worth the effort.
His earlier work was sometimes convoluted, but as he has aged he has
shed the need to prance around on verbal high wires. He now writes with
a wonderful clarity.

> And I definitely plan to read the book he wrote specifically about his
> conversion experience. I'll bet its fascinating - probably should be
> required reading for all western buddhists.

Probably so. I have a feeling that a good many Western Buddhists will do
much the same as he has done as they come to recognize that they are not
Asians and that in the eyes of Asians they will always be second-class
Buddhists. As people age, they often yearn to make deeper sense of what
they made superficial sense of as children. And if they were not exposed
to Buddhism as children, they feel less of a need to make deep sense of
it. This is something I have seen again and again among my many friends
who turned to Asian religions and philosophies. 

Hell, it has even happened to me to some extent. I find myself wanting
to make deeper sense of the secular materialism that was my childhood
religion. Toward that end I have been enjoying the writings of Steven
Pinker of late. One of these days I may start some discussions about his
work and the implications of his writings for Western Buddhists.

-- 
Richard Hayes
http://www.unm.edu/~rhayes