[Buddha-l] Nirvana si, bodhi no! [was: liturgical languages]

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Sat, 2005-05-14 at 10:13 +0100, r.g.morrison wrote:

> But he fails to mention that the Klu Klux Klan was also founded by Scots 
> (the 'religious nut' kind)!

I had no idea that the Ku Klux Klan was a Scottish invention. Perhaps
the spelling should have given me a klue. Over here we spell 'clan' with
a 'c'. I had always assumed the 'k' shewed that the KKK was of German
provenience.

Speaking of changing spellings of names (Home to Hume), an old family
legend had it that the first American Hayes in my ancestry came to
America a couple of generations before the American revolution. The
story was that he was a certain John Hays from somewhere near Edinburgh
and that he changed the spelling to Hayes when he arrived in Dover, New
Hampshire to diminish the amount of prejudice he might face from English
settlers. I especially loved that story, because I hated the idea that I
was descended from English stock. Being Scottish was ever so much more
romantic. (But that's because I thought Scotland was in Africa, right
next to India. See previous message on my American education.) Alas,
later genealogical research revealed that John Hayes came to New
Hampshire from the Barbados, to which he had moved from somewhere in the
southwest of England, so I lost my claims to being Scottish. I have
hated accurate research ever since. It spoils too many good stories. 

> Just think, if America has stayed 'pink', then you would have no
> Repulicans!  But you would have many more 'Indians'.

One of my family's legends that has not yet been spoiled by accurate
research has it that several of my ancestors fought with the British
against the American rebels. Alas, their side lost the war. Yet another
one of my relatives, Grace Hayes, is an historienne who wrote an
interesting book the main thesis of which is that Britain lost America
not because the American rebels won the war but because the British put
hardly any energy into keeping the colonies here. They were much more
interested in India and were putting most of their resources there.
America, after all, was nothing but a land of savages. (In that respect,
it has not changed much.)

I love to think that if only the British had fought harder to keep
America, we might have become civilized over here. And, thanks to the
connections with India and Burma, we might have become a Buddhist
country in which it's not becoming illegal to teach evolution.

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico