[Buddha-l] Nirvana

[Joy Vriens]

curt wrote:
> Has anyone besides modern western scholars ever "discovered"
> the "primitive" versus "systematised" distinction asserted here?
> Although one might detect an obvious implication by my question -
> it is nevertheless intended as a serious question - not merely to
> make a point.

I expect it is easier for outsiders to discover a family myth than for 
the members of that specific family. I personally love reading books by 
dead western catholic scholars on Buddhism (Sénart, La Vallée Poussin, 
Lamotte), because they look at with a distance, sometimes with a little 
condescension, but often with great integrity, which I appreciate 
(Sénart's writing style is excellent, LVP is deliciously ironic and 
sarcastic at wish and Lamotte is very rigourous).

François Jullien, a French specialist in Chinese philosphy, declared he 
first started studying Chinese langage and philosophy in order to gain 
another perspective, because it was so different and he expected it 
would give him new ways of looking at western philosophy, which he said 
it did. It quite often happens that westerners who convert to an exotic 
religion, later gain new interest in their original religion, because 
they can see it with different eyes.

So I wouldn't consider these "discoveries" as a threat but rather as an 
opportunity for personal enrichment.

Joy