[Buddha-l] Re: Jesus is Buddha?

[curt]

Dante Rosati wrote:

> OMG what a can of worms. The strange thing is, what led me to google 
> Lindtner was I was reading though his articles in Potter's 
> Enclyclopedia vol. 8, where he does the MMK and some other N. texts. 
> Now, this was published in 1999, so it makes me wonder: Does Potter 
> not care about Lindtner's "other interests"? Does he figure "well, the 
> guy knows his Nagarjuna, what he does as a hobby is none of my business"?
>  
> Isn't studying and thinking about Madhyamaka supposed to be good for 
> you? Isn't it supposed to lead to a deeper understanding of reality?
>  
> Anti-semitism and holocaust denial are pretty reliable markers for 
> mental illness, expecially when they appear in educated westerners (I 
> doubt that anti-semitic Iranian farmers are mentally ill, just poorly 
> informed).

To a very limited extent the same excuse is possible even for 
"well-educated westerners". For example, no criticism of Israel goes 
unpunished by the mainstream media and the political establishment in 
the US. Someone like Dennis Ross is considered to represent the absolute 
outer limits of "sympathy" that one is allowed to express for the 
Palestinians, whereas Thomas Friedman is closer to the "center". Many 
otherwise well-educated people are raised on a steady diet of 
pre-digested pro-Israeli propaganda from the American media and the 
"two" major parties. This monolithism is easily understandable in terms 
of economic and geo-political interests (also known as o-i-l) - without 
resort to whacked out paranoid theories about "Jewish control" of the 
media, etc. But a sudden realization that "everything you know is wrong" 
can naturally lead to a temporary state of paranoia - in this vulnerable 
state one might seek the company of other people who are also paranoid 
(but not temporarily so). This is why all parents should have their 
children read Noam Chomsky's writings on the Middle East no later than 
the age of 15 - it is the best way to ensure that they will not grow up 
to be anti-semites. And it might also encourage them to study 
linguistics, which is an added bonus.
- Curt

> But then I wonder, is it possible for someone so mentally ill to be a 
> reliable scholar of Nagarjuna and Madhyamaka philosophy? Could one be 
> clearheaded enough to follow Nagarjuna's arguments, and then put on an 
> SS uniform to go party? It kinda boggles the mind, n'est pas?
>  
>
It is definitely possible for someone to be morally corrupt and also be 
"right" about some things. And there is also a wide spectrum of moral 
rectitude - and the vast majority of scholars on all subjects are close 
to the middle, at best. The same is true for sanity - possibly more so.

- Curt