[Buddha-l] Withdrawal of the senses

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

Richard Hayes schreef:
> On Sat, 2006-11-18 at 10:27 +0100, Erik Hoogcarspel wrote:
>
>   
>> See J.F. Staal: Advaita and Neoplatonism' Madras U.P. 1961
>>     
>
> Thanks, Erik! Fritz Staal is one of the most intriguingly intelligent
> people I have ever met and seen in action. Many regard him a genius
> (whatever that means). One time someone reported to me that every school
> child in the Netherlands knows Staal's name and that he is considered a
> kind of national intellectual treasure. Is that true?
>
>   
He became famous for his book about scientific investigation of 
mysticism. He was working at the University of Amsterdam at the time, 
where  he got himself into majour trouble. Then  he went to the States, 
married an Kerali woman from the brahmin caste and made a marvellous 
record of an Agnicaitanya ritual. This made him famous in indological 
circles. He was chairman of a commission that temporarily rescued the 
small departments in Dutch universities like Sanskrit, Celtic and Bengali.
Once he went back to Holland and made himself a promotionfilm were he 
goes back to his old highschool and makes teachers tell what a promising 
young boy he was. Maybe that's the source of the story.
He also got famous by his contention that rituals have no meaning, it's 
a bit complicated, but the crux is that he defines meaning in the way of 
Wittgensteins Tractatus: rituals don't refer to matters of fact.
Two years ago he was back, having divorced and come out of the closet. 
He wanted to make a new Buddhist university in Holland, with money of a 
Korean tycoon. Never heard of him since.

Erik


www.xs4all.nl/~jehms
weblog http://www.volkskrantblog.nl/pub/blogs/blog.php?uid=2950