[Buddha-l] Schopen gets a kicking

[Richard Hayes]

On Aug 3, 2009, at 4:29 PM, Jayarava wrote:

> Someone wrote this http://is.gd/218GN review of a talk by Greg  
> Schopen which sounds quite straight forward.
>
> But it inspired the about.com Buddhism 'guide' Barbara O'Brien to  
> write this http://is.gd/218R9 a few days later in which she  
> describes Schopen as a "crackpot". If you look at the comments - way  
> way down the page - she does concede that she over-reacted and will  
> apologize to Schopen.

She also said this:

\begin{quote}
...what Schopen said in that lecture was ridiculous to the point of  
being hallucinatory. There is no defending it. The only excuse is that  
the writer of the article misrepresented Schopen. As far as being a  
“well regarded scholar,” from what I’ve read he is considerably out of  
step with other scholars on many issues.
\end{quote}

> I know all you academics tend to hate each other, but if Prof  
> Schopen has any friends here they might want to ask Ms O'Brien to  
> retract her article.

I can think of very few cases of academics who hate each other. We  
love to have spirited disagreements, but hardly ever is it personal. I  
have disagreed with Schopen many times (only because he was wrong),  
but I consider him a friend, and I shall write to Ms O'Brien and  
request her to commit harakiri at her earliest convenience, preferably  
after she retracts her article.

I think it's time we at buddha-l declared a holy war on someone.  
Anyone with me in having a friendly holy war between buddha-l and  
buddhism.about.com?

> Sayonara

Not "sayonara," but "banzai!"

General Dayamati
Department of Holy War
FWBO (Fraternity of Warlike Buddhist Orks)
http://dayamati.blogspot.com/
http://dayamati.wordpress.com/