[Buddha-l] Akālika Forum

[Franz Metcalf]

Gang,

Apart from any possible veracity of unverifiable Buddhist experience,  
it's the extremely inaccurate characterization of Buddhist scholars as  
having no possibility of understanding a Dhamma" that rankles me here.

That said, I believe the situation among Buddhist scholars was quite  
different when Ñāṇavīra Thera wrote his words. Things have  
changed, at least in the United States. Most scholars I studied with  
at the (very un-practice oriented) University of Chicago were  
definitely engaged with the Dharma personally, And even though most  
have not go on to become card-carrying Buddhists, I believe they do  
continue to have what the good bhikkhu calls "a vertical view" of  
Buddhism and of life. I wonder what he would say today, about the  
quality of scholarship on Buddhism. Think of scholars like Professor  
and Lama (!) John Makransky. Perhaps we'd get a bit more credit now.

Franz