[Buddha-l] Schopen lauded

[Richard P. Hayes]

Franz Metcalf wrote:

> But I was truly SHOCKED to read that Gregory Schopen has NEVER  
> BEEN TO INDIA.

Get ready for another shock. I have been to India only once and that was
for only two weeks, and I spent the whole time at a retreat centre. And
yet I saw enough of India to know that I never want to go back.

But then, unlike Schopen, I do care what people think, and I don't much
care at all what they actually do, so it's perhaps less surprising that
a philosopher would never leave his armchair than that a cultural
historian like Schopen would be content to stay mostly in the library.

Schopen and I were in a class together about thirty-five years ago. It
was a course in introductory Tibetan. I was SHOCKED to notice that
Schopen's pronunciation of Sanskrit was abominable AND THAT HE DIDN'T
EVEN CARE!!!!! Schopen and I disagreed on just about everything it is
possible to disagree about, but especially we disagreed on the value of
philosophy. I have never met anyone with more contempt for philosophy
than he. He has probably never met anyone with more indifference to
history and reality than I. Our teacher, Shoryu Katsura, was amazed at
(and disgusted by) how much Schopen and I disagreed with each other.
Despite, or more probably because of, our constant disagreements,
Schopen and I became friends. He went on to become a great scholar. I
went on to stay who I am.

Richard