[Buddha-l] Schopen lauded

[andy]

On Monday 02 March 2009 08:50:59 Richard P. Hayes wrote:
> 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.

> 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

This has to be, without a doubt, one of the best intellectual autobiographies 
I have ever read.  (of course, I haven't read Conze's)
-- 
Ari Fleisher said people should watch what they say.  Obama says people should 
be careful who they listen to.  See the difference?