You can just call me Phool Das if that works better. If we were PhD.s we wouldn't be here. Academics don't inhabit forums like this but take their insights and judgements to professional conferences and to academic journals.
Primary teacher was Alfonso Verdu, originally an academic Jesuit who spoke and wrote in Spanish, Latin, English,German and Japanese. While I knew him, he was primarily a teacher and researcher in Buddhism - Hwa Yen and Zen. He also taught Husserl and Heidegger along with Thomas Aquinas and John Stotus Eriugena. Because of his linguistic abilities, he would clarify (sometime dispute) English translations of significant works ... from early Pali and Sanskrit works to the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana and up to the Chinese Zen of Guifeng Zong Mi. The first day of class he brought in the "necessary" collection of books required by the university. He stacked them on the desk, looked around at everyone and then threw them all in a chair. He said "They make me list these books as course reading materials. But don't believe it for a moment. I am a European scholar. I am the Book and I will show you what no book can ever demonstrate." Such was the beginning of an extraordinary teaching method by a very warm and compassionate teacher who demonstrated (in colored chalk diagrams) the essential likeness and differences in the fundamental viewpoints of the major world contemplative traditions in both East and West. Compared to such a teacher-scholar, we are just ants scurrying around on the sidewalk. ---In [email protected], <dhamiltony2k5@...> wrote: Om, have either of you earned a real PhD from a real university or are you just pretty well read in spiritual things? Just wondering. Das after your name can work pretty good too. Das is a different credential than just being a Phd. -Buck Das on the lone prairie
