“From early times onwards it has been my conviction that I have come from a higher realm... and that I was sent to the Western barbarians so as to soften their hearts by teaching them the Holy Prajñāpāramitā”.
The messianic delusions of Edward Conze as expressed in his "Memoirs of a Modern Gnostic" (1979: I 55):
@jayarava
I thank you again for reading that so I don't have to. What a peculiar fellow he was.
Your handling of him in your recent "The Cessation of Sensory Experience..." was rather delicious, and I'm hereby awarding you 17 extra Essay Points for the "matter in the eye" line in that work. 😆
@AndyLowry Good morning Andy. And thanks! It's great to be in contact with someone who appears to "get" what I'm talking about. I feel slightly less mad as a result.
I think Avicenna had the right idea.
@jayarava
Good morning-almost-afternoon to you! I can't help but have at least some rudimentary understanding of what you're on about 😉, having read everything you've done on the Heart at the Raves site. Printed and read. Read and scribbled notes on.
The whole topic is fascinating to me, as it contains crime (well, fraud anyway) and a mystery and an insight into an era in China that already interested me, when Buddhism was being re-shaped and adapted to a non-Indian culture-- and a culture with an already longstanding tradition of high literary accomplishments. You've given me many, many an hour of enjoyment in contemplation of all its facets. I'm very grateful to you for the diligence with which you've set yourself such a thankless task.
@jayarava
And I do wonder a bit at the apparent lack of interest in Mastodon-world, though I guess it might just be a matter of timing-- when there were 300,000 people here, I can see how there might not be so many people interested in Buddhist phililogy. Now that I see numbers more like 9 million, it might be that things are about to change.
I wonder if mentioning your presence here on the Sutta Central forums might help gain some readership for you here? You're semi-famous, or at least a known entity, in that locale (I think I've mentioned that that's where I first learned of your existence and your work). I could post a thought or two about something you've written over there with a link back to here. Maybe that would help.
