The 8th article to come out of my Heart Sutra research focused on Edward Conze. A man consumed with hatred: esp in the forms of misogyny and racism.

Worse, Conze bungled the editing, translation, and interpretation of Prajñāpāramitā. He hoodwinked #buddhism and #buddhiststudies.

(2020). "Edward Conze: A Re-evaluation of the Man and his Contribution to Prajñāpāramitā Studies." Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, 19, 22-51. http://jocbs.org/index.php/jocbs/article/view/223

@jayarava
Thanks so much for the notice! Will have a look right now.

@AndyLowry I just assume that no one has read any of my articles. 🤣

The Conze article is one of my best I think. Writing it was cathartic! He also features in this more recent one:

(2022) "The Cessation of Sensory Experience and Prajñāpāramitā Philosophy" IJBTC 32(1):111-148. https://www.academia.edu/84003602/The_Cessation_of_Sensory_Experience_and_Praj%C3%B1%C4%81p%C4%81ramit%C4%81_Philosophy.

@jayarava
I was hoping for some of your trademark wit and, shall we say, "sharpness," and am not disappointed. ("...if it were a cheap perfume then we would detect notes of neoplatonism and Vedanta, on a base of Theosophy" is a good example, along with others.) 😃

Was delighted by the poke or two at Suzuki; have never been able to figure out why he's considered such a big deal. Soyen Shaku had far more interesting (and more traditional) things to say in his address to the first World Congress of Religions in 1893, and his "dharma grandson" Sokei-an Sasaki was writing and teaching Zen in NYC in 1930 before Suzuki became the hot new thing. (On the former, I did note Victoria's depressing discussion of Shaku and his ilk just as you mention, but the chronology is still worth a mention.)

Thanks for reading the Conze autobiography so I don't have to do it myself-- your sacrifice is appreciated. 😉

When it comes to Zen generally, there's such a long history of blatant fraud that even the well-meaning (which I reckon Conze was not) manage to get dragged into an inescapable mire, e.g. Red Pine's and Tanahashi's work on the Heart. The tendency seems to have started with Shenhui's made-up nonsense about a probably fictional Huineng and just never got any better. Though I have yet to regret my (lay) vows, there have been a despairing moment or two as Yampolsky and Cole and Adamek slapped me upside the head. Personal experience shows me that there is a there there, but with rare exceptions it often looks like it's deliberately hidden and obfuscated. Most of the "big names" do it. I'm unable to even guess why that is. Early Chan at least has the excuse of the corrupting influence of political power, but that was a long time ago and it's a shame to still be suffering from it.

I'd likely be helped by the Academia article, as it discusses the sensory abandonment issue I'm so allergic to, but prefer not to create an account in order to read it. I'll poke around and see if there's a way I can bypass that.

Thanks so much for your article! It was both greatly entertaining and informative, as what I've read of your work tends to be.

@AndyLowry What strikes me about this, is that its way more than 500cx. 🤔

@jayarava
I'm ignorant of that abbreviation and web search is unhelpful-- is it "copies" maybe?

@AndyLowry cx = characters. My toots are limited to 500 cx with a running count as I type. This one is 384 cx long.