Fan Mail or Hate Mail? (Q&A 01)
05 April 2014 [link youtube]
Your questions answered! Including questions that are so misguided that they might as well be hate-mail! From problems of pious ignorance to academic fraud, linguistics, history, humantiarian work and ancient philosophy... this video isn't about anything that I'd want to talk about, no... instead, here are the answers demanded by readers like you!
Youtube Automatic Transcription
is so misguided that it has about the same
Let's get into it. get this [with] all kinds of variations on ancient languages anyway?" "Richard Gombrich says he learned Sanskrit in three months." There are a lot, a lot of scams going, in in academia really like to just add one more add to your C.V. than, "Fluent in _____", nobody can check your credentials. If you're who is going to tell you that you don't know It's very, very hard to really gain ability very, very easy to fake it in most academic As soon as you've got religious hierarchy, you're the only one allowed to ask questions. to get a PhD in my university in Canada (as I'd read an essay by him, and my professor, that he could tell [the monk] wasn't really looking at the Pali or the other ancient languages that he could tell [the monk] isn't really problems with it". Interesting comment, because and old Chinese, but it stuck with me because real reading-- always find problems in the Shakespeare, and Shakespeare's use of English but there are a lot of problems. There are sense, or you're left wondering, "Did this Shakespeare. And certainly if you're looking like that. say that they know these languages (whether months, whether they say they learned it in it in a classroom in London, England), no fraud and a tremendous exaggeration, most people with PhDs correspond with me, and I've I can tell you're not reading the original philosophical claim you're making-- if you relate to the original text in any way. So on, you get a lot of this scam of, "Oh, I'm indirectly about the ancient text, and I'm original research, or my original translation". it up in a robe and start asking for donations, cancer with your magical meditation techniques, aspects of human nature start to show up before How much of any language can you learn in if you remember the old days when you would two weeks is about enough time, when you're Maybe you got a new favorite album, you listen know all the lyrics. But even then, there hear correctly, that you can't quite break what the singer is saying. Most of us, growing know the lyrics to a song, and then years were. If we're talking about a foreign language, now and buy an album in a language you don't Chinese, Cree, you name it, a totally alien again and again and again for two weeks, many you're not going to be able to break down be able to know what's going on phonetically, just have a set of familiar sounds that you pretty close to the type of language learning what are basically songs, you may learn to and they may be badly mispronounced... most hard to figure out what they're saying. kind of annual Buddhist party at one of the invite Buddhist monks from every consulate get them to all chant in unison, and each mispronunciation of the same Pali text. So hear anything clearly, out of tune, out of she showed up to witness this spectacle for if you're a scholar of Buddhism living in story or a happy story. What was my point? and learn all the lyrics in two weeks. You [not] even if it's a foreign language pretty in a foreign language that today is ancient, good luck. read an ancient language, is very hard work. is very hard work, and you know, in three language --well, let's say Chinese-- in three where's the bathroom?", and "How much does that, in Chinese, but how are you going to after three months? Impossible. to tell people, "Hey, I never learned how But I did learn how to say "Where's the bathroom" languages I studied. one, man, the way this kind of question is of fan-mail and hate-mail. "Why would you are much better off working independently, a PhD...", "Let me tell you how hard my own I got two or three different messages like today professors. And, I mean, part of it and a lot of professors feel that they can is. Um, I don't even know if they're trying they're trying to make themselves feel better Y'know, over the years, I talked to different doing a PhD, partly because I already had languages and contexts. "Well, look, I've type of stuff I've already done, it would a PhD program and do some kind of work, and The flip side of that is that the institutions nothing in return. This actually comes back I'd just ask a really simple question, like, the name of the professor who teaches Pali, staff with competence in Pali? Who is actually Even with Thai; one university I talked to, have a degree in Thai studies, who is the staff listed doing it." money and provide you with absolutely no education you're talking about Buddhism, or Asian Studies, lead to any money, so there's this sense of Can't we be honest with each other and ourselves, If you sit down at a meeting where everyone's they're going to lie and cheat and rob and when there's money involved, but, wow, from it's amazing that you sit down with people situation, but they still act like a den of Uh... yeah... y'know the other side of it themselves have PhDs and are professors and to people who became, y'know, chartered accountants. to those people, "You're better-off without money..." --and maybe that's true. Maybe they and got normal professions and so on, but who do you think you're talking to? Y'know, was really specifying that I had lived a better thing, than this guy had lived with a PhD do you want to trade places with me? [Laughs] real source of stress is not knowing where where your next paycheck is coming from. It's today, you don't know where your home is going how you're going to pay rent in the very short life, since I finished my B.A. --the only of me. to some extent with the ways in which they coped with that stress. They don't know what Laos, and to communicate with the hospital emergency you've got. They don't know what like to do that when you're flat broke. [Laughs] get medical care in Vientiane. I didn't have the same low, low prices that local Lao citizens too, let me tell you. [Laughs] do what I did relatively young in life. I to me in a kind of negative sense. One of any time in Asia, he lived his whole life want to go down that path, and then be in Asia when I'm 50 years old, 60 years old, interests when I'm too old to really do it, malaria, break your leg, get into life-and-death and so on. You know, I realized that I wanted very glad that I did. said to me, at the end of my B.A., he said, it now, because when you come back," this in academia: there are the guys who went there, know what it is, they know what the work in and waved a hand. And I filled in his sentence, never even tried". He smiled and he agreed So, even if those professors were an inspiration appreciated that I went out and directly got would have to jump through hoops for years And the world was changing so fast during I had wouldn't exist anymore. I showed up at what used to be called the University in Sri Lanka, I showed up at this that really teaches Pali as a subject. I put discussion, a notebook that had my handwritten Sinhalese, Burmese, Cambodian, Lao (I didn't developed my handwriting up to a certain level talked to the professors about the possibility I'd written in Pali, and they said right away, any of the courses here, you're already much And, you know, I wasn't flattered, and I didn't off and say, "No, if I studied here, I would classes, and hearing the language spoken and because they thought... they thought correctly were. [Laughs] close to being a beginner myself. The sentences in terms of Pali comprehension, but I'd worked And a couple of years of hard work, alone, four years or six years in an academic system of your money, puts you in a situation where own pace would be faster than what the class [Question 3:] Man, I get this question all Thank you for your articles. I am just finishing the same thing you did. I find your story ticket to Laos... etc. etc." maybe about 3 different guys a year --and who have this reaction to my work. And the jazz singer, and every song you sing is about jazz have ruined your life, [Laughs] and every yeah, yeah, I love your album, I love your when I grow up, I want to sing jazz and get the things you're warning me about". everything I've written is a really strong did. And it's both a warning about what was are very careful to warn you about how things When I arrived in Vientiane, the capital city traffic lights. In the downtown city there bank machines. Electric banking didn't exist me, where's the nearest international bank you have to cross the border to use an international That changed. Today, the whole country is traffic lights, bank machines and all the were probably about 20 years before I arrived. maybe 20 years before I did, and at that stage any kind, y'know, if you just showed up with of work to do. The culture of corruption closes networks, and those opportunities disappear. make a positive difference disappears along So, in many ways, you know, even though it's no longer exists. A book that is both inspirational book, "Precept and Practice", that book describes anymore. It doesn't exist in the city, it the last time that I talked to him face to you know, that book was an inspiration to nobody could do that research", because what to be studied. And he had the money and institutional he had the money and institutional backing independently, and my support was whatever put a roof over my head. me fan-mail that sounds like hate-mail. [Laughs] already, like, 2003? I got fan mail back then.
Let's get into it. get this [with] all kinds of variations on ancient languages anyway?" "Richard Gombrich says he learned Sanskrit in three months." There are a lot, a lot of scams going, in in academia really like to just add one more add to your C.V. than, "Fluent in _____", nobody can check your credentials. If you're who is going to tell you that you don't know It's very, very hard to really gain ability very, very easy to fake it in most academic As soon as you've got religious hierarchy, you're the only one allowed to ask questions. to get a PhD in my university in Canada (as I'd read an essay by him, and my professor, that he could tell [the monk] wasn't really looking at the Pali or the other ancient languages that he could tell [the monk] isn't really problems with it". Interesting comment, because and old Chinese, but it stuck with me because real reading-- always find problems in the Shakespeare, and Shakespeare's use of English but there are a lot of problems. There are sense, or you're left wondering, "Did this Shakespeare. And certainly if you're looking like that. say that they know these languages (whether months, whether they say they learned it in it in a classroom in London, England), no fraud and a tremendous exaggeration, most people with PhDs correspond with me, and I've I can tell you're not reading the original philosophical claim you're making-- if you relate to the original text in any way. So on, you get a lot of this scam of, "Oh, I'm indirectly about the ancient text, and I'm original research, or my original translation". it up in a robe and start asking for donations, cancer with your magical meditation techniques, aspects of human nature start to show up before How much of any language can you learn in if you remember the old days when you would two weeks is about enough time, when you're Maybe you got a new favorite album, you listen know all the lyrics. But even then, there hear correctly, that you can't quite break what the singer is saying. Most of us, growing know the lyrics to a song, and then years were. If we're talking about a foreign language, now and buy an album in a language you don't Chinese, Cree, you name it, a totally alien again and again and again for two weeks, many you're not going to be able to break down be able to know what's going on phonetically, just have a set of familiar sounds that you pretty close to the type of language learning what are basically songs, you may learn to and they may be badly mispronounced... most hard to figure out what they're saying. kind of annual Buddhist party at one of the invite Buddhist monks from every consulate get them to all chant in unison, and each mispronunciation of the same Pali text. So hear anything clearly, out of tune, out of she showed up to witness this spectacle for if you're a scholar of Buddhism living in story or a happy story. What was my point? and learn all the lyrics in two weeks. You [not] even if it's a foreign language pretty in a foreign language that today is ancient, good luck. read an ancient language, is very hard work. is very hard work, and you know, in three language --well, let's say Chinese-- in three where's the bathroom?", and "How much does that, in Chinese, but how are you going to after three months? Impossible. to tell people, "Hey, I never learned how But I did learn how to say "Where's the bathroom" languages I studied. one, man, the way this kind of question is of fan-mail and hate-mail. "Why would you are much better off working independently, a PhD...", "Let me tell you how hard my own I got two or three different messages like today professors. And, I mean, part of it and a lot of professors feel that they can is. Um, I don't even know if they're trying they're trying to make themselves feel better Y'know, over the years, I talked to different doing a PhD, partly because I already had languages and contexts. "Well, look, I've type of stuff I've already done, it would a PhD program and do some kind of work, and The flip side of that is that the institutions nothing in return. This actually comes back I'd just ask a really simple question, like, the name of the professor who teaches Pali, staff with competence in Pali? Who is actually Even with Thai; one university I talked to, have a degree in Thai studies, who is the staff listed doing it." money and provide you with absolutely no education you're talking about Buddhism, or Asian Studies, lead to any money, so there's this sense of Can't we be honest with each other and ourselves, If you sit down at a meeting where everyone's they're going to lie and cheat and rob and when there's money involved, but, wow, from it's amazing that you sit down with people situation, but they still act like a den of Uh... yeah... y'know the other side of it themselves have PhDs and are professors and to people who became, y'know, chartered accountants. to those people, "You're better-off without money..." --and maybe that's true. Maybe they and got normal professions and so on, but who do you think you're talking to? Y'know, was really specifying that I had lived a better thing, than this guy had lived with a PhD do you want to trade places with me? [Laughs] real source of stress is not knowing where where your next paycheck is coming from. It's today, you don't know where your home is going how you're going to pay rent in the very short life, since I finished my B.A. --the only of me. to some extent with the ways in which they coped with that stress. They don't know what Laos, and to communicate with the hospital emergency you've got. They don't know what like to do that when you're flat broke. [Laughs] get medical care in Vientiane. I didn't have the same low, low prices that local Lao citizens too, let me tell you. [Laughs] do what I did relatively young in life. I to me in a kind of negative sense. One of any time in Asia, he lived his whole life want to go down that path, and then be in Asia when I'm 50 years old, 60 years old, interests when I'm too old to really do it, malaria, break your leg, get into life-and-death and so on. You know, I realized that I wanted very glad that I did. said to me, at the end of my B.A., he said, it now, because when you come back," this in academia: there are the guys who went there, know what it is, they know what the work in and waved a hand. And I filled in his sentence, never even tried". He smiled and he agreed So, even if those professors were an inspiration appreciated that I went out and directly got would have to jump through hoops for years And the world was changing so fast during I had wouldn't exist anymore. I showed up at what used to be called the University in Sri Lanka, I showed up at this that really teaches Pali as a subject. I put discussion, a notebook that had my handwritten Sinhalese, Burmese, Cambodian, Lao (I didn't developed my handwriting up to a certain level talked to the professors about the possibility I'd written in Pali, and they said right away, any of the courses here, you're already much And, you know, I wasn't flattered, and I didn't off and say, "No, if I studied here, I would classes, and hearing the language spoken and because they thought... they thought correctly were. [Laughs] close to being a beginner myself. The sentences in terms of Pali comprehension, but I'd worked And a couple of years of hard work, alone, four years or six years in an academic system of your money, puts you in a situation where own pace would be faster than what the class [Question 3:] Man, I get this question all Thank you for your articles. I am just finishing the same thing you did. I find your story ticket to Laos... etc. etc." maybe about 3 different guys a year --and who have this reaction to my work. And the jazz singer, and every song you sing is about jazz have ruined your life, [Laughs] and every yeah, yeah, I love your album, I love your when I grow up, I want to sing jazz and get the things you're warning me about". everything I've written is a really strong did. And it's both a warning about what was are very careful to warn you about how things When I arrived in Vientiane, the capital city traffic lights. In the downtown city there bank machines. Electric banking didn't exist me, where's the nearest international bank you have to cross the border to use an international That changed. Today, the whole country is traffic lights, bank machines and all the were probably about 20 years before I arrived. maybe 20 years before I did, and at that stage any kind, y'know, if you just showed up with of work to do. The culture of corruption closes networks, and those opportunities disappear. make a positive difference disappears along So, in many ways, you know, even though it's no longer exists. A book that is both inspirational book, "Precept and Practice", that book describes anymore. It doesn't exist in the city, it the last time that I talked to him face to you know, that book was an inspiration to nobody could do that research", because what to be studied. And he had the money and institutional he had the money and institutional backing independently, and my support was whatever put a roof over my head. me fan-mail that sounds like hate-mail. [Laughs] already, like, 2003? I got fan mail back then.