[Buddha-l] Teaching Zen Buddhist philosophy

[curt]

What you say about pablum is also true of vomit (which you mentioned 
earlier). Many species make use of vomit as a means for transporting 
food in a convenient way. Its rather like the predecessor to fast food - 
only more nutritious. I was reminded of this just yesterday when I 
caught a few minutes of a PBS documentary on wolves. But seriously, in 
both cases (pablum and vomit) there is a clear element of dependency and 
immaturity. When I took 100 level Philosophy classes we read Plato, 
Kant, Berkeley, Hume, Locke, Mill - stuff like that - "solid food", if 
we continue the diet analogy. (By the way - those classes were at a 
state university known primarily as a party school and the home base of 
Bobby Knight). I would certainly consider David Loy, whom you did 
originally mention, as a serious author - but not those others. The 
other authors originally mentioned write primarily "self-help" books - 
they don't even qualify as "serious non-fiction". They might conceivably 
be appropriate for a High School class on Zen - but nothing more. Unlike 
Loy, those other authors are not in the business of producing works that 
are intended to be intellectually challenging, to put it politely.

Brian Victoria's books would be good to add - but how much emphasis you 
place on them should be handled judiciously (after all, how much time 
should be spent on the Inquisition in a survey course on Christianity?) 
You should definitely consider Miriam Levering's groundbreaking research 
on the history of women Zen teachers in China as well.

- Curt

Richard P. Hayes wrote:

>Thanks to all of you who have offered suggestions so far, and thanks in
>advance to any suggestions that may come in during the next week or so.
>I hope that the materials I finally choose really are, as Curt
>suggested, pabulum (which, according to my dictionary means rich
>physical nourishment and, by extension, excellent food for thought).
>
>  
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