{"id":386,"date":"2009-02-28T02:31:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-28T02:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2009\/02\/gregory-schopen-interviewed\/"},"modified":"2009-02-28T02:31:00","modified_gmt":"2009-02-28T02:31:00","slug":"gregory-schopen-interviewed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2009\/02\/gregory-schopen-interviewed.html","title":{"rendered":"Gregory Schopen Interviewed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>Gregory Schopen is, without a doubt, one of the great<\/span> living scholars of Buddhism<\/a>, and arguably one of the greatest in Western history.<\/p>\n

Just turning to the references page of one recent book, Paul Williams\u2019 \u201cMahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations\u201d and you find Schopen referred to nearly 20 times<\/span>. That\u2019s way more than Tsong kha pa, way more than D.T. Suzuki, more than Paul\u2019s colleague and also-great Buddhologist Rupert Gethin, and it\u2019s even more than<\/span> you\u2019ll find to such massive historical figures as Shinran and Nagarjuna. I think that fella\u2019 named Sakyamuni Buddha is the only person referred to more often.<\/p>\n

In this delightful interview<\/a>, Schopen discusses how he got into Indian Buddhism, and his overall philosophy of academia and life.<\/p>\n

Providing a chuckle at the end of the interview is this gem:<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a very healthy respect for my own ignorance,\u201d he said with characteristically Buddhist<\/a> humility, adding that \u201cwe know so little about most of this stuff that it seems irresponsible to make large, sweeping statements in large, sweeping books.\u201d Besides, he quipped, \u201cI\u2019m also deeply suspicious of intellectuals, which is a little bit ironic since I am one.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Damn, \u2019cause I\u2019m working on a big, sweeping book, filled with big, sweeping statements.<\/p>\n

Update on my bad accounting practices, Jan Nattier, Maitreya, and surely some other names are referred to more than the great Mr. Schopen\u2026 (sorry).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gregory Schopen is, without a doubt, one of the great living scholars of Buddhism, and arguably one of the greatest in Western history. Just turning to the references page of one recent book, Paul Williams\u2019 \u201cMahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations\u201d and you find Schopen referred to nearly 20 times. That\u2019s way more than Tsong kha […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nGregory Schopen Interviewed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gregory Schopen is, without a doubt, one of the great living scholars of Buddhism, and arguably one of the greatest in Western history.Just turning to the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2009\/02\/gregory-schopen-interviewed.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gregory Schopen Interviewed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gregory Schopen is, without a doubt, one of the great living scholars of Buddhism, and arguably one of the greatest in Western history.Just turning to the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2009\/02\/gregory-schopen-interviewed.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Buddhist Perspectives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-02-28T02:31:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_fyeYpxfdjuI\/Sal1BANGghI\/AAAAAAAAAX0\/jFjr9URYmmw\/s320\/schopen-lrg.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2009\/02\/gregory-schopen-interviewed.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2009\/02\/gregory-schopen-interviewed.html\",\"name\":\"Gregory Schopen Interviewed\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-02-28T02:31:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-02-28T02:31:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9\"},\"description\":\"Gregory Schopen is, without a doubt, one of the great living scholars of Buddhism, and arguably one of the greatest in Western history.Just turning to the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2009\/02\/gregory-schopen-interviewed.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2009\/02\/gregory-schopen-interviewed.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2009\/02\/gregory-schopen-interviewed.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Gregory Schopen Interviewed\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/\",\"name\":\"American Buddhist Perspectives\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9\",\"name\":\"Justin Whitaker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Justin Whitaker\"},\"description\":\"I am an almost-life-long Montanan; a baptized Catholic; an ardent Atheist; a practicing Buddhist; a lover of Wisdom. 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