". . . you weasels . . . are unfit to lick [Little Hawk's] boots. . . ."

No, I don't think Ake cares to debate anything in good faith. Too many times he resorts to that sort of thing. My natural reaction is to respond with some truly acid remark, but I will not lower myself to his level.

As to Little Hawk, I regard him as intelligent and knowledgeable. However—he seems to have a streak of shallow frivolity larded over with what he probably regards as being some kind of "peacemaker." "Now, children, let's not raise our voices. . . ."

He lectures us from the viewpoint of his dabbling in Eastern philosophy, and this is old stuff to me. Back in the 1960s, there were hordes of self-appointed Zen Buddhists and Taoists, and God only knows what all, wandering the streets, especially around the University District. I've talked with dozens of them (which is to say, I have been talked at), and all too often Little Hawk sounds just like them. The problem is that their dipping into Eastern philosophy is on the dilettante level and they never really gain any kind of deep understanding of what it's all about. They get off on the ideas being exotic and different, and they never seem to get beyond the feeling that they now know something beyond what everyone else knows. And behind the mild and pacific exterior often resides a monumental ego!

I knew a lot of foreign exchange students when I was at the University of Washington, including many from India and Southeast Asia in general. Deb Das was one of the most intelligent people I have ever met, and he and I spent many long hours in fascinating conversation. And I also went many times with a friend to the Vedanta Center on Seattle's Capitol Hill and listened to lectures (I wouldn't call them sermons) by a genuine Hindu swami.

Comparing what I learned from Deb and what I heard at the Vedanta Center with some of these self-appointed gurus who have read a book or two and gone all "spiritual," I find the self-appointed gurus to be shallow in the extreme and often a royal pain in the ass to their friends and acquaintances. It's always their air of detachment and superiority.

Don Firth