For an indulgent moment, I wondered if James Austin, in spite of his demurral, might be one of the rare “living Buddhas” that he suggests are scattered around the earth. But no, I decided, he is just a man at peace with himself and his life—an accomplishment rare in its own right. I would certainly settle for that. Austin cautioned in Zen and the Brain that “most aspirants, perhaps authors in particular, will remain at best partially enlightened.”[1] Those who live by the word, he seemed to be suggesting, pay a price for it.

From John Horgan’s Rational Mysticism: Spirituality Meets Science in the Search for Enlightenment, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003, p. 136.

Footnote

1. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1998, p. 295.