摘要：The self.confessed Buddhist scholar.practitioner seems to be a par-ticularly North American phenomenon. In contrast, most scholarsstudying Buddhist texts, histories, and social realities in Europe orAustralia deliberately avoid admitting publicly that they personally mightbe Buddhists. One reason for this is the underlying assumption that tooclose an alignment with the studied object might intrude upon the scholar.sso.called òobjectivityó and òneutrality.ó Personal convictions and academicinvestigation are seen as different spheres which, for scientific creditabil-ity, need to remain apart. Having gone beyond such constructed polarities,scholars in the United States and Canada have stepped up and increasinglyin recent years have declared quite frankly that they are followers of someBuddhist, Hindu, Baha.i or other religious tradition. The dichotomy of òin-sider versus outsideró has been replaced by the blurring of boundaries toòinsider and outsider.ó Of such nature are these òreflections of a skepticalBuddhist.ó
