An excerpt from an interview with Ramananda John E. Welshons

NILS MONTAN: What was your experience in graduate school like?

RAMANANDA JOHN WELSHONS: I had an absolutely wonderful time in the Religion Department at Florida State University. One of the things that attracted me there was that I was offered a graduate assistantship with the opportunity to teach “Death and Dying.” I also worked as assistant to a professor who asked me to help him teach a course called, “Religion in America.” Those were great years. Dr. Walter L. Moore – an absolutely wonderful man – was the Chairman of the graduate program. There were some magnificent faculty members: Dr. Lawrence F. Cunningham, Dr. Richard Rubenstein, Dr. Leo Sandon, Dr. David Levenson. I also had the honor of working with David as his research assistant. He was incredibly brilliant – a terrific chef –and a great friend. I also had an amazing graduate seminar in Buddhism with Dr. C. Robert Linne. One of the course requirements was that we do Vipassana meditation every day and keep a journal about it. He said (as had The Buddha) that the essence of Buddhism was not belief or faith, but direct personal experience, and if you were going to understand Buddhism, you had to have the experience. It was fascinating to watch some of my fellow students – who were much more inclined toward an academic understanding of Judeo-Christian theology – find their way into a daily practice of Buddhist meditation.  It was all just delicious.

– Nils Montan is a writer and social commentator who lives in Santa Fe and Southern Brazil