AboutMaciej St. Zięba Expertise I can answer questions concerning Eastern (Oriental) philosophies and philosophers (Indian, Tibetan, Indonesian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese: Hinduist, Buddhist, Confucianist, Taoist and other; alas not Islamic or Jewish) - both in terms of notions and facts (history of their development). I can write in English, French, Esperanto, Polish and Russian, German, Dutch and Norwegian. I can also understand questions in Spanish and Italian.
Experience I have been teaching Indian and Chinese philosophies since 1987 and in 2000 I started a project on Oriental philosophies within the scope of the Universal Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Powszechna Encyklopedia Filozofii) published in Polish by SITA-PL (7 volumes, A-Pan, published 2000-2006, containing ca. 300 entries in Eastern philosophies, written by a team of a dozen of Polish scholars).
Organizations The Catholic University of Lublin (KUL), Poland, History of Philosophy Department
Publications Several publications in Polish; in English: The Origin of the World according to Rigveda (Montreal 1996), Contributions to the History of the Buddhist Classifications of Dharmas: Pancavastuka of Vasumitra (Bulletin, Polish Institute and Library, Montreal 1997)
Education/Credentials philosophy (KUL, Lublin, 1976-81); M.A. in history of Indian philosophy (KUL, 1981); Ph.D. in history of Indian philosophy (KUL, 1989); other studies: Indian and Chinese philosophies (Institut Catholique, Paris, 1985-6); Tibetan language (INALCO, Paris, 1985-6); Chinese language (McGill University, Montreal, 1995-7)
Question there's a zen story about ma-tsu twisting a disciple's nose, but is there another story in which the master in question grabs the student by the nose and says "quick, say a word of zen!", or something like that?
Answer Hi Taber,
Yes there are several like this, but I'll have to looke for then either in Hekiganroku (or Biyanlu or Blue Cliff Records) or in Mumonkan (or Wumenguan or Gatelessgate) or elese another collection of Zen koans.
Today I have to go abroad for a few days, so I can do it only next Monday. But why don't you start your own research with the words mentione above (there are all the cases of the collections somewhere on the the Internet), or start with http://www.ciolek.com/WWWVLPages/ZenPages/KoanStudy.html
