Jim Anderson - Pali scholar 1948-2019

[RobertK]

Jim Anderson founder of palistudy@yahoogroups
Long time scholar of Pali who lived in forest in Canada for decades.
Photos by Alyssa from palistudy@yahoogroups

[RobertK]

[RobertK]

[bksubhuti]

Gosh… I remember him when i was on usenet in the 90’s. He always gave technical pali answers and I think I spoke with him about his life. I was thinking of doing what he did, but opted as a monk.

[RobertK]

Thanks so much for joining venerable
here is a brief bio of Jim I wrote

https://groups.io/g/dsg/message/167410?p=%2C%2C%2C20%2C0%2C0%2C0%3A%3ACreated%2C%2Cposterid%3A163768+anderson%2C20%2C2%2C0%2C82287651

[ekocare]

What was the secret reason for him to be lived in the forest as a layman while there were plenty of opportunities for becoming a monk in a tradition he preferred ?

[RobertK]

He had an illness. I remember him saying he did a long mahasi style retreat in scotland, I think, but found some issues with it. So he devoted himself to learning pali.