Imposter Syndrome in Dhamma Discourse

Greetings, Friendlies. :)

In The Master and His Emissary Iain McGilchrist says that as the quantity of human knowledge explodes, “experts” find themselves expert on less and less. For those of us non-experts who dare approach a subject:

the price may be that one is always at best an interested outsider, at worst an interloper condemned to make mistakes that will be obvious to those who really know.

There it is, right? An interested outsider, an interloper.

In a 2021 course Stephen Batchelor said:

I have an anxiety, I’ve had it for a long time, that one day, someone will discover a crucial error in my work that causes the whole edifice to come crashing down. I think this is called in psychology “Imposter Syndrome”. … And I’m always a little bit nervous about being found out. Now I know this is irrational, … but nonetheless, it’s a reality for me.

Stephen Batchelor has imposter syndrome? What should the rest of us poor sots think? With Nāgārjuna out there. McGilchrist. Gazzaniga. Batchelor. Why should any of us scribble a single phrase?

I have spoken with so many kalyana-mitta, steeped in wisdom, with insightful, idiosyncratic understandings, who somehow don’t feel they have the “right” to share them. Who are they to peddle intellectual wares in the face of 2,500 years of Buddhist orthodoxy?

And I feel it. I know very well that the explorations I am making could prove mortifyingly misguided.

Still, it’s worth it. It is worth it to me to develop my ideas. I have a better understanding of the dhamma. I have a better understanding of my relationship to the dhamma. [1] Because I write, because I publish, because I take part in the discourse.

And it would be the same for them. And for you. Know that I am thinking of some of you very specifically as I write this. :)

McGilchrist later says:

My hope is only that what I have to say may resonate with the ideas of others and possibly act as a stimulus to further reflection by those better qualified than myself.

As a happy byproduct, our being and our communicating may ring some more substantial bell elsewhere. I don’t imagine that this blog will shift the dhammic horizon. But I do hope that my voice will lend energy to a movement that is deepening and de-avijjā-ing the dhamma even farther.

And I hope the same for your voice.

If you’ve been considering writing, or podcasting, or being on someone else’s podcast, or TikTok-ing, or Mastadon-ing, whatever, let me encourage you. And tell me about it. I’ll subscribe.

With enormous friendliness. :)))

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[1] …attadīpā viharatha attasaraṇā anaññasaraṇā… (DN 16)