Guest
In this episode I am joined by Dr Alexander Arguelles, linguist, world-renowned polyglot, and scholar of comparative religion. In this episode, Dr Arguelles recounts his unusual upbringing in counter-culture America, traces his academic career through institutions such as the Universities of Columbia and Chicago, and details his remarkable life as a scholar and teacher. Dr Arguelles illuminates the inner world of the polyglot, listing his dozens of ancient and modern languages and revealing his methods of study, his surprising daily routine, and how deep immersion in language families such as Germanic or Romantic, can unlock all related languages without the need for extensive study. Dr Arguelles also reflects on his own spiritual life, including his mystical conversion to Catholicism, the unravelling of his vocation as a Benedictine monk, his time in Buddhist meditation retreat, and the ways in which a life of study and language learning can be a profound spiritual path of meditation. … Also available on Youtube, iTunes, & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’. … Topics Include: 00:00 - Intro 01:14 - How Steve met Dr Arguelles 02:40 - Inspiration behind the Academy 05:06 - The power of peers 07:54 - Dr Arguelles’ unusual upbringing 11:49 - Discouraged from language learning by polyglot father 14:41 - Areligious family context 16:19 - Dr Arguelles’ brother’s catastrophic brain disease 17:45 - Encountering Augustine, Anselm, and Aquinas at Columbia University 19:24 - Drawn to the Mystery and conversion to Catholicism 21:53 - The unravelling of his vocation as a Benedictine monk 24:03 - Obtaining a PhD at the University of Chicago about dreams in the Old 24:56 - Norse sagas 25:30 - Reflecting on his conversion experience 28:18 - Dr Arguelles’ current spiritual position 31:10 - Thomas Merton and the Mystery 32:37 - Born to be a monk 34:08 - Dr Arguelles’ language learning journey 35:29 - Learning French, German, Spanish, Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit at Columbia 36:58 - Old Norse, Old High German, Middle High German, Old English, Medieval French at University of Chicago 38:34 - The murder of Ioan Petru Culianu 40:03 - Postdoctoral work on 1890s neo-paganism at the Berlin Centre for Advanced European Studies 41:09 - Immersing in the Germanic and Romance language branches 44:23 - Seeking a greater challenge 45:30 - Unlocking the entire language branch 46:59 - Different personalities in different languages? 47:55 - Awakening languages rather than learning them 51:09 - How many languages does Dr Arguelles speak? 54:04 - Dr Arguelles’ regret 54:44 - The advantage of reading texts in their original languages 58:21 - Monastic phase in South Korea and intense learning 01:03:42 - Learning more languages and immersing in self-study 01:07:08 - Dr Arguelles’ daily routine, beginning at 2am 01:08:46 - Emerging from the monastic phase and getting married 01:09:32 - Immersion in Sanskrit and pruning his languages 01:11:55 - Immersion in Arabic in Lebanon 01:13:05 - Attending Buddhist retreats at Haeinsa in South Korea 01:16:47 - Committing faux pas on retreat 01:18:11 - Meeting and marrying Park Hyun-Kyung 01:20:44 - Dr Arguelles’ language meditation techniques and learning as a spiritual path 01:22:14 - Languages offered at the Academy 01:24:27 - Learning Sanskrit 01:25:37 - Comparative religions and the Great Books … To find our more about Dr Alexander Arguelles and his Academy, visit: - For more interviews, videos, and more visit: - Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James
