The Fall 201 issue of Buddhadharma has a column called Ask the Teacher and the question was: Do buddhas think? I was a bit taken aback by the stupidity of this question and surprised that the teachers even deigned to answer it. The question is totally speculative, and therefore worthless. Didn't the Buddha teach about things that are irrelevant to one's practice? (The parable of the man who is shot by a poisoned arrow and wants to know everything about it while proceeding to die from the poison.) The teachers should have either refused to answer the question or just laughed and given funny answers. Since these teachers were answering the question it seemed they were implying they were buddhas. All of the teachers I have known have always demurred when asked whether they are enlightened, but if folks want to claim they're buddhas, who am I to argue? This question reminded me of the famous Zen question, "Does a dog have Buddha nature?" to which the only honest answers are: "How the hell should I know, I'm not a dog." or "Go ask a dog."