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Love, Peace, and Transcendence - Joy & Bill planted 3 trees in memory of William Pizante
Saturday, August 21, 2021
3 trees were planted in memory of
William Arthur Pizante
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There's not a day that goes by we are not thinking aloud or in silence about what he has taught us. All our love to you, & to our great teacher.
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David Shaw uploaded photo(s)
Tuesday, May 30, 2023
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I was born in Queens Village on Long Island. Always exploring on my bicycle (as a tot on a tricycle!). I found “Pizante” at Harpur College and took every course he offered. What I acquired from him was the belief that philosophy wasn’t something you just studied, but how you lived…… I escaped from a New York City suburb to bucolic Binghamton & my encounter with “Pizante.” I realized that Binghamton was not as bucolic as could be and rented an abandoned tenant house in Kingsley, Penna, 30 miles off campus. In winter the only heat was from a huge coal stove, dangerous because you had to bank the coal so it wouldn’t smolder which would result in death by coal gas.
Mr Pizante taught me that philosophy isn’t a study, but a teaching each of us must follow where it leads & at that point it was that remote tenant house, an ashram,! Some how the police were attracted to my vagabond abode and and found a tiny bit of marajauna in my abode and I was sentenced to 2to 5 years in penitentiary! My step father was an amazing New York attorney and he somehow got me released on somehow on “probation” before malevolent cellmates beat me up‼️
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Scott Edington posted a condolence
Sunday, August 7, 2022
To be in his presence, before a word was spoken, shared profoundly. To sit in class, with his family attending also, were moments of quiet joy. To remember the Asia drawing on his office door of the wiseman exchanging a conscious visual moment with a wild dog said so much. He was there at the beginning of my interests in reality, meaning, sharing, and experiencing life in a fuller way. His lessons and experiences have stayed with me through my life and added something special. Thank you.
Scott W. Edington, class of 1980.
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Laurie Levine posted a condolence
Thursday, February 10, 2022
Dr. Pizante,
Hearing of your passing brought me back to the late 1970's/early 1980's -- sitting in on your classes (or perhaps standing when all seats were taken), gatherings at your peaceful home -- exploring the nature of weighty stones, gathering after to explore, deep and honestly, ourselves and life itself. Your soft voice, quiet body, luminous eyes -- opened up my awareness of the Journey itself; an awareness that continues to shape how I walk this life. A conversation during your "Office Hours" laid bare the possibilities of the very essence of my path. Thank you, Teacher -- steady, patient, humble, twinkling, generous, playful, profound... again, and again, and again..... with gratitude, Laurie Levine/ levineel@verizon.net
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Sue Rapp posted a condolence
Thursday, September 16, 2021
William Pizante was impeccable; a virtuous, kind, loving and passionate teacher who wholeheartedly and with brilliance dedicated himself to bringing clarity, vision and self knoweldge to his students. We will miss you.
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Hannah Kim planted a tree in memory of William Pizante
Thursday, August 26, 2021
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With love and gratitude
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Debbie Cohen posted a condolence
Thursday, August 26, 2021
No one else in the world I've met had the love and concern to notice the meaning in the smallest details of our habits as well as the mastery to use it for cosmic humor and realization. He had the skill, wisdom and love to draw on our daily situations and use the 'cubic centimeter of chance' to help us see and transcend.
Bill was infinitely creative in finding ways to percolate, ripen and open us to insights. Just as Bill drew us into the mystery and reality of creating a waterfall run by a dishwasher motor, he encouraged us to look and leap wanting us to give birth to who we really are. He knew the pain and the joy in shedding forms of self-protection and illusion.
I am forever grateful for his love, time and care and the gift of such a selfless presence and light.
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A tree was planted in memory of William Pizante
Thursday, August 26, 2021
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Emily posted a condolence
Thursday, August 26, 2021
Dr. N Pesante,
I'm so sorry to hear of your father's passing. Praying for comfort.
Emily H
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Leslie Ihde uploaded photo(s)
Thursday, August 26, 2021
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He asked us
Would you be willing to live in the mountain air?
Yes, we said, yes.
I am there, still
where there are mountains
beyond the mountains
and air cool and clear
remembering your every word.
Yes again, yes.
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Janet Kass posted a condolence
Tuesday, August 24, 2021
Bill was a non-trivial person. He had a river of purity flowing right through him. He brought that aliveness into the world through his way of being in it. What we lived together opened up into light and ordinary things into joy.
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Donald Glauber posted a condolence
Monday, August 23, 2021
Haiku for Professor Bill Pizante...teacher, friend and inspiring spiritual elder:
"Peerless warrior,
Brings new vision to this world,
Lives changed forever.
--In memory of Bill Pizante with boundless love and gratitude for his wisdom,, patience and compassion from Don Glauber
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Nancy (Byers Bell) Greiff posted a condolence
Sunday, August 22, 2021
I know of no one else who gave so selflessly of their wisdom, time, and care. These were acts of love, and they made a real difference.
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Ira Rohde posted a condolence
Sunday, August 22, 2021
I and my brothers fondly remember our childhood in Vestal growing up around the corner from Lisa and Nina, and I have later memories of them all, in Vestal High, and later Prof. Pizante's "Other Ways of Knowing" course in college. I took out my Carlos Castaneda just now in his memory. Lisa, Nina, and Dvorah, you and all of us have lost a man of substance, a man of value and honor, a man of weight, "pesante." Few of us choose to pursue his path of brutal honesty, but his path inspired many. His his memory has always been and will always continue to be a blessing. I commend his family and caretakers during his final years and wish them consolation upon their loss.
-Ira Rohde, Congregation Shearith Israel, New York, NY.
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Charlie Eisenberg posted a condolence
Saturday, August 21, 2021
A man of deep adventure, untamed by the conventions of modern life, he spent his time as he wished. He will be missed by so many grateful students. His positive influence continues to radiate through the world. I hope that his family and loved ones find comfort in their beautiful memories of the man. He was their pillar and inspiration. May they find strength and love in the coming days..
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Cynthia Feldman planted a tree in memory of William Pizante
Saturday, August 21, 2021
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Sent with love and remembrance,
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Mark Dillof posted a condolence
Friday, August 20, 2021
Upon meeting Professor Pizante, in my junior year at Harpur College, I was shocked to find the real deal, an actual philosopher, someone who not only was profoundly learned, but whose everyday life was illuminated by insight and whose guiding star was the eternal verities. I wasn’t being facetious when I told him that I was surprised to find a true philosopher at a college philosophy department, of all places.
In his very popular classes, he revealed that Philosophy is neither just a scholarly specialization nor an esoteric realm. On the contrary, our everyday lives — everything from the foods we eat to the clothes that we wear to our physical maladies — are replete with unconscious philosophies, ideas, theories and worldviews. That means that Philosophy, in the truest sense, isn’t a body of knowledge that a person has to digest to attain cultural literacy, but rather an exciting journey of self-discovery. And the best clues are to this mystery story are be found in life’s negativities — in our upsets, disappointments, conflicts, anxieties, and aggravations. Wow!
The mystery is, of course, about who we really are and what life is really all about. There is no pursuit more exhilarating than this. And the reward for undertaking the philosophical quest isn’t just greater comprehension and the attainment of an overarching overview, but rather “awakening,” enlightenment, self-realization. Professor Pizante had, in effect, uncovered a Western route to Eastern Wisdom, and spent the years guiding his students there.
I was a student — and I guess that one could say “disciple” — of Professor Pizante for about twenty-seven years. He was very generous with his time, and displayed a great amount of patience and forbearance with me and his other students. He was also, at times, a jolly good fellow. Those were some of the best times in my life, not always fun, for a real adventure is far more likely to be arduous — and sometimes calamitous — than fun.
Professor Pizante would, on occasion, illustrate a point by reciting anything from lyrics of a popular song to a TV commercial to some poetry from Shakespeare. I remember, on one occasion, he recited a verse from T.S. Eliot’s poem “Little Gidding.”
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
In the idiom of baseball, Professor Pizante had, in the course of his life, left home, circled the bases and, mirabile dictu, made it back home again. Consequently, he was able to “…know the place for the first time,” to see the world afresh with Zen mind, with the wide-open, astonishment-infused eyes of a child coupled with the wisdom and understanding of an adult. My fond memories of Professor Pizante inspire me to never cease exploring.
— Mark Dillof
August 20th, 2021, Louisville, KY
Sunday
22
August
Visitation at Funeral Home
4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Sunday, August 22, 2021
Estey, Munroe & Fahey Funeral Home
15 Park Street
Owego, New York, United States
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Monday
23
August
Funeral Service
11:00 am
Monday, August 23, 2021
Estey, Munroe & Fahey Funeral Home
15 Park Street
Owego, New York, United States
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Final Resting Place
West Genoa Cemetery
C/o Wayne Bowman
King Ferry, New York, United States
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In Loving Memory
William Pizante
1932 - 2021
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