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 | | The Jew in the Lotus: A Poet's Rediscovery of Jewish Identity in Buddhist India (Plus) by Rodger Kamenetz ISBN-10: 9780061367397 ISBN-10: 0-06-136739-7 ISBN-13: 9780061367397 ISBN-13: 978-0-06-136739-7 Paperback 2007-09-01 HarperOne Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description While accompanying eight high–spirited Jewish delegates to Dharamsala, India, for a historic Buddhist–Jewish dialogue with the Dalai Lama, poet Rodger Kamenetz comes to understand the convergence of Buddhist and Jewish thought. Along the way he encounters Ram Dass and Richard Gere, and dialogues with leading rabbis and Jewish thinkers, including Zalman Schacter, Yitz and Blue Greenberg, and a host of religious and disaffected Jews and Jewish Buddhists. This amazing journey through Tibetan Buddhism and Judaism leads Kamenetz to a renewed appreciation of his living Jewish roots. | ||
Reviews | ||
The Dalai Lama and Jewish Renewal Rodger Kamenetz's best-selling book is ostensibly about the 1990 visit of a delegation of Jewish rabbis and other notables to Dharamsala, India, the Dalai Lama's home in exile. The goal was to share the secrets of Jewish survival over the two millenium of diaspora. In some ways though, the book is about Rodger's journey from religious non-participation to his adopting Jewish Renewal's version of Judaism. I'll leave the Jewish/Tibetan discussions to the other reviewers and take a look at the internal Jewish aspects and Rodger's personal journey. The delegation was heavily weighted toward the modern, watered-down versions of Judaism including representatives from the very recent (and small) Jewish Renewal movement, Reconstructionist, Reform, the secular academic world, and two Jewish-Buddhists; one liberal Orthodox couple represented the traditionally observant Orthodox world. No representatives from the (Orthodox) Yeshiva world attended, nor did anyone from the Chassidic (also Orthodox) world. Oddly, in approaching a culture known for its esoteric mystical teachings, you'd think that they would try to bring along at least one Jew who was a traditionally educated and practicing mystic -- this group's Jewish mystics were lacking in that regard. When Rodger wrote this book, he was an assimilated Jew, with little Jewish education and no Jewish practice. His identification as a Jew was cultural and mostly negative in character. In the course of the journey, Rodger wakens a bit to Judaism's spiritual treasures. The descriptions of the treasures that he opens to are Jewish Renewal's. Jewish Renewal is a well-intentioned attempt to create a version of Judaism that will appeal to the large number of non-practicing Jews in the West. It chooses what it likes and doesn't like from traditional Judaism, attending to current spiritual fads, and offering a universalist "feel good" version of Judaism that is attractive to mostly Jewishly-uneducated and assimilated western Jews who might otherwise stray to other spiritual paths. It's a spirited entry to Judaism for those who would be left cold in a traditional Jewish milieu. The problem is that what they assemble doesn't look much like Judaism to the rest of us Jews. They call themselves neo-Chassidism, while what they take from Chassidism is the superficial stuff, discarding the meat and potatoes. The same goes for their versions of Sabbath, prayer, tikkun olam (social justice), and Torah (including kabbalah). They add in chunks of practices from other religions (e.g., Vipassana mindfulness meditation and metta practice, the Buddhist emphases on suffering and the one-ness of all things), elements of popular political movements (feminism, eco-awareness) and new age practices (body work, drum circles, alternative medicine). They throw out God-as-King, the idea of mitzvot (the Torah's commandments) being obligatory, revelation, the dark sides of life, the role of God's will, the holiness of Torah, and perhaps most seriously, Jewish responsibilities to God. Universalism and "feel-goodism" reigns. Time will tell if Jewish Renewal survives its elderly founder's eventual death. At the moment, Rabbi Zalman Schachter Shalomi is the only one in that movement with the depth of Jewish learning equal to the Orthodox folks, and he uses that learning to provide a sandy foundation for his theology. The rabbis he's ordained are neophytes when it comes to serious Jewish learning; they lack his comfort level and familiarity with Jewish textual sources. In the mean time (it's now 2007, and this book was first published back in 1994) Rodger has moved on to work on to work with dreams, and his latest book is on that topic. | ||
Nice This was a very nice and interesting account of a visit paid by a group of Jewish rabbis to the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama had expressed interest in the mystical tradition of Judaism (Kabbala). Thus, a group of them went to Dharamsala in 1990 in order to teach and learn. Some of them were very liberal, progressive, open and inclusivist thinkers, such as Rebbe Zalman, who does not shy away from incorporating elements from other religions in his practice of Judaism. Others in the group were more conservative and traditionalist. The Dalai Lama inquired at length about the secret of the Jewish spirit's resilience and endurance during the exile. He asked how to keep religion relevant with the new generations; how to renew without ever losing continuity. Similarities were noted between sunnyata and the kabblaist Ain Sof; the teaching of rebirth; emanation; the common visualization practices used in "thought transformation"; and belief in spiritual entities (angels, devas). Check this out! Tibetan monks spend 5-10 hours a day, studying and debating basic texts for 20 years or more.. The issue of "Jubus" came out, namely of Jews who abandon the practice of their religion and become interested in the practical, spiritual and empirical methods of development offered by Buddhism. Even liberal Jews such as Zalman felt an ache for the "loss" of such intelligent and spiritually oriented people. Two interesting things: a)A warning not to compare an idealized version of a particular religion with a worn out version of one own's religion b)The Dalai Lama pointing out to the windows and saying that "out there," on the mountains, there are individuals who concentrate soleley on individual practice(p. 223) | ||
Almost Kabalic A Jewish spiritual journey of interfaith connection that is unpoetic as it claims and connects in no other way then that it is a communication between people. It is apparent that two religions will always remain to have many perspectives. Read it for its spirituality context and for its religious zen like experiance. | ||
a chance to learn along with Kamenetz It's clear that Kamenetz himself learned a lot during the events he writes of, and the book makes it possible to ride on his shoulders through that both the meeting between the Dalai Lama and a delegation from across the spectrum of Judaism and his digestion of those events afterwards. The book is centered more on Judaism than about Buddhism, and covers issues such as the principles of Kabbalah in an authentic, nontrendy form and how it fits into mainstream Judaism; the commonalities and differences between Jewish and Buddhist views of the world; the failures of current Jewish religious education, and the effects of the Holocaust on modern Judaism (not just the people killed, but ho it has changed the focus of the religion). It addresses some of the same concerns about assimilation as Anne Roiphe's Generation Without Memory, but by contrasting Judaism to Buddhism and examining some of the people who are in a spectrum between the two ("JuBus") comes closer to finding some answers. | ||
A creative encounter In 1990 the Dalai Lama invited a cross-section of American rabbis to Dharamsala to discover what Buddhism and Judaism have in common and what they can learn from one another. The author, a more or less secular Jew until that experience, was a member of the group. His book is a little long, but I found it absorbing, although I neither want to nor could myself share this longing for spirituality, let alone for mysticism. But it was moving to read of the Dalai Lama's openness, and of one or two rabbis in the group. It must have been a great experience for them all. | ||