While Buddhism has been popular in the West for quite some time, it must be noted that it was Jews who were the trendsetters of its importation. Specifically, Allen Ginsberg and his beat cohort became enamored of Zen Buddhism after WWII and all their individualist non-conformist friends fell into lockstep with the new movement. Following those free-thinkers was the inevitable pack of rebel celebrities, like Goldie Hawn and Robert Downey Jr, contributing to this sixty year old tradition.
What makes the Jewish Young Adult appropriation of Buddhism today different is that JYAs, while adopting a new religion, don’t leave their original faith. They sit zazen at the local Zen Center and go to silence meditations in the Negev, but come back reading The Jew in the Lotus or doing Passover with the Buddhist Haggadah. They even refer to themselves by the catchy nomenclature “Jubu”, or “Buju” if you are on the West Coast.
“Yeah, it’s like, Buddhism isn’t really a religion,” said JYA “Sara” explaining the intersection of the two faiths, “It’s more like a philosophy or like a practice, you know?”
When informed that millions of people worldwide including the Dalai Lama, the Panchen Lama, and every thinking person consider Buddhism a religion, “Sara” responded, “Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion.”
The philosophical gloss covers a multitude of differences, significantly, monotheism versus polytheism; the belief in God as the primary director of morality versus either a self directed process for Therevada Buddhism (popular in India and Bhutan) or a morality directed by a multitude of Buddhist style saints in Mahayana Buddhism (popular in Tibet and China). Needless to say the relegation of these essential beliefs to the realm of philosophy does nothing to assuage Jewish mothers. Still, “Phyllis”, a Jewish Adult and also Sara’s mother, purchased a full set of Yoga clothing from LuluLemon in order to attend an introduction meditation class with her JYA daughter, where she noted encouragingly “So many nice Jewish boys for my daughter! But I think they might all be the gays”.
A common source of confusion for JYA JuBus is the doctrine of karma. Perhaps because of an essential lack of patience, JYAs misunderstand that karma, both good and bad, is accrued over the course of every lifetime, and its results are unlikely to be seen for millennia. The confusion seems to stem from a belief that karma is roughly equivalent to schadenfreude or logic. “My ex cheated on me all the time,” JYA “Adi” recalled, “And after we broke up I heard from Aaron whose cousin is best friends with the girl he’s dating now that he got Mono. That’s total karma coming back to bite him.”
Jews typically first encounter Buddhism in high school or early college. Unlike in their religion, which pretty much demands you get it right the first time around, the do-over aspect of Buddhism is appealing to a group struggling to negotiate identities and trying out different ways of being, or not being religious. Most JYAs outgrow this phase and look back with a little embarrassment even as the remains of “Free Tibet” bumper stickers are still glued to their cars.
the day everybody understands that I means not body but I means soul then everything is fine
Zen buddhism is not the pure buddhism. As I heard the original pure buddhist teaching are found in Theravada buddhism practiced in Sri Lanka for more than two thousand years. Well, as for the jewish buddhists, I should say it’s a fancy idea which does not encompass any real essence of Buddhism. Just a nice looking label for Jews who don’t tolerate other religions.
“Zen buddhism is not the pure buddhism. ”
?
is there any part of the universe that’s not pure universe?
?
“As I heard the original pure buddhist teaching are found in Theravada buddhism practiced in Sri Lanka for more than two thousand years.”
{Where’d you hear the original pure buddhist teaching, if not in your own life?}
“Theravada” MEANS, literally, path of the elders, being based on writings of the Buddha’s first disciples. Of this collection of followers there were 25 schools; there was another camp, back then, that later split off, giving rise to a collection called “Mahayana.” The names reflect rivalry (“maha” = bigger), but dont’ sweat the schisms or isms.
None of these people called themself “Buddhist.” (Was Jesus a Christian?)
Making friends with one’s own mind, being generous, recognizing the interconnectness of life, paying attention — these don’t require labels
“Well, as for the jewish buddhists, I should say it’s a fancy idea which does not encompass any real essence of Buddhism.”
The teachings of the Buddha are available to anyone, do not require giving anything up, are independent of geography, language, culture, etc.
” Just a nice looking label for Jews who don’t tolerate other religions. ”
?
jews pretty much want to be any other religion in practice than their own. come on, buddhism is cool to them because it’s got less guilt.
“Therevada Buddhism (popular in India and Bhutan)”:
The strongholds of Theravada Buddhism are in fact Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. While both Theravada and Mahayana have their roots in India, the Muslim conquest of India put paid to Buddhism of all kinds as a major religious force in the sub-continent. As for Bhutan, the form of Buddhism dominant there is Tibetan Buddhism. The Drukpa lineage of the Kargyudpa sect dominates in Bhutan, if I’m not much mistaken, and I doubt that there is any Theravadin monastic presence there at all.
Is Theravada a religion? It is radically non-theistic — though there is perhaps a tiny bit of wiggle-space for agnostic or perhaps radically apophatic conceptions of God provided that one denies that God, so conceived, lives or exists (that is to say, in the sense that things and persons live or exist). Is the practice radically at odds with Jewish practice? The five precepts urged on all by the Buddha are: not to take life, not to take what is not given, not to engage in sexual misconduct (a commitment to what some might call chaste sexual practices), not to engage in wrong speech (lashon hara, lying and the like), and not to indulge in drug-taking or the imbibing of intoxicating substances. Meditation practices: being mindful of breathing, being mindful generally, and developing the quality of loving-kindness (I believe it to be called “rachmanut” in Hebrew) are prominent. In Theravada, the Buddha is not thought of as a deity of some kind: after becoming a Buddha by achieving complete enlightenment, he taught, and died at a venerable old age. He is held to have passed away without remainder, and veneration of the Buddha focuses upon his achievement as an example to others, and upon his teaching.
My personal take is that Theravada, at least, in its pure form, is not a religion. One Buddhist monastic of English (and not Jewish) birth whom I admire, now deceased, said of himself: “I’m not a religious man”. One great advantage it has, when you read the Pali discourses, is that the basics are for the most part self-evidently true.
So can one be both a Theravadin Buddhist and a practicing Jew? Study both with open heart and mind, respecting the integrity of each, and decide for yourself.