Buddhism is not at all an Abrahamic faith. But when I read this article I was totally taken aback. I would like to hear the opinions from my Jewish friends regarding this. Thanks in advance! CZ.
http://www.shambhalamountain.org/newsitem.php?id=59Articles About Shambhala Mountain Center
When Jews are also Buddhists
Daily Camera - June 4, 2005
By Ilene Rosenblum
Jews are six to eight times more likely to become Buddhists
It seems an unlikely mix: a lotus and a l'chayim, a prayer wheel and a prayer shawl. But many people with Jewish backgrounds find the distinct traditions and practices of Judaism and Buddhism are complementary.
Many of these JuBus, or BuJus, as people who are born Jewish and practice Buddhism are sometimes called, say that while their Jewish heritage is rich, it lacks deep spiritual meaning— and they find that other part of themselves in teachings and practices from the East.
Karen Kissel Wegela, a faculty member at Buddhist-inspired Naropa University, describes herself as "a Jew who is on a Buddhist path."
During her upbringing as a Reform Jew, Wegela said she felt an "ethnic connection," but not a "personal connection" with her religion.
Now, after practicing Buddhism for more than 30 years, Wegela said she can connect to both Buddhist and Jewish teachings.
"I'm Buddhist in my bones," she said, "but I seem to be Jewish in my DNA."
While some BuJus have been able to reconcile the two distinct traditions, others commit to Buddhism only. Wegela was introduced to Buddhism in her mid 20s. But she did not become serious about meditating until years later, when her best friend from high school passed away at age 32. Even the coping techniques she knew as a therapist could not relieve her anxiety, she said.
"None of the things I knew were helping me deal with the stress and pain I felt about that," she said.
Meditation allowed her to accept that experiencing anxiety was part of acknowledging the death, she said.
Later, Wegela reconnected to Judaism through Jewish Renewal, a spiritually-focused, ecological, egalitarian movement led by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, who lives in Boulder.
"He talked about Judaism in a way that, for the first time in my life, actually made some sense," she said.
Without it, Wegela said she would not have reconnected with Judaism.
Spiritual connections
When Wegela's father passed away about 10 years ago, she said a Buddhist prayer and the shema, a Jewish prayer of affirmation of faith in one God.
"I spent a lot of time struggling with, 'Can I be Jewish and Buddhist?" she said.
While Judaism and Buddhism endorse extremely dif ferent world views, Wegela said that having both in her life is "deeply enriching," because they each address different parts of her experiences.
Wegela's story is not uncommon. Jews are six to eight times more likely than people born into other faiths or backgrounds to become Buddhists or adopt its practices, said Stephen Prothero, chair of the religion department at Boston University.
"If you went to the regular suburban congregation, the likelihood is that you wouldn't find much spirituality there," Schachter-Shalomi said.
Ellen Mains, of Boulder, said that in the post-war period she grew up in, that spiritual connection was easier to find in Buddhism. Or rather, Buddhism found her.
While attending college she saw a notice in the newspaper for a seminar by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who was fundamental in bringing Tibetan Buddhism to the West by founding the worldwide network of Shambhala Meditation Centers and Boulder's Naropa University.
She said she was so captivated that she stayed for the weekend-long seminar.
"I remember feeling like, 'Oh yes,' that really resonates with my experience," she said. "I never had that happen before."
But bringing Buddhism home to the mispucha wasn't so simpatico.
Her parents had a very difficult time accepting her religious exploration, she said.
"They thought maybe I was involved in a cult," she said.
Eventually her parents became more accepting, but they would have been happier had she never strayed, she said.
The Holocaust's effect
It's possible that Jewish yearning for spirituality is a result of the devastation of the Holocaust, Schachter-Shalomi said. Mystics rose after other detrimental events in Jewish history, such as the expulsion from Spain and the pogroms in Russia, he said.
Mains' experience in the post-war period seems to resonate with Schachter-Shalomi's theory.
"There was a sense of loss of spiritual meaning," she said. "I think the Holocaust had a far-reaching effect."
But that's where movements like Jewish Renewal come in, Schachter-Shalomi said.
"Much like after you have a tree trimmed, a new branch begins to grow," he said.
Such spiritual yearning has also led many Jews to Hinduism and Sufism, Schachter-Shalomi said. But the trend now, especially in Boulder, is toward Buddhism, he said.
Brian Spielman, director of marketing at the Shambhala Mountain Center at Red Feather Lakes outside of Fort Collins, grew up in a Conservative Jewish family and formally entered the Jewish community by becoming a Bar Mitzvah, or a Jewish adult. But he too said that his "spiritual urge" could not be satiated by what he found in Judaism.
"It gave you an outer but the inner was confusing for me," he said.
Spielman said he can find a lot in common between the two belief systems despite their extremely different origins.
Among them are a history of suffering, an emphasis on selfless giving and dedication to analyzing religious texts, he said.
"In some ways it's a very natural match," he said.
Another reason some people cite for their ability to meld the two religions is that Buddhism does not confirm nor deny the existence of God. Still, others find that very same thing what is so problematic about mixing the two.
Meditation and Judaism
But not all orthodox rabbis agree that Judaism and Buddhism can both be practiced. If one goes beyond the "watered-down" Buddhism— only practicing secular things such as meditation— and subscribes to Buddhist theology, it's not likely that they could also be an observant Jew, said Rabbi Yehuda Cahan, a rabbi of Zera Abraham, an orthodox synagogue in Denver.
Cahan said that there is no need to look outside of Judaism for spirituality.
Delving into other theologies, he said, is like cheating on one's partner.
"If somebody finds an easy way out and he finds some other ways of meditating ... without having to come onto God and to take some back road and not come on to Him, it's like going to other women, because he doesn't want to work out his challenges and doing it the right way."
The inherent conflict in subscribing to Judaism and Buddhism is that Jews believe firmly in one god, who created the universe, while Buddhists do not focus on a creator god. While many say that this makes them perfectly compatible, for people like Cahan, it seems a contradiction.
Still, several of Boulder's most religious Jews practice Buddhist meditation. Rabbi Gavriel Goldfeder of Kehilath Aish Kodesh, said that about one-fifth of the roughly 30 active members in his Orthodox congregation practice Buddhism.
Goldfeder said that combining Buddhist practice with Judaism doesn't concern him, as long as it doesn't pull members away from Judaism.
"We have a community of mature, spiritual adults who trust themselves to choose the way to open up to God and the way that resonates with them most deeply," he said.
Like other rabbis have commented, Schachter-Shalomi said that the spirituality Jews are looking for outside of the religion can be found in Kabballah and Jewish meditation, but they just don't know where to look.
"I wouldn't say it's not there, but it's not obvious," Schachter-Shalomi said.
Rabbi David Cooper, ordained by Schachter-Shalomi, leads Jewish meditation retreats around the world with his wife, Shoshana. Cooper said that meditation has been a part of Judaism for hundreds of years.
But meditating, one of the most common ways Jews and other Euro-Americans practice Buddhism, doesn't necessarily make one Buddhist, Cooper said. Jewish meditation has been practiced for hundreds of years, he said.
"There's nothing Buddhist about sitting quietly," he said.
Still, Jews and Buddhists can benefit from learning from each other's practices, said Cooper, who said he is sometimes called "the Buddhist Rabbi."
While Cooper said he doesn't consider himself a Buddhist, he said that he doesn't mind the moniker. It means that religious followers can "cross-fertilize," he said.
"We're learning to live together, and we're learning to learn from one another," he said. "You don't have to go somewhere else to find these wonderful teachings."
They just never became a "main thrust of Judaism," which is more concerned with the study of texts, laws and the celebration of holidays, Cooper said.
Cooper said he brings some aspects of Buddhist meditation into his workshops and retreats, but puts them in a "Jewish modality." They involve chant in Hebrew and teach Kabballah rather than the sutras, he said.
"When they come to sit with us they realize it wasn't the Buddhism that attracted them, it was the freedom and spaciousness of sitting in a protected silence," he said.
Topic: I Can't Believe This - Jews Showing Interest In Buddhism? (Read 6943 times)