Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Scholars Compass Menorah Review VCU University Archives 1995 Menorah Review (No. 35, Fall, 1995) Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/menorah Part of the History of Religion Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons © The Author(s) Recommended Citation https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/menorah/34 This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the VCU University Archives at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Menorah Review by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NUMBER 35 • CENTER FOR JUDAIC STUDIES OF VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY' FALL 1995 For the Enrichment of Jewish Thought ders, spirits, children, neighbors and more. address mainstreamJudaism and include lay Lay Buddhists try to fulfill their familyre­ Buddhism. I should like to see a Jewish sponsibilities in as peaceful, responsible and dialogue with Buddhistsproceeding not only moral a manner as is possible ina life lived from the mystics in our midst but also from outside the monastery. religious thinkers in the center of our com­ The fo llowing article is excerpted fr om the What kind of Judaism are we compar­ munal life, who will respond to what they lecture presented by Dr. Richard G. Marks ing? Frequently these days it is Kabbalah learnof Buddhism fromtheir understanding for the Selma andJacobBrownLecture held that is compared with monks' Buddhism. of central doctrines and symbols from the last March. The annual lecture is sponsored Rodger Karnenetz in his book, The Jew in rabbinic traditionand its modem offshoots. by the Center fo r Judaic Studies and the the Lotus (1994), recounts his discovery of a I find precedence for this enterprise in the Friendsof the Libraryof Virginia Common­ significant commonality in the spirituality way Christian theologians have been ap­ wealth University. Dr. Marks is associate of contemporary followers of Kabbalah and proaching dialogue with Buddhists for the professor of religion at Washington and Lee that of the Tibetan Buddhistmonks he met in last 15 years, most of them from the non­ University in Lexington, Virginia. India, and he calls for the revival and dis­ mystical core of Christian traditions. semination of the Kabbalistic streams of Leonard Swidler, for example, in A A journey I made in Burma in 1993 Judaism. American Judaism, he argues, Jerusalem-Tokyo Bridge (1990), addresses raised anew questions I have asked myself needs a healthy dose of spirituality; it's the apparently opposing views that Chris­ about Buddhism. The monks I met there, losing some of its more thoughtful children tians and Buddhists hold toward the reality especially those of the highest rank, called to Buddhism. and role of God. On the Christian side, we "sayatow," like many of the older monks I A paragraph in the autobiographical find a person-like God who wills things to have met in Thailand, were some of the .. .let book by Rabbi David Cooper,Entering the happen, shows love, saves people from suf­ me use the word "spiritual" ...people I know: Sacred Mountain (1994), illustratesthis way fering and sin; on the Buddhist side, we find gentle, compassionate, sensitive, self-effac­ of connecting Judaism and Buddhism: "The an assertion of the irrelevance of gods be­ ing, generous and also enchanting, power­ 10-day retreathas just ended. Once again I cause human beings must workout for them­ ful, charismatic. What I find in Theravada feel revitalized on my spiritual path-the selves their own wisdom and peace, and Buddhism, which attractsand troubles meas Vipassana technique [of Buddhist medita­ another assertion that final,ultimate reality a Jew, is a deep spirituality without God, a tion] opens increasingly higher levels of is one of ceaseless flow, becomingand rela­ powerful ethics and compassion without awareness in my Jewish practice. Indeed, tionship. What does Swidler do with these God. What are Jews to make of this? '" the intense meditation I did during this contradictions? Comparison of the Jewish and Buddhist retreat inspired more clarity into a mystical He reinterprets symbols and concepts. traditions is complex and tricky, perhaps world that transcends religious distinctions" The Buddhist concept of reality as ceaseless impossible. They speak different religious (132). Cooper asserts that the Buddhist and flow and change, called "Co-Dependent languages, arise out of very different cul­ Jewish paths meet through mysticism, an Origination," can have a positive meaning tures and their histories have never met in experience of transcending the self or ego. as Ultimate Source: all things and peopleof significant ways. I recounted in an earlier I believe, however, that the question of this world issue out of this creative flow of article how Thai language and culture resists relationship betweenthe two traditions, the energies. On the Christian side, Swidler all efforts to translate into itor even correlate two paths, must go beyond Kabbalistic Ju­ points to Western philosophy, God is not a the Hebrew word kadosh, holy, and con­ daism and monks' Buddhism. Itshould also substance, an independent personality, but a cepts related to it ("Teaching Judaism in dynamic process in relationship with all that Thailand," Approaches to Modern Judaism, exists. Modem Western philosophers and Vol. 2, 1984). There is the further question physicists are increasingly attracted to rela­ of what kind of Buddhism we are compar­ tional theories of reali ty. ing. Theravada, Mahayana, Tibetan? (I am S widleralso seeks variations within each able to discuss only Theravada Buddhism, tradition that point toward the other tradi­ which is centered in Southeast Asia.) Also, tion, and he asks whether elements dividing do we comparethe Buddhism of the monks the two traditions are of an essential or or of the laity? Lay Buddhists, who are the accidental nature. The general strategyis to vast majority of Theravada Buddhists, do readjusl lhe relationship from conflict into a not seek Nirvana or practice the Eightfold conversation betweentwo sides, a con versa­ Path including meditation; their Buddhism tion seen now as emphasizing different as­ is aimed at producing good karma for pros­ peets of an issue, in the same realm of perity in this life and a better rebirth. It possibilities. focuses on a great web or cycle of acts of One can raise serious objections to this generosity-giving to monks, parents, el- approach, from various considerations, but I 2 Menorah Review, Fall 1995 think that we Jews can learn from thinkers as opportunities for acquiring merit. Mo­ (3) One more aspect of Halakhah as Path like Swidler (and a few articles by Rabbi tives, merit and karma are considered in both deserves attention. The highest motive for David Hartman in Conflicting Visions have traditions to be lower levels of motivation observing the mitzvot in rabbinic discus­ echoed them) the courage and humility of than that of purification. sions is the motive of doing so "for its own going out to meet strangers at our door. If (But is Halakhah a path in a Buddhist sake,"li-shmah, without ulterior motive, out these strangers are like the sayatows of sense? After all, hasn't it been understood of a pure response to God; and many praises Burma, we can only be enriched. primarily as a path ordained by God, re­ are found in rabbinic writings for what the But why should we, especially with all sponding to God's words, rather than a hu­ rabbis call "the joy of the precept," which the other problems and issues at hand? I man search for wisdom? But, at this point,I means the joy and gratification that comes hope I have conveyed my own motivation am speaking ofa Buddhistvision ofJudaism; from doing a mitzvah for i ts own sake. These for such a dialogue. It is an intellectual much discussion must follow.) two ideas suggest to me a sense of absorp­ question: Can we envision a Judaism that (2) A Buddhist midrash on classical Judaism tion in the mitzvot themselves. We fo llow can speak about common issues with Bud­ might also emphasize the behaviorof H asidim this path not for its rewardand not as a heavy dhists? It is, more importantly, a religious and Talmidei Hakhamim. The Hasidim (in burden but for the sake of the path itselfand question: How do I, as a Jew, respond to the rabbinic thought) follow a path of piety that of God who ordained it, losing ourselves in powerful logic of Buddhist philosophy and moves beyond the strictrequirements of the the process of walking the path. In this the attraction of Buddhist spirituality? Can law. A famous passage in Avot definesH asid way,m Halakhah becomes a means of help­ I find teachings in my own tradition that as one who says, "What is mine is yours and ing us transcend our selfish motives, of rais­ address the claims of the Buddhist Path? what is yours is yours," in contrast to average ing our consciousness beyond the normal What would I learn about Judaism by taking people who say, "What is yours is yours and grasping self. And that is the goal of all a new look at it through the eyes of Buddhist what is mine is mine" (5: 13). This, and Buddhist disciplines? Walpola Rahula, in philosophy and discipline? various anecdotes aboutHasidim in the Tal­ What the Buddha Taught (72),uses the term I want to conclude by illustrating one mud, reverberate with the Buddhist goals of "mindfulness" (a primary goal of the Eight­ strategy for aJewish meeting with Theravada compassion and non-attachment. As to the fold Path) in association with such absorp­ Buddhism. In contrast to Swidler, what I Talmidei Hakhamim of rabbinic times, we tion of self in the present moment.