Buddhism attracts Jews

MARK SCHNEIDER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

It was one of those wonderful moments of exquisite chutzpah: a rabbi telling the Dalai Lama what Buddhism is all about.

It happened at the roundtable discussion April 20 at the Chan Centre with the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi and Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. In response to a question to the Dalai Lama about spirituality and political action, the 14th incarnation of the first Dalai Lama, wearing a University of British Columbia baseball cap and sitting shoeless and cross-legged in a chair, remarked that even though he meditates and prays for upwards of five hours a day, "that won't save the world."

And that's when it happened. The rabbi lectured Buddhism's holiest saint – on Buddhism.

"I don't understand what you say," Schachter-Shalomi said. "I have spent a long time learning Buddhist meditation techniques like tonglen and metta," he said, "and we do this to help heal the world."

Tonglen (a Tibetan spiritual practice) and metta (with roots in Indian meditation) are both about social healing – in the same ballpark as the Jewish concept of tikkun olam (repair of the world).

The Dalai Lama smiled and bowed to the 80-year-old brain-trust behind the Jewish Renewal movement, almost as if to say, "Oy. I forgot that part."

Schachter-Shalomi isn't likely to forget about his Buddhist meditative practices. He has been one of the star sages at the only fully accredited Buddhist college in North America, Naropa University.

In his opening address to the roundtable, he peppered his talk with references to Buddhist ideas and practices. And when the Dalai Lama admitted to the audience of 1,100 that he does not believe in God, the rabbi immediately quipped: "I don't believe in the same God that you don't believe in too."

Is it possible that Schachter-Shalomi, born to a Chassidic family in prewar Poland, educated in both yeshivot and the Gymnasium Vienna, ordained at the Lubavitch Yeshivah in Brooklyn in 1947 and a personal disciple of the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitschak Schneerson – is it possible he has become one of the growing numbers of the so-called "Jew-Bus"? Is it possible to be both?

Do an Internet search for "Jew" and "Buddhist" and you will come up with a stew of organizations, books and resources for Jews who have a curiosity Buddhism – what has been called the "most psychological of all religions," and the "most religious of all psychologies."

There is Zen Judaism, the film The Jew in the Lotus and countless books written by Jews about Buddhism. There is also a "Zen-inspired" translation of the Psalms by Zen master Norman Fischer.

So it is not surprising that many Vancouver Jews have been attracted to Buddhism, given that some of the most important interpreters of Buddhism in the west are Jews. A brief list of these would include Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, Sylvia Boorstein, Sharon Salzberg, Stephen Levine and Lama Surya Das (born Jeffry Miller).

Consider the Vancouver Shambhala Centre, part of the international Shambhala organization. When its leader, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, comes to Vancouver for a public talk at the Chan Centre on May 7, the audience will include a large numbers of "Jew-Bus." People with last names like Greenberg, Schwartz, Feldman and Schneider.

When asked whether one could be a Jew and Buddhist at the same time, Rabbi David Mivasair, spiritual leader of Ahavat Olam Synagogue here in Vancouver, responded by creating a better question.

"Can a person be true to Judaism and Buddhism at the same time?" he asked? "I don't know, but I certainly think so. The deep underlying values of compassion, love and reverence for creation, awareness of the oneness of all being – after all, that is the Shema – this is at the core of Judaism."

And of Buddhism, of course. But the idea for him is not to blend religions into a "grey mess," as he put it, but to celebrate "the rainbow of faith." The hyphen between "Jewish" and "Buddhist" is an important reminder that keeping the colors distinct makes for a more glorious palette.

For those interested in finding out how meditation can break patterns of fear, indecision and negativity, Rinpoche speaks at the Chan Centre on Turning the Mind into an Ally. Tickets are $18 (parking included) and are available at Ticketmaster, www.ticketmaster.ca, Banyen Books and at the Chan box office.

Mark Schneider, until recently, was the CTV National News religion and ethic reporter. He is currently director of Numenon Communications.

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