E-Book Overview
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.
E-Book Content
The Jew in the Lotus A POET’S REDISCOVERY OF JEWISH IDENTITY IN BUDDHIST INDIA Rodger Kamenetz For Mo, kindness on her tongue For Anya and for Kezia, my daughters and my joy Contents Acknowledgments v Introduction 1 1 Sparks 5 2 Flames 17 3 Roadblocks 32 4 Heights 42 5 Blessings 56 6 Contact 65 7 The Angel of Tibet and the Angel of the Jews 72 8 Always Remind 91 9 Debating Monks and Angels 109 10 Shabbat and Shalom and Tashe Delek 117 11 Jewish Buddhists, Buddhist Jews 128 12 JUBUs in America 147 13 Tibetan Intellectuals, Tibetan Orphans 158 14 An Interview with the Oracle 170 15 Secret Doors 184 16 Tantra and Kabbalah 198 17 Survival Strategies 211 18 One Last Question 226 19 A Buddhist Jew—The Allen Ginsberg Story 235 20 A Synagogue in Delhi 242 21 Buddha’s Jews 254 22 A Last Secret 264 23 In a Pool of Nectar 277 Notes and References 291 Glossary 299 About the Author Cover Copyright About the Publisher Acknowledgments My deep thanks to Dr. Marc Lieberman, for bringing the dialogue together, and for asking me along. His intelligence, energy, innate kindness, and deep fund of knowledge are valuable in themselves, but I especially treasure them in my longtime friend. Thanks too to all the participants who were generous with their time and themselves, both in Dharamsala and since. Dr. Nathan Katz, Rabbi Joy Levitt, Dr. Marc Lieberman, Dr. Blu Greenberg, Dr. Moshe Waldoks, Rabbi Jonathan Omer-Man, and Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi gave generous postdialogue interviews and shared with me photographs, documents, tape recordings, and videotapes. Special thanks to my fellow reporter, Shoshana Edelberg. I am also grateful for interviews and conversations with Rabbi Irving Greenberg, Michael Sautman, Marc Lieberman, Joseph Goldstein, Rabbi David Wolfe-Blank, Rabbi Leah Novick, Joseph Mark Cohen, Greg Burton, Robert Esformes, Andy Gold, Nancy Garfield, Rabbi Paul Caplan, and Dr. Arthur Waskow. Elie Wiesel was kind enough to share a few anecdotes with me that were of great help. Several Western Buddhists were very generous with their time, Ven. Thubten Pemo, Dr. Alex Birzen, Ruth Sonam. I want to particularly thank Ven. Thubten Chodron for a lengthy interview at my home. vi / The Jew in the Lotus Also gracious in providing time for an interview was David Rome. I want to thank Allen Ginsberg for taking time from his busy schedule for our interview sessions. I also want to thank Ram Dass for a very generous and stimulating interview. While working on this book I’ve had the opportunity to consult informally with a