The Jew in the Lotus:

·期刊原文
The Jew in the Lotus:
A Poet's Rediscovery of Jewish Identity in Buddhist India, by Rodger Kamenetz
Reviewed by Rachel Silber
Whole Earth Review
No.88 (Winter 1995)
p.89
COPYRIGHT POINT 1995

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(A Poet's Rediscovery of Jewish Identity in Buddhist India) Rodger
Kamenetz. HarperSanFrancisco, 1994.

The Dalai Lama met with a group of Jewish leaders in Dharamsala
to learn the secrets of Jewish cultural survival through generations
of diaspora. Poet Rodger Kamenetz came along to observe the historic
moment The Jew In The Lotus is his record of o spiritual journey,
with its paradoxes, arguments, humor, and learning. Kabbalah
encounters Buddhist tantra, perhaps not for the first time, but
never before so accessibly. in the struggle for spiritual and
cultural survival in the modern world, the participants engage in
true dialogue -- the kind that "changes the speakers from you and me
to we and us all."
* Obviously, the Dalai Lama's efforts at both preservation and
adaptation are very important. But in Jewish life, much of the
day-to-day task of preservation has fallen on women. The active site
has not been the temple, but the home. It was Blu Greenberg's turn
to speak. She is not only a Jewish mother and grandmother but also
the author of How to Run a Traditional Jewish Household, an
excellent guide to the subject.
Blu began by praising all the efforts and achievements of the
Tibetans over the last thirty years, "the planning ahead and looking
forward," but added in a homely way that brought the discussion down
to earth, "nevertheless, exile is exile." She wanted to talk about
what she feels has been the most significant institution for helping
the Jews through a very long exile, the family. And she wanted "to
know from Your Holiness what role you see the Tibetan Buddhist
family playing in the years ahead."
* Now the Dalai Lama offered the Jews advice. Open the doors and
open them wide. In learning about Jewish mystical teachings, he
confessed that he had "developed more respect toward Judaism because
I found much sophistication there." He thought that what he had
learned about the four levels of interpretation and Jewish
meditation is very important and should be made available for
everyone, especially to the sharp-minded. He gave a parallel from
Buddhist history. Like kabbalah, traditionally Buddhist tantra as
taught in India had been very secretive, very confidential, and
given only very selectively to very few students. "Public teaching
never happened." But if there is too much secrecy, sometimes there
is a danger that the tradition will discontinue and that many
qualified persons will miss the teaching and the practice.