Doing the Practice
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JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
This morning I awake to thoughts regarding a close friend and our small community here in Las Cruces. My friend lost his father a few months ago and we all sat shiva with him and his family. He was recently on vacation in New York only to discover through email that his mother died and was buried. Last night we conducted a service at his home for him and his family.
Being a Jewish Buddhist (Jubu) is a strange thing. There is a constant awareness of transformative possibility inherent in it. Each recitation of the core teaching of Judaism, the Sh'ma (Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One), re-enforces the essential teaching of Buddhism as well, yet with the odd twist that the starting point is with the universe, not with the individual. We are all one, everything, every plant, microbe, dog, cat, and corpse and this very oneness is God.
As I attend synagogue, the liturgy is a test of my skill at deeply penetrating core teachings of the Torah and the rabbis as they use language always available at many, many levels. The Buddha taught in this way as well. Who is in front of us determines the teaching as well as the method and level of the teaching.
Our Jewish community is deeply divided here. We have the unenviable position of only having one house of worship and a whole horizon of approaches to that worship. Our rabbi has retired, a search committee is working in classic Jewish style to find a new rabbi. In the meantime everyone is a rabbi. But then, this is very Jewish, as it is Buddhist. We all begin with ourselves and, in essence, end with ourselves.
The quality of our practice will be solely determined by our actual willingness to do this practice.
So, last night, as we gathered together to support our grieving friend, persons of every stripe stood together and chanted the mourner's kaddish. This prayer is a prayer essentially praising the transformative nature of God, as expressed even in his name.
In Buddhist memorial services we recite the Heart Sutra, which also addresses the transformative nature of the universe. As a Buddhist, I am reminded that everything is change; as a Jew I understand change is the very essence of God.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
This morning I awake to thoughts regarding a close friend and our small community here in Las Cruces. My friend lost his father a few months ago and we all sat shiva with him and his family. He was recently on vacation in New York only to discover through email that his mother died and was buried. Last night we conducted a service at his home for him and his family.
Being a Jewish Buddhist (Jubu) is a strange thing. There is a constant awareness of transformative possibility inherent in it. Each recitation of the core teaching of Judaism, the Sh'ma (Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One), re-enforces the essential teaching of Buddhism as well, yet with the odd twist that the starting point is with the universe, not with the individual. We are all one, everything, every plant, microbe, dog, cat, and corpse and this very oneness is God.
As I attend synagogue, the liturgy is a test of my skill at deeply penetrating core teachings of the Torah and the rabbis as they use language always available at many, many levels. The Buddha taught in this way as well. Who is in front of us determines the teaching as well as the method and level of the teaching.
Our Jewish community is deeply divided here. We have the unenviable position of only having one house of worship and a whole horizon of approaches to that worship. Our rabbi has retired, a search committee is working in classic Jewish style to find a new rabbi. In the meantime everyone is a rabbi. But then, this is very Jewish, as it is Buddhist. We all begin with ourselves and, in essence, end with ourselves.
The quality of our practice will be solely determined by our actual willingness to do this practice.
So, last night, as we gathered together to support our grieving friend, persons of every stripe stood together and chanted the mourner's kaddish. This prayer is a prayer essentially praising the transformative nature of God, as expressed even in his name.
In Buddhist memorial services we recite the Heart Sutra, which also addresses the transformative nature of the universe. As a Buddhist, I am reminded that everything is change; as a Jew I understand change is the very essence of God.
Be well.