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

            (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.