The Jew in the Lotus: A Poet's Rediscovery of Jewish Identity in Buddhist India

Rating:
Summary: Personal Account opens doors
Review: This is a journal of a journey the author took as scribe to a delegation of Jewish leaders to the Dalai Lama of Tibet. These leaders covered a broad spectrum of Jewish beliefs and denominations. This is evident in their questions as much as in their various affiliations. The visit merely touched upon the many similarities between certain Tibetan Buddhist (Vajrayana) and Jewish beliefs. It was oriented more towards beliefs than practices except in the area of particular interest to the Dalai Lama: how Judaism and the Jewish community survived centuries of exile. This is an obvious question considering the recent exile of the Dalai Lama from Tibet due to the Chinese takeover of his country. As a scribe and not a knowledgable participant, Kamenetz cannot and generally does not analyze similarities and differences--he's not well qualified to do so as he readily admits. While in summary, it may appear that Judaism and Vajrayana are vastly different (and in some ways they are), if one separates the Jewish representatives' views and compares each one to the Dalai Lama's, a different picture emerges. The more traditional or orthodox or literalist views are essentially antithetical to the Vajrayana, but the mystical ones have much in common with it. Since the discussion was shared amongst the Jewish representatives, the more mystical representative (and one wonders how mystical he actually is) only had a limited time for discussion/presentation. Thus, the similarities were only touched upon. I would suggest that this is a fine introduction to these similarities, but since it only scratches the surface, further study is required. The high philosophical, esoteric, and metaphysical views of the two are frequently quite close. For example, as opposed to what some of the Jewish leaders may say about reincarnation, the Jewish mystical tradition (i.e. Kabbalah) affirms reincarnation (it's call Gilgul). So, in fact, a literal read of this book can be quite misleading. Don't be fooled. The diversity of views within Judaism is far larger, I believe, than that within Vajrayana--and Vajrayana had the Rime movement which drew the views closer together in recent decades. It is unlikely that such will occur in Judaism due to the differences in literalist and representational views of Jewish revelation. It is strongly advised that the reader pursue studies in both Kabbalah and Vajrayana (preferably Dzogchen and/or Mahamudra) to realize the depth and breadth of the similarities.

Rating:
Summary: Can I Get A Deal On A Box?
Review: This is the book I want to give to all of my Jewish friends who don't realize the dazzling gem that's buried in their own backyards. Kamenetz's writing is beautiful, and he observes and comments from the perspective of another reform Jew who grew up craving the deep experience of his religion but sadly, none was available. His questions, thoughts and confessions resonated with me as a like-minded Jew who is being led back Home via Eastern religion and lightweight, dumbed-down "new thought."

I'm waiting for the follow-up.