Wanna be Woman

                                                                  Wanna Be Woman

“Woman is the creator of the universe, the universe is her form; woman is the foundation of the world, she is the true form of the body.

In woman is the form of all things, of all that lives and moves in the world. There is no jewel rarer than woman, no condition superior to that of a woman.”                         

                                                From Shaktisangama Tantra:

                                                        

I’ll admit it, I’ve wanted to be a woman for some time now. Remember that feminine and masculine energy has little to do with gender, but still it’s fun to imagine being another gender.

We are only able to experience what we have contrast to in the relative field of polarity, so we must have a reference of sadness to experience joy, hate to experience love, and masculinity to experience feminine energy.

                                                  

In her most radiant form, a woman that is anchored in feminine energy is wanting to be seen and felt in her beauty and mystery. She is luminous and glowing, as in a pregnant woman who radiates the embodiment of life conceiving, sustaining, nurturing, and birthing.

The closest I’ve come to being pregnant and having a child is lying with my dog Joey on my chest and my belly. We called this bliss time, because we would both go into a deep altered state, merging into one another until we were one being, breathing, hearts beating, and dreaming in a loving unity.

Our unity was palpable, hearing his moans and cooing when he slept and shifted on my chest, his nose close to my face, breathing in his breath, sometimes he would awaken for a moment and give me a little kiss before his eyes rolled back and he drifted back off. The sense of complete safety, warmth, trust, security and love is what I can imagine a nursing mother to feel. 

                     

There is so much more happening in a radiant pregnant woman than simply hormonal messengers that increase oxygen to her skin. She is glowing with love, glowing with fulfillment, and glowing with purpose, she is full in the full sense of that word. And fullness is something essential to being a woman. A woman, grounded in feminine energy, seeks satiation whether it is through chocolate, shopping, emotional expression, mood, social connection or the intimacy that is the culmination of loving and being loved.

                                                                                                    

The feminine nature of Nature is most appropriate because it leaves nothing out in the fullness of expression and possibilities. There are infinite examples in nature of how female power, beauty, and horror display the full array of life and death. Whether it is the way a mother bison on the run defends her calf from wolves, the multigenerational sorority of sister elephants who all participate in nurturing, grieving, learning from the grandmothers, or a tiny jumping spider who mates and then eats her mate to provide nourishment for her developing eggs, the female in nature doesn’t hold back from her fullness.

Just as Nature doesn’t hold back in Her storms, Her cycles and seasons, or Her radiant beauty, so too a woman steeped in her feminine will not hold back in her fullness, especially when she feels safe, loved and supported.

She wants to be seen and taken, ravished, swept off her feet and transported by the masculine into higher and higher realms of fullness.

  

In most of the animal kingdom the male is the ornamented one that is flashing his plumage and presenting himself in colorful, stylistic display. But humans have reversed this dance, and it is the female who has adopted much of the ‘see me, feel me, touch me’ role. 

                                                                             

                                                                  Sovereignty

Like so many oppressed people, women have always just wanted to be their own sovereign selves. This means that no-one has power over them, no one owns them or tells them what to think, feel or do, with their bodies, minds, or souls. This is an obvious human right, but it is the most violated human right on the planet, and women have been some of the most intrusively colonized people on the planet. And feminine values and principles have been co-opted and devalued by the masculine patriarchy for thousands of years.

                          

It is remarkable that we are on the verge of electing our first female president. Symbolically, just like electing our first African American president, this is indicative of the evolution of consciousness that it is more inclusive and embracing a wider range of options than the excluding ignorance of intolerance. But as consciousness evolves, there is always a pushback from regressive ignorance, so N.C. enacts laws against LGBT, and Tenn. passes laws that allows therapists to refuse to treat LGBT. We have to continue to lean in and fight against all who would oppress and discriminate, this is not feminine!

Just like Mother Nature, the feminine is an inclusive approach that leaves nothing out, it embraces more and more, desiring to have the fullest range of experience. Masculine consciousness is more about discernment and whittling down to discriminate the essential from non-essential. The Feminine just wants to get all the pieces, players, and material on the table and relish the range of diversity.

                                                                                                   Feelings

                                                                                                               

Another strong desire and need for women who are shifted into their most feminine energy is the need to be held and supported. When a woman is in good relationship with masculine energy, she can relax her own masculine need to be goal oriented and she will relax and open herself to the emotional security that comes with feeling safe and secure.

Women are enculturated to be able to express the range of emotions, so they are much more comfortable and skilled in being able to cry, grieve, be vulnerable, as well as being spontaneous and joyous.

For a long time I was unable to cry and I knew this was psychologically unhealthy. I found my way into theatre at an early age and it was there that I learned the mechanics of being able to cry, which restored an open flow in my emotional system. Most men are emotionally constipated and have a back log of grief and sadness that they mask with anger, judgment, irritability, etc. which greatly contributes to the rates of heart attacks among men, as well as addiction.

                          

                                                                   Yin Energy

                                              

Everything in our experience has polarity, an atom has negative/positive polarity, just like a battery, there are X and Y chromosomes at the genetic level, and the hot sun casts a cool shadow. At every level, we find the dance of polarity, which enables us to have experience and emphasize one or another aspects of polarity, all the while trying to balance.

In Chinese philosophy, Yin is the feminine or negative principle and is characterized by dark, wet, cold, passivity, receptivity, and disintegration. Yang is the masculine or positive principle characterized by light, warmth, dryness, and activity. Together, these are the two opposing, yet complementary cosmic forces which creative energy divides and whose fusion in physical matter brings the phenomenal world into being.

The feminine seeks to fully engage, indulge, and be in proper relationship in the phenomenal world, while the masculine seeks to transcend phenomenon into emptiness and consciousness.

The Feminine seeks fullness and abhors emptiness whereas the masculine craves emptiness and freedom, which can be seen in our preoccupation with ejaculation, scoring a touchdown, getting a promotion, winning a war, climbing the highest mountain, anything that catapults us beyond limitation and boundaries and frees us into transcendence.

The feminine is not seeking freedom but love, her bliss is in surrender, but she will not surrender until she feels safe. Few men are able to relax, let down their defenses, and surrender because we are so identified with the active pursuit of freedom and transcendence. But once we actually attain it, we don’t know what to do with it, herein is where a Mentor is needed.

                                                                   SHAKTI

                                

                                                                             

In Hinduism, SHAKTI, meaning "power" or "empowerment," is the primordial cosmic energy and represents the dynamic forces that are thought to move through the entire universe. Shakti is the concept, or personification, of divine feminine creative power, sometimes referred to as 'The Great Divine Mother'.

SHIVA, on the other hand symbolizes consciousness, the masculine principle.

SHAKTI (or Prakriti) means energy, power, movement, change, nature. It is the maternal principle – “the provider, abundance. In the human as well as in the animal kingdom the mother offers nourishment, warmth and security. There is no greater love than the love of a mother. The mother carries and nourishes the child in her own body. When it is born she provides it with mother’s milk and raises it at the sacrifice of her own self until it becomes self-reliant.”

SHIVA (or Purusha), on the other hand, is pure consciousness – “the unchanging, unlimited and unswayable observer. Purusha has no desires whatsoever; these are inherent only in Prakriti. Purusha is the empty, clear screen onto which Prakriti projects her colorful film.”

In the animal kingdom it is the female that is the clear, plain observer watching the colorful male trying to win and seduce her.

Only when Shiva and Shakti combine can action, movement and creation arise. This is where art, and spiritual evolution are ignited into manifestations of beauty, insight, wisdom, and love. Until energy is impregnated with consciousness it is ignorant, disordered, aimless and “blind”. Energy alone can produce nothing; consciousness bestows upon it content, form and direction. Conversely, consciousness without energy is dormant power, sleeping energy, and on its own is unable to be the cause of anything.

                                               

Your inner Shakti is your feminine life force energy, the essence of feminine and yin energy. From this essence comes forth wisdom, beauty, playful energy, spaciousness, ability, creativity, and power. Shakti is the Great Mother and matrix of creation and all manifestation. She is the power that weaves the universe and manifests in all forms, she is the perfection of wisdom, and the tangible manifestation of energy through the body and the senses.

Your inner Shiva is your unique masculine embodiment of awareness and consciousness. Known as "lord of the dance," Shiva is the essence of masculine and yang energy, the manifestation of presence, purpose, and skillful means. Shiva is the Great Father, with ultimate compassion for all beings. He represents transcendence, detachment, bliss, and the way to ultimate liberation.

Shiva is silent, and eternal, the consciousness that dwells beyond time and beyond death, in the eternal now. Your inner Shiva is that ever-present neutral awareness that compassionately witnesses all experience, and embraces all of life as expressions of the Divine.

Together in union, Shiva and Shakti merge and create the universe in all its manifestations. Experienced in each of us, this is a union of male and female energies, the direct experience of skillful means and wisdom.

You can open to this joyful dance between Shiva and Shakti, experienced as two aspects of yourself, and reflected in all living beings as pleasure, beauty, happiness, and aliveness.

Balanced and integrated, our inner Shiva and Shakti experience life as a dynamic whole, this is an inner marriage, a way of making love to yourself. We move forward with clear vision, yet we are willing to trust and flow with whatever life brings us.

As we become more whole, our need to look outside of ourselves for love falls away. We can experience the sweetness of this union of our inner masculine and inner feminine. From this place we can create more harmonious relationships and more joy in our lives.

Wanna be Black

                                       Wanna Be Black

                                                                           

                          "To try and experience what it's like to be another, is a                                          hallmark of compassion." 

                                       zim

I’ll admit it, I’ve wanted to be Black for some time now. But there’s no way to talk and write about another culture/race/religion/political party/gender/species, without some amount of stereotyping, and that almost always offends some, but I feel it’s a necessary risk to try and understand and feel into what it’s like to be another. Indeed, the ability to take another’s perspective, is a signifyer of evolved consciousness and compassion, you feel me?

Like all oppressed people, in order to survive biologically, culturally, and spiritually, you have to create compensatory strategies, that’s what evolution is all about; adapting to ever changing environments and pressures, adaptability and willingness to embrace change can be seen as a sign of intelligence. Yet compensations always have some degree of insecurity folded into them and hence, they always have a down side as well as many positive aspects. Just like an abused child develops many coping mechanisms that serve them at one period of life and work against them at another, so too a race and culture have to continually track their history and feel into new ways of being if they are to thrive.

                                                                               

                                           Can I Get An Amen?!

So what have been some of the ways Black culture has adapted and thrived? Let’s start with Christianity. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, Christianity began to spread across North Africa; this shift in religion began displacing traditional African spiritual practices. But just like Native Americans, Africans enfolded aspects of their tradition into their oppressors enforced religiosity, you can take the African out of Africa, but you can’t take Africa out of the African!

This is something Christianity has had to face over and over; whatever and wherever missionaries push their particular brand of Christianity, rest assured it’s going to be flavored heavily with the indigenous culture, often to the point that it’s unrecognizable to the missionaries.

This is something Black culture is ingenious with, whether it’s art, religion, music, sports, or fashion, Black culture is going to place their indelible stamp on it and make it their own.

Enslaved Africans brought a complex religious dynamic within their culture to America. The key word here is dynamic, for this is a signature of Black culture….it moves!

Blacks don’t sit stiff and still in silence in their church, they shout, stand up, faint, run around, dance, and talk back to the preacher.

The fusion of traditional African beliefs with Christianity created a hybrid form of spirituality that their white oppressors to this day have a hard time digesting.

Elaborate rituals and ceremonies were a significant part of African Americans' ancestral culture. Many West African societies traditionally believed that spirits dwelled in their surrounding nature. This relates to the dynamic energy I spoke of earlier, spiritual energy in nature is moving energy, so there is an awareness that everything is alive and moving and we should move with it. This speaks of African drumming, dance, song, and an oral tradition that is a constant narrative about the flow, cycles, and drama of life, nature, ancestors, and spirit.

Africans also generally believed that a spiritual life source existed after death, and that ancestors in this spiritual realm could then mediate between the supreme creator and the living. Honor and prayer were displayed to these "ancient ones," the spirit of those past. West Africans also believed in spiritual possession, just like Catholics, so there is a keen awareness of malevolence in the world as must have been a daily experience for a people that were enslaved.

                                                   The Blues

African-American music is rooted in the typically poly-rhythmic music of the ethnic groups of Africa, specifically those in the Western, Sahelean regions. Poly-rhythmic and polyphonic pretty much says it all about Black music, it is all inclusive, and builds on existing rhythmic structures and harmonies, never willing to accept the status quo.

Whereas European music is highly structured and exacting, Black music bends and breaks the rules creating cutting edge fusion. This is indicative of an oppressed culture which is the feeling; “Don’t tell us how to do it, we’ll show you!”

A good example of this is the Blues. The Blue notes are the flatted fifth, third, and seventh notes in the scale which is ‘against the rules’ in a regular pentatonic scale, but the rules are not something Black culture settles for, so here are those Blues notes in the bent notes of B-B King, and those melancholic, blown blues of Miles Davis.

                                                                                                  

African American composer W.C. Handy wrote in his autobiography of the experience of sleeping on a train traveling through (or stopping at the station of) Tutwiler, Mississippi around 1903, and being awakened by:

... a lean, loose-jointed Negro who had commenced plucking a guitar beside me while I slept. His clothes were rags; his feet peeped out of his shoes. His face had on it some of the sadness of the ages. As he played, he pressed a knife on the strings in a manner popularized by Hawaiian guitarists who used steel bars. ... The effect was unforgettable. His song, too, struck me instantly... The singer repeated the line ("Going' where the Southern cross' the Dog") three times, accompanying himself on the guitar with the weirdest music I had ever heard.

African oral traditions morphed and mutated in slavery, in part because the white man outlawed education and use of their native language, so they kept their spirit alive by telling stories, talking, sharing, chanting, and singing.

They encouraged the use of music to pass on history, teach lessons, ease suffering, and relay messages. The African pedigree of African-American music is evident in some common elements:call and response, syncopation, percussion, improvisation, swung notes, blue notes, the use of falsetto, melisma, and complex multi-part harmony. This is pretty much anything cool in music!

                                                                                     

                                           Improvisation Of Soul

African American’s can certainly claim the origination of the most original music the world has ever known, namely jazz. A key aspect of jazz, which is also distinctly Black, is improvisation. For isn’t that what you must do if you are oppressed and enslaved, namely improvise? You have to make shit up as you go along, but it’s not just any ‘ol thang thrown together, jazz improvisation is the highest, most sophisticated musical expression that I know of, it is being in the moment and tapping into the divine realm of beauty.                                                                                 

                                                                 

In sports, the contribution of a Michael Jordan, a Tiger Woods, or a Jackie Robinson are also examples of improvisation and beauty. They brought to their respective games a level of quality and a unique mark of excellence that changed the very nature of the sports they played. And they created signature approaches, whether it was being air born from the free-throw line, to impeccable focus on a long putt, to stealing home when the pitcher looks away, to stealing the gold from hitler, stellar Black athletes are game changers.

                                                                                                    

                               

This is a signature Black phenomenon, namely once Black culture is involved (often after years of fighting for admission), whatever they become involved in is a game changer. Whether its music, sports, theater, dance, politics, science, or religion, the Black voice and influence changes the very nature of the game.

                                                   Rebels With A Cause

                                                                                              

                                      

I have always been rebellious and radical in my thinking and lifestyle, I’ve never accepted the status quo, and feel the ‘establishment’, has established all the wrong things! I know I was influenced as a child seeing the plight of African American’s and the long fight and movement that was/is civil rights.

I’ll never forget many things about my early childhood that was formative in my world view. We used to drive back to the South as I was growing up in California, and I remember seeing ‘Colored/white’ bathrooms, drinking fountains, swimming pools and restaurants. I didn’t really know anything about why these signs and attitude of bigotry existed, but I knew deep in my soul that something was really wrong, it was the kind of knowing that only a child can have, it’s not something you can explain, you just know it.

I remember Martin Luther King’s assignation, seeing Blacks on T.V. getting hosed with fire hoses and attacked by police dogs, Angela Davis, and seeing the 1968 Olympics with these guys raising their hands in protest, even though they were receiving medals standing on the winner’s platform.

All this made a big impression on me. I wrote a satirical essay when I was in 7^th grade about George Wallace (then governor of Alabama) becoming president, he reminds me of a current presidential contender!

Black culture has risen higher and higher in their stand against oppression. The recent movement Black Lives Matter is the most current expression. Like Jewish culture, Blacks will never forget, because they have co-opted music, sports, large segments of religion and politics, and many other areas of modern culture, they are here to contribute and continue to speak up, sing out, stand up, and march to their own unique African rhythms.

                                                    Soul

                                                

Soul can be viewed as a quality of deep, essential essence, as in ‘the soul of the matter.’ Soul is a quality of grace, beauty, justice, and meaning that makes life more than merely surviving. The Black stamp is a stamp of Soul, it is a stamp of keepin’ it real, walking and talking with style, putting some spin on the ball, stealing home, rappin’ about it, shuckin’, jivin’ and jukin’, bending the rules, and moving up to the front of the bus!

We have had our first Black president, and the country had some difficulty handling this fact. This is representative of the evolution of our country’s soul. But the good news is that he was elected (twice), and like every Black person of excellence, he has left his mark and changed the game.

                

                                            Self-Hatred

Like all oppressed cultures, Black culture must guard itself against the tendency to internalize their oppression. If you are exposed to enough abuse and stigma, eventually you will start to believe and internalize some of it.

In the 60’s, there was a movement to go against any self-degrading thinking or feeling for African Americans, this became known as the “Black is Beautiful” movement.

This movement began in an effort to counteract the prevailing idea in American culture that features typical of "Blacks" were less attractive or desirable than those of "Whites". Research indicates that the idea of "blackness" being ugly is highly damaging to the psyche of African Americans, manifesting itself as internalized racism. This idea made its way into black communities themselves and led to practices such as paper bag parties: social events which discriminated against dark-skinned African-Americans by only admitting lighter-skinned individuals.

So continue to rise up my Black brothers and sisters, your march continues and it is supported, prayed for, envisioned, and imagined by all that believe the human family is All One!

                                                                                                   

Wanna Be Jew

                                                    Wanna Be Jew

I’ll admit it, I’m a wanna be Jew, I guess I have been for a long time. Like the rest of us Gentiles, I have envied, coveted,  and wondered why I wasn’t one of the ‘chosen,’ and blessed with the money, wit, intelligence and credentials that my Jewish friends seem to exude. The only saving grace in all this is some bastion of hope that, because I resonate and exemplify many Jewish traits, that I must have been Jewish in a past life (or possibly will be in the future!).

“Why don’t you just convert to Judaism?” you might ask. Well, I have no interest in an angry, jealous, mean male god who makes up a bunch of nonsensical laws, rules, and rituals merely to control people. To summarize Jung’s “Answer To Job,” “God, get a freakin’ grip!”

No, I’m interested in much deeper Jewish issues than the whole God/commandments thing. The secular Jews like Einstein, certainly are inspirations par excellence, but ironically, the spiritual aspects of Jewish culture, particularly their proclivity towards Buddhism, intrigues me as well.

The radical aspects of Judaism also interests me, because Jews have been so persecuted, they have had to find radical means of surviving and thriving. Einstein for example, was fairly bored with his university life, he knew what he needed to learn and he knew where to find it (not in the classroom!).

                               

I’m interested in such particularly Jewish traits as self-critique and humor, for in my view, there is no culture that is more entertaining, insightful and funny as is Jewish culture. Jews are notoriously able to make fun of themselves, which I believe is a hallmark of psychospiritual health.

There was a recent event in which some Muslim newspaper ran a cartoon of Moses, making fun of Jews because a Jewish newspaper had some cartoon about Mohamed. Well, not to be outdone, a Jewish newspaper first critiqued the Muslim Moses cartoon as ‘not that funny,” and then went on to offer a contest for the best ‘making fun of Moses’ cartoon. Needless to say they came up with a much higher quality of humor, satire, and self-deprecation.

  

                                       

Neurosis and inferiority, are also qualities I greatly admire, and people like Woody Allen have made his career playing off his insecurities. Again ironically, Allen’s expose’ of his own insecurities and angst has plumed the depths of the human condition and given us laughter as well as existential insight for some 50 years. I know of no other writer/director as prolific as Woody Allen.

                                                                          Marginal Man

                                                  

Robert Park, in trying to understand and characterize Jewish sociology, introduced the concept of the “marginal man,” which characterized him as suffering from “spiritual instability, intensified self-consciousness, restlessness, and malaise” (“Human Migration and the Marginal Man,” American Journal of Sociology, Volume 33, 1928).

The idea of a ‘marginal man’ fits, I believe, because like so many persecuted and oppressed peoples that have been marginalized, the Jew can feel this as much as any other oppressed people. But what I think is unique is what this culture does with feeling/being marginalized. What I have observed is that marginalization in Jewish culture is a badge of honor and is seen as opportunity. Whether it is business, entertainment, science, philosophy, etc., Jewish cultures goes in the opposite direction of victimhood and rallies everything and everyone to rise above the oppression. I see this as a pinnacle of the human spirit.

               

Perhaps the Jewish child, just as any other oppressed child, cannot help internalizing society’s evaluation of the Jewish stereotype, herein may lie some primary form of inferiority feeling and its consequence, self-hatred. Woody Allen says he didn’t want to be a member of any club that would have him as a member. But then, whatever feelings of inferiority or self-hatred Jewish culture feels, it is turned, with the help of family and community, towards a striving that is relentless in its acquisition of goals and dreams that aim at the highest levels of success and prosperity. 

                                  

It has been theorized that an increase of anti-Semitism may play into a desire for aggression and power and a compulsive striving for social and professional recognition. The constant struggle to subdue an unfriendly world, to attain some sense of personal security and dignity, could well produce aggressiveness/assertiveness towards one’s goals. This certainly played into my motivation to finish (after 10 years of playing around), my undergraduate degree. I just got so mad at myself and the world that I tripled my efforts and aggressively pursued a diploma.

Theodor Reik said of Jewish oppression (“Zur Psychoanalyse des jüdischen Witzes,” Imago, Volume 13, 1929). “Unable to take revenge upon their oppressors, the Jews . . . introject the object of hate and . . . enjoy the expression of witty malice and verbal revenge against the enemy in the self.” I think a certain amount of this is true, but it’s not just turned toward the self. I think the Jewish mind is some of the most satirical, critical, and biting social commentary on the human condition that holds a mirror up to us all. Just consider the brilliant writing by Larry David on the shows Seinfeldand Curb Your Enthusiasm.

                                                  

                                                                    Entertainment

Just as the oppression of Black culture contributed to the innovation of Blues, Jazz, and Gospel music, so too Jewish oppression has given us the foundations of what we have in the way of entertainment. I’m using the word entertainment in the highest aesthetic sense of the word as a soul moving, meaning giving, dumbfounded irony and satire on the beauty, pathos, and ridiculous nature of this theatre of the absurd we call human life.

Everyone knows that Jews founded, run, and have fueled Hollywood, T.V. and the theatre industry ever since it’s inceptions in this country. This is no accident, and no, it’s not some conspiracy. I think it is just a reflection of the brilliance of mind, soul, and spirit that takes the drama of life this culture has lived for thousands of years, and goes straight to the bank in creating a multi-billion dollar industry that has given people the needed escape and refuge from the trials and tribulations of life.

Hollywood was essentially founded in the 1920s by five Jewish men who each owned a movie studio.

Joel Stein writes;

I have never been so upset by a poll in my life. Only 22% of Americans now believe "the movie and television industries are pretty much run by Jews," down from nearly 50% in 1964. The Anti-Defamation League, which released the poll results last month, sees in these numbers a victory against stereotyping. Actually, it just shows how dumb America has gotten. Jews totally run Hollywood.

How deeply Jewish is Hollywood? When the studio chiefs took out a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times a few weeks ago to demand that the Screen Actors Guild settle its contract, the open letter was signed by: News Corp. President Peter Chernin (Jewish), Paramount Pictures Chairman Brad Grey (Jewish), Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Robert Iger (Jewish), Sony Pictures Chairman Michael Lynton (surprise, Dutch Jew), Warner Bros. Chairman Barry Meyer (Jewish), CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves (so Jewish his great uncle was the first prime minister of Israel), MGM Chairman Harry Sloan (Jewish) and NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker (mega-Jewish). If either of the Weinstein brothers had signed, this group would have not only the power to shut down all film production but to form a minyan with enough Fiji water on hand to fill a mikvah.

As a proud Jew, I want America to know about our accomplishment. Yes, we control Hollywood. Without us, you'd be flipping between "The 700 Club" and "Davey and Goliath" on TV all day.

So I've taken it upon myself to re-convince America that Jews run Hollywood by launching a public relations campaign, because that's what we do best. I'm weighing several slogans, including: "Hollywood: More Jewish than ever!"; "Hollywood: From the people who brought you the Bible"; and "Hollywood: If you enjoy TV and movies, then you probably like Jews after all."

                                                                            Jewish Buddha

                                 

                          

                                                          

On the spiritual side of the fence, I have always been impressed with Jews gravitation and integration of Buddhism. I began meditating and studying Zen Buddhism when I was 15 and have always resonated with the East. It has been estimated that 30% of Western Buddhists are of Jewish heritage, and many of the prominent Western Buddhist teachers were born Jews (teachers such as Ram Das {Richard Alpert}, and Jack Kornfield).

Many Jewish seekers find that the Judaism they grew up in lacked a spiritual component with which they could connect. Jews seeking a spiritual connection often find it in Buddhist philosophy where practices such as meditation and mindfulness are both central and accessible.

Both Jews and Buddhists share a deep understanding about the nature of suffering. Buddha’s Four Noble Truths explores this concept in depth, offering a way to understand both the causes of suffering and a path to end suffering. These ideas resonate with Jews who have struggled with a history of persecution that culminated in the horrors of the Holocaust. Applying a Buddhist perspective to such atrocities can offer many a path of healing.

In his book Zen Judaism, David M. Bader gives some sayings of a Jewish Buddha that highlight the synthesis of two enlightened cultures;

If there is no self, whose arthritis is this?

Be here now. Be someplace else later. Is that so complicated?

Wherever you go, there you are. Your luggage is another story.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single Oy.

There is no escaping karma. In a previous life, you never called, you never wrote, you never visited. And whose fault was that?

                               

Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Forget this and attaining Enlightenment will be the least of your problems.

Let your mind be as a floating cloud. Let your stillness be as a wooded glen. And sit up straight. You'll never meet the Buddha with such rounded shoulders.

Deep inside you are ten thousand flowers. 
Each flower blossoms ten thousand times. 
Each blossom has ten thousand petals. 
You might want to see a specialist.

Be aware of your body. Be aware of your perceptions. Keep in mind that not every physical sensation is a symptom of a terminal illness.

Mark “Zim” Stewart M.A. LCAS