The Jew in the Lotus: A Poet's Rediscovery of Jewish Identity in Buddhist IndiaWhile accompanying eight high–spirited Jewish delegates to
Dharamsala, India, for a historic Buddhist–Jewish dialogue with the
Dalai Lama, poet Rodger
Kamenetz comes to understand the convergence of Buddhist and Jewish thought. Along the way he encounters Ram
Dass and Richard
Gere, and dialogues with leading rabbis and Jewish thinkers, including
Zalman Schacter,
Yitz and Blue
Greenberg, and a host of religious and disaffected Jews and Jewish Buddhist.
Kamenetz, a poet and a Jew, was invited to attend and write about a historical meeting between a delegation of American Jews and a group of Tibetan Buddhists that included the
Dalai Lama. This interfaith get-together was inspired, in part, by the increasing number of Jews who have become Buddhists as well as the
Dalai Lama's perception of Jews as "survival experts." The
Dalai Lama felt that the Jews, experts in exile and the preservation of faith and practice, would offer advice and comfort; participating rabbis were intrigued by the surprising similarities between the two religions, including esoteric traditions and a profound awareness of suffering.
Kamenetz not only chronicles the resultant discussions, which proved to be enlightening and emotional, but also profiles a number of Jewish Buddhists, including Allen Ginsberg and Ram
Dass. As his investigation throws his own beliefs and assumptions into high relief,
Kamenetz is amazed and humbled by the intensity and altruism of Buddhism.
Kamenetz defines and comments upon these complex matters with skill,
personableness, and a welcome dash of levity.
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