A Sweet Jewish Buddhist New Year

Rabbi Alan Lew tells the story of how his friend, Norman Fischer came to visit him while Lew was studying at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Fischer had taken the Buddhist path and became the co-abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center. But that day he visited Lew, they went into the Seminary's synagogue and joined in prayer at the morning minyan. Lew was amazed to see the fervor with which Fischer davenned. He asked about it and Fischer replied:

"You know, Alan, now that I've done Zen meditation for twenty years, I could do this — I could practice ordinary Judaism — Torah, Shabbat, and Tefillah — and it would be enough. I wouldn't have to do anything else. But if I hadn't meditated for all those years, I wouldn't even know what this was — I wouldn't know how deep it was. I wouldn't know how utterly gratifying it is."

For those of you, who like me, are on this dual path of non-duality, I wish you the sweetest Jewish Buddhist New Year.

Zoketsu Norman Fischer. Photo by Laura Trippi. Creative commons usage.