By William Berkson
I have been exploring what Judaism should be in the future, given that most of us are skeptical about individual Providence--that God rewards and punishes us each according to our deeds, either in this life or the next.

In the previous post, I was critical of 'new age' spirituality as being weak, and out of tune with Jewish tradition because it its lack of an ethical focus. A more serious current version of Judaism without a firm belief in Providence is the "JuBu" movement.

These are Jews who are attracted to Buddhism, and try in various ways to integrate it with Judaism--or they simply become fully Buddhist, and are only culturally Jewish.

Buddhism has a lot to recommend it in attracting the person skeptical about providence, but who hungers for a sense of holiness in life. First, it does not have the interventionist God of the Torah, commanding and judging, so that's not an issue to be dealt with. Second it has a very high-minded ethic, with compassion as the chief value. So that resonates with 'rachamim,' one of the core Jewish values. Finally, and most distinctive, it has a whole philosophy and technology for achieving peace of mind in a troubled world.

In spite of these attractions, Buddhism is at its foundation has critically different views and goals than Judaism. The foundation of Buddhism are the four noble truths, which in brief are:

1. That life is permeated with suffering.
2. That the cause of suffering is 'craving', or desiring things for one's self.
3. The way to cease suffering is to cease craving.
4. The path to cessation of craving and suffering is the 'eight fold way": right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort right mindfulness, right concentration.

Buddhism, then, is a religion devoted to detachment, detachment from suffering. But Judaism has a quite different approach. It is a religion of commitment: commitments to love, work, marriage, family, and pursuing justice. Being committed and engaged inevitably results in some anxiety.  But someone once put it, "worry is the price of love." If we care about the future of our relationships, and about the future of our society, we are going to worry some.

Now I don't want to dismiss the seriousness of the need for peace of mind, and how to do this within a committed Jewish life is a question I will return to later.  But we should acknowledge at the outset that Buddhism and Judaism have very different visions of the good life. The Buddhist ideal is of an impoverished monk, detached from worldly cares, meditating on a mountain retreat. The Jewish ideal is of a family, after the week's labors, around the table at Shabbat--praying, discussing matters of family, of Torah, and arguing about how to better the world, all with love. 

There are other problematic aspects of Buddhism from a Jewish point of view, but let me mention just one more.  Buddhism combines the high minded philosophy that Westerners are attracted to, with polytheistic worship, where the main activity is to try to put luck on your side by praying before the various Buddhist deities. At least this is the style in the Mahayana branch.

There is, of course, a lot more that can be said in comparison of the Judaism and Buddhism. My point here is just the bottom line: while we can learn from Buddhism, and even incorporate some ideas from it in Judaism, we need to be aware that it is a radically different approach to religion, and to life. 

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