Saturday, August 23, 2008

Judaism and Buddhism

Judaism is a beautiful religion. I've read The Gift of the Jews. My step-father is Jewish, and I went to some Seders. I went to camp Shalom one summer and learned how to sing Hava Nagila. I worked for 12 years at a school that had holidays for the Jewish calender, and another agency that was owned by someone who was Jewish. An uncle also is Jewish. I live in New York City which Jesse Jackson famously called Heimie-Town. I even live on the edge of a more orthodox neighborhood, where ironically my step-father grew up (considering we met in Madison Wisconsin, and more importantly my mother met). I have some Jewish friends who I don't see enough of.

Which is a long winded way of saying why I like this link, that Sarah Jessica Parker is the latest Jew-Bu.

Here's a quote from the article: "What’s a Jew-Bu? ‘It’s a synthesis of Judaism and Buddhism intended to grasp the best of both religions,’ explains one Hollywood power-player who has been a Jew-Bu for the past decade. ‘It combines Buddhist thought with Jewish theology and structure, in effect incorporating Buddhist traditions such as meditation and chanting into traditional Judaism.’"

And here's a quote about famous Jew-Bu's: "Famous entertainment industry Jew-Bu’s include Leonard Cohen, Goldie Hawn, Kate Hudson, Jerry Seinfeld, Gwynneth Paltrow, Larry David, Jeff Goldblum, Al Franken and Whoopie Goldberg, among others."

Another interesting quote: "Chogyan Trungpa, to talk about forming the Oy Vey school of Meditation."

Also, Lama Surya Das is famously raised Jewish and converted to Buddhism. Same with Jack Kornfeld

Here's another post on the JuBu phenomenon. In the article it says in the FWBO Kulamitra is of Jewish origins.

1 comment:

anotherqueerjubu said...

Hi there. Always glad to find another jubu writing online. However, I have to say I found the PR posting about S.J. Parker and Buddhism to be about as shallow as People magazine, if not worse. Had a lot to say about it on my own blog in fact, since I look for jubu stuff on a regular basis.