Zen Judaism

from the archives


alice:


If there is no self,
whose arthritis is this?
Be here now.
Be someplace else later.
Is that so complicated?
Drink tea and nourish life.
With the first sip... joy.
With the second... satisfaction.
With the third, peace.
With the fourth, a Danish.
Wherever you go, there you are.
Your luggage is another story.
Accept misfortune as a blessing.
Do not wish for perfect health
or a life without problems.
What would you talk about?
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?
Bupkes.
The Tao does not speak.
The Tao does not blame.
The Tao does not take sides.
The Tao has no expectations.
The Tao demands nothing of others.
The Tao is not Jewish.
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 the wooded glen.
And sit up straight. You'll never meet the
Buddha with such rounded shoulders.
Be patient and achieve all things.
Be impatient and achieve all things faster.
To Find the Buddha, look within.
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.
To practice Zen and the art of Jewish
motorcycle maintenance, do the following:
get rid of the motorcycle.
What were you thinking?
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.
The Torah says, "Love thy neighbor as thyself."
The Buddha says there is no "self."
So, maybe you are off the hook.
The Buddha taught that one should practice loving
kindness to all sentient beings. Still, would it kill you
to find a nice sentient being who happens to be Jewish?
Though only your skin, sinews, and bones remain,
though your blood and flesh dry up and wither away,
yet shall you meditate and not stir
until you have attained full Enlightenment.
But, first, a little nosh.


Now that we have both plotzed n platzt over the hilarious 'Zen Judaism', I wonder how many of u put it into a Jungian persepective?

The piece demonstrates the absolute diff between Self [Div Guest] n ego. The ego is clearly the Shlemiel in all of us.

It is a pity that "self' in English is assoc w/selfish, wh pertains to ego

Now comes the paradox of Self/no self..........This is why I call it our Divine Guest!! Viewed fr the Buddhist perspective "There is no Self", this makes sense. Nor does it contradict Jung. We did not create the Life that gives us life. Even our bodies are a gift fr our parents.

However, that centerpt in us is a unique manifestation in time/space of the Mystery of Spirit. Which is why Jung makes the statement 'Individuation, theologically understood, is incarnation," . This makes the Christian mythos much easier to understand, symbolically speaking. The fuss ab God becoming man, yes or no, in Jesus, cld also be seen as a step in the evolution of consciousness: the fact that God has been becoming human in each of us all along but we were not ready collectively to realize this.! This was a huge step n still remains controversial n divisive wh taken literally. N yet Jesus is quoted as saying "Ye are gods",

A lot depends on our accepting the Buddhist concept of 'no Self' - it requires the utmost humility n gratitude on our part for the privilege of being alive. The ego [center of consciousness] wld have us believe that I 'Jane Doe' or 'Joe Blow' have created myself. And so we in a strange way, do co-create a life, fr birth to death, as best we can. The potential however is that some few will eventually accept the invitation to use our ego-lives to MAKE THIS WORLD CONSCIOUS and share that poached egg even, with our Divine Guest. In Christian terms, it prob shld be 'Do this in memory WITH me [the living Christ within] rather than 'of me, the historical Jesus]. To me, anyway, this is a helpful way of seeing it. The prob always remains w/labels! That's why I like to
avoid the label 'Christ' n use Divine Guest, wh cn also mean 'atman' n other terms in other religions, the Beloved for Sufis.

The trick lies in avoiding inflation, as the fate of Lucifer cautions. The ego must avoid identifying w/Div Guest!!! but be willing to serve It w/devotion. [See I Ching #2 or p. 100 in my JUNGIAN SYMBOLISM bk]. This involves the tension of opposites n the loving coniunctio.

Anyway, it just goes to show how a humorous piece can yield a bit of wisdom! In case u missed it, I am encl it again:


Much love on a rainy morning

ao