[Buddha-l] Watery dharma

[Joel Tatelman]

Richard,

> I'm not interested here is exploring whether a mixture of a Christian
> tradition with Buddhist practice somehow dilutes both components of  
> the
> mixture. What I am curious about is whether similar comments are  
> made when
> Jewish people take up Buddhist practice. Do you Jewish Buddhists  
> have to put
> up with people saying that celebrating Passover or Yom Kippur  
> waters down
> your Buddhist practice, or that spending time in a zendo  
> contaminates your
> Jewishness?

I don't know whether this speaks very directly to your query, but the  
male members of my family, all non-observant Jews, have always been a  
little embarrassed by my Buddhist practice. On the other hand,  
they've always been proud of my scholarly work. Were I less low-key,  
I suspect "a little embarrassed" could transmute into something like  
"intensely embarrassed" or even "ashamed."

But they'd never send a party of armed men to my house, as happened  
to a British woman I heard interviewed on BBC last night (she, the  
daughter of an imam, converted to Xnty).

Cheers,

Joel.