Rabbi Sheila Weinberg has relaxed through mindfulness meditation for 20 years.  Although she doesn’t consider herself to be Buddhist, the director of outreach and community development for the Institute for Jewish Spirituality teaches rabbis with a combination of Hasidic Judaism and mindful yoga - all through a Jewish vocabulary and a Jewish lens. She says practice has helped her better understand her religion.

“One doesn’t need to be a Buddhist to practice mindfulness,” Weinberg says. “Judaism has always been in relationship with other traditions and is constantly incorporating other cultural practices.”

Sylvia Boorstein, author of “That’s Funny, You Don’t Look Buddhist: On Being a Faithful Jew and a Passionate Buddhist,” practices both loving-kindness and mindful meditation, which she says are two of the principle meditation techniques of Buddhism. However, she identifies as Jewish.

“It’s a mind-training exercise, not a religion,” says Boorstein, who is also the co-founder of Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Boorstein teaches young adults the practice of paying attention, not any religious ideology. She would never say “practicing Buddhism.” Instead, she calls it “practicing mindfulness.”

“Practicing Judaism is a different lifestyle,” Boorstein says. “Knowing when it’s Shabbat and associating oneself with the religious aspects of the Jewish life is being Jewish. I don’t know what being Buddhist would be.”
Boorstein says some people felt surprised after the release of her book because they were bewildered by the idea of a practicing religious Jew studying from another religious tradition.

“This is a practice that does not have to do with cosmology or joining a group,” she explains. “Most people who come to retreat or teach with me feel more connected to their religious tradition afterward.”

Although some Jews may feel comfortable meditating from a Buddhist perspective, Rabbi Dov Hillel Klein, director of Northwestern University’s Tannenbaum Chabad House, hopes they will be more interested in Jewish meditation. Prayers, which are a form of meditation and concentration, bring Jews closer to their religion.
The difference between Jewish meditation and Buddhist meditation lies in the mind.  Buddhists focus on a single idea that allows the meditator to empty his mind, connect spiritually and open oneself to the idea of loving-kindness, or love without attachment. Jewish meditation, on the other hand, seeks to fill the mind with spirituality and relate God to the world.

“In Buddhist meditation, the focus is, ‘How do I remove [myself]?’” Klein says. “In creating a vacuum, you don’t want to let the spirit take over because who’s to say it’s only coming from the good side? As a Jew, you never want to become vulnerable.”

The Hasidic community in particular strongly believes Jewish meditation increases its faith, according to Klein. One of Klein’s spiritual guidance counselors suggested he meditate for 10 to 15 minutes before prayers during the week. As he grew to appreciate the peace it gave him, he began to spend an hour or more meditating before prayers.

“If there is no meditation, how can that create an emotion to have a yearning and love for God?” says Klein. “You will automatically come to life once you comprehend and meditate about it. The commandment is to meditate about Him.”

Although some may feel they would betray their own faith by drawing on another, Tara Brach, author of “Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha,” points out that the wisest rabbis and teachers remain open-minded. Some of the leading Buddhist teachers in this country grew up in Jewish families, and she believes there are more Buddhist teachers of Jewish origins than in almost any other faith group.

“The more mature and wise a spiritual teacher is, the more they’re not rigidly fixated,” says Brach, who founded the Insight Meditation Community of Washington. “They’re comfortable enough in their own skins to draw from different traditions.” 

Jews talk about mindfulness and self-examination of conscious as part of the month-long inner-preparation for the High Holy Days.

“How much more helpful it would be to reflect with clarity, ‘In what ways do I need to change? What things don’t I see so clearly?’” Boorstein says. “People find it really enhances their lives. It enhances my life as a Jew and enhances their religious tradition.”

Brach finds the roots of the two faiths very similar, particularly with a commitment to social justice and serving the good.

Rabbi David Shneyer, founder and director of the Am Kolel Sanctuary and Renewal Center, says his community also practices a form of meditation.

“A right-wing, very conservative Orthodox Jew or any fundamentalist Jew would say, ‘That’s not Judaism or being Jewish. That’s playing with strange fire,’” Shneyer says. “I don’t feel that way.”

Like Boorstein, Shneyer feels comfortable with younger members of the Am Kolel community practicing Buddhism after completing Hebrew school, as long as they don’t impose their beliefs on anyone else. Jews who practice meditation combine their religious traditions with mindfulness to add clarity and calmness to their busy lives.

“There’s been a lot of interaction with the Buddhist world because it’s a very spiritual tradition,” Shneyer says. “Judaism can be a very spiritual tradition, too. There’s a universal spirit that comes to us, and the sense of the heartfelt-ness in those teachings comes across in Buddhism.”

Text By: Kristin Ellertson