Tricycle | Awake in the World

Remember Your Roots
I found the interview with Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield, and Sharon Salzberg [“Through Good Times and Bad,” Winter 2004] thoughtful and interesting, but also somewhat disappointing. It’s curious and disconcerting that these three prominent American Buddhist leaders make no reference to their common Jewish roots. Are we to believe that these three leaders have “transcended” their religious and cultural upbringing? Jews and Christians, and others in America, have work to do in terms of integrating their chosen adult path with their childhood experience.

The problem, I believe, is that these intelligent and experienced leaders do not hold integration as an important value. A frank discussion would greatly benefit people who struggle silently with identity questions such as: Who am I? A Christian, a Jew, a Buddhist?