20AR25-15

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AR 25:15 - Why your Buddhist neighbor wears those curious beads

In this issue:

BUDDHISM - what's behind the beads that so many people wear?

JUDAISM - why Christianity is still a highly sensitive topic for Israelis today

Apologia Report 25:15 (1,472)

April 15, 2020

BUDDHISM

"What's New (and What's Ancient) with Your Mala?" by Valerie Grigg Devis (Tricycle, Mar 26 '20) -- begins: "For thousands of years, Buddhist practitioners have used the strings of beads called malas to keep track of their practice. The origin of Buddhist malas - which is the Sanskrit word for 'garland' - is attributed to the Mokugenji Sutra, in which King Virudhaka asks the Buddha to help ease his suffering. The Buddha recommends that the king recite the three jewels - the buddha, dharma, and sangha - using a mala made of the seeds of a soapnut tree. Since then, across Asia malas have been made of simple, organic materials, such as wood, stone, or bone. More lavish materials such as gemstones are not used, because the mala is considered a meditation tool, not a piece of jewelry.

"Buddhist monks in many traditions are prohibited from wearing jewelry, and serious lay practitioners sometimes follow this rule as well. But the modern popularity of malas - as accessories, meditation tools, and otherwise - has led to the manufacture of a wider variety of options, including malas of colorful polished stone beads."

Devis explains that she wanted to "try to understand how American Buddhists are using their malas." Thus, when she "reached out and documented the responses, I was fascinated by the array of perspectives these Buddhists bring to their mala use."

The various sources she sampled include: Vietnamese Zen, Japanese Zen, Tibetan Buddhism, Korean Zen, and Chinese Linji Zen. Devis describes the activity at each source, and we've tried to combine her findings more by category below to bring out the diversity involved.

Mala uses include: to count breath (or in many traditions to count mantras or bows); a combined focusing and "accounting" technique ("combining body, breath and mind, we account for our whereabouts as the thumb and forefinger pass from one bead to another"); to slow down and regulate breath as a form of calisthenic exercise. "Some tech-savvy practitioners are turning to smartphone apps like My Mala and Mala Prayer Beads, which offer the same functions as traditional malas, albeit on a screen."

Some other spiritual applications include:

* - A use for focusing on guided meditation to help "keep mindfulness alive"

* - The bead click "tiny sound points the way home"

* - "We believe that if you continue to recite a mantra like om mani padme hum you will develop compassion"

* - "Mantras are like the utterances of a holy being in deep meditation. We see this as a way to make a connection with the deity...."

* - "we do walking meditation and we focus on each part of the sole of our foot meeting the floor, so too with fingering the beads of the mala. Some of us use a mala to register the completion of each internal recitation of the Great Dharani [a Buddhist chant in Korean Zen]. Others use it to register a single breath. Some find that simply wearing a mala reminds them to stay present in the midst of daily life."

* - Selling malas online: "People are looking for gifts that are 'meaningfully made' and 'ethically sourced." This helps enable the Seattle-based nonprofit Tibetan Nun Project (TNP), "support over 700 nuns in exile in eight nunneries in India and Nepal"

* - One "facilitator" said he was "ordering a couple of hundred malas from Catholic nuns in Vietnam" as promotional give-aways

* - "Some malas aren't malas at all - I know of one particularly creative Northwest practitioner who devised a counter for his bicycle, so he could count mantras while riding. He also envisions his bicycle wheels as Tibetan prayer wheels, increasing and sending out merit as he pedals them into turning." <www.tricy.cl/2Ug8vct>

Time to reconsider the title of this piece again. Notice any patterns? May these insights be helpful as readers reach out to their Buddhist neighbors.

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JUDAISM

We have enjoyed the One for Israel <www.bit.ly/3dU8uDT> video testimonies of Jews who have found the Messiah and noticed that one of the most common discoveries people report is that, surprisingly, they didn't know that Jesus was Jewish. A book slated for release in May, "Jesus Was a Jew": Presenting Christians and Christianity in Israeli State Education [1], appears to address this disconnect.

The publisher explains that the authors - Orit Ramon (Dept. of History, Philosophy, and Judaic Studies <www.bit.ly/2weCz01> at the Open University of Israel), Inés Gabel (Dept. of Sociology, Political Sciences, and Communication, <www.bit.ly/2XgjPbP> OUI), and Varda Wasserman (organizational sociologist and associate professor <www.bit.ly/2UXVqVw> at OUI) - "scrutinize the presentations of Christians and Christianity in Israeli school curricula, textbooks, and teaching in the state education system, in an attempt to elucidate the role of relations to Christianity in the construction of modern Jewish-Israeli identity.

"The study reveals that despite the changes in Jewish-Christian relations that took place during the 20th century, and despite the change in power relations between Jews and Christians in Israel - as expressed in the Israeli control of the most holy Christian sites since the Six-Day War (1967), and in the fact that Christians in Israel are a tiny minority - Christianity is a key factor in the construction of modern Jewish-Israeli identity. The data gathered in this research demonstrate the resounding presence of Jewish exilic notions of Christians and Christianity in today's Israeli education system, its part in the emergence of Israeli religious and national notions, and its role in the construction of modern Jewish identity in Israel."

Amazon endorsements include:

* - Alon Goshen-Gottstein of the Elijah Interfaith Institute <www.bit.ly/3aJAJDf> who says: "This is a valuable study of the representation of Christians and Christianity within the Israeli school system over the past seven decades. The study makes us aware of how study and teaching of the other is actually a means for constructing one's own identity. This is a sobering piece of scholarship, inasmuch as it makes one realize that ... little has changed over seven decades in how Christianity has been taught. The authors demonstrate how an 'exile' mentality continues to inform Jewish presentations of Christianity, that seek to enforce Jewish identity - religious, national and political. In many ways, the book demonstrates what price we pay for so-called sovereignty and independence and how in fact freedom to encounter the other has been substituted by indebtedness to a national narrative and the needs for Israeli identity construction. It is only when the full picture emerges from this analysis that one can begin to reconsider what a true 'independent' and self-assured presentation of Christianity might look like in an age of dialogue. If diagnosis is the first step towards healing, this book makes an important contribution not just to the study of contemporary educational policies in Israel but to the advancement of Jewish-Christian relations."

* - Karma Ben-Johanan <www.bit.ly/2yBawsD> of the Van-Leer Institute states clearly: "The authors’ thorough analysis shows how sensitive the issue of Christianity is for the Israeli public even today, much more sensitive than one might have assumed."

For a look at Messianic Judaism in our past issues, visit <www.bit.ly/2t2o2Ti>

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - "Jesus Was a Jew": Presenting Christians and Christianity in Israeli State Education, by Orit Ramon, Inés Gabel, et al. (Lexington, May 2020, hardcover, 282 pages) <www.amzn.to/349TPAd>

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