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Speaking for myself only, I know I'd go freaking nuts if there were these sorts of requirements. I find it distracting, especially if enforced and/or overdone.
Well, we are responsible for what is in our mind. We are the ones who make beneficial or harmful thought patterns/habits, and we are the ones who have to live with the results of the thought patterns/habits that we create. We defile our own minds, we purify our own minds. We restrain ourselves from acting on harmful thoughts. We work on our minds to produce good thoughts and patterns.
Again, I'd have to take your word for it. Personally, I am not inclined to consider the trend to be dominated by such a possibility. In my opinion, people who dare to abandon a close knit community, to be shunned by their families, to be outcasts, and to try to make it out in 'the real world' which is alien and foreign to them must in fact work out of their convictions rather than out of laziness. These people must have thought long and hard about the consequences of following what they must consider rational conclusions. I hope you don't rationalize or dismiss most who leave the bosom of orthodox Judaism to simply be slackers, rather than people who have their own sensibilities and sense of judgement.
Biblical Judaism in the context I am using is the Judaism of the period of the Tanakh or the Hebrew Bible as it were. Of course it was not called Judaism back then (during the period us archaeologists commonly refer to as the Iron Age). The Sadducees on the other hand were an aristocratic Jewish sect which was active during the Second Temple Period.
These are exactly my sentiments about the sentence I was replying to. So, hopefully we are clear on that one?
Again, as I said before I am fairly capable of keeping my neck above the water as I read Medieval Kabbalistic literature, and earlier Hekhalot literature. First, because I have been reading Biblical, apocryphal and rabbinical literature in various platforms, and secondly, because just as you may have your venerated teachers you may refer to in your posts I have my scholarly sources as well.
Thankfully, I do not consider myself to be too uneducated, and on average more knowledgeable than the average fellow Israeli or American Jew in various regards. One of these regards is the ability and patience of reading what others consider cryptic Jewish texts, and also non Jewish texts, which surprisingly have also been instrumental in shaping Kabbalistic thought.
Well if you consider a real Kabbalist (whatever that means) to be someone who does not need to inspire spiritual or moral richness, than there is no wonder we might be in disagreement about what Kabbalah might be.
Of course. It is a poetic name given to a hypothesis about shared ancestry of the Kohanim. In relation to the development of this theory, scientists also came to learn that other groups, including of non-Jews, also share similar markers. Some of such groups are even found outside the Middle East.
I think there is a moral of the story here since we are discussing Buddhism. One of the Buddha's major pet peeves was the way the Brahmins appropriated a claim to spiritual knowledge based on their caste. The Buddha wanted to address such a monopoly by enlightening society to the fact that a lineage from a caste of Brahmins, or priests as it were is of no real importance. All men can reach enlightenment, and their lineage or caste is irrelevant to achieving such a state.
Many Jews are well versed in Bible and Midrash (and other Jewish sources), but they are also men of action, actively engaged in the day to day challenges of their nation, and most importantly they are taking part of the load.
Rambam's rationale may also imply that those who cannot support themselves by only 3 hours of work... should work more. In addition, judging by Maimonides' lifestyle, it is highly unlikely that he followed such a regiment.
I disagree. Wholeheartedly disagree. To compare the Jews of the the past 20 centuries to the orthodox movement of today does not make much sense. There are many Jews who preserve and promote Jewish traditions and values (and scholarship), but they are also the nation's builders. They ask no favors for this. Nor do they have a sense of entitlement for having the freedom to celebrate Jewish traditions, or to study Judaism.
I never insulted you, I'm just saying that from a vaiShNava perspective, your view is not different from that of a kR^iShNadveShI and is harmful for spiritual progress.
Okay, I'm just glad that you're not trying to pass it off as a legitimate "Hindu" belief. In the name of advaitavedAnta, practically anything gets passed off as a "Hindu" view nowadays, so I'm not surprised that the belief that kR^iShNa is merely "one with brahman" (where brahman can be used to represent the Abrahamic God, lol) is getting passed off as authentic. It seems that paurANika statements like kR^iShNastubhagavAnsvayam are practically ignored altogether for the sake of appeasing the views of Abrahamics or for the sake of radical universalism. Your statement that "I'm trying to help my fellow Jew understand where I'm coming from.. and telling him straight up that I think Jesus and Krishna are God would very much confuse him (such language is super heretical to Judaism lol).. also the idea that Jesus, Krishna, and every single one of thus for that matter is essentially God Himself (the key difference is Jesus and Krishna fully realized this while most of us do not) is something I find very appealing intellectually" gives me the impression that you are purposefully misinterpreting Hindu concepts in order to make them fit the view of Judaism. kR^iShNa is not just a "realized soul," as the inherent nature of the jivAtmA and paramAtmA are different. In the view of a bhAgavata (devotee of k^RiShNa) it is through his will that the cosmic orders are manifested, hence why he says "prakR^itiM svAm avaShTabhya visR^ijAmi punaH punaH bhUtagrAmam imaM kR^itsnam avashaM prakR^iter vashAt" in the bhagavadgItA. One receives true realization and mokSha through his mercy and according to the padmapurANam, he can bestow his kR^ipa on anyone even those who insult him (as was the case with shishupAla and rAvaNa), but that does not mean that one should insult him (although that's just my opinion).
One method one might possibly employ to avoid a wholesale cultural rejection as happened with Vedic Brahminism and Buddhism is to employ the techniques of rejecting doctrines that promote greed, hatred, and delusion, and accepting those that promote non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion, as per the Kalama Sutta and the Salha Sutta. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to employ these techniques. However, I've heard that learning Judaism to the point where you could effectively apply this technique is much more difficult than learning rocket science!
You do realize that "vedic brAhmanism" is just an artificial term invented by Indologists to describe what they consider to be an early stage of Hinduism, right? I'm not sure how someone can reject a concept which hadn't been created until almost twenty-four centuries later. Oh, and can you please explain why many tantrayAna schools in nepAl give dIkSha solely based on one's birth? That's sounds like varNAshrama (and a particularly strict form, no less) to me, see here.One method one might possibly employ to avoid a wholesale cultural rejection as happened with Vedic Brahminism and Buddhism is to employ the techniques of rejecting doctrines that promote greed, hatred, and delusion, and accepting those that promote non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion, as per the Kalama Sutta and the Salha Sutta. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to employ these techniques. However, I've heard that learning Judaism to the point where you could effectively apply this technique is much more difficult than learning rocket science!
How many JuBu's do you reckon are going to Nepalese Tantrayana?
Post from another thread:
One method one might possibly employ to avoid a wholesale cultural rejection as happened with Vedic Brahminism and Buddhism is to employ the techniques of rejecting doctrines that promote greed, hatred, and delusion, and accepting those that promote non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion, as per the Kalama Sutta and the Salha Sutta. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to employ these techniques. However, I've heard that learning Judaism to the point where you could effectively apply this technique is much more difficult than learning rocket science!
I have much more I can post regarding this, such as questions regarding other practice techniques within Judaism, but I'll leave it at this for now.
No. Some people withdrawing from and rejecting the culture and beliefs entirely due to corruption strongly connected to the class structure embedded within the culture. Buddha rejected the cultural practices he was born into. You expressed concern regarding JuBu's rejecting Jewish cultural practices. I'm suggesting that the Jewish caste system and cultural enforcement might be the source of dukkha some Jews are looking to Buddhism for relief from.