Zen Buddhism and Hasidism — Similarities and Contrasts

Abstract

It is a great pleasure and honour for me to have been invited by the Hillel Council to talk on Zen Buddhism and Hasidism for my Jewish friends. The first Jewish Rabbi whom I met in my life was Rabbi Polyeff who at that time, in 1954, was a chaplain of the United States forces in Otsu near Kyoto, and who lived next door to my house. For more than one half year, Chaplain Polyeff and I visited with each other every week, teaching Judaism and Buddhism to each other. In 1955, he returned to the US and I also came to this country to study at Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary for two years. In New York I became acquainted with many Jewish people. The most important event in this connection was that I was invited to attend the week-long seminar at Columbia on Judaism and Christianity at which Martin Buber was a key speaker. After the seminar was completed, I visited Martin Buber at his apartment with D.T. Suzuki, my teacher, who was then lecturing on Zen Buddhism at Columbia. It was really an unforgettable evening for me because I could join in this illuminating conversation between two great religious thinkers of our time. In my personal contacts with Martin Buber, though brief, I was strongly impressed by a lively spirit of Hasidism embodied in Buber’s own personality.