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Takaisin

Jewish Mysticism and the DhO

I've been thinking about the future of the Dharma Overground. With the new website in the offing, there is a real possibility that the community will change, a prospect both exciting and frightening. As a student of perspectives, I've been fascinated lately by the concepts of chesed, gevorah, and tiferet, as taught in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.

Here is an excerpt from Rabbi David Cooper’s book God is a Verb:

The Tree of Life is modeled in triads; two aspects work in opposition to each other, with a third on a moving equilibrium point between the two. Here’s how it works.

Chesed is the quality of expansiveness and generosity, the part of us that yields even though another part says no. It operates best when there is no self-consciousness holding it back. The tendency of chesed is to be extremely liberal, willing to try anything. Uncontrolled, however, it has the tendency to smother the recipient. It has no self-limitation; it knows only how to bestow things. Pure generosity will keep piling the food high on the plate; it will spin cotton candy until it fills the circus tent; it will give away the family jewels.

Gevorah is the quality of contraction and restraint. It stands in opposition to generosity. Restraint is the ability to say no even when social pressure is brought to bear. Gevorah represents universal justice as well; it understands that everything impacts and has repercussions. The tendency of gevorah is to be excessively conservative, preferring things just as they are. Uncontrolled, gevorah is stifling. It does not allow for any movement. It is strictly conformist, unspontaneous, rigid, and hypercritical.

These two poles interact and work with each other. At times, we are drawn more by our generous spirit; other times we withdraw. The system is dynamic and continuously fluid. We all have tendencies to lean one way or the other. Yet we are under the influence of many variables. Thus, nobody is ever 100-percent predictable.

Because the poles of generosity and restraint constantly tug or push against each other, a pendulum, or balance point (
tiferet), is needed to mediate between the two. Tiferet represents compassion and beauty. In many ways it is the middle path, neither too self-indulgent nor too self-restrictive. It is important to note that tiferet has its own impact on the triad; it is not merely the consequence of two opposing forces. It brings to bear a third component, which is drawn from the trunk of the tree itself; reflection to generosity, and consideration to restraint. Thus, one can see that the entire triad is dynamic and mobile. (David Cooper, God Is a Verb, pp. 89,90)

I wonder what Chesed, Gevorah, and Tiferet would say about the future of the Dharma Overground. It might go something like this:

Chesed: We need to expand. Let’s be more inclusive. The potential for straight talk on dharma is enormous. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of this if we could just find a way to make it more appealing? We could have different sections, one for each tradition. And we need to reach out to women. Right now, DhO is a men’s club. Worse, it’s a white, geeky men’s club. The few women who have bothered to join rarely post. We are obviously doing something that is alienating to women. And where’s the ethnic and cultural diversity? How many Blacks do we have? How many Latinos? How many indigenous tribespeople? I could go on and on. (Golly, I hope I didn’t leave anybody out, I would just die if I offended anyone.) We have a few Asians and Europeans, and that’s a good start, but we should really do more outreach to let everyone know they are welcome here. Remember, anything that isn’t given away will eventually be lost.

Gevorah: Whoa, slow down there, Cheesy. DhO is fine just the way it is. We can’t be all things to all people. We’re lucky to have any community at all. There’s never been anything like DhO before. If we try to get cute, we’re just going to mess it up. Look, I care about diversity, too. But how many times have we seen something good go to the dogs while trying to expand? Why isn’t anyone ever satisfied with a good thing? I can see it now; we’re going to water down our message in some misguided effort to reach the whole world. That’s the very definition of “idiot compassion.” Let’s keep DhO small. In fact, let’s make it even more exclusive. It’s a niche site that has a very specific mission--to provide support for those few, rare, precious individuals who actually want to practice instead of just talk about it. It makes me sick to think that we are going to throw away what we have in an effort to get something better. Remember, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Tiferet: All right you two, let’s see if we can find some common ground. Maybe we can meet everybody’s needs. Chesed, you want to share your good fortune with others. Gevorah, you are worried that in a poorly conceived effort to grow for the sake of growth, even those who are being served now will end up with nothing. Is there some middle way between unbridled growth and rigid conservatism? It wouldn’t hurt us to be a little more inclusive. We don’t have to become the WalMart of enlightenment. Let’s take it point by point: in the first place, why do we use so much Theravada Buddhist language? Is it really the best language to use? We could discuss this as a community. Maybe we’ll decide that it is the best language to use, or at least as good as any. If so, let’s provide a section on basic Pali word definitions so that newcomers can get up to speed on the vocabulary. We could hyperlink all the Pali words to their definitions. It wouldn’t be that hard. And let’s acknowledge up front that many people have legitimate enlightenments that are not consistent with Theravada maps. Number two: surely we could all benefit from a better gender balance. Even the diehard geeky white men who post here regularly are going to like having women around. Let’s directly ask our female members what they would like to see and listen carefully to their answers. And number three, the fact that we don’t have much ethnic diversity is a little weird. We could at least ask the question: is there something off-putting about the way we are going about this? We don’t know the answer yet, but it wouldn’t hurt us to take an honest look at ourselves. Bottom line, let’s take care of ourselves while at the same time taking care of others.

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