The prayer house was like a barracks.

  It was odd but no sooner did Yasha find himself in a House of Prayer than he began taking stock of his soul. True, he had alienated himself from the pious but he had lost everything: Emilia, his career, his health, his home. Emilia's words returned to him, "You must have some sort of a covenant with God since he punishes you so promptly." Yes, Heaven kept a sharp lookout over him. Possibly it was because he had never stopped believing. But what did they want of him? Earlier that day he had known what was required--that he keep to the path of righteousness as had his father before him and his father's father before that. Now he was again a prey to doubts. Why did God need these capotes, these sidelocks, these skullcaps, these sashes? How many more generations would wrangle over the Talmud? How many more restrictions would the Jew put on himself? How much longer would they wait for the Messiah, they who had already waited two thousand years? God was one thing, these man-made dogmas another. But was one able to serve God without dogmas? How had he, Yasha, come to be in his present predicament? He most certainly would not have been involved in all these love affairs and other escapades if he had put on a fringed garment and had prayed thrice daily. A religion was like an army--to operate it required discipline. An abstract faith inevitably led to sin. The prayer house was like a barracks; there God's soldiers were mustered.

From The Magician of Lublin by Isaac Bashevis Singer, 1960.

"The house of prayer was like a barracks." Photo: "Gothic Revival Church with Shattered Window, Utica, N.Y." copyright 2013 Peter Gumaer Ogden.

If Moses had been a woman....

What's a divorce---A piece of paper. Everything is paper, my dear man, even money. I mean big money, not pocket change. Those who hold the pen--write. Moses was a man. That's why he wrote that a man could have ten wives, but if  a woman looked at another man she had to be stoned. If a woman had held the pen she would have written the exact opposite.

From The Magician of Lublin by Isaac Bashevis Singer, 1960.

You can do anything.

" You can do anything, you only need to know how."

-From The Magician of Lublin by Isaac Bashevis Singer, 1960.

Inventing Gods and Idols.

"The whole world worships idols," the rabbi muttered. "They invent gods and they serve them."

From Something Is There, Part 9. by Isaac Bashevis Singer

From "Journey of the Magi" by Benozzo Gozzoli, 1459-1461. Medici Chapel, Florence, Italy.

Chazkele wants the truth about God.

"A modern Polish Rabbi..."

Even in cheder, Chazkele began to ask questions about God. If God is merciful, why do small children die? If he loves Jews, why do the Gentiles beat them? If He is the Father of all creatures, why does he allow the cat to kill the mouse? Our teacher, Fishele, was the first to predict that Chazkele would grow up a nonbeliever. Later, when Chazkele began to study in the study house house, he plagued the principal of our yeshiva, Reb Ephraim Gabriel, with his queries. He found all kinds of contradictions in the Bible and in the Talmud. For example, in one place it is written that God cannot be seen and in another that the elders ate and drank and saw him. Here it is said that the Lord doesn't punish the children for the sins of their fathers and elsewhere that He takes revenge on the third and fourth generations. Reb Ephraim Gabriel tried to explain these things as well as he could, but Chazkele would not be put off so easily. The enlightened ones in Malopol were pleased with Chazkele's heresies, but even they advised him not to overdo it if he didn't want to be persecuted by the fanatics. But Chazkele would answer, " I don't give a damn. I want the truth."

From "The Blasphemer" by Isaac Bashevis Singer.

 This illustration by Maurice Sendak was once proposed for a childrens' book by Singer but was not used because it was considered "too scary".

Neuroses in Revolt.

"All my life I've had one main neurosis and a lot of little ones I called the 'candidates.' When one stepped out, another rose to take its place. They kept on changing, like a clique of politicians. One became the leader for a few years, and then he handed over power to the next. In a few cases, something like a court revolution occurred."

From The Mentor, Part 2 by Isaac Bashevis Singer

Worms and...Nature Knows No Compassion?

 Isaac Bashevis Singer

PGO NOTE: Because this blog is for the Central New York State Buddhist Sangha you might wonder why I am posting quotes from Noble Prize winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer here. 


I have just recently discovered Mr. Singer's work and I find it to be so wonderfully refreshing and brilliant and in sinc with much of my own thinking that I can hardly put his vintage novels down. I do not agree with all his sentiments that I quote but I find them worthy of note. I intend to read every one of his stories that I can get my hands. Having read several of his novels and numerous short stories in the past few weeks I have yet to be disappointed. I highly recommend him.

The relation to Buddhism here is the fact that Mr. Singer, the immigrant son of a Polish rabbi, fills his writings with themes of spirituality, religion, religious philosophy and analysis of the human condition with much speculation about who we are, what we are, why we are here, where we came from, where we are going and what God might or might not be if it exists at all.

From The Mentor, Part 2:

"Nature knows no compassion. As far as nature is concerned, we are like worms."

[This reminds me of a statement I read by a Buddhist scholar which is as follows:
"God is compassionate, humankind has some compassion, nature has no compassion." The implication here was that this was a very good reason for showing respect for Mother Nature].

You taught me the Bible, and my father stuffed me with the miracles that God performed for the Jews. But after what happened to them one must be absolutely stupid and insensitive to believe in God and all that drivel. What's more, to believe in a compassionate God is the worst betrayal of the victims. A rabbi from America visited here [PGO: nascent mid 20th century Israel], and he preached that all the six million Jews sit in paradise, gorge themselves on the meat of the Leviathan, and study the Torah with angels. You don't need to be a psychologist to figure out what that kind of belief compensates for. [PGO :?].
In Jerusalem there's a group that dabbles in psychic research. I became involved in a little--I even attended their seances. It's all fake. If they don't swindle others, they deceive themselves. Without a functioning brain, there is no thought. If a hereafter really existed, it would be the greatest cruelty. Why should a soul remember all the pettiness of its existence? What would be so wonderful if my father's soul continued to live and recall how his partner stole from him, how his house burned down, how my sister Mirele died in childbirth, and then the ghettos, the camps, and the Nazi ovens. If there is one iota of justice in nature, it is the obliteration of the spirit when the body decays. I don't understand how one can thin differently.

"Orthodox Kismet" Peter Gumaer Ogden, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Mixed media collage ca. 2008.

[Click on image to enlarge].

PGO: It doesn't get much more cynical than that! Why shouldn't a soul wish to remember all the joys of its earthy life?

"There is some mysterious strength in fools. they are deeply rooted in the primeval chaos."

"...there is some weakness even in the strong."

CONTACT: peterogden7x7@yahoo.com

Ancient Extreme Weather

May 14, 2014.

He remembered a summer when the sky was overcast for three months straight. The days were as dark as the nights. the sun never showed itself, and people began to believe that a jealous god had extinguished it. In the months when usually it was hot, that year it snowed. The trees never bloomed and their branches remained bare. There was no grass, and oxen, cows, horses, sheep, and pigs all died of hunger. The vines produced no fruit and the earth no vegetables. Entire tribes starved to death. Even the fish in the rivers perished, since they, too, needed the earth's plants. A sorceress* foresaw that the end of the world was coming. But suddenly the sky cleared and the sun shone. One day it was winter, and the next, summer came. That night old women saw a brightly lit ship in the sky, with shimmering sails.

*PGO Note: A "sorceress": aka "clergy"/ "mystical entrepreneurs".

-The King of the Fields, Part 3. 1988. Isaac Bashevis Singer

 PGO: 
I have an artist cousin named Walter Fields who was the proprietor of his own gallery, The Jacklight Gallery in lower Manhattan. I do not know if he is still living. He was a great character and free spirit. One Christmas he sent me a card that he had design which depicted an old sailing ship in the sky beneath which, in the landscape, sat a small and ancient church with a ship's anchor in front of it displayed prominently. 

A description on the card told of a legend of ancient times when a wooden ship had been observed sailing across the sky. Allegedly this ship had dropped it's anchor. I believe this was supposed to have happened somewhere in the British Isles. Legend was that to this day the ancient and mysterious anchor that had fallen to earth was still preserved in the church as a hallowed relic.

It seems that until modern machine propulsion theory and advanced steel technology gained momentum in the late 19th century and was popularized by H.G. Wells and other early science fiction authors, "UFO's", as they are now known reflected the known technology of ancient times: sailing ships, chariots and horses flying across the sky. It seems that human imagination did not create the alleged "flying saucer" until our technology enabled this notion.

Pandemic Schizophrenia

"I have played with the idea that all of humanity suffers from schizophrenia. Along with the atom, the personality of Homo sapiens has been splitting. When it comes to technology, the brain still functions, but in everything else degeneration has begun. They are all insane: the Communists, the Fascists, the preachers of democracy, the writers, the painters, the clergy, the atheists. Soon technology, too, will disintegrate. Buildings will collapse, power plants will stop generating electricity. Generals will drop atomic bombs on their own populations. Mad revolutionaries will run in the streets, crying fantastic slogans. I have often thought that it would begin in New York. This metropolis has all the symptoms of a mind gone berserk."
--Isaac Bashevis Singer. From Part 5 of his short story The Cafeteria.

PGO: The above was originally published during the "Cold War" which explains Singer's emphasis on the fear of atomophobia. Increasingly today "Climate Change" is realizing and replacing the mid 20th century fear of nuclear annihilation. Who, in 1950 would have considered that the forces of Mother Nature were a far greater impending realistic threat to life on earth than the atom bomb?

I disagree with Singer's choice of New York City as the center where the breakdown would begin. This is due to the fact that over the past several decades the intellectual caliber, quality and overrall wisdom of New Yorkers has increased tremendously as the city has flourished. I see Los Angeles as the first American city where the breakdown will explode, should it ever occur. Where do you think it would begin, and why?

On technology Singer is timely. Many of us are concerned that, as the rate of technological advancement accelerates exponentially a smash up is unavoidable. A new Dark Age? Let us hope not and let us be forewarned. One is reminded of the lyrics of a song from the 1970's on the Aqualung album by Ian Anderson: "Old Charlie stole the handle, and the train it won't stop going; no way to slow down, no way to slow down." Perhaps we are nearing the end of a technological acceleration cycle? One can now understand some of the reasoning of powerful religious leaders of the Middle Ages who sought to stifle scientific progress and "secrets which humankind should not unlock."

We have abandoned so many of the societal warnings of the 1960s and '70s.

Isaac Bashevis Singer. Copyright 1988 Nancy Crompton.

To Give or to Take?

The Buddha said, "If beings knew, as I know, the results of giving and sharing...even if it were their last bite...they would not eat without having shared, if there were someone to receive their gift."

On the other hand:

"A fool gives, a wise man takes." -An old Polish folk saying quoted in Isaac Bashevis Singer's novel, "The Estate".