How to Lead a Happy Life

January 7, 2011 at 11:23 AM

In my home state of Bavaria, Epiphany is a public holiday. Since the weather was blah (cloudy, drizzly, the snow melting and black ice on the roads in the morning) we decided to see an interesting movie in our local arthouse cinema "Lichtspiel". It was a live recording of an evening (2005-04-07) with the Swiss Zen teacher Marcel Geisser, interspersed with Klezmer music by "Harry's Freilach" (a Russian playing accordeon and German playing clarinet) in the Christian "Osterkirche" in Berlin-Wedding.

Buddhist words, Jewish music and a Christian location: more than enough diversity to attract my interest. At first, I was a little bit disappointed since there was no fiddler in the Klezmer band, but Marcel pointed out that the higher we raise our expectations, the more we set ourselves up for disappointment - not because what is is bad, but because it's not what we want it to be. So I contended myself with listening to the fascinating music played by the two formidable musicians and Marcel's inspiring words.

To me, that's exactly how the adherents of different religions and philosophies should treat each other: look, listen and learn.

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