Jewish Meditation Practices for Everyday Life

Jeff Roth

Description

Awaken your heart and mind to see your own capacity for
wisdom, compassion, and kindness.

“When we awaken to our own light, it becomes possible to develop real wisdom about our life. As wisdom allows us to see clearly, our hearts break open with compassion for the struggles of our own lives and the lives of all beings. Awakened with wisdom and compassion, we are impelled to live our lives with kindness, and we are led to do whatever we can to repair the brokenness of our world.”
—from the Introduction

At last, a fresh take on meditation that draws on life experience and living life with greater clarity rather than the traditional method of rigorous study.

Based on twenty-five years of bringing meaningful spiritual practice to the Jewish community, well-known meditation teacher and practitioner Rabbi Jeff Roth presents Jewish contemplative techniques that foster the development of a heart of wisdom and compassion. This contemporary approach to meditation—accessible to both beginners and experts alike—focuses on using the distilled wisdom of Buddhism and Judaism as a way to learn from life experience. By combining these two traditions, he presents a model that allows westerners—both Jews and non-Jews—to embrace timeless Eastern teachings without sacrificing their birth traditions.

Sujets

• Prayerbooks
• Rituals
• Jewish
• Philosophie et théologie
• Jews
• Prayer book
• Judaism
• Religion
• Practice

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 07 février 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781580235778
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Jewish Meditation Practices for Everyday Life: Awakening Your Heart, Connecting with God
2009 Quality Paperback Edition, Second Printing 2009 Quality Paperback Edition, First Printing 2009 by Jeff Roth
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information regarding permission to reprint material from this book, please mail or fax your request in writing to Jewish Lights Publishing, Permissions Department, at the address / fax number listed below, or e-mail your request to [e-mail] .
Vipassana Meditation Guidelines by Sayadaw U-Janaka includes in its Preface the statement that it was revised again by Bikkhu Pesala for free distribution.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Roth, Jeff. Jewish meditation practices for everyday life : awakening your heart, connecting with God / Jeff Roth. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN-13: 978-1-58023-397-2 (quality pbk.) ISBN-10: 1-58023-397-X (quality pbk.) 1. Meditation-Judaism. 2. Spiritual life-Judaism. I. Title. BM723.R65 2009 296.7 2-dc22
2008055281
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Manufactured in the United States of America Cover art: Detail of A Moment of the Divine, by Anita Rabinoff-Goldman, Pomegranate Judaica; www.pomegranatejudaica.com ; [phone]. From the collection of Dr. Steve and Bonnie Cramer.
For People of All Faiths, All Backgrounds Published by Jewish Lights Publishing A Division of Longhill Partners, Inc. Sunset Farm Offices, Route 4, P.O. Box 237 Woodstock, VT 05091 Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone] www.jewishlights.com
To my parents, Alan z l and Eunice Roth I am blessed to have had parents who loved me and gave me the space to seek out my own path.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Wake Up
Are You a Mystic?
1. Waking Up in the Midst of Your Life
You Have All That You Need
Choosing Your Thoughts
The Beginning of My Own Journey to My Heart
The Heron Who Thought He Was a Chicken
Watch Out What You Wish For
2. Beginning a Practice
Two Different Forms of Meditation: Concentration and Awareness
Setting Your Intention to Experience the Divine
Breathing and the Divine Presence
Chanting the Divine Name
Anchoring the Mind in the Here and Now
The Importance of the Breath
Helpful Exercises and Techniques
3. The Nature of Mind
Limited Awareness versus Expanded Awareness
Sensations, Feeling Tone, Mental Formations, and Perception
The Reality of Pleasant and Unpleasant Sensations
Who Can I Blame for My Problems?
Can You Trust Your Perceptions?
The Self-Serving Nature of Most Thoughts
Don t Believe Everything You Think about Yourself
Altered States and Mystical Experiences
Warnings for Potential Mystics
The Reward of Insights
Be Careful When You Speak Your Mind
The Annual Forty-Day Program of Purification
4. Making the Darkness Conscious
The Evil Inclination
The Serious and Beautiful Problem of Your Childish Consciousness
Getting a Handle on Your Yetzer : The Process of Naming
Just Grin and Bear It
Learn to Be with Hard Feelings
Working with the Yetzer by Cultivating Restraint
The Debilitating Nature of Doubt
5. Embracing the Divine
Everything Is God and Nothing but God
The Organic Model of the Divine
Socialized Meditation Practice
The Fourfold Nature of Divine Oneness
A Guided Meditation of Peak Experience
6. Prayer and Meditation
Cultivating Wholesome Mind States
Intention in Prayer versus Attachment to Results
Starting Your Contemplative Prayer Practice
Prayer Is a Ladder That Connects You and God
The Prayers
7. A Blessing Practice
Escaping from Egypt
Cultivating a Heart Full of Peace
Experience the Power of Giving Blessings
Be a Source of Blessing for All Beings
Using the Blessing Practice
A Guided Meditation for Experiencing Peace (Shalom)
A Guided Meditation for Experiencing Joy (Simcha)
A Guided Meditation for Experiencing Lovingkindness (Chesed)
A Guided Meditation for Experiencing Compassion (Rahamim)
Blessing All Beings
Sending Blessings to Difficult People
A Note on Keeping the Heart Open
Trying Not to Waste Any Blessings
Blessings on the Subway and at the Airport
A Special Note
8. L chayyim -Into Life
The Benefits of Regular Meditation Retreats
Using the Sabbath as a Day of Deep Practice
Creating a Well-Rounded Spiritual Life
Torah-Recognizing the Truth as the Path to Acquiring Wisdom
Practice Awareness All the Time
Practicing Eating Meditation
As You Walketh by the Way
It Is Very Hard to Do This Work Alone
Working with Pain
Avodah -Cultivating an Open Heart
Cultivating Generosity
The Result of Practice: Deeds of Lovingkindness- Gemilut Hasadim
No End, Just a Journey
Appendix A: Psalm
Appendix B: Resources for Further Learning
Notes

About Jewish Lights
Copyright
Acknowledgments
W hatever wisdom and heartfelt sharing I have managed to write down in this book were all the result of some special teachers I have had the merit to encounter. I learned most of the material I refer to in the context of the primary relationships of my life. I am grateful to my partner, Rabbi Joanna Katz, who is on this journey of waking up alongside me. We learn and teach the art of paying attention to life together. My children, Esther, Jesse, and Suri, listened to and inspired many of the stories. It is for them, and for all spouses and children, that I pray we all learn to see our lives more clearly.
I am thankful for my first college roommate, Buddy Glick, who taught me to seek the heart and opened my eyes to the world. Ateret Cohen trained me to be a Jewish camp director. She showed me that Jewish learning could be accessible and exciting. Rabbi Arthur Waskow connected the dots for me between Judaism and social justice. Meeting Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi helped me reframe my life as a spiritual journey. He opened the doors to the world of prayer and connection to the Divine. This book is filled with his inspiration.
My involvement in meditation began with learning many of these practices from Sylvia Boorstein. She took me on as a special student, inviting me to teach with her regularly. The depth of her insights into daily life as practice and her skills as a teacher warrant my sharing of whatever good comes from this book with her. My colleague Rabbi Sheila Peltz-Weinberg has been a constant support as we apprenticed together and joined an advanced study group in meditation. Norman Fischer has been instrumental in expanding my awareness as a coteacher. I was fortunate to develop the material I share in this book by teaching numerous retreats with others besides Sylvia, Sheila, Norman, Zalman, and Joanna, including Rabbi David and Shoshana Cooper and Rabbi Alan Lew z l . Other meditation teachers I have worked with directly include Jack Kornfield, Guy Armstrong, Carol Wilson, Joseph Goldstein, Sayadaw U-Janaka, and Ajahn Samedho. It almost goes without saying that the students who have sat on the meditation retreats I have facilitated are my real partners in this work. The intimacy they allow in sharing the deepest yearnings of their souls is what keeps my practice alive.
This book was an idea in my mind with some fragmentary notes until Bert Shaw urged me to begin writing it in earnest. This is only one example of the many ways he has helped me grow. Special thanks go to my editor, Jurgen Mollers. As a fellow student of meditation, he has reflected with me about every idea and every word of this manuscript. His suggestions for additions as well as cuts made a far better book. He brought out the best in me through his careful listening and reflecting on the material I wanted to present. His appreciation for the manuscript was a great gift. He was aided in his editing work by Bill Scheinman and Kristen Burns. Special thanks to Stuart M. Matlins, publisher, Michaela Powell, Emily Wichland, and Kate Treworgy at Jewish Lights Publishing for their help in publishing this book.
A note about translations from the Torah: Except in a few cases where I offer my own translation, most quoted English translations are from Everett Fox s The Five Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy (New York: Schocken Books, 1983).
Introduction: Wake Up
Wake up, wake up! Your light, (which you are looking for) is already here. So rise up and shine with it! Awaken, awaken and express it in song. The glory of the Holy (Wholly) One is revealed upon you .
This is a book about waking up. More than that, it is about waking up in order to see clearly our own lives and the world around us. Perhaps most fundamentally, this is a book about our own happiness and the happiness of all other beings. I was twenty-nine years old and living in Portland, Oregon, when I first met Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. At the time, I was a member of a small Jewish community that came together to celebrate the Sabbath and Jewish holy days. My interest in Judaism was linked to the prophetic traditions and its pursuit of social justice, and our group promoted progressive causes within the wider Jewish community. By that time in my life I was already yearning for a direct experience of the Divine, an experience of awakening. I wanted to unite my activism with insights grounded in true and vital spiritual experience. But the Jewish prayer services I attended at the time gave me little spiritual insight. There was no sophisticated approach to the meaning or process of the prayers, nor was there a theology that made sense to me about the Being to whom we were praying. One of the organizers of our group had studied with Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, and at his suggestion we brought Reb Zalman to Portland to lead a weekend retreat. My cont