God in Your Body

Jay Michaelson

Description

Your body is the place where heaven and earth meet.

The greatest spiritual achievement is not transcending the body but joining body and spirit together. But to do this, you must break through assumptions that draw boundaries around the Infinite and wake up to the body as the site of holiness itself.

This groundbreaking book is the first comprehensive treatment of the body in Jewish spiritual practice and an essential guide to the sacred. With meditation practices, physical exercises, visualizations, and sacred text, you will learn how to experience the presence of the Divine in, and through, your body. And by cultivating an embodied spiritual practice, you will transform everyday activities—eating, walking, breathing, washing—into moments of deep spiritual realization, uniting sacred and sensual, mystical and mundane.

Introduction ix

The Union of Body and Soul ix
"God"? xi
The Idea of Practice xiii
Cutting and Pasting xv
An Invitation xvii

1. Eating1
V'achalta: Eating Meditation 2
V’savata: Experiencing Satisfaction 7
U’verachta: Count your Blessings 9
Transparent Kashrut 16

2. Praying 21
Embodied Jewish Prayer 22
Sweat Your Prayers—Hasidic Style 27
“Every Limb Will Praise You”:
Jewish Liturgy and the Body 30

3. Breathing 35
Basic Breathing Meditation 36
Adding God to your Breath 39

4. Walking 45
Basic Walking Meditation 46
Four Ways to Walk with God 48

5. Using the Bathroom 55
Asher Yatzar: The Bathroom Blessing 56
Toilet Zen: Meditation for the Restroom 60

6. Sex 63
Sex Is Holy 65
Practicing Sacred Sexuality 72

7. Mirroring the Divine 77
Contemplating the Miniature World 78
Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation 83
Embodying the Ten Sefirot 86
Looking in the Mirror 95

8. Exercising 97
Spiritual Exercise: Beyond the Mat 100
A Four Worlds Workout 104

9. Dancing 115
Ecstatic Dancing, Sacred and Secular 116
The Quartet and the Mosh Pit 122

10. Fasting 125
The Benefits of Denial 126
Fasting in Context: The Five Minor Fasts 128
Fasting as Catharsis: Yom Kippur 132

11. Washing 137
Is Cleanliness Next to Godliness? 138
Washing as a Spiritual Practice 141

12. The Mikva 145
Waters of Rebirth 146
Solitary Mikva Practices 149
Communal Mikva Practices 151
Beyond the Mikva 153
Your Blood Is a Blessing (by Holly Taya Shere) 154

13. Nature 159
Mindfulness in Nature 161
The Path of Blessing 164

14. The Five Senses 169
Sound 170
Smell 173
Touch 176
Taste 179
Sight 181

15. Embodied Emotions 183
Feeling Emotions in the Body 184
Kabbalah’s Map of the Heart-Body 187

16. Sickness and Health 191
Spiritual Practice in Sickness and in Health 193
The Deeper Meaning of Health 195

17. Life Cycle 201
Birth and Childhood 201
Adulthood: Coming of Age, Partnering, and Aging 205
Death 207

18. Just Being 211
Appendix: Four Worlds—A Kabbalistic Map
of Our Experiential Universe 215

Notes 217
Glossary 225
Bibliography 231
Credits 239
Acknowledgments 240
Topical Index 241
Index of Practices 246

Sujets

• mysticism
• Philosophie et théologie
• Cábala
• Jewish meditation
• Kabbalah
• Judaism
• Religion
• Kabbale

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 18 août 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781580234979
• Langue: English

Extrait

God in Your Body :
Kabbalah, Mindfulness and Embodied Spiritual Practice
2008 Second Printing
2007 First Printing
2007 by Jay Michaelson
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 permissions @jewishlights.com .
Page 239 constitutes a continuation of this copyright page.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Michaelson, Jay, 1971-
God in your body: Kabbalah, mindfulness and embodied spiritual practice/
Jay Michaelson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-58023-304-0 (pbk.)
ISBN-10: 1-58023-304-X (pbk.)
1. Spiritual life-Judaism. 2. Body, Human-Religious aspects-Judaism.
3. Meditation-Judaism. 4. Cabala. I. Title.
BM723.M448 2006 296.7-dc22
2006028753
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Manufactured in the United States of America
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
In my flesh, I see God.
Job 19:26
Only the nonsensical is at ease with the Absolute. Listen to your angels ripening your secrets. Come to beautiful terms with the god in your body.
James Broughton
Contents
Introduction
The Union of Body and Soul
God ?
The Idea of Practice
Cutting and Pasting
An Invitation
1. Eating
V achalta: Eating Meditation
V savata: Experiencing Satisfaction
U verachta: Count your Blessings
Transparent Kashrut
2. Praying
Embodied Jewish Prayer
Sweat Your Prayers-Hasidic Style
Every Limb Will Praise You : Jewish Liturgy and the Body
3. Breathing
Basic Breathing Meditation
Adding God to your Breath
4. Walking
Basic Walking Meditation
Four Ways to Walk with God
5. Using the Bathroom
Asher Yatzar: The Bathroom Blessing
Toilet Zen: Meditation for the Restroom
6. Sex
Sex Is Holy
Practicing Sacred Sexuality
7. Mirroring the Divine
Contemplating the Miniature World
Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation
Embodying the Ten Sefirot
Looking in the Mirror
8. Exercising
Spiritual Exercise: Beyond the Mat
A Four Worlds Workout
9. Dancing
Ecstatic Dancing, Sacred and Secular
The Quartet and the Mosh Pit
10. Fasting
The Benefits of Denial
Fasting in Context: The Five Minor Fasts
Fasting as Catharsis: Yom Kippur
11. Washing
Is Cleanliness Next to Godliness?
Washing as a Spiritual Practice
12. The Mikva
Waters of Rebirth
Solitary Mikva Practices
Communal Mikva Practices
Beyond the Mikva
Your Blood Is a Blessing (by Holly Taya Shere)
13. Nature
Mindfulness in Nature
The Path of Blessing
14. The Five Senses
Sound
Smell
Touch
Taste
Sight
15. Embodied Emotions
Feeling Emotions in the Body
Kabbalah s Map of the Heart-Body
16. Sickness and Health
Spiritual Practice in Sickness and in Health
The Deeper Meaning of Health
17. Life Cycle
Birth and Childhood
Adulthood: Coming of Age, Partnering, and Aging
Death
18. Just Being
Appendix: Four Worlds-A Kabbalistic Map of Our Experiential Universe
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Credits
Acknowledgments
Topical Index
Index of Practices
About Jewish Lights
Copyright
Introduction
The Union of Body and Soul
This book is about embodied spiritual practice: how to experience the deep truths of reality in, and through, your body. To some, this may seem like a contradiction. Aren t spirit and body separate? Isn t a spiritual experience precisely one that is out of body, in a special state of mind?
In the paths we will explore here, spirit and body are not separate at all. Nor is spirituality a special feeling, or a trance, or a vision, although such phenomena may accompany some spiritual practices. Rather, because Being is omnipresent, the experience of spirituality is nothing more or less than a deep, rich experience of ordinary reality. Realization is simply waking up. And the body, because it is always present here and now, is both the best vehicle for doing so, on the one hand, and, on the other, how holiness expresses itself in the world.
Jews are sometimes called the people of the book. But as many scholars have observed, they are equally the people of the body. Consider the core practices of mainstream Jewish religion. Traditional observance of the Sabbath and holidays involves not beliefs or spiritual feelings, but taking and refraining from certain physical actions. Jewish dietary laws are about foods, not sentiments; Jewish ethics is about action, not intention. Even Jewish prayer-built around the kneeling ( Barchu ), listening ( Shema ), and standing ( Amidah ) prayers-is based not upon some abstract soul or spirit, but upon the body. This body-centricity of the Jewish tradition is well known in academic and scholarly circles but, ironically, forgotten in many religious ones.
Even the Kabbalah, the vast body of Jewish mystical and esoteric literature, understands the greatest spiritual achievement not as transcending the body, but as joining body and spirit together. Symbolically, the Kabbalists imagined the six-pointed Jewish star as one triangle pointing upward-toward heaven, transcendence, and the emptiness of the Infinite-and another pointing downward, toward the earth, immanence, and the endless varieties of experience. The great goal of Kabbalah, which literally means receiving, is not to privilege one triangle over the other-to flee the material world in favor of the spiritual one, or vice versa. It is the sacred marriage of the two.
This union has many iterations: body and spirit, earth and sky, experience and theory, the Presence and the Holy One, feminine and masculine, immanence and transcendence, form and emptiness, the many manifest energies of the world and their ultimate, essential unity. And the opportunities for consummating it are omnipresent, because there are no boundaries around the Infinite. Thus religion belongs in bed as well as in the sanctuary; and bodywork belongs in temples as well as on yoga mats. Sex, eating, bathing-these are not necessary evils in the Kabbalah. Rather, the body, about which there is often so much shame and so much fear, is the most practical place for spiritual work.
This integral vision is reflected in the kabbalistic concept of the four worlds, 1 which is used often in this book as an organizing principle for spiritual practice. Each of the worlds (a chart is in the Appendix) has a nest of symbolic associations and experiential elements, but perhaps their most important feature is that, because each world is important, the familiar hierarchies of spirit over body, and mind over heart, suddenly make no sense. As we will see, the worlds of asiyah (action), yetzirah (formation), briyah (creation), and atzilut (emanation) and the four souls of nefesh (fleshly, earth-soul), ruach (emotional, water-soul), neshamah (intellectual, air-soul), and chayah (spiritual, fire-soul) roughly map onto the familiar matrix of body, heart, mind, and spirit. But all are really a reflection of yechidah (unity). Thus the ideal is not transcendence alone, but transcendence with inclusion of the lower in the higher. Forgetting the body in favor of the soul is like forgetting the foundation of a house in favor of the living room; it will not hold.
The values of integration, union, and balance affect how one studies this wisdom as well. On the one hand, intellectual theories give meaning and shape to experience. On the other hand, experience is essential: material, embodied experience-that which often wanders in exile, like a forgotten princess awaiting her redemption. Enlightenment is simply knowing the truth of what is, but knowing like the knowing of Adam by Eve. Secret wisdom, such as that of Kabbalah, is not secret simply because its formulae are not disclosed; with just a few years of education, you can learn their words. Rather, secret wisdom is such because it is experiential wisdom, and thus impossible to convey in words at all.
So, in this book we will speak of both theory and practice. For some, there may be too many words, too many concepts; for others, too much emphasis on subjective experience. Yet an integral spirituality, one that marries heaven and earth, must embrace intellect and the body, tradition and experience, analytical rigor and spiritual courage. Both sides are essential: the abstract ( God ) and the concrete ( your body ). Theories of the body, pathways of the soul-these are wonderful maps and excellent recipes for wisdom. But the map is not the territory, and the recipe is not the meal.
God ?
What is meant by the word God ? And how does an experience in your body have anything to do with God in your body ?
When I use the word God in an intellectual, third-person way, I mean what the ancient Hebrews called YHVH-What Is; Being; What Was, Is, and Will Be. Intellectually, for monotheists, God is Ein Sof , infinite, and thus must fill all creation; otherwise, God would go up until a certain point and then have a limit-and thus, not be infinite. Consequently, what appear, on the surface, to be computers, trees, and hamburgers are actually, in their essence, God. The Ein Sof is not a figure within or beyond the universe, a person who either does or does not exist; the Ein Sof is the ground of being itself. Forms that appear to be real are really manifestations of It. Or, to paraphrase a teaching from another tradition, God does not exist; God is existence itself. 2
But what if you don t believe in God in this way? Feel fr