Jewish Meditation Practices For Everyday Life

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.

"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

Written in a warm, accessible, and intimate style, Be Still and Get Going will touch those who are searching for an authentic spiritual practice that speaks to them in their own cultural language. Lew is one of the most sought-after rabbis on the lecture circuit. He has had national media exposure for his dynamic fusion of Eastern insight and Bible study, having been the subject of stories on ABC News, the McNeil Lehrer News Hour, and various NPR programs. In the past five years there have been national conferences on Jewish meditation in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Miami where Lew has been a featured speaker. Lew's first book, One God Clapping, was a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller and winner of the PEN Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence. Publishers Weekly hailed him as "a perceptive thinker" for his "refreshing and sometimes startling perspective" in his last book, This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared.

In our frantic, fast paced society, we need constant guidance to remind us that we can only find the peace of mind we sorely lack by looking inward. Judaism, like many other spiritual traditions, offers a unique path to cultivating fulfillment and presence of mind. In cultivating peace of mind, we do not aim to achieve transcendence. Rather, our goal is to enter fully into whatever is occurring in our lives and meet it with full presence. But being a better Jew and a happier person are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, they are mutually interdependent. From the moment we wake to the moment we fall asleep, biblical commandments provide us with guidelines that encourage us to be aware of the present moment. A Guide to Jewish Mindfulness provides concise and clear instructions on how to cultivate peace of mind in order to attain a life of greater commitment and inspiration for the present moment.

Students of mediation are usually surprised to discover that a Jewish mediation tradition exists and that it was an authentic and integral part of mainstream Judaism until the eighteenth century. Jewish Meditation is a step-by-step introduction to meditation and the Jewish practice of meditation in particular. This practical guide covers such topics as mantra meditation, contemplation, and visualization within a Jewish context. It shows us how to use meditative techniques to enhance prayer using the traditional liturgy—the Amidah and the Shema. Through simple exercises and clear explanations of theory, Rabbi Kaplan gives us the tools to develop our spiritual potential through an authentically Jewish meditative practice.

In Mindfulness: A Jewish Approach, Dr. Jonathan Feiner does a masterful job educating our minds and hearts in the understanding and practice of Jewish mindfulness. In an age of distraction and fragmentation this book uses Jewish wisdom, coupled with secular approaches in an integrated manner that serves as a road map to living life with greater awareness, purpose, and ability to live more fully in the present.

To nourish your spiritual self you need "rest" from your hectic life. This book shows you how to do it. "Renew the soul and your perspective of daily life will completely change. It is simply a matter of taking time, slowing down, shifting mundane consciousness into realms of higher insight and giving yourself the gift of reflection and contemplation." --from the Introduction While broad interest in Jewish meditation is a relatively new phenomenon, meditative practices have been deeply rooted in Judaism for thousands of years. Here, Rabbi David A. Cooper shows newcomers and experienced meditators alike how Jewish meditation can be an integral part of daily life, and can refresh us in our day-to-day encounters with ourselves, other people and in ritual, prayer, Torah study and our celebration of the Sabbath and other holy days.

Meditation empowers us to transcend our material mind-set and touch the Infinite and Eternal. "True meditation transforms the way we see reality.... It touches the place inside us where a spark of the Eternal dwells. Meditation unites us with our true Self." —from the Introduction The life of meditation is much more than the act of sitting for half an hour or forty-five minutes and looking inward. It is a whole way of life. Through meditation we learn to live in a heightened awareness and walk at all times in the presence of God. Rabbi Yoel Glick brings wisdom from personal experience and Eastern traditions to illuminate and vitalize familiar Jewish rituals, vocabulary and imagery. He provides specific guidelines and practical techniques grounded in Judaism for each stage of the life of meditation, outlining the inner processes we encounter and the questions we face: How does meditation help us connect with the Collective Jewish Soul? What happens in our mind, body and soul when we meditate? How do we resist the pull of a material mind-set and live in expanded consciousness? What does it feel like to reach union with our spiritual source? How do we remain aware of God's living presence in our everyday life?