Meditation from the Heart of Judaism
Today's Teachers Share Their Practices, Techniques, and Faith
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
Techniques explained by the masters—for today’s spiritual seeker
Meditation is designed to give you direct access to the spiritual. Whether it’s through deep breathing during a busy day, listening to the quiet after turning off the car radio, chanting in prayer, or ten minutes of visualization exercises each morning, meditation takes many forms. But it is always a personal method of centering our spiritual self.
Meditation has long been practiced in the Jewish community as a powerful tool to transcend words, personality, and ego and to directly experience the divine. Inspiring yet practical, this introduction to meditation from a Jewish perspective approaches it in a new and illuminating way: As it is personally practiced by today’s most experienced Jewish meditators from around the world.
A “how to” guide for both beginning and experienced meditators, Meditation from the Heart of Judaism will help you start meditating or help you enhance your practice. Meditation is a Jewish spiritual resource for today that can benefit people of all faiths and backgrounds—and help us add spiritual energy to our lives. Contributors include:
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
As Davis points out in his introduction to this volume, the practice of meditation has always been an important component of Jewish spirituality. However, Davis notes, for centuries the practice "was reserved for an elite group rather than being a tool designed for ordinary people and used by ordinary people." The authors who celebrate the value of Jewish meditation come from a range of backgrounds and perspectives: among them are Sylvia Boorstein, an observant Jew who teaches Buddhism and mindfulness meditation; Rabbi David Cooper, the director of the Heart of Stillness Retreat Center near Boulder, Colo.; and Nan Fink, a convert to Judaism who teaches Jewish meditation. These various teachers reveal not only techniques for performing meditation but also present some of the obstacles they have encountered in their own attempts to meditate. Each writer focuses on an aspect of meditative practice that is meaningful to him or her, but all agree that meditation practice brings about true chochmat, or wisdom, and that this is the first step toward realizing mochin gadlut, or deep mind. Because the various authors tell their own stories of practicing meditation, this collection is at once engaging and informative, offering a wonderful introduction to the practice of Jewish meditation.
