Discovering Jewish Meditation (2nd Edition) , livre ebook

Discovering Jewish Meditation
SECOND EDITION
I NSTRUCTION G UIDANCE FOR L EARNING AN A NCIENT S PIRITUAL P RACTICE

Nan Fink Gefen, PhD
Discovering Jewish Meditation , Second Edition:
Instruction Guidance for Learning an Ancient Spiritual Practice
2011 Quality Paperback Edition, First Printing
Copyright 2011 by Nan Fink Gefen
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 .
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gefen, Nan Fink.
Discovering Jewish meditation : instruction guidance for learning an ancient spiritual practice / Nan Fink Gefen. - 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-58023-462-7 (quality pbk.)
1. Jewish meditations. 2. Meditation-Judaism. 3. Spiritual life-Judaism.
I. Title.
BM724.G44 2011
296.7'2-dc22
2011016125
Second Edition
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Manufactured in the United States of America
Cover art Karol Kozlowski. Image from BigStockPhoto.com , modified by Gloria Todt Cover design: Gloria Todt Text design: Sans Serif, Inc.
Published by Jewish Lights Publishing A Division of LongHill Partners, Inc. Sunset Farm Offices, Route 4, P.O. Box 237 Woodstock, Vermont 05091 Tel: (802) 457-4000 Fax: (802) 457-4004 www.jewishlights.com
Contents
Introduction to the Second Edition
Acknowledgments
Part One: The Practice of Jewish Meditation
1. What Is Jewish Meditation?
2. The Promise of Jewish Meditation
3. States of Consciousness
4. Forms of Jewish Meditation
5. Getting Started
Part Two: The Core Meditations
6. Focused Meditations
Hineini Meditation
Shalom Meditation
Divine Light Meditation
Chesed Meditation
Thankfulness Meditation
Neshamah Meditation
Sh ma Meditation
Yod-Hay-Vav-Hay Meditation
7. Awareness Meditations
Gam Zeh Kadosh Meditation
Walking Meditation
8. Emptiness Meditations
Ayin Breath Meditation
Space-between-the-Letters Meditation
Beyond-the-Self Meditation
Part Three: A Meditative Life
9. Challenges of a Meditative Life
10. Meditation and Jewish Spiritual Practice
11. A Morning Meditative Prayer Practice
Jewish Meditation Resource Guide for Beginning Meditators
About Jewish Lights
Copyright
Introduction to the Second Edition

In the first edition of Discovering Jewish Meditation (Jewish Lights Publishing), I began this introduction by saying that Jewish meditation is a profound spiritual practice. In this second edition, I underscore that statement.
Jewish meditation is a practice that can sustain you and deepen your connection to the Divine over the course of your lifetime. Seekers throughout history have practiced it and reaped its rewards, and today many people are making it a significant part of their everyday spiritual practice.
I am one of those people. I depend on meditation to keep my mind calm, my thoughts clear, and my connection to the Holy vibrant and strong.
I discovered Jewish meditation by chance more than twenty-five years ago. I was reading books about Jewish mysticism, and I came across references to meditation within the Jewish tradition. This surprised me since I thought that Judaism was a pragmatic, in-this-world religion rather than one that can lead to spiritual transformation. I d always assumed that meditation was part of other traditions, not mine.
Intrigued, I began to investigate. My limited knowledge of Hebrew precluded me from diving into esoteric Hebrew texts, and the English texts that were available had little guidance in starting a spiritual practice of Jewish meditation. Without a guide, I couldn t figure out how Jewish meditation was done or whether anyone was still doing it. Nevertheless, I was determined to find a way into it.
At that time, I yearned to cultivate a spiritual practice that would infuse my daily existence with meaning. I was struggling with some personal issues, and I had hope that meditation would help me find deeper wisdom and a sense of peace.
I began slowly. Every morning I set aside twenty minutes to meditate. I simply observed my breath, noticing the rise and fall of my chest and the feelings in my body. It didn t take long for me to discover that my mind had a mind of its own-even though I intended to stay focused on my breath, it kept wandering from thought to thought, out of control. After a lot of practice, I learned to let go of each thought as it arose and return to the starting point of breath.
When I felt secure in my ability to do this simple meditation, I tried others. I experimented with the meditations in this book, which I learned from colleagues or discovered myself through reading and experience. I developed a core practice of familiar meditations, sometimes going for months with the Hineini meditation, the first I teach in this book, or one of the others. I tried meditating at different times of the day and in different settings, experiencing the effect of subtle energies on my practice.
The results of this practice amazed me. I can say with conviction that Jewish meditation transformed my life. I became steadier, more aware, and more focused. I experienced a deeper connection to the presence of the Holy in everything around me. Meditation didn t make the issues in my life go away, but I saw them through a different lens and found that I was handling them in more fruitful ways.
As my Jewish meditation practice became central to my spiritual well-being, I began to teach others how to do it. I did this carefully and with humility, knowing I was only a few steps ahead of my students. I learned an enormous amount from them through the questions they asked and the accounts of their experience. For twelve years, my main work was teaching Jewish meditation and Jewish spiritual practice at Chochmat HaLev, a center of Jewish meditation in the Bay Area. During that time, we trained almost a hundred people from around the U.S. to become Jewish meditation teachers; many of these people are doing this work now in their own communities.
As I write this introduction to the second edition, Jewish meditation has moved closer to becoming a mainstream practice in the Jewish world. It is no longer seen as not-Jewish, or a fringe activity, or a threatening esoteric practice. I seldom hear the statement that was once so familiar: There s no such thing as Jewish meditation. Many synagogues and JCCs now offer classes on Jewish meditation, and it s not so unusual for meditations to be introduced into services.
This is good news for you, the reader.
Chances are that you won t be alone as you begin to learn the practice of Jewish meditation. Hopefully you ll find a class to take, or a group to join, or other meditators around you or in your community. If not, you can use this book to learn how to practice. At the very least, you ll know that many people are doing this practice in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Discovering Jewish Meditation is written to help you establish a Jewish meditation practice. Within its pages you will find the necessary guidance and support to do so. This book is meant to be used by Jews and interested non-Jews; people who are religious and those who aren t; those who have meditated in other traditions and those who have never meditated before. In short, it s a resource for anyone who wants to learn about the practice and embark on the path of becoming a meditator.
Part One , The Practice of Jewish Meditation, answers frequently asked questions about meditation. It provides background information about the practice, including its history and its relationship to other meditative traditions. It also gives you detailed instructions about setting up a practice. At the end of the chapters in this section, you will find short breathing exercises to help prepare you for the core meditations in part two .
Part Two , The Core Meditations, teaches thirteen simple meditations. You ll begin with the hineini meditation and then continue with focused, awareness, and emptiness meditations. All of these meditations have been practiced by large numbers of beginners, so I am comfortable recommending them to you.
In Part Three , A Meditative Life, I look at the challenges that emerge once a meditative practice has been started, and I suggest ways to work with them. I also discuss how Jewish meditation can be combined with other Jewish spiritual practices, such as Shabbat.
In Chapter 11 , a new addition to Part Three of this second edition, I provide a description of a morning meditative prayer practice, based on the traditional prayer service. Here you will see an example of how to bring meditation into your prayer life.
In this book, I stay with what I know firsthand rather than try to transmit others ideas and techniques. My style of teaching reflects my experience with a wide variety of students, Jewish and non-Jewish, secular and religious. I write this book as a woman, recognizing that my entry into the once-male world of Jewish meditation is possible because of the insights and actions of others before me. I am grateful to those courageous people who opened the doors through which I pass.
A word about God-language in this book: I do not use the word God because it s a stumbling block for many readers. If asked if they believe in God, many would say no-but if asked if they have a sense of the Holy in all being, most would say yes. Likewise, I have chosen to use androgynous God-names, such as the Holy and the Divine, rather than the more common masculine Adonai or the more feminine Shekhinah . These androgynous