Jewish Meditation
"I know of a story where a 12 year old boy secretly studied the Kabbalah and meditation under a rabbi. So do not worry, you are in like company (Wallace)."
Mystical traditions hold a secret that not everyone can experience. Stories can be read, pictures can be seen, and accounts of mystics (those who practice these traditions) can be professed, but nothing will compare to emotion and passion in the experience itself. The mind of a mystic can be viewed as one gone mad. Or is that merely the title one gives the unexplained and not experienced?
Many of today's so-called mystical experiences can be practiced in a single day. Sleep deprivation, raves, repetitive monotonous sounds, and so on can change a person. But for how long and how does a person feel? Quite a different question is asked of Jewish mystical tradition and meditation. That question can very well be what are the stages, what is to be risked, and what is to be received? What a turn this topic takes with the application of the Jewish model. "The West might be said to emphasize action. The East concentrates on perfection of the spirit. Judaism seeks to unite both
ideals (Weiner 111).
Jewish meditation is a spiritual insight with G-d. This process of getting close to G-d is called "devekut". Devekut is not only getting close, but also actually melting into G-d. This requires much training and rules. It is said that one cannot even look at the Kabbalah (the Jewish mystical text) unless one is male and over forty years of age. A girl the age of twenty was afraid to touch the text let alone talk about it (Warner). The Kabbalah is both fear and love ("Kabbala" 271). Devekut is an actual metamorphosis of the self. Practicing...
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...prophetic experience. Yet, Kayin's punishment, for killing his brother, was to be banished off the land, meaning he would loose his natural holistic connection with the earth. With this, the Torah says, Kayin is banished from before G-d's Face. We thus see that the two are integrally connected. When Kayin lost his union with the earth, he lost union with G-d. What was the first thing that Kayin did after this? He started a family and built for them a city. The city was the symbol of the archetypal removal from the earth. Here they would depend on each other instead of G-d. When the ultimate city of Babel was finished, creation was in jeopardy. G-d had to personally intervene and topple the Tower of Babel and disperse the people.
The prophet acts as a vehicle so G-d does not have to personally intervene. They
are G-d' s Merkevah, chariot (Bar Tzadok).
The only misstep in Barbauld’s 1791 poem, “A Summer Evening’s Meditation,” is the use of “Meditation” in the title. It suggests only contemplation, which is quite misleading. Remarkably, the speaker lectures about the unfairness of a patriarchal society that is differently gendered and the fairness of God’s world.
However, meditation is not as common within Buddhism as most believe. There is a large assumption “that Buddhism and meditation go hand in hand”, but the majority of Buddhists have focused on “cultivating moral behavior, preserving the Buddha’s teachings (dharma), and acquiring good karma”(Braun 2014, p.1). Meditation and Buddhism are often assumed to be one and same, but this is also not true. As Buddhism has gained popularity among lay people it’s practices have changed Buddha’s teaching of the middle path has adapted to meditation being “possible in the city” rather than with monks in jungles and caves (p.4). As seen in Burma, in less than 75 years Buddhism and meditation were able to grow “from a pursuit of the barest sliver of the population to a duty of the ideal citizen” (p.5). While meditation is not the core of Buddhism it has encouraged the growth of Buddhism as it’s practice of mindfulness has been inspiring an approachable model (p.6). Meditation and mindfulness are easily manipulated to secularization, but still have significance in Buddhism and following the patterns of your
Meditation is essentially an umbrella term. It includes basically any practice that helps concentration and reaching enlightenment. In a sense, it includes techniques for self-regulating the mind and your desires. This means that meditation can include a number of different practices like love, compassion, mindfulness, breathing, emptiness, tantra or patience.
OK. So you’ve heard, that meditation is beneficial for you, maybe you’ve read lists about the advantages of meditation. A ton of different kind of meditations are on-line, and you found several resources, articles, blog posts about the theme to select from. These articles state, that the meditation has countless benefits, which are also proven by scientific research. You can believe them, since eminent scientists carried out extensive research on this subject. And they suggest, you should try them, and of course you should practice it each day. Every day - or you won’t have those benefits.
Meditation is an age-old practice that has renewed itself in many different cultures and times. Despite its age, however, there remains a mystery and some ambiguity as to what it is, or even how one performs it. The practice and tradition of meditation dates back thousands of years having appeared in many eastern traditions. Meditation’s ancient roots cloud its origins from being attributed to a sole inventor or religion, though Bon, Hindu, Shinto, Dao, and later, Buddhism are responsible for its development. Its practice has permeated almost all major world religions, but under different names. It has become a practice without borders, influencing millions with its tranquil and healing effects.
Newberg and d’Aquili assert that mystical experiences are neurologically based. Additionally, they contend that mystical experiences can be illustrated on a continuum where the limits consist of “a wide variety of deeply religious or
Meditation is a way to open up all areas of the body and release anything that may be toxic to the spirit. Channeling the spirit through meditation is another familiar practice due to the fact that is believed that the spirit is never dead, only the shell. Through meditation, people believe that they are able to channel their minds so that they might have a more intimate experience with God. People who practice the religion believe that there are more ways to reach God than through Jesus alone. Yes, Jesus is the central avenue but when a soul sees God in all things then they are able to experience the euphoria that comes with being one with
Throughout human history people have sought experiences that somehow transcend every day life. Some sort of wisdom that might progress their knowledge of self and of the world that they live in. For some reason they believed that the tangible world just could not be all there is to life. Some believed in a greater force that controlled them, some believed of invisible beings that influenced their lives, some of an actual other world that paralleled their own. Many of these people also believed that it was possible to catch a glimpse of these forces, beings, or worlds through a variety of means that propel individuals into altered states of consciousness. These techniques include meditation, hypnosis, sleep deprivation, and (what will be discussed here) psychoactive drugs, more specifically psychedelic drugs.
Like the Zen master who goes up to the hot-dog vendor and says, ‘Make me one with everything,’ mystics throughout the ages have reported experiences of feeling merged with God or with all of existence (at some level feeling no separation between them and all that is). The psychologist Carl Jung postulated the existence of a ‘collective unconscious,’ a concept that attempted to explain these and other subjective experiences, such as presentiment and synchronicity (for example, suddenly thinking of a long-lost friend and then the phone rings, with the friend on the other end of the line) or the existence of remarkably similar symbolism in ancient, isolated, or primitive cultures that had no prior contact with one another or the rest of the world.” It is very well known, talked through many religions, In many religions there is a group of people unified under the religion that exemplify this, in Christianity, Jesus, and eventually some of his apostles showed these self-proclaimed “miracles”. Today, thermal goggles can literally see a transfer of energy from faith healers into their patients, and the “clean healthy energy” that they infuse their patients with gives a reason why they may be healed temporarily, it also
Through several major biblical stories we'll see how mystical experiences are presented in Scripture. The entire New Testament is filled with mystical experiences that the human mind can not explain. In the beginning, the event of Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. It could be argued that the Incarnation reflex in mystical experience of the human Jesus. Many theological explanations were given on act of the Incarnation; that has been understood as a revelation, a redemption or deification, and as an act of kenosis (state of humiliation or emptying that the Son of God accepted in the Incarnation).
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). (2010). Health info. Meditation: An introduction. Retrieved from http://nccam.nih.gov/health/meditation/overview.htm
About forty years ago, Maharishi Mahesk Yogi pioneered the Transcendental Meditation program. The Transcendental Meditation technique is a natural, unforced practice that reduces stress and increases an individual’s mental and physical potential. TM (Transcendental Meditation) is often experienced for fifteen to twenty minutes twice a day. Typically, one meditates in the morning before eating breakfast; this practice helps the person start his day both alert and energized. The second meditation session occurs in the afternoon before dinner. During this practice, one washes away the stress accumulated over the day, and this session is the basis for a pleasurable evening and a restful night’s sleep (http://www.tm.org/book/chap_1.html). Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation causes the mind and body to enter a unique, insightful state of mind that is both restful and alert. As the body benefits from a deep state of rest, the mind goes into a state of inner tranquility and awareness.
The prophets themselves declared that they are not the instigator of the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit is the divine source of the truth they accept. It is written all over the Bible the prophets’ acknowledgment of the Holy Spirit agency. Human agents are acquainted as well as the Holy Spirit operation is asserted. God knows when is the time human needs to be given instruction and can receive and understand the message. That is when the Holy Spirit reveals the message.
What are your thoughts, views, musings and experiences etc. regarding meditation? As we all can learn from each other when it comes to sharing ways of creating a healthy, happy and vibrant life work balance.