Joanna Katz — Rabbi Joanna Katz, co-founder of Elat Chayyim, has been a hospital, college and prison chaplain. She facilitates a weekly meditation group and trained in the Dedicated Practitioners Program of Spirit Rock. |  |
Obstacles to peace
Another opportunity to wake up. In this talk, Rabbi Joanna Katz names and gives real-life examples of the obstacles that prevent one from being truly present and consciously with G-d.
Desire (lust), aversion (things that we push away), sleepiness, restlessness and doubt. These forces really hinder us from being present in the moment.
When we’re caught in these mind-states, we are invariably completely separate. We’re right there separated by the anochi, we’re really there in the small sense of I and we’re no longer connected to the larger unfolding, the larger truth that I am part of the ever unfolding of G-d.
The Things that God Gave You
In the second part (click here to listen to the first part) of a Jewish meditation talk given at a 2005 ECAMP retreat, Rabbi Joanna Katz opens with a quote from the Dalai Lama suggesting that the very purpose of our life is to seek and to move towards happiness. Using a verse from Deuteronomy and stories from her own meditation retreat experiences Joanna describes the merit of being with what is arising.
We do this by rejoicing in everything that God has given us. …this is a practice instruction inclining our hearts to rejoice in all that’s been given to us… …it also reminds us of ‘that place,’ of wholeness and of center, where we experience that joy…
Be with yourself. …allow yourself to be with what comes up for you in [this] moment. Sometimes it’s hard to do that because we are aversive, because we want something or because we’re in fear.
What Keeps Us From Happiness?
The beginning of a talk (click here to listen to the next part) given at a 2005 ECAMP retreat, Joanna reflects on the isolation, attachment and judgment that prohibits us from experiencing a truly free and peaceful happiness. Joanna uses the Shevah Brachot (seven blessings traditionally said at weddings) as a way of encountering the true happiness that God (and we) wish for ourselves.
…we are blessing them to be happy in the way that God and Adam and Eve were happy before the exile. …this is about the capacity to be in a state of union with God.
When we connect with the ground of being and also the truth of our experience there is a capacity for joy that is radically different than the happiness we hear about all the time.