Jewish Meditation Talks
Why Are We Here
Sylvia explains that she comes on retreat in order to open her heart, be free of judgement, and develop happiness. Our motivation is to discover that it’s possible in this life – inevitably challenged – to live with delight, to be part of life, to be appreciative of life and grateful for life.
Not to be so Startled in our Lives
Sylvia points out that we find events in our life to be either pleasant or unpleasant, and suggests that our work is to not be startled by them. Our practice allows us to act in response to events with a clear mind, not a mind filled with startle or negativity.
It Could Have Been Otherwise
Sylvia talks about being thankful for the grace that sustains us though difficult times, and about gratitude for both the simple things in life, and for life itself.
How to Integrate the Practice
Sylvia teaches us to pay attention to the climate of the heart. This attention allows us to notice how the unfolding events of our lives are affecting us. This is my understanding of practice – that everything is porous and everything has moments. And moment to moment, we make a decision. We are captive to a mind state, a thought process, but you can get out, you can stop, you can end the turmoil.
Hindrances and Trust
Joanna begins with a discussion of thoughts, and the five mind states that hinder our ability to see clearly in the world. She talks about the arising of judgement, and how to bring the light of awareness to that judgement. She delves deeply into the experiences of these hindrances, how to work with them, and how to develop trust in our awareness.
Presence and Care
Joanna talks about how to recognize when we are present, when we are in the presence of the Divine. And how presence itself, is the foundation of how we can care for others, and for ourselves.
Accepting the Truth of this World
Joanna talks of needing the quiet of our practice as a path to seeing the truth of our lives. And that when we open to the truth, loving-kindness arises.
Love and Tshuva
As Elul approaches, Joanna talks about Love and Tshuva. She notes that the Zohar equates Tsuuva with life itself. She discusses forgiveness, and how that connects to being effective in our lives.
Avodah
Joanna talks about Avodah as a contemplative practice. She introduces us to the wisdom regarding avodah that can be found in Pirkei Avot, and relates that wisdom to the work of our lives.
What is Precious
Joanna begins with the preciousness of both the teachings and the teacher. She encourages all of us to be teachers. To become what we are, we have to go through a birth process. To birth ourselves, we have to be open. We have to let go.
Joanna introduces five things we should take to heart: we should not give up; we are not alone – others have walked this path; wee must know where to look, to whom; God is everywhere, even in the anguish; friend ship and hope are what helps us grow.
Our Commitment to Peace and Kindness
Where do I focus my practice, if my commitment is to peace and kindness. One can work with the five hindrances: sensual desire; aversion; sleepiness; restlessness and doubt. This allows us to become very aware and attuned, and to choose wisely in respond to life’s ups and downs. Mindfulness – without judgment – allows us to see clearly and to act skillfully when dealing with the hindrances. We can choose an inner freedom that is accompanied by peace, clarity, openness, joy, ease and wisdom.
There Is No Where To Go
Joanna talks about how important it is to be diligent in our practice, and to be fully engaged in our lives.
The Elul Practice of Turning and Connecting
Elul: the month where we are turning back to a place in us that can connect to something larger; to our own truth; that can connect to the sense that we are part of the Devine Unfolding. That the process of turning and connecting is really this love dance between ourselves and God.
Nothing is the Most Important Thing of All
Our purpose is to immerse ourselves in nothing, to do nothing, and to be nothing. But nothing is the most important thing of all.
What God is, is not our concepts of God. We understand that which is useful in life. We don’t understand the ultimate importance of the useless function of God; the nothing function of God. It’s our connection to God, to this endlessness, this nothingness, to this which we cannot understand, we cannot grasp, we do not know. Our connection to this which is characterized by love, and complete and profound acceptance.
How to Feel That We Have Enough
The premise of an awakened mind is creating the kind of peace that people can have when they are content, regardless of circumstances. We cultivate a mind that focuses on the fact that life itself is happening, rather then on the myriad complex details that arise. This is taking the larger view: that everything is lawful, the unfolding of natural causes.
The Tree of Life and the Fundamental Problem of Human Existence
Jeff begins by addressing the question: what is the binary nature of conceptual thinking. This is an important frame for finding the solution to the problem of defining the task of a human life: alignment with loving attention/connection to the truth of what’s arising, allowing the unfolding of wisdom, all of which is being known in awareness. Jeff talks about the purpose of human life, which is to further the divine unfolding, allowing consciousness and love to be fully expressed and realized in all transitory corporeal existence. Jeff brings new meaning to the stories of the exile from Eden and of Moses at the burning bush – opening these stories more deeply to our human experience of separation from the Devine Presence.
Teaching Torah through the Lens of Mindfulness: Teaching Mindfulness through the Lens of Torah
Sheila begins with the connection of mindfulness to the cycle of Jewish holy days, being immersed in the embodied experience of the intentions arising in the practice of each holy day. Sheila teaches that Torah has a sense of being a path of well-being and peace, leading to an understanding that creates transformation. The Torah teaches us to let go – let go of that which impedes our ease, our mindfulness, our connection to the Devine.
Teaching Torah through the Lens of Mindfulness: Teaching Mindfulness through the Lens of Torah [ 44:31 ] Play in Popup | Download
This Very Life is Your Practice
Joanna talks about how each of us has something precious and unique that is only ours to unfold in this practice. That a spiritual practice is a practice that allows the heart and mind to settle. Joanna teaches that spirituality, which is an essential part of Judaism, is always striving for the presence of God, and the fashioning of a life of holiness appropriate to that striving. Joanna asks: how we able to be open to the presence of God in a state of great adversity. Being open to the presence of God is directly related to the state of one’s own heart.
Engaging in Judaism as a Mindfulness Practice
Jordan discusses how normative Jewish practice is a spiritual practice resonant with mindfulness of the moment-to-moment experience of the normal course of events. He tells the Torah story of the spies returning from Canaan, focusing on how it illustrates the reality of human experience and the importance of remembering (mindfulness), and that our actions should be based on investigation and wisdom, not on our fears and delusions. This allows us to remember who we are: remembrance as the sharp focus of attention, embracing concern and involvement, active, not passive.
Loving Attention, Small Mind and the Aggregates
Jeff presents a brief introduction to the theology of Jewish contemplative practice. He discusses what is needed to support our practice, and focuses on the Jewish concept of mochin de katnut, or small mind. Jeff details how the experience of self-identity is a process of small mind. He discusses the make-up of small mind through the lens of the five aggregates: body; feeling tone; perception; volitional fabrications; and consciousness.
Where Can I Not Find You: Opening the Emotional Channel to Divine
What does it mean to say You to God? Our relationship with God forms though listening without language, developing a loving relationship – not with it, which is the idea of God, but with You, the felt presence of God. This place where we address God as You includes the lover and the beloved, raising the question of dualism – what is the me; what is the other. This is the relational aspect of the divine. This is the place where we are known and loved.
Where Can I Not Find You: Opening the Emotional Channel to Divine [ 46:43 ] Play in Popup | Download
Karma, Suffering and Sacred Intention
Also titled, The Metaphysical Musings of a Megalomaniacal Mixed Up Mystic, in this talk Rabbi Jeff Roth discusses the laws of cause and effect and how they apply to suffering and to happiness.
Motivation and Effort
In this talk Rabbi Jeff Roth discusses the benefits of letting the attention be pulled rather than pushed. Through these teachings awareness and experience opens up. “Just by paying attention there are amazing new things that you’ve never experienced before.”
I Think, Therefore I Am In Tsuris
In this talk Rabbi Jeff Roth explains how what the midrash says about the nature of our suffering and the relationship between thinking, desiring, awareness reveals a path to resolving tremendous suffering.
Obstacles to Awareness of the Divine Presence
In contemporary Jewish meditation the Divine is a reference to the interconnected unity of all being. This talk unfolds this metaphor and points out obstacles that occur in “small mind” that aggrandizes the self and cuts one off from unity, compassion and loving-kindness. A set of practice instructions proposes processes to turn the obstacles into compost for spiritual growth.
Mindfulness Practice and the Jewish Year
Reflection on what we seek to remember in practice, developing the capacity to see which stories serve to develop wholesome qualities and reduce suffering. The center of the talk is a tour through the Jewish year, interpreting each holiday as a form of retreat practice and the opportunity to awaken and develop heart qualities.
Truth
Rabbi Jeff Roth explores Truth; awakened attention to what is happening in the moment.
Effortless Effort
Rabbi Jeff Roth discusses how to relax into both your meditation practice and your daily life, and what gets in the way.
How We Read Torah
In this talk from the 2005 winter ECAMP retreat, Norman provides an overview for a profound reading of the Torah and of our lives. Read more…
Examining the Unknowable
In this talk from the 2005 winter ECAMP retreat, Norman uncovers the complementary relationship between faith and experience. This 12 minute clip will nourish and ground your curiosity… What is this life?
Ignorance: Ways We Miss the Divine
In this Jewish meditation talk given at the Elat Chayyim Advanced Meditation Program, Rabbi Jeff Roth talks about ignorance and the patterns of mind which prevent us from truly meeting the Divine in our lives. Read more…
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.
Five Steps for Spiritual Transformation
In this Jewish meditation talk given at the Elat Chayyim Advanced Meditation Program, Rabbi Alan Lew speaks of patterns observed in the Torah that reveal the essential experienced ingredients for spiritual transformation. Read more…
Far Beyond What We Can See
The beginning part of a talk given at the 2005 winter Elat Chayyim Advanced Meditation Program retreat, Norman aids the listener in delving deeper into seeing the true meaning and opportunity of life.
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.
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.
Patience & Self Acceptance
In this talk from the 2008 winter ECAMP retreat, Joanna offers teachings about patience and self acceptance. Read more…