A Door

Sometimes the door is open. Sometimes the door is closed. Sometimes you have to knock. Sometimes you have to open the door yourself. Sometimes you have to force the door open. Sometimes you have to find another door.

An Adult

He was an adult in a field where there are too many children. The difference between adults and children is that children want power so that they can be somebody, and adults want power so that they can do something.”

Eric Severeid’s radio commentary on the death of John Foster Dulles
in 1959 (via Albert Pennybacker)

Light in Darkness

Even in the darkest places, there are little slivers of light. Seek them out and begin to heal the world.

Moving from Fragments to Wholes II

Integration and wisdom usually come from the experience of fragmentation, making “mistakes,” and feeling disappointment and pain. I don’t know of many integrated and wise persons who have not gone through a lot in life. So, in that sense, fragmentation is a gift that allows us to experience, or re-experience (if we are speaking from a karmic perspective), the learning of integration and wisdom.

Aleph

‎”Aleph” is a soundless Hebrew consonant. Perhaps it preceded Genesis 1:1, which is when the Kabbalists believed creation actually began–in silence before the light was scattered. The Bible actually begins with a “bet,” which is our “b” sound–the pressing and parting of lips.

Dream Symbols

Twisting subterranean hallways where symbols merge with life as we know it. A dream showing us the way.

Oh to be a Mountain

Oh to be a mountain calm in the midst of every storm!

Longing, Yearning

Longing, yearning, desiring for no longing, no yearning, no desiring. Just being.

Reviving the Dead

“I could revive the dead, but I have more difficulty reviving the living” (Rabbi Simcha Bunim and Menahem Mendl of Kotzk).

Torah

Torah, which means “teaching” in Hebrew refers to (1) the first five books of the Bible, (2) the entire Bible; and (3) the whole of Jewish interpretive tradition, including the written Bible, the oral teachings, and various writings such as midrash Interpretations of biblical stories) and responsa (legal interpretations).

The Illusion of Certainty

We crave the illusion of certainty, but in reality even the smallest acts are a roll of the dice. Life itself is a calculated gamble. No outcome is guaranteed. Risk is an integral part of creation. Order and disorder coexist, as Torah describes right from the beginning of Genesis.

Meditation and Awareness

Meditation is awareness.  That’s all there is to it.

The Imperfection of Love: A Eulogy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw0s4C0g5SM&feature=player_embedded

“‘Funeral’ is a new TV commerical launched by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) which looks at relationships in a different light, through a woman at her husband’s funeral. Ultimately, the TVC celebrates the beautiful imperfections that make a relationship perfect. …”

How to Build Neighborhoods

What if we built our neighborhoods around curves rather than straight lines?

The New Temple

Sacrifice at the Temple no longer happens. Rather it takes place inside us when we redirect our destructive urges toward healing and hope.

You and I

You and I: Where does one end and the other begin?

Words

Words are kindling for the fire that melts meaning into our being.

Rivalry

Rivalry misdirected leads to chaos. Rivalry channeled leads to civilization. Rivalry transformed leads to a new dawn.

Habits and Feeling

Unconscious habits impede feeling. Conscious habits clarify and intensify feeling.

Abraham Unaware

Why did it take Abraham so long to see the ram (Gen 22:13)? If he had looked up before he tried to slaughter Isaac, he would have seen the ram. Intent on his task, he was unconscious. If we stay awake, we will always see the ram.

The Senses

Grasp with your feet. Walk with your hands. See with your ears. Hear with your eyes. Think with your heart. Feel with your mind.

Embracing Life

Embracing life means embracing the hard stuff too.

Gratitude

Gratitude:  breathing, eating, shelter, consciousness.

Meditation and Prayer

Taking time to meditate and pray is one thing. Living in meditation and prayer is quite another.

Jacob and Awareness

“Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, ‘The Source is present in this place, but I did not know it'” (Gen 28:16). Mindfulness is knowing it. Wake up.

Breathing

I breathe. The earth breathes. The universe breathes.

I am a Walking Tree

I am a walking tree. I am ancient. I hear the voices of millennia.

Our Bodies are Mobile Trees

Our bodies are mobile trees, our legs the roots, our torsos the trunks, our outstretched arms the branches, our necks and heads the tree tops. We are rooted in the earth reaching out to the stars.

God and the Self as Nothing

The Source is nothing. Nothing does not mean a vacuum, but no thing (no/thing). No/thing is pure energy.

A favorite quote of mine in this regard is from Dov Baer of Mezrich as translated in Lawrence Kushner,The Book of Words, p. 96 (Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights, 1993): “You need to think of yourself as nothing. Forget yourself entirely. Pray only for the sake of God’s presence. Only then will you come to transcend time and attain the ‘World of Thought.’ No contradictions. No distinctions between life and death or sea and dry land. All the same . . . This can only happen if you forget yourself entirely. But it cannot be the case while you are attached to the tangible reality of this world. Fixated on the distinctions between good and evil and mundane creation. How otherwise could one possibly transcend time and attain ultimate unification. Thus, as long as you remain convinced that you are ‘something,’ preoccupied with your daily needs, then the Holy One cannot be present, for God is without end, that is, ‘nothing,’ no vessel can contain the One. But this is not so when you think of yourself as nothing.”

Here, “nothing” really means without boundaries and limits.

Dov Baer expresses his ideas more dualistically than I would (e.g. “attached to tangible reality,” “mundane creation,” and “World of Thought”), but his message is beautiful: To feel the presence of the Source, one must drop all categories, especially the self.

God

I don’t see God as an entity at all, as a thing. God is not a being, but an energy that pervades the universe and transcends the universe. For that reason, I don’t even use the word, “God,” but instead use “Source,” or sometimes “Source of Being.” To relate to the Source, one must transcend all categories (which are, by definition, finite and limited). The Source is neither personal nor impersonal, but the sacred energy/breath that underlies all existence.

This is not an easy place for me to reside. I only get there at moments. Often I am deluded by my own self and its desires, which get in the way. But I do get there at times–certainly more now than when I was younger. And that makes all the effort worthwhile.

The SOURCE

The SOURCE is nothing. Nothing does not mean a vacuum, but no thing (no/thing). No/thing is pure energy.

Love

Love is the transcendence of self.

Meaningful Conversation

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/talk-deeply-be-happy/
Substantive conversation and talking deeply leads to greater happiness. I have always seen meaningful discussion as the core of teaching and wisdom (which should be the goal of all learning)

Our Bodies Are Poems II

Our bodies are poems, Every cell, tissue, nerve, muscle, bone, and organ are the words.

Our Body Are Poems I

Our body are poems with beauty and meaning found in every cell, tissue, nerve, muscle, bone, and organ.

Our Bodes Are Texts

Our bodies are texts in which we write the stories of our lives.

My Heart Beats

My heart beats, a tiny pulsating cell in the heart of humanity, in the heart of all life, in the heart of the earth, in the heart of the universe, in the heart of the multiverse, in the heart of the Source.

Resurrection

A discussion of resurrection in a modern context:

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/03/24/far-from-heaven.html

A Great Photograph

A great photograph is not a reproduction, but a distillation.

A Person

You can no more equate a person with an image than you can cup your hands to hold the wind.

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