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).
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
Mindfulness meditation is a growth of person`s perception at the present time and some people think is a unique way to overcome anxiety and discover greater wisdom in our minds. A person who practices this meditation tries to get rid of any unwanted thoughts, concentrate on present ones, focus on attention and breathing. Some contemporary psychotherapists suggest that we can train our mind by practicing mindfulness meditation. Often almost all people catch themselves on thoughts that transfers from the present to the past and future. This is called mind wandering. This can be very distracting when a person tries to focus on certain task. Naturally, people who experience less mind wandering demonstrated greater mindfulness, and previous studies showed that practicing mindfulness meditation even for eight minutes can increase and mind wandering will decrease (Hafenbrack, 2013).
Meditation allows for you to relax, slow down, and become more aware of yourself and your environment. By meditating in a quiet place with no distraction, you are able to greatly limit the information that is constantly entering into our brains. This information gives us a train of thought that is very difficult to be halted, because it is in the nature of our brains to analyze any information that we have coming in from our senses like what things we are seeing with our eyes and what we are hearing with our ears. By limiting the amount of information that is entering into the brain, we are able to separate ourselves from the mind that is analyzing all of that information and to become aware of it.
Meditation helps Christians pull closer to God by forming Holy images and words. Researchers, (Klinger, Kosslyn, Neisser & Zenon, 1981) have found that if you experience something mentally, it is similar to actually experiencing that mental image in real life. Imagery and physical visions have the same physiological mechanism. In meditation, you are in control of your own thinking; God isn’t controlling it; this is them thinking to themselves, purposely producing images or thoughts to form in their mind (Shepard & Finke 1980). This is the original way that is encouraged by most Christian spiritualists. The meditator will reach a point where they turn over their thinking to God and He creates the images and words for them. This is communication from God, and it moves them from the state of meditation to the state of contemplation. Contemplation means to see God or to have the Vision of God in their mind (Palamas, 2005). With ...
In Eastern cultures, meditation has been practiced for over two thousand years. Through this training a culture has developed in which an individual is empowered to engaged in preventative behaviors, which reduce stress and morbidity, resulting in a general state of wellbeing, with stability and mental peace in the face of everyday challenges (Richardson and Lutz, 2008). Over the last half-century, the western-scientific community has begun to evaluate the efficacy of the eastern methods of meditation. In the modern western world there is an over abundance of stress, pressure and over stimulation. These conditions often result in stress-related morbidity, high levels of anxiety and mental illnesses. This cause and effect relationship is well established, and typically emphasis is placed on symptom control and less on preventative behavior modification. There are clinically documented see table 1, meditation practices that can be taught over a short period of time to an individual which have been shown to have positive results. Meditation can be used preventatively in supporting immune function and during illness as a method to aid healing and wellbeing for nominal costs. This paper will make an literary examination of a variety of studies of which examine the role of meditation training in regards to promoting immune function in athletes, recovering cancer patients, in addition to reducing stress and promoting well being in business professionals, cancer patients and seasoned meditation practitioners.
The purpose is to investigate the following; “Meditation in Christianity and Buddhism are different pathways leading to the same destination.” Buddhism is a philosophy than a religion was originated about 2,500 years ago in India and about 376 million followers worldwide. Prince Siddhartha Gotama (Buddha) worshipped for years to enlighten himself and found a “middle way” between his two lives, meaning finding moderation and balancing life’s extremes. Whereas, Christianity has about 2.4 billion followers worldwide and based on his teachings of Jesus, who lived about 2000 years prior. In Christian meditation, metaphysics and transcendentalism are used as philosophies because individuals think during their prayer to reflect on unseen things in a spiritual way, including Holy spirit and are observed to connect with God intellectually and spiritually. Nevertheless, Buddhist meditation is to focus on relaxing the brain by forgetting about the meaningless things.
Though Buddhism has long been a disciplined and strict religion since its’ beginning in the 3rd Century, it has recently gained positive utilitarian use within the psychological and neurological fields of science. Programs dedicated to improving and helping the lives of those who suffer from mental illness have started to incorporate the use of meditation as a form of treatment. Meditation is enforced in many schools of Buddhism as a method, or a way of life, to becoming enlightened. With growing qualitative and quantitative research on meditation, it becomes more evidential of the positive and life changing impact meditation serves in improving overall health of the mentally ill. Additionally, meditation can be implemented as a preventative
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.
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.
The very similar (although admittedly not identical) practices of Christian prayer and Buddhist meditation. Buddhist meditation does not center around divinity, but rather around sensation and around mindful experience of sensation. In the practicing of meditation, the Buddhist focuses his or her mind and attempts to maintain focus throughout meditation. He or she may enter into another mental state, one of controlled joy, if the meditation is successful (depending, of course, on the type of meditation being employed and what the Buddhist is focusing on). The long term goal of meditation is to fundamentally change the way that the Buddhist operates in the world and the way that the Buddhist thinks about the world. The change that should be wrought by meditation is for the Buddhist to grown in wisdom so as to progress toward
The role of a prophet can be characterized as the receiving and transmitting of communications not available to ordinary conscious sensitivity. These communications are believed to come from a divine source e.g. 1 Samuel 9:20.
Within the Christian tradition, meditation falls under the broader category of contemplative prayer. A Christian approach to contemplative prayer is based on the understanding that each person is created in the image and likeness of God. In other words, we should live our life the way God would want us to. Within each person is found something of the Divine essence. Contemplative prayer is also a process of going inward to be present to the essence of Divinity that is at the heart of each person. Another way of putting could mean how an individual goes inward for example a prayer that comes from the heart. Through contemplative prayer, one moves toward a deeper union or communion with God while laying aside those things that limit such a deep
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.