Jewish Meditation: A Practical Guide

I'm not Jewish (my spouse is) but I think meditation is a great practice. So I read this. The first half is actually very relevant to anyone who wants to consider meditation as a spiritual practice, but as it goes along, it gets deeper into Jewish doctrine and schools of thoughts and methods that I think are (not surprisingly, given the book is about Jewish meditation) going to be of more interest to a Jewish person. So I'm not doing a star ranking because I am totally unqualified to do it, but interesting read.

'(this is) the first book to read on the subject. It is a gentle, clear introdiuction and provides exercises and practices that can be used right away by any Jew who wants a deeper prayer experience.'-Rodger Kemenetz, author of The Jew in the Lotus

'New and old davveners can learn from this sainted teacher how to deepen their holy processes....One can, with the help of God and the aid of this manual, tap into the Cosmic.'-Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi

'A guide to Jewish prayer and meditation that is both grounded in the tradition and genuinely mind-expanding. For anyone seeking to connect with the spriitual side of Judaism, this book is essential.'-William Novak

'At a time when Jews are rediscovering theri hunger for spirituality, Kaplan's show more clear and comprehensive book could well be one of the most important Jewish books of our time.'-Harold S. Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People

Aryeh Kaplan, who died in 1983, was a well-known Orthodox rabbi and teacher of Jewish meditation. He is the author of many books, including a translation of the Torah commentary Me'am Lo'ez.

Contents

Introduction
1 What is meditation?
2 Why medititate?
3 Techniques
4 States of consciousness
5 Jewish meditation
6 Mantra meditation
7 Contemplation
8 Visualization
9 Nothingness
10 Conversing with God
11 The way of prayer
12 Relating to God
13 Unification
14 The ladder
15 In all your ways
16 The commandments
17 Between man and woman
18 Remolding the self show less

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Questo libro riassume millenni di ricerche spirituali, patrimonio un tempo di una élite. Aryeh Kaplan, un grande maestro contemporaneo, ci permette di seguirlo passo passo verso un mondo al quale tutti aspiriamo, quello del riavvicinamento al Creatore dell'Universo. Le tecniche meditative ebraiche sono messe in parallelo con quelle dell'Oriente ed esaminate nella loro peculiarità. Aryeh Kaplan, con la sua erudizione e la sua profonda sensibilità, ha trasformato una intuizione in certezza: quella della dimensione meditativa della preghiera ebraica. Questa guida pratica introduce il lettore alla meditazione mantrica, a quella contemplativa e alla visualizzazione in un contesto ebraico, e insegna come utilizzare la meditazione per show more rafforzare le preghiere tradizionali. Per mezzo di esercizi semplici e spiegazioni chiare, Kaplan ci offre i mezzi per sviluppare il nostro potenziale spirituale attraverso pratiche meditative autenticamente ebraiche. (fonte: retro di copertina) show less