Meditation is a practice that entered the cultural vocabulary of the latter half of the 20th century, a time of investigation of Eastern religions and philosophies. In one respect the turn East epitomized for many the expression of a set of values opposed to American materialism, acquisitiveness and busyness. In another respect, and perhaps particularly today, it represents a method of slowing down, of calming the mind, of relaxing the body in the face of our culture’s unrelenting pressure to “do.” If meditation were only to afford its practitioners that brief respite, the gift of just “being” as opposed to “doing” it would be enough.
We teach and practice mindfulness meditation, however, because we value it as a spiritual practice. It is a method for waking up, for developing more precise awareness of our inner and outer lives from moment to moment. It is a practice that connects the inner self with the outer world in a more direct manner, creating a deeper sense of interpersonal relationship and a more intimate link to the physical world. It helps to develop and sustain a sense of the oneness of all Creation and a connection with God.
What we ask people to do
The practice of mindfulness has as its intention continuously to observe what is arising from moment to moment in our experience. It is a practice of telling ourselves the truth. In this process we observe or witness the nature of mind, we see how conflict occurs, how illusion is born and grows, how connected each moment is to the next and how transient is every thought, experience, conclusion, sense of completion and perfection. It is also a practice of setting an intention for ourselves, such as the desire to pay attention to each breath, and then noticing how distracted we become. We notice the possibility, and the effort it takes, to return once again to our intention. This practice allows us to appreciate the power of intention and the power of teshuvah, returning again and again without remorse or recrimination to the task we have set.
In order to accomplish this in our professional cohorts, the retreat structure includes extensive periods of silent time as well as gentle instruction in practice. During the practice sessions we invite participants to ask questions about their own inner experience, always in the context of a safe setting (among others who are practicing as well or one on one with the teacher). The silence minimizes outside distraction and helps concentration. It allows the mind to settle down because we do not add stimulation. The settled or clear mind is not empty, however. It is rather more stable and able to perceive its own content and process.
The instruction and dialogue during practice sessions give language to the inner experience. It also demonstrates to the participants that everyone shares universal patterns. One person’s question usually relates to everyone else. No question is out of bounds, no experience is without significance in understanding and deepening the practice. Masks and pretenses are shed. The discourse becomes honest, intimate and deep. Recognizing this helps in breaking the sense of isolation that Jewish professionals often suffer. This experience becomes part of the foundation upon which we build community.
In addition to the formal teaching sessions on retreat, we engage people in mindfulness practice through the structure of the retreat itself. We ask people to practice paying attention to their experience from moment to moment, walking from session to session, during meals, while sitting still. In the rush and bustle of daily life, it is very difficult to learn to be connected to one’s inner life. We all tend to react to situations based on our habits. We are all conditioned to protect ourselves from pain and to seek the pleasant and the known. These become our automatic reactions to circumstances that stimulate us. Through paying careful attention we begin to observe these patterns and gain the space and freedom from them to evaluate how well they are serving our most sincere values and goals.
Why we value this practice as a core of contemporary Jewish spirituality
The work of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality is the work of spiritual renewal and rejuvenation. It is the work of making the concepts, teachings and practices of Judaism lively, meaningful and transformative for individuals and communities. It is a mode of careful attentiveness to the whole of one’s experience. It is a process of peacemaking and a path of justice making. It emphasizes telling the truth, respecting one’s experience, responding rather than reacting, and gently returning one’s attention again and again to the initial intention of the practice. It involves an awareness of impermanence, and the interconnection of all that is and a deep appreciation of the fact that every act has an intention and a consequence. We can use a variety of Jewish concepts to describe this work: healing the self and the world; bringing the light of the infinite into the finite; actualizing the Divine qualities of wisdom and compassion; restoring a sense of wholeness to the fragmented.
The efforts of the IJS center around bringing sustained attention to our inner lives. We affirm through our own experience that the act of pausing, listening and paying attention serves to reveal the One that eternally dwells within as well as the obstacles that obscure our sense of connection to the One. We create communities in which we engage in practices to align ourselves with the sense of unity that attends awareness of connection to the One, and patiently reveal the insubstantiality of the obstacles that separate us from it.
The relation between Mindfulness Meditation and other IJS spiritual practices
Mindfulness meditation is the foundation of the contemplative practice that is a central value of the IJS. Yet, it is not the only path or practice that can support and sustain an open heart. It may be sufficient for some participants, and it may provide an experience through which the other practices are deepened. What follows are examples of how mindfulness meditation and practice support and interact with the other core practices.
Prayer - There are a variety of ways that mindfulness practice supports and deepens prayer. Our effort to maintain mindful awareness helps us become attentive to barriers to prayer. Thus, we may set intentions to connect to melody, word or kavannah in prayer and then have the opportunity to observe the obstacles to staying with our intention. Our mindfulness practice helps the mind settle so that we can be more present in prayer. Thus, we can use mindfulness to help us let go of distractions and bring the mind into the deeper quiet of prayer. The words and melodies of prayer may also lead us into a unified consciousness or an experience of one or more of the Divine attributes. The practice of mindfulness can steady the mind to be more receptive, spacious and less afraid of these expanded mind states.
Text Study - On a basic level, mindfulness helps us be a better hevruta partner by being more able to rest in the empty spaces, to wait for insight, to listen deeply to oneself and another. As we will see later, mindfulness practice informs our text study, in that it is the foundation of the “contemplative listening” in which we engage in that practice. It helps us to open to the other, to every possible response and interpretation of a text without judgment and without being overwhelmed. We thus are more prepared for the text to speak to us directly, to reveal a new meaning.
Our texts introduce us to Hasidic and Kabbalistic sources as resources for developing and deepening our own God language and theology. Mindfulness practice supports the development of this awareness while studying and grounds the study in experience. These sources of Jewish mysticism are integral, holistic and non-dual. They reveal the impermanence and insubstantiality of the separate self and the various constructs of the mind. They encourage us to see the Divine in everything. Mindfulness provides the context in which we can integrate these concepts more easily, as well as giving access to the experience these texts describe. Mindfulness encourages us to be receptive and allowing to all the experiences that arise and pass away in our own mind-body. It affords us an experience of entering into the unknown simply by being still and giving up our habits and distractions. This places us in the flow of life, which is the flow of YHVH, the Divine breath, the chiyyut elohi (divine energy), the cosmic aleph, the king’s inner palace etc.
Spiritual Direction - Mindfulness is very useful in spiritual direction. It supports our capacity to discern voices that are more authentic and liberating from those that are more conditioned or constricting (arising out of fear or habit). Director and directee are more comfortable with waiting and listening to the promptings of the heart as a result of the sitting practice. In Spiritual Direction it is as if two people enter the inner sanctuary of the directee’s heart-and-mind. Together they explore the nature of the mind and the pathways that lead to God, to spaciousness, service, joy, wisdom, compassion and well being. They come to learn the by-ways and pathways that are fear-based delusions, tricks, emerging out of pride and ego and leading away from God. In this way the more solitary practice of mindfulness and the intimate and interpersonal practice of Spiritual Direction are complementary and mutually reinforcing.
Yoga - Mindfulness practice is also a complement to yoga. In yoga, we bring our attention to the postures, the breath and to movement as an external structure. We engage in an effort to bring mind and body into alignment. In the process we see the patterns of striving and desire, and have a chance to see how to use effort wisely or harmfully. We investigate how struggle and strain produce more struggle and strain and how relaxation in effort can lead to balance and flexibility.
Like mindfulness practice, yoga is an embodied practice. It is not theoretical. When practicing yoga or mindfulness a greater honesty emerges, as we are cultivating compassion and discernment more than trying to achieve a particular pose or be a particular person. In this manner, yoga can be a practice that gives one an experience of peace and relaxation and unified consciousness.
Spiritual Community - Mindfulness practice supports us in the creation of spiritual community as much as it is supported by it. Spiritual community depends primarily upon safety and honesty. If we seek to bring our whole beings, honestly and fully, to consciousness then we need to know that it is safe to do so. We will feel more confident and willing to do so when we sense we are where we can let down and not be hurt, where we can say what we really think without being in danger of losing something of value. We will want to know if this is a place where we can be accepted for who we are and who we are becoming.
In mindfulness meditation we confront our own, self-generated threats – self-criticism, lack of self-acceptance, self-aggrandizement, self-serving inclinations. We learn to accept their presence without criticism, but not without awareness. We find that it is possible to acknowledge that this is who we are at this moment, without falling into the trap of projecting this moment into the future. We respond to our own pain with compassion, creating space around our awareness out of which wisdom and intention might arise. The safety that we create in our inner awareness, founded on compassion, is the basis for creating the larger form of a spiritual community.
We extend ourselves from the inner awareness of safety and acceptance toward others to create spiritual community, offering them the same safety and acceptance. In this space nothing is expected other than honesty and receptivity to the experience of the moment. This mode of interaction creates an environment that gives shape to the discourse of the day and forms the underpinnings of the community. Participants seek to support each other to be as open and honest with themselves as they can be. We seek to make our spiritual community a sacred community, inviting God to enter by being present ourselves.
Safety is a gift to spiritual leaders who do not have a safe spiritual community for themselves because their spiritual communities are also their workplaces. They need a safe place where their souls can open. The mindfulness practice, the silence and all the intertwining practices construct this sacred safety. From within this experience, Jewish leaders then can inspire and lead their own communities in directions that are in alignment with the spiritual principles they have experienced and embodied at the Institute.
When we invite our students to simply rest in the awareness of what is arising and passing from moment to moment they often assume that something is supposed to happen that will show them they are on the right track. They expect a particular kind of experience, but there is no such thing. Instead, we encourage them to be accepting and trusting of whatever arises. Because they each are having their own interior experience, there is no way to judge success or failure by comparing or competing. Rather, by setting an intention, losing and regaining attention, and falling asleep and waking up – again and again – they learn to cultivate patience, tolerance, compassion and love.
If we speak of success, let’s speak in these terms: Success is the expansion of our heart qualities – the Divine attributes of mercy. Success is having a soul that feels it has been fed. Success is developing greater freedom to respond (in our personal or professional life) in a wise and compassionate way rather than in a reactive and habitual way. Success is having an experience of seeing the ways we suffer and how we can be free of internal suffering in a particular instance. Success is having an experience that makes our prayer life or Torah study or life of mitzvot come more alive. Success is doing less harm to ourselves or another. Success is overcoming the illusion of a separate self that keeps us isolated from the Divine within and without.