Meditation and Kabbalah (Aryeh Kaplan)
A History of, Rather than a Guide to, Jewish Meditation
[My 3-star Amazon review of “Meditation and Kabbalah” by Aryeh Kaplan.]
"Meditation and Kabbalah" is an improper name for this book. The book should have been entitled something like "The History of Meditation in the Kabbalistic Tradition." This book, first published in 1982, doesn't have a lot of specific information about meditation, and author Aryeh Kaplan remedied this in his book "Jewish Meditation," first published in 1985. Hence, if you're interested in the practice of Jewish meditation rather than in the history of Jewish meditation and lots of stories about Rabbis, get that book rather than this one.
As a long-time expert in meditation (Hindu Raja Yoga, Jnana Yoga, and Kashmir Shaivism; Buddhist Vipassana, Zen, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen), I find the Jewish meditation tradition superficial and undeveloped, lacking an esoteric dimension. I'm Jewish by birth, but after having devoted considerable time to investigating the Kabbalah after having been involved with other mystical traditions, I can say that someone--probably yours truly in the future--needs to upgrade the Jewish mystical tradition. If you want to understand mystical meditation/contemplation from the highest perspective, check out my unique writings. Relative to the "mechanics" of real meditation, I put it all together like no one else ever has, correlating mystical contemplation with Ohm's Law and explaining it via dialectic.
"Kabbalah" means "to receive."[the Divine Influx, or Blessing Power, or Holy Spirit]. But how do you do it directly and immediately. Here's the secret: Be whole-bodily, directly and immediately Present (and pressing against) the Whole. This creates Pressure. Then be Absent (or empty of self and mind). This allows the Pressure to translate into (Divine) Power, which you receive (or conduct). Presence is the thesis; Absence (or Poverty) is the antithesis; and the Supernal Influx of Light-energy is the synthesis.
[My 3-star Amazon review of “Meditation and Kabbalah” by Aryeh Kaplan.]
"Meditation and Kabbalah" is an improper name for this book. The book should have been entitled something like "The History of Meditation in the Kabbalistic Tradition." This book, first published in 1982, doesn't have a lot of specific information about meditation, and author Aryeh Kaplan remedied this in his book "Jewish Meditation," first published in 1985. Hence, if you're interested in the practice of Jewish meditation rather than in the history of Jewish meditation and lots of stories about Rabbis, get that book rather than this one.
As a long-time expert in meditation (Hindu Raja Yoga, Jnana Yoga, and Kashmir Shaivism; Buddhist Vipassana, Zen, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen), I find the Jewish meditation tradition superficial and undeveloped, lacking an esoteric dimension. I'm Jewish by birth, but after having devoted considerable time to investigating the Kabbalah after having been involved with other mystical traditions, I can say that someone--probably yours truly in the future--needs to upgrade the Jewish mystical tradition. If you want to understand mystical meditation/contemplation from the highest perspective, check out my unique writings. Relative to the "mechanics" of real meditation, I put it all together like no one else ever has, correlating mystical contemplation with Ohm's Law and explaining it via dialectic.
"Kabbalah" means "to receive."[the Divine Influx, or Blessing Power, or Holy Spirit]. But how do you do it directly and immediately. Here's the secret: Be whole-bodily, directly and immediately Present (and pressing against) the Whole. This creates Pressure. Then be Absent (or empty of self and mind). This allows the Pressure to translate into (Divine) Power, which you receive (or conduct). Presence is the thesis; Absence (or Poverty) is the antithesis; and the Supernal Influx of Light-energy is the synthesis.
