What is Jewish Mindfulness Meditation and how can Mindful Judaism help you experience a deep and meaningful spirituality? How can Jewish meditation help you create a contemplative, personalized Judaism?
You can hardly go anywhere without hearing a friend talk about mindfulness or hear someone on the news or in the community talk about mindfulness. There are over 20,000,000 hits on mindfulness on Google and over 150,000 hits for mindfulness on just Amazon alone. I checked! But what is “mindfulness?” And can it be “Jewish?!”
The Mindfulness Movement
The contemporary mindfulness movement began with the work and research of Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn. Many years ago, he began a meditation practice in the Korean Zen Buddhist tradition and then later developed and popularized a secularized form of mindfulness meditation that he named Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR).
In an Interview with Time magazine dated January 11, 2011, Jon Kabat-Zinn defined mindfulness as “[T]he awareness that arises through paying attention on purpose in the present moment — non-judgmentally.”
Around the same-time that MBSR was being developed, many Westerners – often those of Jewish descent – completed training in Southeast Asian nations and returned to the United States as fully empowered mindfulness-based Buddhist teachers. Some of these early pioneering mindfulness teachers include such fine and wonderful teachers as Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, and their student Sylvia Boorstein.
It appeared that their teaching and style of meditation taught by this early generation of American born Jewish mindfulness meditation teachers stressed not the rigors of monastic practice and ethnic Buddhist rituals but the introduction of a psychologically friendly mindfulness meditation for Western practitioners.
Jewish Mindfulness Meditation
In many ways, Sylvia Boorstein became the grandmother of the Jewish Mindfulness Meditation movement. After teaching at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and elsewhere for many years, Sylvia grew increasingly interested and passionate about her own inborn Judaism and began to learn more and more about Judaism and soon found herself teaching an increasing number of Rabbis interested in a Jewish practice of mindfulness meditation.
In fact, many of these teachers became the founding teaching faculty for the Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Program, from which I graduated. Some of these pioneering Jewish Mindfulness teachers include Rabbis Jonathan Slater, Sheila Peltz Weinberg, Jeff Roth, and others.
Lucky for me, I was very fortunate to work with Rabbi Jeff Roth throughout this program as my program mentor. After completing my Jewish Mindfulness Teacher Training program, Rabbi Jeff and I decided to continue our studies, and I am currently studying with Rabbi Jeff toward Rabbinic smicha ordination.
Mindful Judaism
Some say that mindfulness is just about paying attention for its own sake and that Jewish mindfulness can be reduced to a group of Jews simply practicing mindfulness together, but I believe it is more than this and have experienced how it can be deeper, awesome, and meaningful.
For me, Mindful Judaism is asking the question, “What is this?” moment by moment by moment. Mindful Judaism is the practice of seeking, recognizing, and experiencing the Divinity and Humanity of each moment in every moment.
Of course, it is impossible to absolutely define God, or even approach such an endeavor, though my experience has shown me that the Divine can be and is experienced beyond the greatest genius of the intellect and can be nourished in the sacred genius of ordinary, everyday life – raising a family, making a living, going to school, being in relationship, and in all that makes our ordinary life human and dignified.
What’s Next?
Do you practice mindfulness meditation? What has been your experience? Please comment below!
If you are interested in learning more about Jewish Mindfulness Meditation or how to create a more meaningful spiritual path for you and your loved ones, please make sure to sign up and click the “Stay Connected Now!” button below!
Adam Fogel
www.mindfuljudaism.com