Thomas Merton “Learn how to meditate on paper. Drawing and writing are forms of meditation. Learn how to contemplate works of art. Learn how to pray in the streets or in the country. Know how to meditate not only when you have a book in your hand but when you are waiting for a bus or riding in a train … Read More
Contemplation * Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton Contemplation . . . is the experiential grasp of reality as subjective, not so much “mind” (which would signify “belonging to the external self”) but “myself” in existential mystery. Contemplation does not arrive at reality after a process of deduction, but by an intuitive awakening in which our free and personal reality becomes fully alive to its own existential depths, … Read More
On Religious Inquiry * Vimala Thakar
Vimala Thakar Religious inquiry involves willingness to court failure. If we are too much concerned with doing the correct thing and are afraid of making mistakes, then fear creates inhibitions and prevents the openness necessary for learning. Sometimes we’ll make mistakes, slip and fall but as children learning to walk, we pick ourselves up and go on joyously, carrying no … Read More
Eternity * William Blake
William Blake Eternity He who binds to himself a joy Does the winged life destroy; But he who kisses the joy as it flies Lives in eternity’s sun rise. ~ William Blake For more inspiration, meditate with the mystics
Love Gave Birth to Me * Rumi
Rumi It is love that brings happiness to people. It is love that gives joy to happiness. My mother didn’t give birth to me, that love did. A hundred blessings and praises to that love. ~ Rumi For more inspiration, meditate with the mystics
Don’t Leave G-d Out of It: Zalman Schachter’s Views on Sexuality
This interview with Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi explores his interpretation of views on sexuality and spirituality in Judaism. Western tantra, Christian and Hindu celibacy, Tibetan sexual yoga, Buddhist monasticism . . . as we began discussing these vastly divergent approaches to sexuality in spiritual life, I wondered what Judaism had to say about the subject. Raised in a Reconstructionist synagogue with … Read More
The Back of the Synagogue Is Not the Back of the Bus
An interview with Esther Kosovsky, educator, and Tamar Frankiel, President of Academy of Jewish Religion. “She converted to Orthodox Judaism after being a feminist!?” my colleagues exclaimed to me. “We have to speak with her!” We were discussing the work of Tamar Frankiel, author and educator, whose book The Voice of Sarah portrays the purpose and meaning in the traditional roles for women in … Read More