Meditation, Nature and Torah: The Missing Links (a Podcast)
The aim of spiritual practices such as meditation is that they will help us not only to feel present (or perhaps Presence) while we are meditating, but will help us to maintain that sense throughout our day. But it often isn’t easy as our daily activities can feel jarring, disconnecting, and numbing. Sometimes even the hopefully spiritual activity of learning Torah can feel “intellectual” and “analytical” and can seem to have little to do with our meditation practice.
But we all have had experiences and situations which do seem to reinforce a sense of Presence. Being in nature, for example, often arouses that sense of connectedness and harmony that we call spiritual. There are patterns of connection embedded in nature which draw us into Presence. The Torah is the Tree of Life and is in fact filled with these same patterns of connection. We’ll present a fresh way of approaching Torah through accessing its natural patterns. We use those parts of our brain which see patterns, beauty, and integration. In this way we can begin to integrate our meditation practice with our Torah learning and ultimately to our whole lives.
Related
“Integrating Jewish Wisdom and Ecological Thinking to Heal a Fractured World” →
Nosh & Drosh – “The Torah of Nature and the Nature of Torah” →
Learn to read classic Jewish texts on your own →
