Part 1 of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Kabbalah explains the general phenomenon and its popularity, and gives an overview of what exists today in the world regarding the word Kabbalah. It also discusses what Kabbalah is and what it isn’t, and gives some background on how it got started.
We have been receiving many responses to the competition showing the many misconceptions we all have about Kabbalah prior to encountering the authentic study through Bnei Baruch. We will post some of these coupled with explanations about these misconceptions from Part 1 of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Kabbalah in coming newsletters and blog posts.
Next Thursday we will publish the winning entry. You still have until Monday, June 3, 2007 to enter! Send all entries to english@kabbalah.info
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Meditation and Kabbalah
The Meditation Misconception
COMPETITION ENTRY FROM PAULA: Prior to coming to Bnei Baruch to learn what the wisdom of Kabbalah really is, I spent 12 years intensely studying Judaism and so-called “Kabbalah.”
My biggest stumbling block was meditation and so-called “Kabbalistic meditation.” I fully expected to attain the upper worlds by sitting in stillness with my eyes closed and chanting various permutations of names of G-d. All my closest “divine” connections came from my meditation practice and that was my ultimate pleasure, that sweet “divine connection.”
Imagine my surprise and shock to learn that meditation was actually reducing me to the level of a stone! Sure I could feel the divine, but in the same way a stone does 🙂 It was like settling for the teeny-tiniest fragment of the upper light. Now I wrestle to become a fully speaking human in this world, thanks to Bnei Baruch.
FROM THE BOOK: Meditation is considered by many as part of the spiritual work or practices of a Kabbalist. But not all Kabbalists have practiced meditation, and even those who did meditate did not practice it in the sense we do today.
Today meditation is associated with Eastern teachings, something that Kabbalists in the past did not know. Generally, Eastern meditation is used for relaxation and for uniting with higher levels of existence by “removing” the ego. In Kabbalah, the ego is not removed, but elevated to a higher level of practice. It connects with the divine instead of canceling itself. This embrace of ego and Creator is called Yihud (unification).
pp. 10/11 of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Kabbalah, by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD and Collin Canright.
Click here to view a related video: “Can a Kabbalist also be a Buddhist?”
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