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For the past fifteen years, I have sat in meditation daily (with a few days off for various flus and whatnot). I have been davening with talit and tefillin for much longer than that but soon after a dear friend taught me to meditate under an Israeli berry tree, I added the intentional I sit to my practice. I do so for several reasons.

1. Sitting in meditation is the only answer I have found to remedy my human forgetfulness that there is nothing other than God (“ain od milvado” in traditional Hebrew; “leit atar panui mineh” in the Aramaic, etc.). God consciousness is my responsibility as a Jew, and as I am a bit of a slacker and sometimes forget God for minutes or even hours at a time in my daily life, having a practice of a closed-eye sitting meditation, I am able to remedy that forgetfulness.

2. Sometimes I think that the world is a movie with me at the center – my emotions are large, my judgments are deep, my attention span narrow but still all about me. Sitting in meditation reconfigures my sense of the screen. It might still be all about me, but me (in there) is so vast that it includes everything else. I configure myself as part of the Divine creation, and there is relief in that.

3. Meditating is the only place I am free. Free to be angry, to be pithy, to be sappy, to be glorious, to be selfish. And as those me’s flit across the screen, I am reminded daily that me is truly freer than I thought before I sat.

4. At times, in the day, my vision sometimes narrows and I fail to see options in relationships, in work, in anything. Sitting offers vastness. Vastness offers more options than I was ever able to find when I still narrow visioned.

5. I sit because I choose identify and participate with those in my tradition that did this before me. The “first righteous ones would pause for an hour before prayer” (“Hasidim rishonim hayu shohim sha’a ahat lifnei hatefilla” – Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Brakhot). In echo and continuation of their elongated pause as preparation to be present, I do so too.

6. I have a meditation practice because like many humans, I am a creature of habit (“sanskaars” in Sanskrit). And I am working to access good habits. And like one who has entered a bakery and tasted its most delicious product, only to return daily to that place, I return to my daily sitting practice because it is simply that delicious.

The views expressed by guestbloggers do not necessarily reflect the Jewish Meditation Center of Brooklyn’s positions, interests, strategies or opinions. But that’s what keeps it interesting.

I also really like Jeff Roth’s explanation of what makes his meditation practice Jewish: “One thing that defines my practice as Jewish is that my object of focus is always God, in one form or another…”

I think that this intention or aspiration is important. Some people use meditation as a tool to find relaxation and stress relief, and I think that will happen regardless of what sort of meditation practice you use or subscribe to, just breathing deeply and paying attention will bring relaxation, stillness, and calm. My goal is personal transformation, leading to community and global transformation.

What makes my meditation practice Jewish is that I’m cultivating Tikkun Olam- from the inside out.

Send your questions about Jewish meditation, your personal practice, any of your current contemplations to info@jmcbrooklyn.org! We’ll respond and invite guest bloggers and teachers to weigh in, as well.  Don’t be shy, we’ll post questions anonymously. Ask away!