One God Clapping

by Lew, Alan

• ISBN13: 9781580231152
• ISBN10: 1580231152
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-02-01
• Publisher: Jewish Lights Pub

Summary

The firsthand account of the Jewish meditation movement leader Alan Lew's roundabout spiritual journey from Zen Buddhist practitioner to rabbi. This fascinating personal story serves as a source of inspiration for anyone who is on the journey to find God in today's multi-faceted spiritual world.

Table of Contents

PART I: To Leave Everything That Is Familiar
Prologue: The Way Things Are	3	(3)
A Vivid Dream	6	(5)
Jewish Karma	11	(5)
Please Throw Me a Rope	16	(3)
How I Learned to Look Beneath the Surface	19	(3)
Freedom Is a Spiritual State	22	(5)
Sublimating Spirituality	27	(4)
Lech Lecha	31	(8)
The War Between the Two Sides of the Brain	39	(4)
Death Recycles into Life	43	(6)
The Question Is Not Whether a Teacher Has Real Spiritual Power, but How That Power Is Used	49	(8)
Centering	57	(5)
Meditation	62	(7)
The Gateway	69	(4)
Form Is Emptiness	73	(5)
Spiritual Pyrotechnics	78	(4)
Dokusan	82	(6)
When Peace Breaks Out, the First thing You Feel Is the Devastation of the War	88	(7)
The Need to Belong	95	(5)
Emptiness Is Form	100	(4)
Compassion	104	(3)
They Do Not Appear or Disappear	107	(11)
My Naked Heart	118	(8)
Healing Presence	126	(3)
Closure	129	(5)
Family	134	(8)
Wedding	142	(4)
Narrative	146	(5)
Hold On to Your Hat	151	(14)
PART II: God Was in This Place and I Didn't Know It
The Funnel	165	(3)
The Kaddish	168	(13)
Studying Talmud	181	(10)
The Holocaust	191	(11)
Prayer	202	(12)
Service	214	(9)
Why the Messiah Doesn't Come	223	(6)
Death	229	(15)
Teshuvah	244	(10)
The Lineaments of the Divine Encounter	254	(11)
Kabbalah	265	(7)
Taking Leave	272	(7)
PART III: To Struggle with God Until Your Name Changes
The Shem'a	279	(6)
Open the Gates	285	(11)
Our Divine Name	296	(6)
What I Learned from Buddhism About How to Save Judaism	302	(6)
How to Look at Your Heart	308	(8)
About Jewish Lights	316