Torah-Veda

An Interspiritual Journey
Find Your Inspiration and Follow It

WELCOME TO TORAH-VEDA

Torah and Veda are two ancient sources of spirituality still vibrant today. Torah is conveyed through the sacred language of Hebrew and Veda is conveyed through the sacred language of Sanskrit. The focus here is on meditation, mysticism, philosophy, psychology and the underlying spirituality that has been incorporated into religions, and not as much on the religions themselves. Your comments and posts are welcome.


Quote of the Week 419 - Listend/Hearing for Non-material Sustenance

Quote of the Week 419 - Listening/Hearing for Non-material Sustenance


Every one who is thirsty, come and drink. He who has no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good. Let your soul delight in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, that your soul will live…


--Isaiah 55:1-3, The Living Torah translation by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan

CURRENT TEACHING SESSIONS




Interfaith/Inter-Spiritual Contemplative Groups


Please check out the following, which is an ongoing activity that may be of interest:


https://www.zgatl.org/contemplative-group.html


https://www.zgatl.org/ongoing-groups.html


http://www.interfaithci.org/contemplative.html


https://faithallianceofmetroatlanta.org/recent-events/programs-events/ongoing-programs/











Thursday, December 17, 2015

Quote of the Week 339 - Close to the Ground: The Secret of Abiding Joy

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I’m sitting, watching Parker perform her first dance masterpiece. Its baseline is a collection of moves from her gymnastics class. She has layered on top of these most of the components of the sun salutation as well as some ferocious wing fluttering and shimmying. Periodically she stops cold for a few beats—a two-year-old’s interpretation of a Philip Glass composition. Her grin couldn’t be bigger. Sometimes it explodes into a giggle of pure happiness. I am thrilled for her.

Parker’s great fun is reminding me of an important Zen teaching that often gets swept under our meditation mats: that our job is to dance with life. We seem to be forgetting this aspect of the tradition, even though it is woven into many of the classic stories taught by our teachers. A favorite of mine has to do with the great Zen Master Hakuin and one of his students. Hakuin was known for his seriousness and ferocious personality. At the same time he also had a sweet spot in his heart for the ordinary people living in the villages around him. As a result they would often visit him, even though many a formal Zen student feared his presence.

One of Hakuin’s many visitors was an old woman who apparently had been chanting Buddha’s name for years but couldn’t quite slide into complete awakeness. He encourages her to keep practicing by looking into her own heart. She goes off and chews on his words like a dog with a bone. At night she practices. In the mornings she practices. She practices while she is doing her chores, walking, washing, and going to the toilet. She even practices in her sleep. Finally, one morning while she is washing the dishes, all the falsehoods of her life drop away and she is completely and utterly awake.
Thrilled, she rushes to see Hakuin, telling him that her whole body is filled with Buddha and that all of the mountains and rivers, forests and fields are shining with great enlightenment.

He looks at her. “Oh really?” he says. “And is this great light also shining up your butt?”

Even though the old woman is tiny, she pushes him over, shouting, “Well, I can see you still have work to do yourself, old man!” They laugh themselves silly and are so happy that they dance and dance and dance—awakeness meeting awakeness.

There is no question that we live in a broken world. As I write, all of Eugene is abuzz with trepidation about a probable earthquake that could happen in the coming years. It is expected to be a big one, possibly so big that many will be killed. Meanwhile, many of us are realizing, maybe for the first time, that this great democracy we call home has some horrific undertones, starting with a history of building itself on the backs of our brothers and sisters. The laudable, honorable aspects of the Islamic tradition have been caught in the undertow of a radical militarism that is holding the world hostage. Many of us are learning how to live on way less than we ever thought possible, thanks to a government that has lost its way and a great recession that has never let up in some quarters. And don’t get me started on the prison system.

And yet.

In my many years of teaching I’ve watched many students achieve the quiet of emptiness. And each time my hope is that they will keep going, keep training, keep studying, because there is so much more. When I see them start to cry easily, unapologetically, when something is even a little sad or sweet, I continue to hope they will keep going. Why? Because they still have waiting for them the great gift discovered by Hakuin’s old woman—great, abiding holy-shit-I-wouldn’t-believe-it-if-I-weren’t-feeling-it joy. This isn’t loud joy. It is a quiet, pulsating, porous, “it’s OK” joy that feeds us and gives us the energy to continue to be of service to the world as it is. Without expectations. This is the joy that gives us the courage to speak truth to power. To protest. To climb flagpoles that need climbing. To apologize for a history of unspeakable abuse. To clean up. And to dance. To dance with our whole breath, our whole body, the whole world, the whole universe.

Because that’s our job.

--Geri Larkin, Spirituality and Health Magazine, Nov.-Dec. 2015 Issue

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Quote of the Week 338 - The Proper Teaching


The proper teaching is recognized with ease. You can know it without fail because it awakens within you that sensation which tells you this is something you’ve always known.

-- Frank Herbert

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Quote of the Week 337 - I Am an Empty Shell


I am an empty shell.

Therefore, I am full.

--Steven J. Gold

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Quote of the Week 336 - Magic


The world is its own magic.

--Shunryu Suzuki

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Quote of the Week 335 - Perfect Doctrine/Dogma


[Student:]

If only it were possible to find understanding. If only there were a dogma to believe in. Everything is contradictory, everything tangential; there are no certainties anywhere. Everything can be interpreted one way and then again interpreted in the opposite sense. The whole of world history can be explained as development and progress and can also be seen as nothing but decadence and meaninglessness. Isn’t there any truth? Is there no real and valid doctrine?

[Master:]

There is truth, my boy. But the doctrine you desire, absolute, perfect dogma that alone provides wisdom, does not exist. Nor should you long for a perfect doctrine, my friend. Rather, you should long for the perfection of  yourself. The deity is within you, not in ideas and books. Truth is lived, not taught.

-- Hermann Hesse, Magister Ludi (The Glass Bead Game)

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

New Audio Link - My Spiritual Practice, Presentation at Vedanta Center of Atlanta, 10/04/15

It is also listed in the Audio section in the right-hand column. Scroll down to find the audio section.


My Spiritual Practice

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Quote of the Week 334 - Religion


Religion. It’s given people hope in a world torn apart by religion.

--Jon Stewart

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Quote of the Week 333 - The Lens in the Beam


You are merely the lens in the beam. You can only receive, give, and possess the light as the lens does…

You will know life and be acknowledged by it according to your degree of transparency, your capacity, that is, to vanish as an end, and remain purely as a means.

--Dag Hammarskjöld

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Quote of the Week 332 - Joy Despite the Facts


I love being with those who have a joyful heart even though they have considered the facts.

-- Jack Kornfield, quoted in Shambhala Sun magazine, March 2015 Issue

Quote of the Week 332 - Joy Despite the Facts


I love being with those who have a joyful heart even though they have considered the facts.

-- Jack Kornfield, quoted in Shambhala Sun magazine, March 2015 Issue

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Quote of the Week 331 - One's Lost Self


At the innermost core of all loneliness is a deep and powerful yearning for union with one’s lost self.

-- Brendan Francis

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Quote of the Week 330 - Fishing


Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.

--Henry David Thoreau

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Quote of the Week 329 - Dream Luminosity


In a dream I am walking joyfully up the mountain. Something breaks and falls away, and all is light. Nothing has changed, yet all is amazing, luminescent, free. Released at last, I rise into the sky…This dream comes often. Sometimes I run, then lift up like a kite, high above the earth, and always I sail transcendent for a time before awaking. I choose to awake, for fear of falling, yet such dreams tell me that I am a part of things, if only I would let go, and keep on going.

In recent dreams, I have twice seen light so brilliant, so intense, that it “woke me up,” but the light did not continue into wakefulness. Which was more real, the waking or the dream?

-- Peter Matthiessen, Nine-Headed Dragon River

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Quote of the Week 328 - God is the Consciousness in Life


The purpose is to identify not with the body which is falling away, but with the consciousness of which it is a vehicle. This is something I learned from my myths. Am I the bulb that carries the light, or am I the light of which the bulb is the vehicle? If you can identify with the consciousness, you can watch this thing go like an old car. There goes the fender, etc. But it’s expected: and then gradually the whole thing drops off and consciousness rejoins consciousness. I live with these myths – and they tell me to do this, to identify with the Christ or the Shiva in me. And that doesn’t die, it resurrects. It is an essential experience of any mystical realization that you die to your flesh and are born to your spirit. You identify with the consciousness in life – and that is the god.

--Joseph Campbell

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Quote of the Week 327 - A Peaceful Mind Free From All Thought Constructs


By concentrating on the lotus of the heart, there arises a state of sorrowless joy which is infused with inner light; upon its emergence, such a state anchors the mind to a peaceful flow free from all thought constructs.

--Yoga Sutra 1:36, Samadhi Pada, expanded by Vyasa, as interpreted and translated by Pandit Rajmani Tigunait in The Secret of the Yoga Sutra; Samadhi Pada

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Quote of the Week 326 - Two Sides of Being Alone


Our language has wisely sensed the two sides of being alone. It has created the word “loneliness” to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word “solitude” to express the glory of being alone.

-- Paul Tillich, The Eternal Now

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Quote of the Week 325 - What You Do About It


Life happens. Life is ten percent what happened to you, is ninety percent what you do about it.

--Steve Harvey, Stayer University TV Commercial

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Quote of the Week #324 - Universal Hitching


When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.

--John Muir

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Two New Audio Links: (1) Abstraction, Form and Meditation Presentation at Vedanta Center of Atlanta; (2) A Foundation for a Fruitful Meditation Practice: Science of Breath/Pranayama/Relaxation - Theory and Practice

I have added two new audio links under the "Audio" section in the right-hand column and below. Concerning the second link, it is a meditation workshop divided into three components. First is a theoretical description of the Science of Breath/Pranayama/Relaxation. Next is a guided exercise putting the theory into practice. Last is a discussion following the practice. 

For those who have been looking for an audio file from me containing a guided meditation practice, here it is! The links will allow for you to download the presentations as mp3 files.

Abstraction, Form and Meditation 

Meditation Workshop: A Foundation for a Fruitful Meditation Practice: Science of Breath/Pranayama/Relaxation - Theory and Practice

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Quote of the Week 323 - Our Human Birthright


There will never be an end to this work of making things better, because it is our human birthright to make things worse and to make them better.

--Zoketsu Norman Fischer, “The Problem of Evil”, Shambhala Sun magazine, May 2015

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Quote of the Week 322 - The Perspective of Infinity


Our world hangs like a magnificent jewel in the vastness of space. Every one of us is a facet of that jewel. And in the perspective of infinity, our differences are infinitesimal.

--Fred Rogers, Dartmouth College Commencement, 2002

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Quote of the Week 321 - Reality is a Sound


Reality is a sound, you have to tune in to it not just keep yelling.

-- Anne Carson

Friday, April 10, 2015

Nice Jewish Boy Meets Rabbi Jesus

I have previously posted an article with this subject, but I have now added to it an audio of a presentation I made at the Vedanta Center of Atlanta this past Easter Sunday, 2015. You can check it out under the "Audio" section in the right column. Think about it...a Jewish guy talking about Jesus in a Hindu Temple on Easter...you don't get more interfaith than that! The link will also allow you to download an mp3 file of the presentation. Also, here is the link:
Nice Jewish Boy Meets Rabbi Jesus

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Quote of the Week 320 - Scripture, Myth and Concentration on Spiritual Matters


Religion has attempted in the past to dogmatise on Cosmology. But wiser theologians always recognized that when Scripture tells us stories telling HOW creation happened, these must be understood as Myths, that is the attempt to describe a spiritual requirement in seemingly historical terms. For example, the creation myth about God making the world in six days and resting on the seventh is a way of teaching that Man, created in the image of God, needs to rest once a week from all earthly matters to concentrate on spiritual matters.

--Bill Heilbronn, from The Courage of Uncertainty; A Jewish View of the Continuing Evolution of Faith in the Fields of Religion and Science

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Quote of the Week 319 - Interconnecting Fibers


We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.

--Herman Melville

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Quote of the Week 318 - Different Kinds of Silence


Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn?...Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven’t the answer to a question you’ve been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause in a roomful of people when someone is just about to speak, or most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you’re all alone in the whole house? Each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful, if you listen carefully.

-- from The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Quote of the Week 317 - There's Nothing to Get


I think a lot of people come to Zen practice because they want to be free of their suffering. They’ve read about Zen enlightenment and want to attain that. So it’s really sad when I have to tell these people, “You know, actually, you have everything you need. You don’t have to get anything. You just have to get clear in yourself, and then you’ll recognize that it’s already there, that there’s nothing to get.”

--Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara, interviewed by Sam Mowe, in Spirituality & Health magazine, January/February 2015 issue

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Quote of the Week 316 - Looking Within the Human Heart


I look out into the world, and I see a deep night of unthinkable cruelty and blindness. But when I look within the human heart, I find something of love there, something that cares and shines out into the darkness of our times like a bright beacon. And in the shining of that inner light, I feel the dreams and prayers of all beings. In the shining of that beacon, I feel all of our hopes for a better future. In the shining of our heart lights, we find the strength to do what must be done.

-- John Robbins, author of Diet for a New America, Voices of the Food Revolution, No Happy Cows, quoted in Spirituality & Health magazine, Sept/Oct 2014 issue

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Quote of the Week 315 - Universal Vision: Seeing the Divinity in Everyone


Above all else, those who are established in the consciousness of one-ness have universal vision. They see the divinity in every human being. Enlightened individuals can discern how each person fits into the greater whole, how each is an essential piece of the puzzle that we call life. They understand that both the saint and the sinner, the virtuous person and the scoundrel, the wise man and the fool, are part of the play of this material existence. They know that all of these actors are part of the wondrous manifestation of God’s Eternal Spirit in this finite physical world.

-- from Living the Life of Jewish Meditation; A Comprehensive Guide to Practice and Experience, by Rabbi Yoel Glick

Friday, February 6, 2015

Quote of the Week 314 - Abraham


When the Guiding Force of the universe wants to introduce new ideas and energies into the consciousness of humanity, a plan is constructed to facilitate the revelation and growth of this fresh divine imperative on the earthly plane. Then, a shoresh neshama (root soul) is formed to take up this spiritual mission and bring it to fruition in time and space.

Great souls from the higher reaches of the celestial planes are sent down to anchor the divine thoughtform in our world. The lives of these souls are filled with suffering and struggle, but they are lives where the Eternal presence is real and tangible.

After these souls pass over, they form a spiritual nucleus in the higher realm. This nucleus becomes a new outpost of energy and consciousness in the Kingdom of Heaven. It acts as an intermediary link between those on the physical plane and their supernal source.

Avraham was the first Jew. He provided the anchor for the Soul of Israel in this world. Avraham is the archetype of the father in Judaism. He is the father of the Jewish people and the father of the Jewish soul. This understanding is explicit in his original name Avram, which is composed of two words: av, “father” and ram, “high” or “esteemed.” Together they form “high father” – the spiritual definition of his life and work.

As his life journey progresses, Avram receives a new name in a vision. He is blessed that he will become a father of many nations, and the Hebrew letter heh is added to his name. His name now becomes Avraham. The heh is one of the letters in the sacred Divine Name Yud He Vav Heh. By the addition of this letter to Avram’s name, he is bound to God forever.

The addition of the heh to the name Avram is also a symbol of the spiritual initiation Avraham underwent, whereby he was linked to a new, greater collective soul. This initiation transformed him into a soul “father of fathers” – av: father; ra: high father; ham: father of fathers. It led him another step in the journey to his Source.

-- from Living the Life of Jewish Meditation; A Comprehensive Guide to Practice and Experience, by Rabbi Yoel Glick

Friday, January 30, 2015

Quote of the Week 313 - Being Comfortable with Paradox and Confusion


Enlightened space, the place of unconditional love, cannot be achieved until and unless one is willing to be comfortable with paradox and confusion.

--Ralph Walker

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Rabbi Yoel Glick Shabbaton


In Partnership with Limmud Atlanta + SE
 
Daat Elyon presents:
Living in the Presence of God
A Contemplative Shabbaton
with Rabbi Yoel Glick
Atlanta, GA

February 27, 28, March 1,2015

Come join us for a Shabbaton with the renowned teacher, spiritual guide and mentor Rabbi Yoel Glick. During this weekend, Rabbi Yoel will share insights, practices and experiences from his new book Living the Life of Jewish Meditation: A Comprehensive Guide to Practice and Experience.

Friday Night, February 27 – Contemplative Kabbalat Shabbat
Rabbi Yoel Glick will lead a contemplative Kabbalat Shabbat service to greet the Sabbath Queen with short guided meditations, chanting and singing.
Time: 7:30 PM
Location: Ahavath Achim Synagogue, 600 Peachtree Battle Ave. NW, Atlanta 30327

Saturday Morning, February 28 – Meditation Workshop: Building a Jewish Meditation Practice
At the heart of the meditative life is our daily practice. Our day-to-day meditation is the key to transforming our consciousness. In this workshop, we will explore the five categories of meditation techniques – stilling the mind, visualization, concentration, mantra chanting and contemplation – and delve into the inner processes that they set in motion.
Time: 10 AM to 1 PM
Location: Lang Carson Center (at Lang Carson Park), 100 Flat Shoals Ave SE, Atlanta 30316
Fee: $20.00. Pre-registration/prepayment required. Send fee payable to Yoga and Judaism Center, PO Box 1769, Decatur, GA 30031. Space is limited; first-come, first-served. Bring yoga mat, meditation blanket/cushion.

Saturday Evening, February 28 – Celebratory Havdalah
In this Havdalah service, Rabbi Yoel will utilize the traditional rituals, Kabbalistic chanting, Hasidic melodies and mystical teaching to conclude the Shabbat and draw its spiritual power into the consciousness of the new week.
Time: 7 PM to 8 PM
Location: Vista Yoga, 2836 LaVista Rd., Decatur 30033 (behind Napoleon’s)

Sunday Morning, March 1 – Seeking the Living Presence of God: The Story of My Spiritual Journey
In this talk, Rabbi Yoel will talk about his spiritual journey and the vibrant encounter between Judaism and Hinduism which has become his life’s path and work.
Time: 11 AM (silent meditation from 10:30 AM to 11 AM; program starts at 11 AM)
Location: Vedanta Center of Atlanta, 2331 Brockett Rd. Tucker, GA 30084

Sunday Afternoon, March 1  - Building the Temple of the Heart: The Three Pillars of the Spiritual Life
In the Hebrew Bible, God commands Israel: “Make me a sanctuary and I shall dwell in your midst.” The Baal Shem teaches that each of us is a living temple. The rabbis set out the three pillars of this inner Temple: Torah (study of spiritual wisdom), Avodah (Worship) and Gimilut Hasadim (Acts of Loving-kindness). These three pillars correspond to the three Yogas of Hinduism: Jnana yoga, Bhakti yoga, and Karma yoga. They can also be defined as the expansion of our consciousness, the constant remembrance of God, and the inner work of self-transformation. In this talk and experiential workshop, we will explore how to use these three paths to build a sacred space inside us where the Divine Presence dwells.
Time: 1 PM to 3 PM
Location: Vedanta Center of Atlanta, 2331 Brockett Rd. Tucker, GA 30084

For more information, contact Steve Gold, Yoga and Judaism Center, yajcenter@aol.com, 770-270-8290.
All sessions are free and open to the public, except for Saturday morning, as noted. Donations are welcome to help cover costs. To donate, go to yajcenter.blogspot.com.


Thursday, January 15, 2015

Quote of the Week 312 - The World's Breathing


The world’s continual breathing is what we hear and call silence.

-- Clarice Lispector

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Quote of the Week 311 - My Peace


I thrive on the eccentricity of my imagination. Outwardly, I’m conventional and boring. Inwardly, I can’t keep the wild thoughts from flowing. That’s my peace. In that wildness lives my creative and comforting stillness.

--Thomas Moore, in the article “The Place Beyond Seeking”, Spirituality & Health magazine, January/February 2015 issue