Quote of the Week 299 - Spirit and Art

Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art.

--Leonardo da Vinci

Quote of the Week 298 - What God Does and Doesn't Do

I don’t believe that God causes mental retardation in children, or chooses who should suffer muscular dystrophy. The God I believe in does not send us the problem; He gives us the strength to cope with the problem.

--from When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Rabbi Harold S. Kushner

New Audio: Interview with Gareth Young/NewMindSet on my Early "Walkabout" and other subjects

I was recently interviewed by Gareth Young for his web-based initiative on creating a New Business Mindset. For a little introduction, click here: http://garethjyoung.com/stevegold/

To go straight to the recording, click here:

http://content.blubrry.com/newmindset/SteveGold.mp3 

Quote of the Week 297 - Mysticism and Atheism Shake Hands

Nonduality may be said to be the place where mysticism and atheism shake hands. The cosmology may be identical, as there are no puppet-masters pulling the strings of our reality. Yet the stage is now a cathedral.

--Jay Michaelson, Everything Is God; The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism, page 30

Upcoming Sessions at Columbia, SC JCC, June 22

I will be conducting the following sessions at the JCC in Columbia, South Carolina on Sunday, June 22, 2014. For anyone coming from outside Columbia, as I will be, if you come in on Saturday, you are welcome to join me for dinner Saturday night. Just contact me to let me know. Please contact Laurie Slack if you are interested in attending.

Date: Sunday, June 22, 2014

Time: Session 1, 9 AM to 10:30 AM; Session 2, 1 PM to 2:30 PM

Location: Katie & Irwin Kahn Jewish Community Center

306 Flora Drive

Columbia, SC 29224

Contact: Laurie Slack, Jewish Programs Director, 803-787-2023 x201; lauries@jcccolumbia.org for reservations

Session 1: Yoga and Judaism Body-Breath-Mind-Spirit Practices

Yoga is most popularly known as a system of physical exercise developed in India to tone, balance and calm the body and internal organs. It is also part of a more comprehensive system designed to facilitate spiritual development through progressive steps of a journey from without to within. It leads from the body to the breath to the mind and ultimately to the spirit. Call and response chanting is also a spiritually beneficial practice within the yoga system channeling emotions in a uplifting direction.

Current day pioneers in Jewish spirituality are connecting Jewish mystical teachings and practices with traditional yoga practices. This session will begin with physical exercises, followed by breathing and relaxation exercises, followed by meditation, and ending with call and response chanting, intertwining mystical Jewish concepts and practices with yoga practices. Come find out and experience the prophetic posture and yoga-like meditation techniques described in Jewish sources.

Bring a yoga mat, a blanket or pillow for seated meditation (chairs will be provided for those who are not comfortable sitting on the floor). Anyone who wants to bring a drum to augment the chanting session is welcome.

It is recommended that participants come to the class on an empty stomach, or if you must eat, finish a light breakfast at least one hour before the start of the class session. Yoga and meditation ais best done on an empty stomach.

The session will last approximately 90 minutes, beginning at 9 AM and ending at 10:30 AM.

Session 2: Bereishit/Genesis – In the Beginning

World Without End, Eternity, Infinity, Time, Space, Manifestation, Creation. This presentation will focus on the opening verse of Genesis from the perspective of the mystical traditions of Judaism, India and the Western Esoteric Tradition and correlations that exist between these traditions.

Western spiritual traditions rooted in Hebrew Spirituality, tend to focus on a dualistic notion distinguishing a Creator and Creation; and Eastern spiritual traditions rooted in the spirituality of the Vedas, upon which yoga is based, tend to focus on an illusory/partial reality Manifestation arising from, but ultimately not distinct from, a unified substratum/full reality. The Western Esoteric Tradition, with roots in both Jewish and Vedic sources, synthesize aspects from both. Perhaps in the mystical aspects to these traditions, these distinctions begin to blur. And perhaps conceptions/accounts of Creation/Manifestation are not just descriptions of the workings of the external universe (macrocosm), but also of the internal universe that exists within each of us (microcosm). Included will be a mystical Jewish analysis and interpretation of the nuances of the Hebrew words in the opening verse of Genesis and its relationship to a common clause utilized at the beginning of most Hebrew blessings.

Genesis like you’ve never seen it before!

This session will last approximately 90 minutes from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM.

Upcoming Presentation, Friday, May 30, 7:30 PM

Manifestation and Creation, East and West

World Without End, Eternity, Infinity, Time, Space, Manifestation, Creation. This presentation will focus on correlations between Western spiritual traditions rooted in Hebrew Spirituality, which tend to focus on a dualistic notion distinguishing a Creator and Creation; and Eastern spiritual traditions rooted in Sanatan Dharma, which tend to focus on an illusory/partial reality Manifestation arising from, but ultimately not distinct from, a unified substratum/full reality. Perhaps in the mystical aspects to these traditions, these distinctions begin to blur. And perhaps conceptions/accounts of Creation/Manifestation are not just descriptions of the workings of the external universe (macrocosm), but also of the internal universe that exists within each of us (microcosm). Included will be a mystical Jewish analysis and interpretation of the nuances of the Hebrew words in the opening verse of Genesis and its relationship to a common clause utilized at the beginning of most Hebrew blessings. 

Presenter: Steve Gold

Date: Friday, May 30, 2014

Time: 7:30 PM to 9:00 PM

Location: Karin Kabalah Center, 2531 Briarcliff Road, NE, Suite #217, Atlanta, GA 30329; 404-320-1038. (This is near the corner of N. Druid Hills and Briarcliff, in an office park behind Quicktrip and Boston Market).

Cost: $15.00

Please call to pre-register.

Quote of the Week 296 - Collaboration is the Royal Road

Collaboration is the royal road to the wholeness that hallmarks healthy systems in the world. Collaboration calls for empathy and solidarity, and ultimately for love. I do not and cannot love myself if I do not love you and others around me: We are part of the same whole and so are part of each other.

--One of the Sixteen Hallmarks of the New Consciousness comprising The Oneness Declaration by Ervin Laszlo, as contained in The Intelligent Optimist magazine (formerly Ode) January/February 2013 edition

Quote of the Week 295 - Dance to the Music

Those who dance to music are considered mad by others who can’t hear it.

--Atlanta Bumper Sticker

Quote of the Week 294 - Transition

Mind is like a projector, projects the external world. From where has this external world, Vaishvanara, come? What happens to it? Does it last forever? When we see that everything is changing, we know that a time will come when they will no longer exist. All namas and rupas, names and forms, will dissolve sooner or later.

Some forms last for a few years, other forms may last for more years. Once they are dissolved, what happens to them? Even this form that is called the universe is going to change one day. What will happen? It will go to annihilation. But even in annihilation, the ancient Vedic scriptures, shrutis say, Surya chandramasodata yata purvam akalpayet. The sun, moon, stars, this whole universe will at some point go to its resting place, Brahman, the summum bonum of life; then ages later, the universe will again remanifest exactly the way it used to be. It’s a scientific law. If you have a mango seed, no matter how it is stored, when it germinates, it will bring forth only mango. In reality, nothing happens. This is all Brahman, a gross aspect of Brahman.

…

Those who have studied the Ishopanishad know that its mantras say that while departing, a soul, an individual soul, should learn to remember all that it has done, all the good things it has done, because those good deeds will not create sadness, depression, fear in the mind when going through the transition. So far you have been preparing yourself to be comfortable in the external world, to be in a world full of means, which is essential, but now, you are preparing yourself to go through the period of transition. Sooner or later we all have to go through that transition. Look at this strange thing, we all have to depart one day, yet we never believe that we will die. Do you know why? Why do you believe that you will not die? Because there is no death for eternity and you are a child of eternity. The soul never dies, which you know unconsciously. The best part of you never dies. That which changes, goes to death and decay, that alone dies. So why are you afraid of dying? From where does this fear come? This fear comes from ignorance. Scientifically, nothing dies. Death only means change. Death does not mean complete annihilation.

--Swami Rama, Om, the eternal witness; SECRETS OF THE MANDUKYA UPANISHAD, pages 119 and 126  

Quote of the Week 293 - The Paradox of Universal Man

I believe that every man represents humanity. We are different as to intelligence, health, talents. Yet we are all one. We are all saints and sinners, adults and children, and no one is anyone’s superior or judge. We have all been awakened with the Buddha, crucified with Christ, and we have all killed and robbed with Genghis Khan, Stalin, and Hitler.

I believe that man can visualize the experience of the whole universal man only by realizing his individuality and never by trying to reduce himself to an abstract, common denominator. Man’s task in life is precisely the paradoxical one of realizing his individuality and at the same time transcending it to arrive at the experience of universality. Only the fully developed individual can drop the ego.

--Erich Fromm