“Meditation, Judaism, and Self-Mastery” Let’s reclaim our spiritual heritage!
Class Schedule
Sunday, April 10, 8pm EST:
Regular Meditation Class
Sunday, April 17:
NO CLASS – Pesach Day 2
Sunday, April 24, 8pm EST:
Regular Meditation Class
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Today’s Class Agenda:
We will continue our study of the Biblical understanding of the Mind. “Lev” (Part Two) Mind your idioms! – Ethan Dor Shav
We will continue learning about meditation in everyday life, focusing on Postures.
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Jewish meditation techniques we have covered so far:
Amidah: achieving consciousness of God through prayer.
Hitbodedut: becoming mindful through internal and external isolation.
Ruach Hakodesh (Enlightenment:) transcending the physical, through work on yourself.
Mantra Meditation – Hagah – quiet the mind for spiritual growth.
Contemplation: concentrating on a visual object.
Visualization: holding an image in the mind’s eye.
Unification: experiencing Oneness with God by reciting the Shema.
Blessing power: meditations to bring you closer to God through mundane acts.
Getting closer to God through commandments and rituals.
Meditation and intimacy between a man and woman.
Current:
Visualization Deep-Dive
Upcoming:
We will continue our deep dive into Visualization Meditation, and review techniques on how to do it. In particular, we will learn what Dr. Maxwell Maltz says about “How to Awaken the Automatic Success mechanism Within You.”
Meditation and remolding the self.
Visualization Deep-Dive
Review:
Visualization and intimacy between a man and woman.
Rabbi Kaplan – “Jewish Meditation,” pp 158 – 159
Meditation enhances pleasure and connection.
Meditation to conceive.
Jacob and deep meditation.
A couple visualizes.
Visualization meditation.
Rabbi Kaplan – “Jewish Meditation,” pp 77 – 79
Holding an image in the mind’s eye.
Start with a letter.
How to begin.
Try to see the letter.
Hard at first.
Name it.
Start with contemplation.
Split between contemplation and visualization.
Need patience and perseverance.
Hold for extended periods.
Engraving and hewing.
Engraving.
Hewing.
Success tip: “New To Visualization? Here Are 5 Steps To Get You Started”
Bhali Gill, Former Contributor, Asia
I Write About Achieving Happiness And Wellbeing In Work And Life.
=== Energizing your vision. ===
Success tip: “Why not imagine yourself successful?”
Maxwell Maltz – “Psycho-Cybernetics,” pp 51 – 58.
Changing personality.
=== Mental pictures offer us an opportunity to practice new traits and attitudes, which otherwise we could not do.===
Golfers.
Jack Nicklaus.
Principles apply everywhere.
Theater of the Mind.
Mental movies.
Basketball free throws.
Mental pictures are powerful medicine.
Mental pictures can help you sell at a higher level.
Negotiation.
Better job.
Concert pianist.
Success tip: “Your Secret Blueprint?”
Maxwell Maltz – “Psycho-Cybernetics,” pp 2 -5.
Mental blueprint.
Controls what you can and cannot accomplish.
Willpower is not the wiser. Self-image management is.
Snap-back effect, p. 3.
A foundation.
Patterns of thought.
True potential.
Success tip: “Success from the Inside Out, Not the Outside In”
Maxwell Maltz – “Psycho-Cybernetics,” pp 5 – 7.
Circumstances of self vs center.
Not just positive thinking.
Personality as a System of Ideas.
Prescott Lecky – Self Image Psychology.
Controlling self-image.
Success tip: “The World Class embraces Metacognition”
Steve Siebold – “177 Mental Toughness Secrets,” pp 57 – 58.
Outer world vs inner world.
Thinking about what you’re thinking about – metacognition.
Power to change any thought.
Thoughts yield results.
Upgraded thoughts yield better results.
Success tip: “The Self-Image – The Real Secret”
Maxwell Maltz – “Psycho-Cybernetics,” pp 11 – 12.
The common denominator.
Be acceptable to you.
Intact and secure
Corrections
(Ref: Yom Kippor)
Success tip: “Your New Program for Liberated Living”
Maxwell Maltz – “Psycho-Cybernetics,” pp 13 – 14.
Too much abnormality.
Life instinct.
Success tip: “Why Visualization is the Wrong Word,” Matt Furey
One of the most misleading words in self-development is the term “visualization.” It implies that you use your internal sense of sight with your eyes closed.
But truly effective visualization is not purely visual and it is not necessary to close your eyes to make it work.
Consider the star basketball player at the free-throw line during the final seconds of a championship game. He must make the shots in order for his team to win.
Does the player close his eyes and visualize when he’s at the line? No, but he does see and feel the ball going through the hoop before he shoots it. He may also hear the swoosh sound.
Key point: Without the accompanying sense of emotion or FEEL, visualization does NOT work.
Yes, you see what you want in your mind’s eye, but you must also FEEL it to get results. After you have the FEEL, you work on adding the sound effects. And beyond that, you can figure out how to include taste and smell.
The first order of business though, is always to “imagine and feel.” Imagine what you want to see. Imagine what you want to feel. And imagine what you want to hear.
Although imagination is a much better word than visualization, we do have to use both when explaining the success process.
Just keep in mind that whenever you are visualizing effectively, you are tapping into the power of three words: Imagine and Feel.
Here endeth the lesson.
Matt Furey
Success tip: ““How to Awaken the Automatic Success mechanism Within You.”
Maxwell Maltz – “Psycho-Cybernetics,” pp 25 – 42.
The Servo-Mechanism.
The Creative Mechanism.
The self-image filters.
Severe misunderstanding.
GIGO.
The three factors of limbic memory.
Liberated living.
Learning, practicing, experiencing.
Visualize in concert with an improved self-image.
New:
“Lev” – essays.
Ethan Dor Shav.
“Lev: (Part One) The core of a unified self.
Clearly, lev is the discerning mind: “a mind to know”; a “brilliant mind” to conceive; a “breadth of mind” to grasp the universe (nothing to do with a “heart expanding” in emotional delight…). Figuratively, then, as well as physically, lev means “core” – the mental center of our being. It is the inner screen upon which our cognition plays. In modern language that can only be translated as the capitalized Mind, the Cartesian opposite of the body (not to be mistaken with the colloquial opposite of the “heart”). This idea of Mind is defined as “The collective aspects of intellect and consciousness which are manifest in some combination of thought, perception, emotion, will and imagination” (Wikipedia). A rabbinic midrash (Qohelet Raba 1:16) lists over 50 things – from seeing through loving to inscribing – that this biblical Mind is reported to do.
“Lev” (Part Two) Mind your idioms!
“Lev” (Part Three) The Pure Mind of Revelation.
“Lev” (Part Four) When the Mind loves.
Best practices for meditation
Bhante Gunaratana, “Mindfulness in Plain English,”
Meditation in Everyday Life, pp 151 – 162
Walking Meditation
Transitional exercise.
Private place with enough space.
Physical directions.
An exercise in awareness.
Try to miss nothing.
Make mental notes.
Escape INTO reality, not from it.
Postures
Purpose of our practice: full awareness.
Body awareness.
Check your posture.
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From Matt Furey: mind / matter
Fear is nothing but a mental image that is projected onto the screen of our mind.
Some fear is good for us as it prevents falling into a complacent state of over-confidence. Excessive fear, however, paralyzes us or makes us act irrationally, even ignoring our natural instincts.
When we encounter a fearful mental image, we have an opportunity to examine it. We can look at it objectively, then ask ourselves what the opposite of this image would be.
As soon as you become aware of what you are picturing when you feel a sense of fear, change the mental picture playing in the theatre of your mind to something that generates courage and confidence. In so doing, you feel a shift for the better and immediately begin to realize that your mental images govern your feelings.
You can interrupt the onslaught of fear and other negative emotions with deep breathing exercises – but ONLY if the deep breathing exercises are combined with mental imagery that shift your mind away from disruptive emotions.
To breathe deeply without a change in mental imagery might help you a tiny bit – but this microscopic change is negligible when compared to the MACROSCOPIC changes that instantaneously occur when you project “positive outcome” images on your mental movie screen.
Fear is only something when we make believe it is something.
Once we realize that we make ourselves afraid, that is when we can see that fear is nothing.
Here endeth today’s lesson.
Matt Furey
Steve Siebold, “177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class”
The World Class is Determined to Win, p 76
A word about Visualization from Matt Furey
Hello Mr Matt Furey.
I am Siva from India. I have been reading Psycho-Cybernetics book for the past 6 months and I am experiencing a dramatic change in my life. I have one doubt. What should be the time interval between visualization practice and relaxation practice? I mean after visualizing, when we have to do relaxation practice?
Please let me know. Thank you
Hello Siva. I appreciate your question. I will give you an uncommon answer. Whenever you practice relaxation techniques of any kind, you are simultaneously visualizing. Suppose, for example, that I tell you to breathe deeply. I ask you to inhale and imagine it going all the way to your feet. Is this not a visualization? Yes, it is. You cannot follow my suggestion to breathe deeply without picturing yourself doing so. And if I suggest you inhale all the way to your feet, this is also a mental image.
When we do something physically, we may think that we “just do it,” but it is always preceded by a mental picture. If I ask you to make a fist, you must picture a fist before you make one. If I ask you to stand, or sit, or lie down, you picture it first.
This means that ALL the relaxation exercises in Psycho-Cybernetics are training you in the art of visualization. This means you don’t need to think so much about it. Whenever you are relaxing you are also using mental imagery.
Before you picture a goal, it is wise to take some time to imagine and feel yourself relaxing before doing so. The relaxation visualization sets you up for the goal visualization.
At any time of the day you can work on relaxing your body; same goes for visualization.
Matt Furey
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The “Refresher:” a simple yet effective move to regain emotional equilibrium.
Posture: structured and relaxed
Hands: forget ‘em
Feet: shoulder width
Shoes: okay, but better barefoot or socks
Pace: sssssssslllllllllloooooooowwwwww
Direction: backwards
Eyes: closed if possible
Check out our new website!
https://resource-room-for-jewish-meditation.com
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