HOW CAN WE USE CONTEMPORARY JEWISH MEDITATION PRACTICES TO AWAKEN OUR EVERYDAY LIVES?

In today's busy world, many of us go through life on a kind of automatic pilot, flying the same route over and over, as if we're sleepwalking—our fate as uncontrollable as our dreams. But we can wake up; we can open to a place of awareness that sees and understands life much more clearly than during your normal level of consciousness. How can we awaken our hearts and minds to see our own capacity for wisdom, compassion, and kindness?

"When we awaken to our own light, it becomes possible to develop real wisdom about our life," writes Rabbi Jeff Roth in JEWISH MEDITATION PRACTICES FOR EVERYDAY LIFE: Awakening Your Heart, Connecting with God (Jewish Lights / April 2009 / $18.99). "As wisdom allows us to see clearly, our hearts break open with compassion for the struggles of our own lives and the lives of all beings. Awakened with wisdom and compassion, we are impelled to live our lives with kindness, and we are led to do whatever we can to repair the brokenness of our world."

Inspiring, JEWISH MEDITATION PRACTICES FOR EVERYDAY LIFE offers a fresh take on meditation that draws on life experience and living life with greater clarity as opposed to the traditional method of rigorous study. Through personal anecdotes and easy-to-do exercises, it focuses on using the distilled wisdom of Judaism and Buddhism as a way to learn from life experience. By combining these two traditions, it presents a model that allows westerners—both Jews and non-Jews—to embrace timeless Eastern teachings without sacrificing their birth traditions.

JEWISH MEDITATION PRACTICES FOR EVERYDAY LIFE

Awakening Your Heart, Connecting with God

By Rabbi Jeff Roth

Jewish Lights (Woodstock, VT); www.jewishlights.com; 800-962-4544

Quality Paperback Original / $18.99 / 224 pages / April 2009 / ISBN-13: 978-1-58023-397-2

Rabbi Jeff Roth, a well-known meditation practitioner, teacher, and facilitator of Jewish retreats, is founder and director of the Awakened Heart Project for Contemplative Judaism. He co-founded Elat Chayyim, where he served as executive director and spiritual director for thirteen years.

Praise for

JEWISH MEDITATION PRACTICES

FOR EVERYDAY LIFE

Awakening Your Heart, Connecting with God

By Rabbi Jeff Roth

"One of the most accessible, knowledgeable, and useful books on Jewish contemplative life."

—Jack Kornfield, author, The Wise Heart

"A thorough-going handbook ... full of concrete teachings offered in personal terms. This is a practice book all aspiring Jewish meditators should own—and use."

—Norman Fischer, founder and teacher, Everyday Zen Foundation; author, Sailing Home: Using the Wisdom of Homer's Odyssey to Navigate Life's Perils and Pitfalls

"Truly unique ... presents time-tested universal techniques for cultivating wisdom and compassion. This will be the guidebook many people have been waiting for."

—Sylvia Boorstein, author, Happiness Is an Inside Job: Practicing for a Joyful Life

"Remarkable.... Rabbi Roth takes the reader by the hand in clear language, making it possible to follow the instructions and to observe the results."

—Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, author, First Steps to a New Jewish Spirit: Reb Zalman's Guide to Recapturing the Intimacy & Ecstasy in Your Relationship with God