Contemporary Judaism is transforming, especially in America, from a community experience to more of a do-it-yourself religion focused on the individual self. In this book Christopher L. Schilling offers a critique of this transformation. Schilling discusses problematic aspects of Jewish mindfulness meditation, and the relationship between Judaism and psychedelics, proceeding to explore the science behind these developments and the implications they have for Judaism.

Zen Judaism is a frank reflection on the tensions between reason and faith in today’s context of knowledge, and on the need to inject Zen-like meditation into Judaism. This work also treats some issues in ethics and theodicy.

Few spiritual practices are more intriguing or elusive than those of Zen Judaism,” says David M. Bader in the foreword to Zen Judaism. “This growing movement offers a unique way to follow in the footsteps of the Buddha, ideally without gaining quite so much weight.” These nearly 100 sacred teachings are capable “of bringing about an enlightenment experience so pure, so elevating, and so intense, you could plotz.” For you, some samples: To know the Buddha is the highest attainment. Second highest is to go to the same doctor as the Buddha. Be here now. Be someplace else later. Is that so complicated? There is no escaping Karma. In a previous life, you never called, you never wrote, you never visited. And whose fault was that? If there is no self, whose arthritis is this? Be patient and achieve all things. Be impatient and achieve all things faster.

Techniques explained by the masters—for today’s spiritual seeker Meditation is designed to give you direct access to the spiritual. Whether it’s through deep breathing during a busy day, listening to the quiet after turning off the car radio, chanting in prayer, or ten minutes of visualization exercises each morning, meditation takes many forms. But it is always a personal method of centering our spiritual self. Meditation has long been practiced in the Jewish community as a powerful tool to transcend words, personality, and ego and to directly experience the divine. Inspiring yet practical, this introduction to meditation from a Jewish perspective approaches it in a new and illuminating way: As it is personally practiced by today’s most experienced Jewish meditators from around the world. A “how to” guide for both beginning and experienced meditators, Meditation from the Heart of Judaism will help you start meditating or help you enhance your practice. Meditation is a Jewish spiritual resource for today that can benefit people of all faiths and backgrounds—and help us add spiritual energy to our lives. Contributors include:

Logical and Spiritual Reflections is a collection of six shorter philosophical works, including: Hume’s Problems with Induction; A Short Critique of Kant’s Unreason; In Defense of Aristotle’s Laws of Thought; More Meditations; Zen Judaism; No to Sodom.

Youre Jewish, arent you? This blunt question is the way that college freshman Richard Cohn is introduced to an outspoken fellow student named Dov Epstein, who calls himself a Messianic Jew, and believes that God has a special purpose for the Jewish people in these Last Days. Raised by secular Jewish parents, Richard is completely oblivious to his own Jewish background, until this ongoing dialogue forces him to confront his own heritage. The two young men vigorously argue with each other over the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible (particularly its reputed predictions of a Messiah), Christian doctrines such as the Trinity, and most significantly, about the identity and significance of Jesus of Nazareth. The rigorous process of self-examination this initiates leads Richard to embrace his Jewish identity, even as he vehemently denies the same for Dov. The two ultimately become fast friends; but as they progress from an academic environment to the professional world, they are challenged by racist statements made by prominent national figures, anti-Semitic doctrines such as Christian Identity?which teaches that white Anglo-Saxons are the true Israel?and also purported scholars who deny the reality of the Holocaust itself. Circumstances in life connect them with a young Iranian migr named Jahangir Khatami, whose Muslim beliefs conflict strongly with their own. Yet when a violent incident brings the three of them together, they are forced to reexamine not just their differences, but their similarities. While they clash over the ideals of Zionism and its ramifications in the modern State of Israel, they are united in their horror over the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Join a diverse cast of characters (some of whom appeared in the authors earlier book, Beyond Heaven and Earth) in a probing exploration that may help you reconsider just what it means to be Jewish, Christian, or Muslim in the modern world.

The Oxford Handbook of American Buddhism offers the most comprehensive and up-to-date scholarship available on Buddhism in America. It charts the history and diversity of Buddhist communities, including traditions and communities that have been previously neglected, and looks at the ways in which Buddhist practices such as mindfulness meditation have been adopted in non-Buddhist settings.

What comes to mind when you hear the word “koan”? You probably know koans as paradoxes, and you may believe that they are therefore illogical or intellectually inscrutable—and therefore not useful to the average person. Zen Koans: Paradoxical Awakenings is the tool you need to correct your perceptions of koans and become aware of the benefits of koan practice. Embracing the paradox of the koan can give deeper meaning to life, as well as leading to the Buddhist awakening to your real, non-dual nature. With an experienced Zen teacher as your guide, you can enter more deeply into the three essentials of Zen: great faith, great doubt, and great determination.

This book is the first greater attempt to construct a dialogical theology from a Jewish point of view. It contributes to an emerging new theology that promotes the interrelatedness of religions in which encounter, openness, hospitality and permanent learning are central. The monograph is about the self and the other, inner and outer, own and strange; about borders and crossing borders, and about the sublime activities of passing and translating. Meir analyses and critically discusses the writings of great contemporary Jewish dialogical thinkers and argues that the values of interreligious theology are moored in their thoughts. In his view interreligious dialogue supposes attentive listening, humility, a critical attitude towards oneself and others, a good amount of self-relativism and humor. It is about proximity, dialogical reading, engagement and interconnectedness.

This book is a broad-brush approach describing the realities of life in the American rabbinate. Factual portrayals are supplemented by examples drawn from fiction--primarily novels and short stories. Chapters include: ♣Rabbinic Training ♣Congregational Rabbis and Their Communities ♣Congregants' Views of Their Rabbis ♣Women Rabbis [also including examples from TV and Cinema] ♣Assimilation, Intermarriage, Patrilineality, and Human Sexuality ♣God, Israel, and Tradition This book draws upon sociological data, including the recent Pew Research Center survey on Jewish life in America, and presents a contemporary view of rabbis and their communities. The realities of the American rabbinate are then compared/contrasted with the ways fiction writers present their understanding of rabbinic life. The book explores illustrations from two hundred novels, short stories, and TV/cinema; representing well over 135 authors. From the first real-life women rabbis in the early 1970s to today's statistics of close to 1,600 women rabbis worldwide, major changes have taken place. Women rabbis are transforming the face of Judaism. For example, this newly revised second edition of American Rabbis: Facts and Fiction reflects a fivefold increase in terms of examples of fictional women rabbis, from when the book was first published in 1998. There is new and expanded material on some of the challenges in the twenty-first century, women rabbis, human sexuality/LGBTQ matters, trans/post/non-denominational seminaries, and community-based rabbis.