Customer Reviews

God in Your Body: Kabbalah, Mindfulness and Embodied Spiritual Practice

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A beautifully-written perspective on the holiness of whole-ness. As a martial artist and teacher of the arts, as well as a Torah-committed Jew, I am inspired by the author's call to see beyond the body-mind schism and embrace a view that transcends East vs. West. Since there is One Creator, it stands to reason and faith that each of us, body-mind-soul, should be testament to His Oneness. I read this book joyfully and often pick it up and open to random sections to read and reexperience that joy. A treasure.

For years I have been involved in physical things, tai chi, jogging, basketball, baseball, and then as I got into more "spiritual things" the dichotomy emerged; mind and body are two oppossing forces. Try as we may many taught, we must overcome the body to reach the spiritual. My interest in Judaism as I matured caused me to explore that in fact there are many physical pathways to Jewish spiritual practices. Yet I never could find an explanantion that satisfied me. Well this book does so. First off the author is a very wise and thoughtful writer. There is brilliance here and throughout the author writes from experience both in learning (which many Jewish books in my opinion lack nowdays) and also his own life learning from meditation and body work (he appears to have done yoga nd much more). What I learned from this book is that the physical mitzvot and commandments are deep spiritual teachings and they compliment the theory which many readers may have read or learned about. There is a humility here as well as he asks the reader to experience for themselves doing, learning and then knowing when one eats, prays, breaths, loves and walks (and after all Jewish law, Halacha is a way of walking to and with G-d). I do not agree w/ everything the author writes but so what. I learned an incredible amount and he opened my eys to new ways of being and experiencing the Jewish pathway. If a book does that then it surely is a valuable friend. I am thankful for this book and Jay Michaelson hopefully will share some more of his wisdom in the future.

I have never reviewed anything before, but for this book I will. I found this book to be extremely helpful. My therapist and I are using it to deal with some difficult issues, and each chapter makes the discussion so much easier. I'm looking at my life, my body and my health with new eyes.

I very much enjoy this book, which I bought to inform my leading of a yoga & meditation class on yom kippur. It was recommended to my by two rabbis (one who teaches Jewish mysticism at Naropa University), and I've found much that I will put to use in my daily life.

Michaelson handles a great deal of material in God in Your Body. In many ways, this is the practical course for the more theoretical work of his next book, Everything is God. Here, the author is attempting to undue the centuries old dichotomy between the soul and the body in religious (in this work, specially Jewish) thinking. He shows us that Judaism is a deeply embodied religion; many, if not most, of its practices have the body as their base of operations. Michaelson is an interesting and provocative thinker. He takes topics that have been well handled before, and explores new aspects of them. If taken seriously and carefully, Michaelson's work can open for the reader a new understanding of Judaism, God, and the practice of religion. For such an ancient tradition with such well worn paths of thinking and practice, this is saying a great deal indeed.

Jay Michaelson has put together an excellent overall presentation of the theme, God in Your Body. The book reads well and is inspirational, along with practical suggestions for applying the principles he presents. The book is vibrant in its presentation, and the author's enthusiasm shines throughout. The book is a helpful resource for a topic which there is not a huge amount of literature available.

Some examples of the wide range of subjects addressed include: Eating, Praying, Breathing, Walking, Using the Bathroom, Mirroring the Divine, Dancing, Fasting, Nature, The Five Senses, Embodied Emotions, and Sickness and Health. Each of the topics is engaging and practical applications can be gleaned from them.

One of the things which stuck me while reading was this suggesstion: "Practice, then is the key: actually doing, actually experiencing... the idea of practice is to keep doubting -- but keep doing, also, in order to obtain the evidence that you seek... Experience first, and then the concepts come alive."

If your taste buds are whetted by God in Your Body, I suggest trying Everything Is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism, also by Jay Michaelson -- it is extremely well-done and is a terrific read.