The red bracelet: it graces the wrists of numerous celebrities - from Madonna to Britney Spears - who have converted to the spiritual practice of Kabbalah. But what is Kabbalah and how can women apply it to their own lives? In A New Kabbalah for Women, bestselling author and teacher of Jewish mysticism and meditation, Perle Besserman, shares a feminine approach to spirituality. Since the time of Moses, Jewish mysticism has been barred to women, and Shekhinah, the feminine side of God, has been forced underground. Now, many women are adapting traditional mystical practices in radical new ways. Besserman is at the forefront of this revolution. In this book she traces the history of female-centered worship and tells the story of searching for her own path to truth. Combining practices from the Kabbalah with meditation, Besserman walks readers through step-by-step rituals to find their own personal connection with the divine.
Unraveling the web of ancient traditions hidden in such texts as the Sefer Yetzirah and the Zohar, this book traces history and offers an accessible introduction to understanding Kabbalah and its practices. Jewish mysticism has flourished—sometimes brilliantly, sometimes darkly—over five thousand years. This pioneering, popular text on Jewish mysticism was the first written for a general audience, and in it, Perle Besserman offers a lively and accessible introduction to the methods, schools, and practitioners of this intriguing world. She traces the history of Kabbalah through the lives of its illustrious scholars and saints and unravels the web of ancient traditions hidden in such texts as Sefer Yetzirah and the Zohar. Running through these pages are the words of the outstanding Kabbalists and mystics—including Simeon bar Yohai, Isaac Luria, Abraham Abulafia, and the Baal Shem Tov—giving instructions on practices ranging from contemplation of the Bible’s secret teachings to ritual, ecstatic prayer, and intensive meditation.
Perle Besserman's adventures in a Japanese Zen monastery provide the groundwork for this lively, heartwarming narrative of a woman's life in Zen. Engaging in cross-cultural dialogues with nuns and laywomen in India, China, Japan, and more, Besserman dispels the notion that women had nothing to do with the founding and sustaining of Zen. She shows how women continue to transform traditional Zen in new and creative ways, integrating the practice of meditation into their lives. Both informative and entertaining, A New Zen for Women offers a new look at Western women encountering Zen.
Jewish mystics from biblical times to the present have explored the hidden secrets of the Torah in quest of a single goal: to lose the self in the Infinite "No-thingness" (Ein Sof) and be at one with God. In language accessible to the layperson, this Shambhala Guide provides a detailed introduction to the complex world of Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism. With an extensive background in meditation practice, Perle Besserman emphasizes Kabbalah's spiritual disciplines, grounded in righteous living, devotional practices, and meditation. She discusses the Kabbalistic universe, including the four worlds and ten sefirot; Jewish meditation techniques and instructions for beginning meditation; mystics and teachers from Rabbi Akiva and the Baal Shem Tov to Aryeh Kaplan; the often uneasy relationship between Kabbalah and mainstream Judaism; and applying the ancient wisdom of Jewish mysticism to life in the world of today.
Fay' s Men traces the adventures and misadventures of Fay Watkins, a Texas-born dancer and spiritual seeker, on the poignantly funny, circuitous path to self-realization. Prompted by her na&ï ve, almost quixotic idealism, Fay' s quest inspires hasty decisions in love and a disillusioning spiritual encounter that nearly knocks her off course. Undaunted, she boldly pursues her goal, journeying from home to an initiatory stint as a revolutionary in Mexico, then to New York, where she leaps into marriage with a wacky psychiatrist, then to an Israeli Zen center and a Japanese monastery, followed by a hilariously disastrous trip to Paris with her Zen master, and an unintended admission as a patient in the psychiatric ward of her husband' s hospital— an experience that finally propels her to self-discovery on a palm-fringed beach in Hawaii.
A collection of linked stories, Yeshiva Girl explores the little-known world of American Orthodox Judaism from a young girl's perspective. A feminist coming-of-age story paralleling the experiences of Chaim Potok's yeshiva boys, Besserman's collection depicts the limited intellectual and social expectations, and stunted future promise, of precocious girl-children like Pnina, who, from her earliest days in a strictly orthodox, all-girl yeshiva (Jewish parochial school) finds herself first questioning, and gradually rebelling against, family constraints as she seeks to forge a new identity in the secular (gentile) world outside her community before ultimately coming to terms with her own
The Guys in this Book are my Heroes, and Perle Besserman and Manfred Steger have done a tremendous job of bringing their stories to life. It's important to put a spotlight on the radical, rebellious characters who have shaped the Zen Buddhist lineage. I really like this book."---Brad Warner, Author of Hardcore Zen --
Fiction. Perle Besserman's KABUKI BOY is a novel of Japan set in and around the capital city of Edo (modern-day Tokyo) during the waning decades of the Tokugawa Era (1600-1868). Broadening the often narrowly focused literary and cinematic portrayals of samurai resistance to their declining social status, Besserman's vivid narrative conveys that tumultuous period through the eyes of its peasants, priests, politicians, revolutionaries, mountebanks, geisha, and actors using the Kabuki theatre as a backdrop. Its nineteenth-century framework nested in a post-modern narrative by its fictional twentieth-century "editor," a cultural historian and abbot of a Zen monastery one hundred miles from Tokyo, the book is comprised of memoirs, theatrical and monastery records, personal letters and journals, all centering on the life of a Kabuki boy actor whose brief but illustrious career reflects not only the "golden age of Kabuki Theatre," but the most dramatic spiritual, political, and artistic events characterizing Japan's violent emergence into the modern world.
Set during the hopeful yet turbulent years of the Clinton-sponsored Camp David peace talks between Yasir Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin, Widow Zion traces the unlikely romantic encounter of Stella, a wealthy Jewish American widow on a "Holy Land Tour" and Aryeh, her recalcitrant escort, an Israeli widower and war-weary old soldier. Their meeting results in a poignant, and eventually tragic, series of misadventures set into motion by Aryeh's well-intentioned matchmaking cousin Leo, a Holocaust survivor driven by conflicting desires for material success and an almost mystical passion for tikkun-spiritual repair of a broken world. Bruised by her troubled marriage and traumatized by the recent suicide of her favored son, Stella is initially cynical and resists Leo's mission; while Aryeh, too literally and figuratively wounded by Israel's legacy of never-ending war, clings to old family grudges and resents his cousin's intrusion. But Leo is a force too powerful to resist, and both inevitably succumb to his undeliverable promise of spiritual renewal Based on the centuries'-old struggle between Jews and Arabs in its current Palestinian/Israeli incarnation, this contemporary re-telling of the ancient biblical story of exile and return reveals that the source of the so-called "clash of civilizations" lies within the Jewish Diaspora itself.
The Guys in this Book are my Heroes, and Perle Besserman and Manfred Steger have done a tremendous job of bringing their stories to life. It's important to put a spotlight on the radical, rebellious characters who have shaped the Zen Buddhist lineage. I really like this book."---Brad Warner, Author of Hardcore Zen --
The red bracelet: it graces the wrists of numerous celebrities - from Madonna to Britney Spears - who have converted to the spiritual practice of Kabbalah. But what is Kabbalah and how can women apply it to their own lives? In A New Kabbalah for Women, bestselling author and teacher of Jewish mysticism and meditation, Perle Besserman, shares a feminine approach to spirituality. Since the time of Moses, Jewish mysticism has been barred to women, and Shekhinah, the feminine side of God, has been forced underground. Now, many women are adapting traditional mystical practices in radical new ways. Besserman is at the forefront of this revolution. In this book she traces the history of female-centered worship and tells the story of searching for her own path to truth. Combining practices from the Kabbalah with meditation, Besserman walks readers through step-by-step rituals to find their own personal connection with the divine.
Fay' s Men traces the adventures and misadventures of Fay Watkins, a Texas-born dancer and spiritual seeker, on the poignantly funny, circuitous path to self-realization. Prompted by her na&ï ve, almost quixotic idealism, Fay' s quest inspires hasty decisions in love and a disillusioning spiritual encounter that nearly knocks her off course. Undaunted, she boldly pursues her goal, journeying from home to an initiatory stint as a revolutionary in Mexico, then to New York, where she leaps into marriage with a wacky psychiatrist, then to an Israeli Zen center and a Japanese monastery, followed by a hilariously disastrous trip to Paris with her Zen master, and an unintended admission as a patient in the psychiatric ward of her husband' s hospital— an experience that finally propels her to self-discovery on a palm-fringed beach in Hawaii.
Unraveling the web of ancient traditions hidden in such texts as the Sefer Yetzirah and the Zohar, this book traces history and offers an accessible introduction to understanding Kabbalah and its practices. Jewish mysticism has flourished—sometimes brilliantly, sometimes darkly—over five thousand years. This pioneering, popular text on Jewish mysticism was the first written for a general audience, and in it, Perle Besserman offers a lively and accessible introduction to the methods, schools, and practitioners of this intriguing world. She traces the history of Kabbalah through the lives of its illustrious scholars and saints and unravels the web of ancient traditions hidden in such texts as Sefer Yetzirah and the Zohar. Running through these pages are the words of the outstanding Kabbalists and mystics—including Simeon bar Yohai, Isaac Luria, Abraham Abulafia, and the Baal Shem Tov—giving instructions on practices ranging from contemplation of the Bible’s secret teachings to ritual, ecstatic prayer, and intensive meditation.
Jewish mystics from biblical times to the present have explored the hidden secrets of the Torah in quest of a single goal: to lose the self in the Infinite "No-thingness" (Ein Sof) and be at one with God. In language accessible to the layperson, this Shambhala Guide provides a detailed introduction to the complex world of Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism. With an extensive background in meditation practice, Perle Besserman emphasizes Kabbalah's spiritual disciplines, grounded in righteous living, devotional practices, and meditation. She discusses the Kabbalistic universe, including the four worlds and ten sefirot; Jewish meditation techniques and instructions for beginning meditation; mystics and teachers from Rabbi Akiva and the Baal Shem Tov to Aryeh Kaplan; the often uneasy relationship between Kabbalah and mainstream Judaism; and applying the ancient wisdom of Jewish mysticism to life in the world of today.
Perle Besserman's adventures in a Japanese Zen monastery provide the groundwork for this lively, heartwarming narrative of a woman's life in Zen. Engaging in cross-cultural dialogues with nuns and laywomen in India, China, Japan, and more, Besserman dispels the notion that women had nothing to do with the founding and sustaining of Zen. She shows how women continue to transform traditional Zen in new and creative ways, integrating the practice of meditation into their lives. Both informative and entertaining, A New Zen for Women offers a new look at Western women encountering Zen.
Jewish mystical writings from ancient times to the present are collected here under such headings as Nature, Creation, Daily Life, Good and Evil, Female Divinity, Meditation, and Ecstasy. The words of these spiritual masters—from sources such as the Zohar, the Baal Shem Tov, Martin Buber, Rabbi Nachman, of Bratzlav, Abraham Abulafia, and Aryeh Kaplan—offer a lively introduction to their joyful world.
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