Review on Eye to the Infinite - How to increase Divine awareness
I see your book as primarily for practising Jews. I am not only not Jewish, I have no life experience whatsoever with being halachic. Yes, I understand the concept, but that is far far removed from the experience of what that does—e.g., being born into a halachic family and living among others who also are.
In that sense I am certain I cannot appreciate your book, and for me to write you as if I could would be wrong.
I find the book well-written, well-organized, and (apparently) comprehensive. You anticipate and develop each new concept and question. I experience more understanding each time I re-read some of it.
Within the broad range of areas you covered, I liked the first part of the book most, and got a better understanding of how the mitzvoth done right lead to self-nullification—which I did not have during the years I was going to synagogue and ”studying” Judaism..
At the same time, I suspect your work is highly abstract relative to the lived life of most Jews (to say nothing of others). Maybe more among the orthodox, but few individuals have any real grasp of what a “self” is and why it is in the way. I know that you developed that in the book, but still think its effectiveness rests on people having a genuine understanding about such an utterly tricky area. Maybe you could have developed that more, but then, maybe not because you would lose the reader’s attention.
I will mention a book about self I found especially valuable. It is called The Book of Not Knowing by Peter Ralston. His work actually helped me to better understand yours, especially how mitzvoth done right contribute to self-nullification (and why, really, I should deeply desire that.).
Toward the end of the book, I had less interest in the festivals so did not read that section, nor the one on using letters as foci for meditation. The letters part looked like it could be interesting, but gematria leaves me cold. But I also do see that your including these sections was a good contribution to writing a comprehensive book on Jewish meditation.
You have written a scholarly book, and a good one. I still sense the “light” with regard to it as a meditative approach. I write “scholarly” because your book follows the standard set by other scholarly books, with many quotes and allusions to Torah, etc.
The clarity of your book, its very effective imagery, and its sequential development of subject areas surely makes it a highly valuable contribution to the life of any Jew who consults it. I don’t know if anything like it exists, but I think it should exist.
Best wishes,
S.
In that sense I am certain I cannot appreciate your book, and for me to write you as if I could would be wrong.
I find the book well-written, well-organized, and (apparently) comprehensive. You anticipate and develop each new concept and question. I experience more understanding each time I re-read some of it.
Within the broad range of areas you covered, I liked the first part of the book most, and got a better understanding of how the mitzvoth done right lead to self-nullification—which I did not have during the years I was going to synagogue and ”studying” Judaism..
At the same time, I suspect your work is highly abstract relative to the lived life of most Jews (to say nothing of others). Maybe more among the orthodox, but few individuals have any real grasp of what a “self” is and why it is in the way. I know that you developed that in the book, but still think its effectiveness rests on people having a genuine understanding about such an utterly tricky area. Maybe you could have developed that more, but then, maybe not because you would lose the reader’s attention.
I will mention a book about self I found especially valuable. It is called The Book of Not Knowing by Peter Ralston. His work actually helped me to better understand yours, especially how mitzvoth done right contribute to self-nullification (and why, really, I should deeply desire that.).
Toward the end of the book, I had less interest in the festivals so did not read that section, nor the one on using letters as foci for meditation. The letters part looked like it could be interesting, but gematria leaves me cold. But I also do see that your including these sections was a good contribution to writing a comprehensive book on Jewish meditation.
You have written a scholarly book, and a good one. I still sense the “light” with regard to it as a meditative approach. I write “scholarly” because your book follows the standard set by other scholarly books, with many quotes and allusions to Torah, etc.
The clarity of your book, its very effective imagery, and its sequential development of subject areas surely makes it a highly valuable contribution to the life of any Jew who consults it. I don’t know if anything like it exists, but I think it should exist.
Best wishes,
S.