Jay Michaelson's blog

If you're still hoping for nonduality to cohere, to make your life better, to make you happier, you're still clinging to spiritual materialism.  Better for it all to be for nought.  Surrender even the hope of progress, and progress will happen on its own.

We're told that without integrating spiritual insights into our daily lives, even the greatest of peak experiences is just a narcissistic thrill. We say true spirituality, and certainly Jewish spirituality, is about being in the world. But I think we integrate too quickly, and use this language to avoid making the changes that true spirituality would demand of us.

If you ask most people what makes them who they are, chances are you'll get an answer that has to do with the self, the personality -- perhaps even the "soul." Yet if you look closely at the personality (or mind, or heart, or soul), you discover that it isn't there.

This Saturday is the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, one of the few Jewish festivals which many, many lapsed Jews still observe, if only out of guilt. Some of my friends right here in the Evolver community are in that crowd. Others have expressed an interest in participating in the observance of the day somehow. For both, I’d like to offer some thoughts on the benefits of fasting as a spiritual practice.

It's a not-so-dirty little secret that most of today's leading meditation teachers were interested in drugs. By "drugs," of course, I don't mean alcohol or Oxycontin, but rather that subset of chemicals which our society has deemed unfit for human consumption, including cannabis, psilocybin, MDMA, and others.

The mental constructions of ego and desire have long been essential to our existence. And yet, as the Buddha realized 2,500 years ago, these basic constructions cause a lot of pain. The needs most fundamental to our biological makeup are also the ones which tend to cause the most suffering.  Is there another way?

Western religion can be so focused on God that it forgets the world, and it criticizes those who love it as "pagan," as too entranced by the world of appearances. But I like the world and its pleasures.  I am convinced that God is dancing right now, and not to take Her up on it is a little bit offensive.

Theravadan Buddhism addresses the illusion of the ego and its grasping onto impermanent phenomena. Nondual Judaism addresses the illusion of the ego and its grasping onto the unreal. The solution in Theravadan Buddhism is training in wisdom, concentration, and virtue; in nondual Judaism, it is the three paths of contemplation, ecstasy, and fulfillment of the commandments.

Come to East/West Living in NYC for a discussion about whether there's a difference between saying "all is one,” “all is empty,” and "all is God". (Dec 9)

God is who is reading these words and writing them, who is thinking and what is thought.  This is the world without an observer, with no inside and no outside, in which That (what seems to be without) and You (what seems to be within) are the same. 

For most spiritual folks, state change is what it's all about.  Spiritual states have the power to open the mind, nourish the heart, and change the world.  They are, I think, the most important force for social and environmental sustainability on the planet.  And they can be lots of fun, too.

In America, we're used to hippies being for peace and love not just rhetorically, but politically as well. But in Israel, many "fundamentalists" are actually part of the "peace and love" hippie crowd. These people are pulling a trigger and experiencing the Divine.

The jhanas are states of heightened concentration that have been cultivated by Hindus and Buddhists for three thousand years. They are altered states, full of bliss and, I would say, holiness.  Here I describe my experiences of the jhanic states and their significance for spiritual practitioners.

Some believe that without free will, we are mere biological instruments, with no soul.  But from a nondual perspective, this argument is theologically backward. The autonomous soul isn't the gateway to God; it's the gateway to delusion.  This is the yetzer hara, the selfish, separating and, occasionally, evil inclination that sees the self as the center of the universe. 

The sages of Kabbalah often start with what we would deem the conclusion, if the proofs were satisfactory: that God exists, and is Infinite. They ask, if God is infinite, then what is your body, your heart, and your mind, but God itself? What are joy and terror, other than the skin of the Infinite?

Imagine a world in which everyone understood that all of us are God. According to one interpretation of prophecy, the messianic age is already unfolding, and the gradual emergence and dissemination of nonduality is among its signal phenomena.

Sometimes, prayer language rings hollow and empty. Sometimes, I prefer dance music to blues. But as Leonard Cohen said, "there is a crack in everything, that's where the light comes in."

Religion can be fairly straightforward; it brings us together and marks important occasions. But what about those of us who make spirituality the center of our lives? Are we sick and scarred?

When you make a spiritual practice of boredom, you are creating new neural pathways that allow you to relate to unpleasant stimuli in new ways. The point is to use boredom as a gateway to pure awareness.

An exploration of how "intentional sexuality" – or "sacred sexuality" – is used to reclaim the link between sexuality and spirituality, an ancient bond severed by the anti-carnal elements within early Christianity, Protestantism, and American Puritanism in its old and newer forms.

I think we're meant to stop having fun, at some point, because of a sense of deeper responsibilities. And yet, I still find myself making choices that lead to more juiciness. On good days, I am at peace with this decision.

The point of the spiritual search is to stop seeking. But not in the way it seems.

Are peak experiences real? How do we know anything is true? Certain things are logically provable, but many other kinds of truths are not. Secret mystical teachings are not esoteric; they are experiential.

In the Christian story of the Last Supper, Jesus distributes the flesh of God, initiating the first communion. To a Catholic, the significance of the scene is its mythic and theological context. But to a Buddhist, it's about fresh baked bread.

On a recent 40-day meditation retreat, I experienced a wave of self-hatred so shocking, so intense, that it changed the way I relate to sexuality, guilt, homophobia, and healing. I want to tell you the story.