Here are the sources used for the class materials, and various resources to help with your study of Jewish meditation.
equanimity
A few years ago, I took up rappelling, the art of descending sheer cliffs by rope and harness, so that we could explore the red-rock canyons of Southern Utah. After I had begun to learn the basics, Steve, our guide, said to me, “You’re one of those people who wants to speed up when your adrenaline starts to flow.”
loving-kindness
Some things in life have to be earned, and some things cannot be. We can earn respect and reputation by our behavior, but sometimes we need help, or forgiveness, or just a break, that we haven’t earned and don’t deserve. And we can also give to others gifts they don’t deserve and don’t have to earn. That sort of undeserved kindness is captured by the word Hesed, often translated as lovingkindness.
adaptability
The other day I had coffee with Hal, the father of one of our chavurah members. He had just written his second novel, this one based on his amazing experiences as a Jewish-American soldier fighting the Nazis in World War II. We got together to talk about his book.
silence
One of the current terms of religious discussion that I’ve grown to suspect is “spirituality.” I’m tired of hearing people say, “I’m not religious; I’m spiritual,” which often means I don’t have any outward signs of religious or transcendent life, but, trust me, I possess many lofty sentiments.
loving-kindness
Chesed or loving-kindness is an essential human attribute, but it’s first of all a divine attribute. If we want to cultivate chesed, we should pay attention to how Hashem exercises it. And God’s chesed is on display at the conclusion of the Haftarot of Comfort, the passages from Isaiah that we read during this period between Tisha B’av and Rosh Hashanah.
We conclude the class on how to use meditation to converse with G-d through prayer (12mins).
Here we present more advanced meditative techniques. These are not for beginners and only for those well established in Torah, Mitzvot and have a mentor (21mins).
Now the rebbetzin explores specific techniques of meditation, including understanding different states of thought and how to meditate on Scripture (36mins).
On this page, rebbetzin malkah takes over the lecture and introduces us to the inward journey of hitbodedut (14mins).
Here is our introductory class to Jewish Meditation. On this page, rav rafael gives an introduction to meditation and explores external self seclusion (25mins).