Seeing Into the Life of Things
How Images Heal
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— Henry Shukman, author of One Blade of Grass and Original Love.
“Henry James once said, ‘Try to be one of the people on whom nothing is lost.’ It is the aspiration of writers, artists, poets, and dreamers. I thought of this while reading Rodger Kamenetz’s Seeing into the Life of Things. His prose and poetry, from Jew in the Lotus to Stalking Elijah to The Missing Jew always offered a way to see; slowly, to notice, to reflect, to savor. The dream always seems to occupy the center of Kamenetz’s work, how we create worlds with no tools other than our minds. ‘To see life in all things,’ like a child and a dreamer, what Rilke called ‘in-seeing’ (einsehrn). Blake, Wordsworth, Nahman of Bratslav and the Dalai Lama. Seeing into the Life of Things will take you by the hand through their gardens, see the lilacs, listen to the trumpet solo, bless the apple, gaze at the stars over the Mississippi River. Go with him. Walk slowly. He knows the way.” —Shaul Magid, Professor of Modern Judaism, Harvard Divinity School
“Wide in its speculative range, deep in its plumbing of feeling, relentless in its disdain of the flatness of ego and the narrowness of logic, Seeing into the Life of Things is at once alluring and challenging. The question at its core is a Buddhist one: what remedy can we find for ‘afflictive emotions’ like anxiety, rage, envy, shame and guilt? The richly sensual spiritual path Kamenetz charts, and has taken himself is packed with wonders, warnings and a willingness to use our imagination. Reader, take care: the wind of Kamenetz’ spirit may blow you away. And it may change your life.” —Alicia Ostriker, author of For the Love of God: The Bible as an Open Book
“With grace and poetic clarity, Rodger Kamenetz inspires us in Seeing into the Life of Things to use our imagination and our dreams – the great factory of personal imagery – to inhabit our world more fully and joyfully and gain access to other worlds that mystics, shamans and creators have always wanted to visit. He reminds us that instead of trying to interpret dreams according to ego assumptions, we can use dreams to correct self-limiting ego agendas and interpret everyday life. The parts of the book that are memoir are terrific, from pausing to commune with a blue flower growing out of a New Orleans sidewalk to auditing a dialogue between rabbis and the Dalai Lama on how to tame “afflictive emotions”. Kamenetz encourages us to turn to an “inner board of directors”, who may include departed teachers, available in dreams. He invites us to recognize, with Wordsworth, that depression (and a host of other problems) result from “impaired imagination”. He offers a blessing way through which – by retraining memory and recruiting the inner sensorium- we bring more of soul into life. He makes me want to commit poetry every day.” – Robert Moss, bestselling author of Conscious Dreaming and Dreaming the Soul Back Home.
This book is a harvest of living wisdom, a ripening of the garden Rodger Kamenetz has been cultivating for decades. Tenderly and with lucid insight, he walks us through the gates of poetry and dreams, of Jewish Mysticism and Zen Buddhism, of science and art. Not only does Kamenetz celebrate the power of the imagination to open our souls, but the abundance of images he scoops up from his own life and offers to us with outstretched hands cannot help but transform our ordinary lives from a set of tasks to be accomplished into an ever-unfolding sacred encounter.
— Mirabai Starr Author of God of Love and Ordinary Mysticism
An acclaimed scholar and poet urges readers to expand their relationship with images and dreams in this nonfiction work.
As part of a Jewish-Buddhist dialogue in India with the Dalai Lama, a group of Jewish delegates, led by author Kamenetz, was asked by the Buddhist spiritual leader how one should deal with the “afflictive emotions” of rage, resentment, anxiety, guilt, and shame. Over three decades later, Kamenetz offers his reply to the Dalai Lama: “Pay more attention to the images in our dreams, memories, and perceptions.” Driven by a belief that “images heal,” and that “dream images are a natural medicine,” Kamenetz emphasizes the spiritual and emotional power of contemplating images, which, he says, can restore “the innate imagination that makes us creative beings.” Author of the international bestseller The Jew in the Lotus (1994), Kamenetz has long been fascinated with the intersection of Buddhism and Judaism. More recently, he founded Natural Dreamwork, an international group of spiritual practitioners that teaches patients how to apply dreams to their personal growth. The book’s first half looks at the power of images broadly, including recollection of memories, while the second focuses more directly on dreams themselves. Though the work leans decisively into Jewish and Buddhist teachings and mysticism, it offers a welcoming approach to spirituality to readers from many religious traditions. It highlights, for instance, the importance of visualization to Catholic prayer life, from the stations of the cross to Ignatius of Loyola’s spiritual exercises. And while the spirituality described here is esoteric and difficult to pigeonhole, Kamenetz is careful to offer readers practical ways they can apply his tenets. One exercise, a “Blessing Practice With Dreams,” provides a three-step process of using meditation to access memory and dream images to open oneself to “absorbing the energies” of the visualized moment. This is an accessible work that blends a learned understanding of global spiritual traditions (backed by 175 research endnotes) with a jargon-free, often conversational spiritual commentary that includes engaging anecdotes and poignant observations.
A nuanced, pragmatic case for the centrality of images and dreams to personal growth.SEEING INTO THE LIFE OF THINGS is built around a daily practice of contemplating blessings. In the book there are many helpful examples but here are some basic guidelines.
THE BASIC BLESSING PRACTICE
The best time to do this practice is in the morning as soon after waking as you can. You recall three memories from yesterday you are grateful for.
1. Meditation: Sit quietly paying attention to how your body is, then watch your breath until you are feeling centered.
2. Memory: Close your eyes and count your blessings. Use a moment. Use a once. Visualize an encounter with a person from the previous day. Visualize a moment of love or kindness you received from a friend, a loved one or a stranger. A word or a gesture. A touch on the hand. Using all the senses, bring to mind these moments.
You can also focus on an encounter in nature, a sensual plea- sure. Feel gratitude for the taste of a blueberry, the sound of a warbler, the melody in the voice of a lover.
Try to find three such moments each morning.
SHARING THE BLESSING PRACTICE
After you’ve practiced for a while, think about sharing it with family and friends by forming a text chain. With my children, it’s a beautiful way to stay in touch and have a sense of their everyday lives. With friends and colleagues, it’s also a way of strengthening relationship.