WHY ISN'T MY MEDITATION WORKING?

Q: After years of meditation, I still haven't experienced the awakening many people talk about. What am I doing wrong? How can I tell if my meditation is working?

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RABBI RAMI: What you're doing wrong is listening to people talk about their awakening. There is no “you” in the moment of awakening. That's why Zen Master Dogen speaks of shinjin datsaraku, “dropping off body and mind,” and the kabbalists of kalta nafshi, “the ending of self.” If “you” are experiencing awakening, it isn’t awakening you are experiencing. Your meditation is “working” if you recognize that your life is permeated by the Universal Happening (Tao in Chinese, YHVH in Hebrew), which is reality, and your living becomes increasingly just, kind, and loving.

Q: I’m not religious, and my religious friends insist that without religion, I have no morality—only personal whim. What are they talking about?

RR: Many believe that morality must come from God because, as Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote in The Brothers Karamazov, “Without God, all things are permitted.” However, considering the evil committed in the name of God, one could just as easily argue, “With God, all things are permitted.” It’s better to base your morality on the goal of relieving suffering for all beings rather than on a God who often seems to enjoy the suffering of those beings God’s theologians disdain.

Q: After confessing to a coworker that I had broken several of the Ten Commandments, she told me that without Jesus' forgiveness, I'll burn in hell forever. I'm Jewish. How should I respond to this?

RR: I would answer this way: Like Jesus, I'm a Jew. Jews don't believe in a God who permits eternal damnation. Our rabbis taught Jesus and me that God judges people based on the good they do rather than the mistakes they make (Pirke Avot 3:15). Therefore, while I strive to “turn from evil and do good” (Psalm 34:14), I don’t need to be saved from my mistakes or your God.