R' Aryeh Kaplan - Jewish Meditation

ARYEH KAPLAN - Jewish Meditation -- Even in a state of sensory deprivation, the self-generated thoughts of the mind tend to obscure spiritual sensation . However, if a person can quiet down all extraneous thoughts, he can then "tune in" to the spiritual . This tuning-in is what is known as the mystical experience . In this sense, meditation is the most important technique of mystics all over the world . The most vivid experiences were those attained by the prophets in the Bible . In the biblical sense, a prophet is more than a person who merely sees the future . Rather, he is one who has such a strong experience of the spiritual that he can use it to garner information . Sometimes this information includes knowl edge of the future, hence the popular conception of a prophet as one who sees what has not yet occurred . Nevertheless, the true prophet has access to many other truths besides knowledge of the future . It is important to realize the important role that meditation played in the careers of the prophets of Israel . On its highest level, meditation can provide a person with an experience of God . This is certainly the highest possible spiritual experience. Our perception of God is often clouded by ego and anthropomorphism, so that we tend to see God as a mirror image of ourselves . By freeing the mind of these encumbrances, meditation can help us to open our minds totally to the experience of God . In many religious traditions, including Judaism, this is the highest goal of meditation .
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