Unique Self specialness is an authentic realization of overpowering joy. I am special, and so are you. Each of us has a Unique Self. We are not equally talented, wise, sensual, or compassionate. But paradoxically, we are all special, each in our own ...
Archive for 2012
Tzimtzum: Love implies freedom and responsibility
The ability to know and not use the knowledge. To give while giving up control. The greatest expression of divine self-limitation allows us our ability to choose, even as we choose against God. As the Hebrew mystics write so beautifully, “even ...
Daily Wisdom: To Greet With God’s Name
The world over, God’s name is evoked in greetings. The Spanish hello – ‘Olah’ – originated in Arab Spain from the term “O’Allah” — Allah of course being the Arab appellation of God. In Bavarian German they say ‘Gruss G ...
The Daily Wisdom: The Crying of Ishmael
God responds to the crying of Ishmael and not the crying of Hagar. Ishmael represents the crying of the baby with which all life begins. Why does the baby cry? The baby is hungry, the baby is afraid, the baby is vulnerable, the baby is lonely. The ba ...
Daily Wisdom: A Name with the power to Heal
Why do we respond to death not with an exclamation of comfort, but with the Kaddish — a seemingly theological statement, “Magnified and Exalted is his great name”? The answer holds one of the most sacred mysteries of love rooted in the se ...
Daily Wisdom: God accepts all offerings in love
“God accepts all offerings in love.” Your Unique Self Marc Gafni www.marcgafni.com ...
Daily Wisdom: Life’s House of Mirrors
In order to respond to the voices that call us to meaning we need to first experience the world as meaningful. Read more… ...
Yearning and Each Other’s Story
We yearn — in our deepest hearts — not to take but to give, and in that giving to deeply receive. Sexuality is the model for this, because there one single act contains within it both giving and receiving. The same is true, however, in all of our ...
The Essential I (By Dr. Marc Gafni)
By Dr. Marc Gafni In this excerpt from Reclaiming Rosh Hashanah: The Dance of Tears (forthcoming), Dr. Marc Gafni explores the Garden of Eden biblical story and Abraham Kook’s teaching on the “inner essential I,” through which we come to u ...
The Narrative of Conscious Business
Marc Gafni recently participated as a guest scholar at the Conscious Business Conclave at Esalen. Here is an excerpt from Marc’s reflections on the urgent priority of articulating a narrative of Conscious Business. In Marc’s words, there ...
Prayer: a pointing-out instruction for God
By Marc Gafni We are all despearate for communion. It is what makes our lives worth living. Communion is the movement from loneliness to loving. It is the experience of being held and received. We are all systematically mis-recognized. To be recogniz ...
The Seven Levels of Certainty and Uncertainty
By Marc Gafni The following are notes from Marc Gafni’s dharma talk given in March 2012 at Shalom Mountain Wisdom School, where Gafni serves as the World Spirituality Teacher in Residence. Introduction The seven levels of certainty and uncertai ...
Daily Wisdom Post: The Lover’s Art of Attention
So far, the two major qualities of the erotic lover have been perception and giving. ...
Daily Wisdom Post: Love is as Love Does
Loving and giving are inextricably bound up. The great medieval philosopher Maimonides teaches that to love God is to know the divine in both world and self. ...
Daily Wisdom Post: Transcendence & the Gradual Widening of Self
It is through the consistent commitment to the growth of the other expressed through regular and spontaneous acts of giving that you become a lover. ...