All is One/All is God: Nonduality East and West

Wed, Dec 9
2009

at East-West Living
78 Fifth Avenue
New York NY

“All is one” is a familiar teaching of yoga, Hinduism, Buddhism, and New Age spirituality. But it is also the foundation of Kabbalah, other forms of Western mysticism, and many Earth-based and indigenous religions as well.  Is there a difference between saying “all is one,” “all is empty,” and “all is God,” or are all these traditions saying the same thing?   What is enlightenment, according to these different nondualistic systems?  And how do they work in practice?

This unprecedented and inspiring conversation, presented by Reality Sandwich, Evolver, and East/West Living, will feature Jay Michaelson, author of the new book Everything is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism; Kenneth Folk, a Buddhist teacher of nondual awakening and enlightenment; and Rabbi Jill Hammer, who fuses Jewish and Earth-based teachings as part of the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute.  We will explore the radical concept on nonduality — that everything is one — through dialogue, conversation, and meditation, with panelists and participants drawing on their own personal experience as well as scholarship and inquiry.

About the Panelists

A student and teacher of Kabbalah for twenty years, Jay Michaelson is today a writer, scholar and activist who was recently named as one “of the fifty men and women who are leading the American Jewish community into the 21st century” by the Forward newspaper. Presently completing his Ph.D. in Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he is a columnist for Reality Sandwich, the Huffington Post, The Forward, Zeek, and Tikkun. He is also a practicing Buddhist, having recently spent five months on silent meditation retreat in the Theravadan tradition.

Kenneth Folk teaches Buddhist meditation and nondual awakening in the suburbs of New York and online at kennethfolkdharma.wetpaint.com.  After a career as a popular musician, Kenneth began practicing Theravadan Buddhist meditation in 1980, and completed extensive long term meditation retreats in Asia and the U.S. under the tutelage of Burmese masters U Kundala and U Pandita, and American meditation master Bill Hamilton, among others.  Having attained the highest levels of the Theravadan Buddhist path, Kenneth now helps others find the happiness that is not dependent upon conditions.

Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD, is an author, educator, myth-weaver, and ritualist. She is the co-founder of Kohenet: The Hebrew Priestess Institute, and the director of Tel Shemesh, a website and community celebrating and creating Jewish earth-based traditions.