Seeing into the Life of Things: Imagination and the Sacred Encounter

The author of The Jew in the Lotus seeks to answer the Dalai Lama’s question.

During the historic dialogue between rabbis and the Dalai Lama, as told in his international bestseller The Jew in the Lotus, Rodger Kamenetz heard a penetrating question from His Holiness to the rabbis, “How does your spiritual practice purify afflictive emotions?”

To Kamenetz this seemed the most fundamental question to ask of any religion or philosophy of life. How do your practices help you with negative emotions like anxiety, envy, resentment and shame?

Taking the reader with him on an exhilarating intellectual and emotional journey, he finds a natural spiritual path in the imagination.

Kamenetz connects daily life to spiritual longing, from the musical rhythms of his beloved New Orleans to his tender bond with Rabbi Zalman Schachter—Shalomi, visionary founder of Jewish Renewal and a central figure in the Dharamsala dialogue.

Embedded in a rich poetic narrative. Seeing into the Life of Things offers down to earth practices from “count your blessings,” to savoring perception, from dwelling on powerful memories, to the sacred encounters in dreams. Kamenetz shows how giving birth to our images restores us to an imagination of the sacred.