Jewish mindfulness teacher, Mira Neshama Niculescu, Ph.D., joins Madison to share on Judaism, meditation, being here now, and cultivating compassion.
Mira Neshama Niculescu, Ph.D., is a Paris-born scholar and teacher of Jewish spirituality and meditation. A certified Jewish Mindfulness Teacher from the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, she teaches Torah and Jewish meditation. A believer in being the change we want to see in the world, she chairs the Clergy council of Root’s, an Israeli-based NGO dedicated to people-to-people Peace Building between Israelis and Palestinians. A regular contributor to Akadem, Tenou’a, JewPop and L’Arche, she lectures internationally about Torah, Jewish Spirituality and Jewish Meditation. More info at MiraNeshama.com
Explore the intersection of Buddhism & Bhakti at the inaugural Love Serve Remember Summer Mountain Retreat August 25th – 29th in Boone, NC!
Judaism & Mindfulness // Being Here Now
Welcoming Mira Neshama Niculescu, Ph.D., to the Set & Setting podcast, Madison describes her personal experience at one of Mira’s meditation courses, and how working with Mira in this setting helped her revivify the meditation process throughout her daily life activities. To begin, Madison invites Mira to share what brought her to this deeply fruitful path intersecting Judaism & Mindfulness. Next, Madison asks Mira to contemplate the meaning of Ram Dass’ “Be Here Now” within her life.
“I shared with a friend, ‘It’s too painful to be here.’ She said, ‘That’s because you’re not really here,’ because I was in my thoughts and memories. It is one of my life callings to help people have the courage to be here, to be here with what is.” – Mira Neshama Niculescu, Ph.D.
Madison & Hadar Cohen talk about Judaism, psychedelics, & transformation, on Ep. 9 of Set & Setting
Cultivating Compassion (15:15)
After diving into all the parts that make up a mindfulness practice, they zoom into one of the key ingredients – cultivating compassion. Through this lens, Mira offers a simple technique of placing one hand on the heart, the other on the belly, and really feeling into the loving somatic experience of holding oneself in this way. From here, Mira discusses mindfulness and intention in our daily lives.
“Mindfulness in daily life, we’re paying attention to what we’re doing. We must be 100% in everything we do—when we eat, when we talk to a partner, when we deal with business—everything you do you have to be just with this. Then when you’re with God, just with God.” – Mira Neshama Niculescu, Ph.D.
RamDev explores how to cultivate compassion for all suffering, on Ep. 66 of Healing at the Edge
Metta Meditation & Quieting Technique (33:33)
Opening to further cultivation practices, Mira offers insight into metta (lovingkindness) meditation and speaks about the Hasidic meditation of the quieting technique. To close, Madison and Mira share on how we can apply meditation in action and offer service in our daily world.
“Energy is real. Words are the clothes of energy. When we say a word, we really call the energy in. The whole point is to connect to these energies that are here available in the universe—love and trust—and to have them feed us.” – Mira Neshama Niculescu, Ph.D.
Metta expert, Sharon Salzberg, answers questions about lovingkindness, on Ep. 37 of the Metta Hour
