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Dawn J. Lipthrott, LCSW
Relationship Learning Ctr.
1177 Louisiana Ave. Ste. 109
Tel & Fax: 407-740-7763
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Shabbat: "What if I don't FEEL spiritual?"
Excerpt from Shabbat: A Taste of Wholeness
By Dawn J. Lipthrott, LCSW
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If I am inherently in union with the Divine, why don't I experience or feel it? Maybe I'm just not 'spiritual?'
Attention Makes Present:
One of the basic steps to experiencing your inherent connection with God is to regularly refocus your attention. Something does not 'exist' for you personally unless you direct your attention to it. A clock ticking or the sound of the air conditioning in the room in which you are reading this, most probably has not been 'present' to you consciously, until these words direct your attention to it. Everyday you may pass beautiful trees and flowers growing alongside the road on your way to work or to the grocery store, but never see them. It doesn't mean they don't exist. It just means that they are not present to you because you are directing your attention to the car in front of you or to your grocery list or to you the tasks you have scheduled at work.
Your attention is what brings something or Someone into your personal experience. It's like looking through a camera lens where everything is a blur -- until you focus it. The beauty snaps into clarity. On Shabbat, you bring the eternal into focus.
"The Sabbath thus brings man back to his Root. . . it is a free gift, and the only reason a person must prepare himself is so that he will have a receptacle and the power with which to receive it."
Rabbi Levi Yitzach of Berdichov
And what you receive is the sense of peace, joy, wholeness and connection with God, with your essence, and with the world that normally lacks clarity. The peace and wholeness of Shabbat is eternal. The Divinity in which we exist is eternal. Our core, that Divine Spark within each person is eternal. Shabbat creates a receptacle for the reality of who we are, and who we are meant to be for the world.
Shabbat is not spectator sport! It requires that you consciously re-focus your attention and actively involve yourself in the experience. Bring your senses, your understanding and questions, and an open mind and heart. This manual adds insights from the great traditions of Jewish mysticism, which have shaped even the most conservative observance today. Let it open new insight and wonder for you!
(Book gives suggestions for focusing attention and "drawing down the holiness of Shabbat".)
Excerpt from Shabbat: A Taste of Wholeness
Copyright 1996, Dawn Lipthrott, Orlando, Florida
LIST OF EXCERPTS FROM: SHABBAT-A TASTE OF WHOLENESS
Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, is said to be "a taste of the world to come", a taste of wholeness.These articles are an introduction to what Shabbat can be for you and how it can empower you to co-create a more conscious world.
Shabbat: A Taste of Wholeness
Info on the book from which these excerpts were taken. Contents and ordering information.
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©Copyright of the Dialogue Process as used in Imago Relationship Therapy belongs to Harville Hendrix, PhD
© Dawn J. Lipthrott, LCSW, 1995 Renewed 2007 www.relationshipjourney.com
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