Seeing into the Life of Things

Rodger Kamenetz is an award-winning poet, author and teacher. His best known book is The Jew in the Lotus. His account of historic dialogue became an international bestseller, prompting a reevaluation of Judaism in the light of Buddhist thought. The New York Times called it a “revered text.” A PBS documentary followed, and a sequel, Stalking Elijah, was awarded the National Jewish Book Award. Kamenetz has also authored many books of poetry and has been called “the most formidable of the Jewish-American poets.” And when his book, The History of Last Night’s Dream appeared in 2007, Oprah Winfrey interviewed him on her “Soul Series” program, saying, “What’s so exciting about this book is that it talks about how there’s a whole other life that we are living when we sleep and that our dreams are there as offerings and gifts to us if we only recognize what the dreams are there to teach us.” He lives in New Orleans, LA.

“Amid the flood of works on spirituality and self-help, this new book from the unique and exceptional hand of Rodger Kamenetz really stands apart. It takes on a vital but often overlooked subject—the role of the imagination in our healing and opening to a deeper life. With his profound knowledge of poetry, and decades of experience in dreamwork, as well as Hasidic studies, Kamenetz offers not just a deep investigation of the power of images to open up a more connected and engaged life, but a path of practice to help reconnect us with our authentic self and the vivid life of the soul. I don’t know of a book that so richly brings together poetry, dreams, imagination and the spiritual life. It needed to be written, and needs to be read, now more than ever. A real gem.” —Henry Shukman, author of One Blade of Grass and Original Love

“Henry James once said, ‘Try to be one of the people on whom nothing is lost.’ It is the aspiration of writers, artists, poets, and dreamers. I thought of this while reading Rodger Kamenetz’s Seeing into the Life of Things. His prose and poetry, from Jew in the Lotus to Stalking Elijah to The Missing Jew always offered a way to see; slowly, to notice, to reflect, to savor. The dream always seems to occupy the center of Kamenetz’s work, how we create worlds with no tools other than our minds. ‘To see life in all things,’ like a child and a dreamer, what Rilke called ‘in-seeing’ (einsehrn). Blake, Wordsworth, Nahman of Bratslav and the Dalai Lama. Seeing into the Life of Things will take you by the hand through their gardens, see the lilacs, listen to the trumpet solo, bless the apple, gaze at the stars over the Mississippi River. Go with him. Walk slowly. He knows the way.” —Shaul Magid, Professor of Modern Judaism, Harvard University

“Wide in its speculative range, deep in its plumbing of feeling, relentless in its disdain of the flatness of ego and the narrowness of logic, Seeing into the Life of Things is at once alluring and challenging. The question at its core is a Buddhist one: what remedy can we find for ‘afflictive emotions’ like anxiety, rage, envy, shame and guilt? The richly sensual spiritual path Kamenetz charts, and has taken himself is packed with wonders, warnings and a willingness to use our imagination. Reader, take care: the wind of Kamenetz’ spirit may blow you away. And it may change your life.” —Alicia Ostriker, author of For the Love of God: The Bible as an Open Book

“With grace and poetic clarity, Rodger Kamenetz inspires us in Seeing into the Life of Things to use our imagination and our dreams—the great factory of personal imagery—to inhabit our world more fully and joyfully and gain access to other worlds that mystics, shamans, and creators have always wanted to visit. He reminds us that instead of trying to interpret dreams according to ego assumptions, we can use dreams to correct self-limiting ego agendas and interpret everyday life. The parts of the book that are memoir are terrific, from pausing to commune with a blue flower growing out of a New Orleans sidewalk to auditing a dialogue between rabbis and the Dalai Lama on how to tame ‘afflictive emotions.’ Kamenetz encourages us to turn to an ‘inner board of directors’ who may include departed teachers, available in dreams. He invites us to recognize, with Wordsworth, that depression (and a host of other problems) result from ‘impaired imagination.’ He offers a blessing way through which—by retraining memory and recruiting the inner sensorium—we bring more of soul into life. He makes me want to commit poetry every day.” —Robert Moss, bestselling author of Conscious Dreaming and Dreaming the Soul Back Home

For the author’s earlier books:

“A book for anyone who feels the narrowness of a wholly secular life ….” —New York Times Book Review

“It’s fascinating to see what is good and true and real in terms of different religious sensibilities.” — E. L. Doctorow

“A highly entertaining personal account of one man’s surprising journey into the mystical heart of Judaism.” —Kirkus

“A profound discussion of religion, exile, and survival in our time.” —Andrei Codrescu, poet and NPR commentator

“A feast of truth sharing, self-examination of lineage, humor, and good will.” —Ram Dass