SEEING INTO THE LIFE OF THINGS

An acclaimed scholar and poet urges readers to expand their relationship with images and dreams in this nonfiction work.

As part of a Jewish-Buddhist dialogue in India with the Dalai Lama, a group of Jewish delegates, led by author Kamenetz, was asked by the Buddhist spiritual leader how one should deal with the “afflictive emotions” of rage, resentment, anxiety, guilt, and shame. Over three decades later, Kamenetz offers his reply to the Dalai Lama: “Pay more attention to the images in our dreams, memories, and perceptions.” Driven by a belief that “images heal,” and that “dream images are a natural medicine,” Kamenetz emphasizes the spiritual and emotional power of contemplating images, which, he says, can restore “the innate imagination that makes us creative beings.” Author of the international bestseller The Jew in the Lotus (1994), Kamenetz has long been fascinated with the intersection of Buddhism and Judaism. More recently, he founded Natural Dreamwork, an international group of spiritual practitioners that teaches patients how to apply dreams to their personal growth. The book’s first half looks at the power of images broadly, including recollection of memories, while the second focuses more directly on dreams themselves. Though the work leans decisively into Jewish and Buddhist teachings and mysticism, it offers a welcoming approach to spirituality to readers from many religious traditions. It highlights, for instance, the importance of visualization to Catholic prayer life, from the stations of the cross to Ignatius of Loyola’s spiritual exercises. And while the spirituality described here is esoteric and difficult to pigeonhole, Kamenetz is careful to offer readers practical ways they can apply his tenets. One exercise, a “Blessing Practice With Dreams,” provides a three-step process of using meditation to access memory and dream images to open oneself to “absorbing the energies” of the visualized moment. This is an accessible work that blends a learned understanding of global spiritual traditions (backed by 175 research endnotes) with a jargon-free, often conversational spiritual commentary that includes engaging anecdotes and poignant observations.

A nuanced, pragmatic case for the centrality of images and dreams to personal growth.