Kabbalistic Healing
A Path to an Awakened Soul

By Jason Shulman

   Though he is a Buddhist teacher, Jason Shulman offers an alternative path to enlightenment in his book, Kabbalistic Healing: A Path to an Awakened Soul. Shulman's study of the Kabbala-the Jewish mystical path-has led him to embrace a ground of being, a way of life that is workable for the average person. This path emphasizes the healed ego, or the whole ego. Shulman still presents the reader with the contradictions of being, as Buddhists often do (being and not being, having and letting go, looking for God outside and looking for God inside), yet he offers ways to reconcile them.

     Shulman leads the reader through the four Kabbalistic universes or perceptions of life. He discusses how prayer, healing, death, and God are perceived within these universe and nudges the reader to aspire toward Atzilut, or total integration with God. Shulman recognizes that at any one time a person can be in any one of these worlds, depending on the person's understanding at the moment. Atzilut is not a final destination or achievement; it is a glimpse at unity with the Divine. He also explains how the Kabbalistic Tree of Life and the use of numbers are vehicles to explain divine truths. They are tools.

     Shulman differs from the formal student of the Kabbala. He removes much of the cerebral-ness from his living Kabbala, relying less on study and more on feeling and sense.

      The book, however, is not easy reading. Shulman's use of language is poetic and often beautiful, but must be re-read to squeeze the meaning from it. He even suggests reading the book out loud, and perhaps, this more contemplative way of reading is necessary in order to understand these deeper truths. After all, the way to enlightenment was never meant to be fast.