The New Story about the Oldest Stories in the WorldToday apocalyptic predictions and images dominate popular culture and social media. Yet for most of our history, human consciousness focused on the mystery of beginnings, not endings. Our ancestors felt that the most powerful energy and clearest vision for the future could be found at our inception. They meditated on stories of the Great Beginning as the way to go forward. Original Meditation is two books in one. First it investigates the ancient tradition of creation mysticism and shows how Western culture became sidetracked into an increasingly narrow, apocalyptic world view. Second, it shows how we can begin to recover an authentic meditation on our shared beginnings, a meditation that can bring us into a more embodied and compassionate present. To help us on our way, Neil Douglas-Klotz offers us a living anthology of voices, from a mystical view of the first chapters of Genesis, to the Aramaic words of Jesus, to translations of mystical voices like Jelaluddin Rumi, Ibn Arabi, Meister Eckhart and the Jewish Kabbalists. Uniting the native spirituality of the Middle East with Western creation spirituality, we catch a glimpse of the life-affirming energy of "beginning-time" and experience what it means to be fully human in today's world. "After reading this very welcome resource, you will want to join Douglas-Klotz in exclaiming: "Genesis Now!"--Spirituality and Health (voted one of best spiritual books of the year).
"Neil Douglas-Klotz is a rare jewel; a brilliant scholar with heart whose words have the power to reconnect us with our sacred source. This is truly a book for our times.... The perfume of divine belonging rises from every page as this modern mystic skillfully guides us into the essence of the Sacred Mystery.
--Dr. Joan Borysenko, author of Your Soul's Compassp
"Deeply moving, compelling, and radiant with hope, the book is a living prayer that can contribute to personal and inter-religious transformation."
--Mary Ford-Grabowsky, author of Sacred Voices
"By the time we finish this book, we are ready and able to join body, heart, mind, and spirit into a healing wholeness-indeed, the wholeness of Creation."
--Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Director of the Shalom Center, author of God Wrestling
About the Author: Dr. Neil Douglas-Klotz is an internationally known scholar in the fields connecting religious studies and psychology as well as a poet and musician. He is the author of: Prayers of the Cosmos: Meditations on the Aramaic Words of Jesus (1990); Desert Wisdom: The Middle Eastern Tradition from the Goddess Through the Sufis (1995); The Hidden Gospel: Decoding the Spirituality of the Aramaic Jesus (1999); The Genesis Meditations: A Shared Practice of Peace for Christians, Jews and Muslims (2003); The Sufi Book of Life: 99 Pathways of the Heart for the Modern Dervish (2005) Blessings of the Cosmos: Wisdom of the Heart from the Aramaic Words of Jesus (2006), The Tent of Abraham: Stories of Hope and Peace for Jews, Christians and Muslims (2006, with Rabbi Arthur Waskow and Sr. Joan Chittister).
He is the past chair of the Mysticism Group of the American Academy of Religion and active in various international colloquia and conferences dedicated to peace and spirituality. and Peace, now in its 14th year (www.eicsp.org). Information about his work internationally may be found at the website of the Abwoon Resource Center in the USA: www.abwoon.com
