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Contemplative Judaism
a state where one’s mind is emptied of all thoughts, perceptions, and
sensations, whether physical or spiritual, and in which all one feels and
perceives, is nothingness.” 22 Attachment to the self prevents one from
attaining an experience of nothingness, for ayin is pre-conscious (kadmut
ha-sekhel). 23 The Maggid teaches that human will is also incompatible with
ayin, which “does not desire anything.” 24 One must leave the ego and
instead follow the lead of the soul, “for the soul is something that no one
comprehends.” 25
There are other, less abstract practices that supposedly help one
experience ayin. With the conceptual method, one intellectually
contemplates nothingness. 26 One may use any question or mental
exercise that leads one to conceptualize nothingness. For instance, one
may contemplate the “I” that has a body, mind, and soul. One may try to
imagine an existence that transcends physical and temporal dimensions.
One may also meditate on paradoxes that pertain to YHVH and try to
conceptualize such an entity. For instance, God is every thing, and no
thing is God; and God is within every thing, and everything is within
God. Such paradoxes lead one to have momentary glimpses of ayin and ein
sof.
Other contemplative practices that help one experience ayin involve
visualizations of nothingness. Since ayin is said to be the level at which
YHVH and humans are connected, “when a person visualizes nothingness,
he is, to some degree, in touch with the Divine within himself.” 27 There
is a common error in visualizing nothingness. Pinson writes, “In our
attempt to visualize nothingness, we may visualize a black empty space,
a complete vacuum of nothingness. However, black is itself a color and
thus a definition. The color black and space are both a something by their
very definition; thus, blackness, or empty space, cannot be the accurate
description of nothingness.” 28 Kaplan encourages the simple technique
of trying to visualize what is behind or inside of one’s head. 29 A more
advanced and abstract method is to meditate on the letters that form
one of God’s unpronounceable names: Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh (YHVH). One
may literally place the letters in front of oneself. Then, one meditates on
the image of Y-H-V-H until the letters dominate one’s consciousness, in
a process called chakikah (literally, “engraving”). Once one has engraved
Y-H-V-H in one’s awareness, one engages in the process of chatzivah
29