Rabbi David A Cooper

Rabbi David Cooper is a spiritual teacher whose practice and teaching draw on both Judaism and Buddhism. He and his wife, Shoshana, have devoted their adult lives to the meditative path. They have done dozens of silent retreats, including at least four of more than one hundred days each, and they have sat or taught weeklong silent retreats an average of at least four times a year. When not on retreat, they keep a daily practice of two to three hours. After one hundred-day retreat in the mid-nineties, they committed themselves to what they call a "monastery without walls."

Over more than two decades of teaching, his emphasis has been bringing contemplative methods to Jewish and Buddhist practitioners. He sees Judaism as more limited in its contemplative outreach than the Buddhist world, and so fertile ground for these teachings. His website focuses on what he calls Contemplative Judaism: deepening meditation practice, Kabbalah and Zohar, the Jewish calendar (especially Shabbat and the Holy Days), practices that grow wisdom and compassion in daily life, and openness to other contemplative traditions.

His central theme is what he calls the "God-ing process," the realization that Primordial Awareness is always present in every bit of motion and matter. His body of work includes Hasidic teaching stories with commentary, teachings on Kabbalah, angelology, souls and the tree of life, chants, guided meditations, and a concentration practice developed by the 13th century mystic Abraham Abulafia. Most of it is offered free as audio and print.