Seeing into the Life of Things:
Imagination and the Sacred EncounterPractice with Rodger Kamenetz
January 14 – February 11, 2026
Five online sessions Wednesdays, 2:00 – 3:15 PM ET
January 14, 21, 28, February 4, 11
Plus access to a dedicated WhatsApp group for sharing blessings, perceptions, and dream moments.
Cultivate a daily gratitude practice by leaving the world of negative emotions and reactivity
Renowned author and poet Rodger Kamenetz (author of the classic bestseller The Jew in the Lotus), will offer a five-week program of imaginative spiritual practice based on his new book: Seeing into the Life of Things: Imagination and the Sacred Encounter.
Do you find yourself grappling with the anxiety and uncertainty of our times? How can we engage our five senses to develop a gratitude practice that purifies an afflictive state of mind? In this 5-week course, you will embark on a journey that entwines our senses, dreams, and imagination with the sacred by:
- Engaging the healing power of “feeling into images” in memory, perception, and dreams.
- Cultivating a mindset of “counting blessings” and integrating this blessing practice into the traditional Jewish morning prayer practice.
- Connecting inner feelings with the outer world, evoking images from our dream life.
- Developing greater empathy and a shift in consciousness toward what Kamenetz terms “the Great Opening.”
This course includes access to a dedicated WhatsApp group for discussion and a restorative curriculum that:
- Introduces the modeh/modah ani as a gratitude practice.
- Enhances your morning prayer practice with counting blessings.
- Cultivates your senses and the hidden role of imagination in everyday perception.
- Introduces dreams as the laboratory of imagination.
- Contemplates images in dream and how dreams can bring us to a cosmic religious experience.
Participants are strongly encouraged to purchase Rodger Kamenetz’s book, Seeing into the Life of Things: Imagination and the Sacred Encounter. Available at booksellers everywhere, including Barnes and Noble, Bookshop.org, and Amazon.
Discover for yourself what Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel called “radical amazement”
Components of the Course
Week 1
A Challenge from the Dalai Lama
A Challenge from the Dalai Lama: How do you purify afflictive states of mind?
The neglected power of imagination. The role of imagination in memory. A simple visualization practice. Introduction to the modeh/modah ani as a gratitude practice.
Week 2
Counting Blessings
Counting Blessings
A visualization practice for cherishing moments of blessing. Adding counting blessings to morning prayer practice.
Week 3
Imaginative Perception
Imaginative Perception: “What we half-create and perceive”
The hidden role of imagination in everyday perception. Exercises in cultivating your senses. Finding infinity in a wildflower. Imaginative perception and Heschel’s “radical amazement.” The sacred encounter in waking life. The cosmic religious experience.
Week 4
Memory and Dream Images
Memory and Dream Images: Deep Memory; Spots of Time
Introduction to dreams as a laboratory of imagination. The power of contemplating formative memories. Distinguishing imagination in dreams from the story-telling of the ego. Distinguishing feeling and reaction to purify afflictive states of mind.
Week 5
Sacred Encounters in Dreams
Sacred Encounters in Dreams
How dreams can bring us to a cosmic religious experience, encounters with the angelic /archetypal in dreams. Contemplating images in dreams.
Testimonials
“With his profound knowledge of poetry, and decades of experience in dreamwork, as well as Hasidic studies, Kamenetz offers not just a deep investigation of the power of images to open up a more connected and engaged life, but a path of practice to help reconnect us with our authentic self and the vivid life of the soul. I don’t know of a book that so richly brings together poetry, dreams, imagination and the spiritual life. It needed to be written, and needs to be read, now more than ever. A real gem.”
“Rodger Kamenetz opened a new side to our congregation that many of us didn’t know was there. Rodger helped people explore a spiritual depth that inspired and encouraged many to live more boldly and with greater intention and compassion. Unlike some Scholar in Residence experiences, which are nice but afterwards, we all carry on as before, Rodger left our community with much to explore and build upon. I can’t recommend him more highly as a scholar or artist in residence.”
Register Now
IJS is pleased to offer this course at three tuition levels.
We encourage you to pay at the highest level you can, which will enable more students to participate.
Abundance Level
$349
Basic Level
$249
Reduced Level
$149
Meet Your Instructor:
Rodger Kamenetz
Rodger Kamenetz is an award-winning poet, author and teacher. Of his 13 books, his best known is The Jew in the Lotus, the story of rabbis making a holy pilgrimage through India to meet with the Dalai Lama. His account of their historic dialogue became an international bestseller, prompting a reevaluation of Judaism in the light of Buddhist thought. Now in its 37th printing overall, The Jew in the Lotus is a staple of college religion courses. The New York Times called it a “revered text.” A PBS documentary followed, and a sequel, Stalking Elijah, was awarded the National Jewish Book Award for Jewish Thought. Kamenetz’s Burnt Books, in Schocken/Nextbook’s Jewish Encounters series, once again crosses boundaries, between literature and religion. It begins as a dual biography of Franz Kafka and Rebbe Nachman, who each asked his best friend to burn his books. It ends with Kamenetz on his own pilgrimage to Kafka’s Prague and to the rebbe’s grave in Ukraine.
Born in Baltimore, Rodger Kamenetz has degrees from Yale, Johns Hopkins and Stanford. At Louisiana State University, he held a dual appointment as a Professor of English and Professor of Religious Studies and founded the MFA program in creative writing and the Jewish Studies minor. He retired as LSU Distinguished Professor and Sternberg Honors Chair Professor. He lives in New Orleans where he now devotes himself to his work with clients who seek spiritual direction through dreams.