I am Reb Brian Yosef Schachter-Brooks – Jewish spiritual teacher and musician.
In the mid-eighties, after some early childhood dabbling in various mystical practices and some training in Transcendental Meditation, I was struck by the writings of Martin Buber. Buber spoke of the essence of Judaism and Hassidism as a lived reality, beyond the dogmas and legalities of codified Judaism.
It was in 1987, when I experienced a “spiritual awakening” in which the question mark of life seemed to be transformed into an exclamation point. My personal struggles of life all dropped away. It became obvious that the answer was to “Live for God.” The experience only lasted a few weeks, but this is when the journey to recover the simplicity and directness of that perception began. In 1998, I experienced a second awakening which caused a lasting shift and opened the door to the simple and liberating openness that now I wholeheartedly share with others like you.
I have dedicated over 20 years to developing and teaching hundreds of workshops and courses on spiritual awakening through Jewish spirituality in synagogues throughout the California Bay Area, and now in Tucson, Arizona.