Cody Bahir

Cody Bahir is currently working toward obtaining his PhD in Philosophy and Religion specializing in the intellectual and spiritual traditions of China at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Prior to pursuing his doctorate he was faculty at the graduate and rabbinic programs of the American Jewish University and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion where he respectively obtained his BA in Classical Judaic Studies and MA in Jewish Studies, specializing in Medieval Kabbalah. His MA thesis was entitled Aina d’Satna I’la’ah: The Incarnate Wickedness of the Zoharic Evil Eye and its Transformation from Superstition to Cosmology.

Though as an academic he describes himself as a “phenomenological contextualist”; one whose methodology aims at understanding each tradition on its own terms and within its own context from the vantage point of a practitioner, he conducts quite a bit of comparative work. This methodology is no doubt linked to his own spiritual path. Born into and raised by an evangelical Christian family in rural Kentucky, he left home at the age of fourteen to adopt the lifestyle of an authentic Hasidic Jew. After spending four years of translating Hebrew and Aramaic texts into Yiddish, the latter being the only language he was allowed to speak, in such places as Brooklyn, NY and Zefat (Safed), Israel-the home of the Kabbalistic Renaissance and birthplace of Lurianic Kabbalah, he left the Hasidic lifestyle and began to pursue the academic study of philosophy and religion.

Cody Bahir’s core areas of interest currently include but are not limited to: Daoist monastic practices, Daoist influence on Tantric Buddhism, Comparative Jewish and Chinese mysticism, the notion of the demonic in the Zohar, Yi Jing (I-Ching) studies and the relationships between Western Esotericism, Jewish Kabbalah and Eastern traditions.

Additional to his faculty experience, he has also taught at a variety of settings including Synagogues, Adult Education programs as well as metaphysical and retreat centers.

Conference Papers:

“Zen’s Civil War over the Definability of Consciousness: Medieval Asian Roots of Contemporary Conceptions of Consciousness.” Biannual Conference of the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona. Tuscon Convention Center, Tuscon, AZ, 4/14/10

“Individualistic Spiritual Medicine: Yang Zhu’s Prescription for Zhuangzi’s Diagnosis.” 6^th International, Biannual Conference on Daoism. Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA, 6/5/10

“The Charitable Hedonism of Yang Zhu: Revisiting the Yang Zhu Chapter of the Liezi.” 44^th Annual Conference of Asian Studies on the Pacific Coast. Portland State University, Portland, OR, 6/19/10

“Sexual Metaphor and Universal Love in the Chinese Classic of Change (Yi Jing).” Annual Conference of the Society of Asian and Comparative Philosophy. Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacific Grove, CA, 6/19/10

“Yin Yang Theory and the Tree of Life: A Comparison of Kabbalistic and Chinese Scriptural Interpretation.” Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion. Atlanta, GA, TBD

Publications:

“Sinic and Semitic Esoterica: Exploring the Bridge between Daoism and Kabbalah” Points East: The Quarterly Journal of the Sino-Judaic Institute Vol. 25, #2, 2010.