Sekishu
(name for the ko
n, ‘what is the sound of one hand clapping?’):
Sekis
Soen
(Jap., for Shih-shuang Ch’uyuan)
Self-Realization Fellowship
.
Founded by the Indian
guru Paramhansa Yogananda
(1893–1953) in Boston, Mass., in 1920. Yogananda taught specific yoga techniques to develop soul awareness and a form of meditation which heightens consciousness to the point where it becomes one with that of the guru.
Seli
ot
.
Penitential prayers seeking forgiveness
(Heb.,
seli
ah
), forming in effect an additional Jewish prayer-service for fast days and the penitential season. The
Sephardim
usually recite seli
ot for forty days from Rosh
odesh Elul (see
NEW YEAR
) to
Yom Kippur
, while the
Ashkenazim
begin on the Sunday before
Rosh
ha-Shanah. Seli
ot are also recited on all official fast days.