From My Inner Chambers
From
Within Myself
From within myself, from my wellsprings, I must always take the hidden treasures.
I am always connected to a holy suffering that results from my search for supernal perfection.
That search is never fulfilled. Indeed, it has no need to be fulfilled.
This is the nature of such ever-lasting yearning: its foundation is divine thirst. Nothing in the world can slake that thirst except that which it seeks: the on-going revelation and ever-growing experience of the thirst itself.
That itself is transformed into the source of all pleasure, into the platform for all spiritual delights, into the radiance of the Almighty.
I Must Speak of Myself
I must speak of myself a great deal.
Matters of my essential being must become extremely clear to me.
When I understand myself, I will understand everything—the world and life—until my understanding will reach the Source of life.
I Constantly Seek
I constantly seek that which is in the midst of my soul.
Outer servitude distracts my mind from that inner search, bringing me to seek in vain at the far-flung corners of the earth for that which has not been found in the depths of my spirit.
How Can I Speak to Others?
How can I have anything to say to others if I say nothing to my own spirit?
How can I express an opinion about the spiritual and physical world without first seeking a key to the treasures gathered within me?
“Gates, swing open,” I shall say to the chambers of my spirit, to my heart and to my “kidneys,” my source of counsel.
In The Depths Of The Spirit Itself
My spirit yearns to burrow into its inner chambers.
I struggle to draw matters forth from the light of the Torah and from the light of the world.
But I find that all the roots of these pure objects that I seek must be found in the depths of my own spirit, whose light is taken from the light of the Torah and from the radiance of the world.
If I return from the midst of Torah and from the midst of the world to my spirit, I increase my life-force when I then re-enter the chambers of the Torah and the chambers of the treasuries of the world.
And so every bright revelation is divided into three: that of the spirit, that of the Torah and that of the world.
“Speak, my tongue, your words, for all of [God’s] commandments are righteousness.”
My Inner Gaze
I have no need to reject my inner demand to gaze at everything from the essence of my spirit.
At the same time, I am summoned to strengthen myself and broaden my perspectives, expressed in spirit and in deed, in accordance with the understanding that comes from outside myself: from friendship, mingling with others, reading books and other life experiences.
And afterwards, everything returns so as to be mixed into my very spirit, and I return to my inner gaze.
The Speech Of Creation
I have subjugated myself to teachings, to deeds, to relationships, to a variety of different obligations—and as a result, no thought of mine is finished and mature.
Supernal illuminations fall away like blossoms that drop after having appeared, before their time to ripen has arrived, because of a storm wind.
And so the time has come to break the chains that my own hands placed upon all the limbs of my soul, upon all the parts of my spirit. I have no obligation to focus on obstacles outside myself. Salvation is firmly placed within me, within my heart.
The wellspring of tranquility pours forth and flows unceasingly. The kindness of Hashem fills the world.
All that I have to do is to attend to that autonomous awareness, to listen to the secret of the speech of creation in its inner chambers.
I will hear, and my spirit will live.
The Crucial Point of the Inner Quest
Is it possible that I will not find what I seek, at the time that my search wells from the depths of truth?
And what do I seek if not myself, my true essence—not my physical or spiritual garments, all of which are acquisitions, which come and serve the essence? If my essence, my essential being, is beyond me, how will any of these devices help?
That is the crucial point of the inner quest, which requires true might so that a person may be strong as he engages in it.
And that constant endeavor to find my essence is also at the root of finding the existence of the entire Jewish people and of humanity in its broad sense, and of finding all existence in its inner sense and in its breadth.
And that is the gate of Hashem to finding the eternally sought: the God of the universe, the Source of all quests, for Whom every spirit yearns, and without Whom there is nothing to seek.
Behold, that search is the purest and most wholehearted quality. It harasses the spirit and seizes all inner spiritual proclivities, making them unable to find their path as long as the fundamental position of what one is essentially seeking is not based upon the spiritual foundation that incorporates all the movements of life.
To this end comes the entire wealth of Torah learning, all intelligent activity, and all spiritual awakening in its multitudinous movements in life—in a human being and in the world.
“Fortunate are all those who wait for Him.”
From within myself, from my wellsprings, I must always take the hidden treasures.
I am always connected to a holy suffering that results from my search for supernal perfection.
That search is never fulfilled. Indeed, it has no need to be fulfilled.
This is the nature of such ever-lasting yearning: its foundation is divine thirst. Nothing in the world can slake that thirst except that which it seeks: the on-going revelation and ever-growing experience of the thirst itself.
That itself is transformed into the source of all pleasure, into the platform for all spiritual delights, into the radiance of the Almighty.
I Must Speak of Myself
I must speak of myself a great deal.
Matters of my essential being must become extremely clear to me.
When I understand myself, I will understand everything—the world and life—until my understanding will reach the Source of life.
I Constantly Seek
I constantly seek that which is in the midst of my soul.
Outer servitude distracts my mind from that inner search, bringing me to seek in vain at the far-flung corners of the earth for that which has not been found in the depths of my spirit.
How Can I Speak to Others?
How can I have anything to say to others if I say nothing to my own spirit?
How can I express an opinion about the spiritual and physical world without first seeking a key to the treasures gathered within me?
“Gates, swing open,” I shall say to the chambers of my spirit, to my heart and to my “kidneys,” my source of counsel.
In The Depths Of The Spirit Itself
My spirit yearns to burrow into its inner chambers.
I struggle to draw matters forth from the light of the Torah and from the light of the world.
But I find that all the roots of these pure objects that I seek must be found in the depths of my own spirit, whose light is taken from the light of the Torah and from the radiance of the world.
If I return from the midst of Torah and from the midst of the world to my spirit, I increase my life-force when I then re-enter the chambers of the Torah and the chambers of the treasuries of the world.
And so every bright revelation is divided into three: that of the spirit, that of the Torah and that of the world.
“Speak, my tongue, your words, for all of [God’s] commandments are righteousness.”
My Inner Gaze
I have no need to reject my inner demand to gaze at everything from the essence of my spirit.
At the same time, I am summoned to strengthen myself and broaden my perspectives, expressed in spirit and in deed, in accordance with the understanding that comes from outside myself: from friendship, mingling with others, reading books and other life experiences.
And afterwards, everything returns so as to be mixed into my very spirit, and I return to my inner gaze.
The Speech Of Creation
I have subjugated myself to teachings, to deeds, to relationships, to a variety of different obligations—and as a result, no thought of mine is finished and mature.
Supernal illuminations fall away like blossoms that drop after having appeared, before their time to ripen has arrived, because of a storm wind.
And so the time has come to break the chains that my own hands placed upon all the limbs of my soul, upon all the parts of my spirit. I have no obligation to focus on obstacles outside myself. Salvation is firmly placed within me, within my heart.
The wellspring of tranquility pours forth and flows unceasingly. The kindness of Hashem fills the world.
All that I have to do is to attend to that autonomous awareness, to listen to the secret of the speech of creation in its inner chambers.
I will hear, and my spirit will live.
The Crucial Point of the Inner Quest
Is it possible that I will not find what I seek, at the time that my search wells from the depths of truth?
And what do I seek if not myself, my true essence—not my physical or spiritual garments, all of which are acquisitions, which come and serve the essence? If my essence, my essential being, is beyond me, how will any of these devices help?
That is the crucial point of the inner quest, which requires true might so that a person may be strong as he engages in it.
And that constant endeavor to find my essence is also at the root of finding the existence of the entire Jewish people and of humanity in its broad sense, and of finding all existence in its inner sense and in its breadth.
And that is the gate of Hashem to finding the eternally sought: the God of the universe, the Source of all quests, for Whom every spirit yearns, and without Whom there is nothing to seek.
Behold, that search is the purest and most wholehearted quality. It harasses the spirit and seizes all inner spiritual proclivities, making them unable to find their path as long as the fundamental position of what one is essentially seeking is not based upon the spiritual foundation that incorporates all the movements of life.
To this end comes the entire wealth of Torah learning, all intelligent activity, and all spiritual awakening in its multitudinous movements in life—in a human being and in the world.
“Fortunate are all those who wait for Him.”