It’s been said; the purpose of suffering, is the burning of
ego. When ego is burned away, true awareness, real consciousness, begins to
seep in.
The Israelite spies in the wilderness spoke badly of the
land of Israel, and where afraid to confront its inhabitants. G-d tells them
they would spend the next 40 years in the wilderness, one year, for everyday
spent touring the land. Since they proclaimed not to have trust in G-d, and
desired to stay back, “in the path a person truly wants to go, G-d leads him
there.”
As soon as they heard this terrible decree, they insisted to
proceed immediately towards the land, but G-d told them He would not be with them.
What all of a sudden changed their minds, to see a possibility in conquering
the land?
Chassidus, an explanation of mysticism, explains the
following.
There are many types and degrees of insensitivity, coldness,
dullness, and callousness towards spirituality, and the deeper meaning and
purpose of life and existence.
A person may sometimes understand in their mind a spiritual
concept but his heart may be dull and closed to the feelings and emotions one
would expect from those intellectual realizations and conclusions. The ideas
are just not resonating and or making any impressions on the heart. It just
doesn’t “impress” him/her.
This person has a good head otherwise, and gets excited when
physical and materialistic topics are considered and discussed. It’s just that
when it comes to the more refined and ethereal ideas, soul, G-d, eternal
existence, you might as well be talking to the wall. They just bounce right off
or roll right over.
When the person however is crushed under some calamity, a
tragedy or misfortune G-d forbid, the hearts will open and sprout with the
faith it always had inside itself. All
of a sudden, when G-d frightened and startled their world, they don’t feel the
fake sense of an unrealistic confidence, they are humbled from their inflated
sense of self. Suddenly, a bigger force
is considered as part of the picture, G-d.
There is dullness of the brain. People who will understand
and appreciate technology and tasty eating, but when it comes to G-dly talk, it
floats right over them.
Dullness of the heart.
They understand and are aware of the existence of a universal unseen
G-dly wisdom behind this vast and beautiful universe. They may even intellectually enjoy speaking
and thinking these concepts, however the heart is, as if it is ill. While the
brain enjoys thinking, the heart refuses to awaken and become inspired and
excited. The door to the heart is closed shut.
Another level, is the huge gap between the brain and the
heart, with life itself. The mind and the heart are not able to influence the
daily conduct and habits of the person.
Isaiah 6:10 tells us the main reason for these spiritual
maladies. Everything starts from the misplaced emphasis a person has for
personal and selfish self-centered pleasures.
It starts with permissible desires and then slips into the forbidden
territory of following ones animalistic pleasures.
When a person allows himself to follow the whims and lead of
his desires and becomes a servant and slave to them, his soul becomes blunt and
sealed to refined spiritual and holy concepts.
Only by changing the self-serving ego which sometimes will
happen because of external reasons a person will become sensitive to see and
feel the more refined aspects of life and existence. When he/she is exposed to
the more self-effacing aspects of their soul, sometimes to the point of a
broken heart and “bitterness of the soul”, this will cleanse the corpulence of
the self-indulgent pleasures and open the mind and heart to receive some G-dly
light within a person’s life.
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