Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 43
“But inner freedom is spiritual ecstasy, the state of being beyond all interests and selfishness. Inner freedom is a miracle of the soul.” (Man is Not Alone pg.142)
In the next few days we will learn Rabbi Heschel’s teachings on how to achieve this miracle and for today, as we head into the Sabbath for all of the Abrahamic Faiths, I want to delve into these words. So many people are trying to achieve this spiritual ecstasy through artificial means and, while achieving it for a moment or longer, it is not an inner shift usually. Ayahuasca, peyote, dope, monastic prayer and living, crystals, etc may and do get people to a spiritual ecstasy and, sometimes keep them there with repeated treatments, and the inner freedom Rabbi Heschel is teaching us about is the inner freedom that comes from growing our soul organically, not trying to achieve spiritual ecstasy through artificial means rather through connection to the Ineffable One and to one another. The artificial means that people use to achieve this spiritual ecstasy do work and may even propel people to seek inner freedom more, yet my concern is by artificial means alone, there is no regular practice for achieving inner freedom more often, growing our inner freedom and, of course, becoming reliant on the artificial to get us to the real.
Ecstatic moments are just that, moments! Spiritual ecstasy is not going to be a once and for all lifetime ride, rather, as I am immersing myself in these words and teachings, it is a place we can and will visit and then leave. It is not an experience of fairy dust and moonbeams, it is not an experience of escape and hiding, it is an experience of deep connection to the Ineffable One, to another human being and to all of humanity as well as connected to eternity I believe. The error that many of us make is that we want to stay here, we want to dwell so close to the Ineffable One so we try and imitate Aaron’s two sons, Nadav and Avihu, who burned themselves up by trying to getting too close to God, through meditative and/or artificial (distilled spirits) means. Inner freedom is achieved in moments, not hours, days, weeks, etc and these moments grow into hours, weeks, years for some people and for others of us we keep getting there more often during a day, week, month and year until we are in a regular practice/routine of taking the actions to achieve this inner freedom and spiritual ecstasy.
“The state of being beyond all interests and selfishness” is not a state most of us can sustain for long periods of time, much less forever. As I think back, my grandfathers achieved and lived in this state most of their lives. Neither one cared much about material things, they were always ready and willing to help another human being, they did not talk bad about another person and would not let anyone in their midst berate someone else, and they came from Eastern Europe, experienced the progroms, came over here in steerage, without much if any resources and made a life for themselves and their families. We have many other examples, Nathan Hale who regretted that he “only had one life to give” before he was hung, Mother Theresa, Rev King, Rabbi Heschel, Bobby Kennedy, Daniel Webster, All the people who fought at the Alamo, all of the men and women who have fought to keep our democracy alive, etc. Yet even most of them had moments of selfishness and interests- again not as a bad thing, rather as a human thing. We are all capable of attaining these moments of spiritual ecstasy, however and this is the place where self-deception and mendacity rear their ugly heads.
We are experiencing a moral and spiritual depression right now in the world, even though there are so many seekers of spirituality, so many people waving the flag of morality as rallying cries, we are in a moral and spiritual depression. Many of the flag wavers and gurus of spirituality and morality are charlatans! They are people who want, need, and depend on power and control to exist. They are people who prey upon the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of another(s) in order to gain, keep and extend their power. These are not people who are in “the state beyond all interests and selfishness”, they are deeply committed to their interests and selfish ways. Rather than care for another human beings needs and interests, they are constantly calculating how to get another person to do their bidding so they can stay blameless, shocked, give alternative facts, bastardize the principles they so eloquently espouse. This is true of people all along the continuum of faith, morality, etc. We, the people, have to stand up against the selfishness inside of us, we have to let go of the self-interests that we constantly are thinking about and engage in the interests of the Ineffable One, the interests of another human being and serve them, which in turn serves us because we reach the state of spiritual ecstasy.
In recovery, we know that our recovery is based on our spiritual condition each day. We are very aware and engaged in getting out of ourselves to serve the Ineffable One. We take stock of ourselves each day to catch the selfishness and disinterest in another quickly and turn our moral and spiritual compass back to due north.
I have achieved moments of spiritual ecstasy often and realize that the state of “beyond all interests…” is not always a happy state. My soul cries for the needs and treatment of another(s) both by me, which I do T’Shuvah for and by another(s) and by society. Each day, I am blessed to experience more inner freedom for longer periods and I am grateful to everyone who helps me get out of me! God Bless and stay safe, Rabbi Mark