This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared: The Days of Awe as a Journey of Transformation

there is, in fact, a transcendent consciousness out there watching us with unbearable compassion as we blunder through the world. Moreover, we have to become aware of the precise nature of our blunders.

But it is no secret to those who pray regularly and with conviction that one of the deepest potentials of prayer is that it can be a way we come to know ourselves.

The emptiness once confined to the center of the Temple now characterizes it completely.

But what we are usually not aware of is how much we feel other people’s pain and how much energy we waste trying to defend ourselves against it.

When we lose touch with this sense of nefesh, of space, of emptiness, we feel overwhelmed, overstressed, overburdened.

And having so forgiven himself, why not try to inhabit these feelings as deeply as he could, why not unleash them and give them free rein?

How many people am I angry at? How many people do I harbor ungenerous feelings toward, simply because I am privy to their suffering and frightened by it, and so need to keep it at bay with anger and criticism?

the ability to sit calmly is one of the most important prerequisites of clear-headedness.

But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, so you can do it.