Being Love in a Minefield
Godliness is not an experience or a custom.
Godliness means being love inside a world where, from the outset and by intentional design
(of the Creator), we are in a minefield.
The “mine” is a human being, one or another,
who is not aware of their purpose,
who does not awaken from their slumber,
and clings to external actions, beliefs, and customs.
People often ask me,
“So what, should we not do anything? Not practice?”
I say that every one of us must practice and must do.
But what’s the condition?
It must become a living and life-giving law and practice.
It must become bone of your bone,
not an external ritual.
The Holy One, Blessed be He, is not “there” while I am “here.”
It is not separate.
It is the life-giving force.
When people talk about Him,
and do what is written
without it being alive within them,
that is not a human being.
That is the abuse of human beings.
And there is no torment greater than this: that you have not awakened.
Godliness is the essence of being.
It is the life-force itself.
Our world is intentionally designed as a “minefield,”
that is, a reality full of trials,
of people who are still asleep,
who cling to external forms and are not connected to their purpose.
One who remains only on the level of external actions
is not truly living.
It is like a figure without a soul.
Baal HaSulam wrote that “the essence of the sin is to be satisfied with externality.”
When religion becomes a cold ritual, it abuses a person,
because it leaves them alienated from the Godliness within them.
A commandment must become “bone of your bone”—
not an action you do from the outside, but an expression of who you truly are.
The greatest torment is not the fast and not the custom,
but life itself when you are not awakened,
when you walk in the world without experiencing the Godliness within you.
Reflect:
Where do you perform spiritual actions as an external ritual, without it being a “living and life-giving” expression of your very essence?
How do you navigate the “minefield”—the interactions with people who are not yet awake to their purpose? Can you choose to be love in those moments?
What does the “torment of not being awakened” feel like to you? What is one step you can take today to move toward awakening?
The conversation continues below.