I'm going on a three-week trip to Japan next week. When I was there last time in October 2017, I was a rather newly married man who was still addicted to alcohol and had his thought, speech and action totally controlled by his ego(ic mind).
Since then I've experienced divorce, which has turned out to be a blessing in disguise not because I wanted it but because it has taught me so many important lessons of life, including the meta-lesson that suffering can be (or even is) the best teacher of life.
This blessing in disguise has brought me closer to the teachings of Chabad Hasidism through a series of totally unexpected encounters, taking a course in Jewish psychology based on these (and other Hasidic) teachings this academic year.
Two of the messages of the principal of the school where I took this course in Jerusalem are the fourth revolution in the Torah study - spreading certain parts of the teachings of Hasidism to non-Jews - and transforming darkness (עצבות) to light (שמחה) through these teachings.
A "secret mission" I've decided to impose upon myself during this visit of mine to Japan with a totally new perspective is to check how I can help those people in Japan who are suffering from inner darkness through my new practice of Jewish life coaching that is based on some of the teachings of the Book of Tanya - a Chabad classic by its founder Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi.
Yes, I have to confess that I've become a kind of Tanya junkie after spending six months studying its first part - Book of Inbetweeners - by myself and through one amazing online course spanning 200 hours in total.