2024-07-05

Self-Seclusion on Sabbaths

A few years ago when I still lived in Jerusalem I started a new custom of secluding myself in nature on the last hour of Sabbath, let's say, between April and September, when the day is still long. I was inspired directly by a small (but fascinating!) book entitled Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle and indirectly the the custom התבודדות of Breslov Chassidus.

All I do is to walk around and stay in nature, away from the incessant chatters of fellow humans, listen to its stillness, transform myself from a human doing to a human being, and feel the oneness of (or feel united with) the Universe. Once I'm transformed into a human being, I ideally stop talking to myself inside my egoic mind, so stop labeling anything around me. There simply exist no names, and nothing in the world is divided by linguistic labels.

This one hour is a culmination of the experience of Sabbath, or an "island in time", for me, and signals the return to the mundane state of a human doing. During this 25-hour period on this "island" I feel as if I were tapping into the wisdom of the Universe. I receive a flood of insights flowing into my mind without knowing why I know, and this flow suddenly stops once the Sabbath comes to an end.


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