Faith as Longing: Nachman of Breslov
"The symbol of the heart of the world is a complicated one; it may be said at once to represent the shekinah, the true zaddik (who is the heart of his generation), and the soul of every individual who longs for God. No matter which of these levels of meaning is emphasized, however, the passage reveals the emotional content of faith as Nahman sees it. An overwhelming sense of wounded passion, expressed in undying yearnings for an intimacy that cannot come to be, lies at the core of his religious life. Here Nahman again reminds us of his Western contemporaries, the Romantic poets; love's desires overflow in him as in them, but the object of those longings will ever elude him.
In this vision of the heart of the world we see the emotional side of Nahman's penchant for paradoxical thinking. The path of simple faith seems so clear: if your heart yearns for God as does this heart for the spring, what keeps you from Him? The call of simple love-faith tells you to draw ever nearer to the beloved. But what to do when it is impossible to draw near?--impossible here because the slightest approach on the heart's part would cause the spring to disappear from view and bring the heart to death. It is distance itself that causes man to long for God, and the vision that sustains him is itself born of that longing. Were he to come closer, those longings might be lessened, and the vision of faith thus be destroyed. The core of religion is faith, faith is manifest in longings, and longings can exist only over a distance-- the greater the distance, in fact, the greater the longings. Thus while the heart's desire for nearness to God appears to reflect the simplest of emotions, it is in fact enmeshed in the greatest paradox."
-- Tormented Master, The Life and Spiritual Quest of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav by Arthur Green
Is yearning for the Divine just "limerence"? Neurosis? Just a need for attachment? To want only that which we may not possess? Compensation for a childhood devoid of love? But many whose experiences do not fall into any of these categories, still feel an emptiness, a yearning for "Something More". In fact, Richard Cory is a well-worn stereotype: the man who has it all turns out to have nothing at all, or at least, what he has is not enough for him to keep living. What is it that makes the restless heart, restless?
Unless we look upon a drive for "more" as a biologically encoded imperative for survival, there is no explanation for the yearning in humanity for non-material goods. Once a person has relative security, peace; doesn't need to fight for food or shelter; is loved, even fulfilled, what explains the drive, embedded in our hearts, for meaning?
I always thought that my deepest yearning was for being loved. I used to think God could replace for me the family love I never had, the spousal love I never had, the love of one's own child that I will never experience. But later, after a lot of healing and recovery, I came to reject any attempt to use God as compensation for personal traumas or deprivation. I have come to want to approach God for His own sake, totally apart from any boon or blessing or compensation He could provide me. I will not use God as my personal "slot- machine" of the universe...which many modern believers do.
It occurs to me that the universal longing of humanity for Meaning, for Beauty, for the Divine, is proof that those things exist. Otherwise, as merely animals existing on only a slightly more advanced plane than other animals, (and in many respects, dwelling on a plane lower than that of other animals-- if the human animal tortures another non-human animal, which is lower?), what reason would we have to desire anything apart from our physical, emotional, and intellectual needs? I guess what I am trying to say is, it is our very need for God, for the Divine, for a Higher Love and Beauty and Purpose that proves the existence of God.
Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav describes in his Tales (specifically, in this allegory of the Spring and the Heart of the World), the essential condition of man: apart from Spirit, the Spirit which yeans for God, which is Nachman's idea of faith-- there is no meaning in this life.
"There is a mountain, and on that mountain there stands a rock. A spring gushes forth from that rock.
Now everything has a heart, and the world as a whole has a heart. The heart of the world is a complete form, with face, hands, and feet. But even the toenail on that heart of the world is more heart-like than any other heart.
The mountain and the spring stand at one end of the world, and the heart is at the other. The heart stands facing the spring, yearning and longing to draw near to it.
It is filled with a wild yearning, and constantly cries out in its longing to approach the spring. The spring, too, longs for the heart.
The heart suffers from two weaknesses: the sun pursues it terribly and burns it because it wants to approach the spring, and its second weakness is that of longing and constant outcry to draw near to the spring. The heart ever stands facing the spring, and cries out in pain because of its great yearning.
When the heart needs to rest a bit, or to catch its breath, a great bird comes over it, and spreads forth its wings to shield the heart from the sun. But even at its times of rest, the heart looks out toward the spring in longing.
Now if the heart is filled with so great a desire to draw near to the spring, why does it not simply do so? But as soon as it begins to move toward the mountain, the mountaintop where the spring stands disappears from view. And the life of the heart flows from the spring; if it were to allow the spring to vanish from its sight, it would die.
If that heart were to die, God forbid, the entire world would be destroyed. The heart is the life of all things; how could the world exist without a heart? For this reason the heart can never approach the spring, but ever stands opposite it and looks at it in longing."
Cited in Tormented Master: The Life and Spiritual Quest of Nahman of Bratslav
by Arthur Green
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