Introduction (P. 19-20)

We were walking along the road, he and I. After walking in silence, we sat at the edge of the forest. He, still absorbed in himself, began to speak:

“Any presence of the unknown and the infinite in a person’s life changes the reality of their lives. From our life experiences, we know the power of consciousness. If I am awake and aware of something in my life, it affects me: my brain and my nervous system, my respiratory system and muscle tension, my sensations, and my emotions. A person is a psychophysical being. Their awareness and psychical processes influence all their bodily systems, both internal and external. In addition, even the power of imagination affects their psychic state and all the systems within their body. When a person imagines realities, different systems in their body respond in the same way they would if the imagination were occurring in reality.

What would happen if a person integrates the hidden, sublime, and miraculous space into their awareness?

What would happen if the sense of the concealed and the sublime—which one feels in extraordinary moments of life, such as when standing before a special landscape or masterpiece, or during life moments related to love and birth—is present in one’s consciousness constantly?

What would happen if a person allows this experience to be present and open the doorways of their consciousness?

How will this state of consciousness affect their perception of the world?

How will all of this influence their life on all its levels?

How will the expressions of their life in all their richness – their speech, eating, sexuality, work, and their relationship with others and creation – change?

Will a broader perception allow for additional connections to form within it, and will different functions of our capabilities as humans—such as creative power, psychic power, the power of intention, and the power of will—become activated and gain broader meaning, power, and relevance? Might there be spiritual states that are not just the result of choice or decision but states that manifest and come to life solely within the context and interaction that awakens them—out of these expanded states of consciousness?

For example, the sense of distance always exists within my body but only manifests when I reach out to grasp a cup, and thus my hand does not ‘miss’ it; my body knows the exact muscle tone only at the moment that my hand grasps the cup. Similarly, bodily strengths—strengths I did not know about before—begin to act and become ready for action only in times of danger. Are there natural inner strengths (such as hope, confidence, and faith) that, like these physical powers, become known only in expanded states of consciousness? Do they perhaps exist only when my consciousness expands and includes the unknown and the sublime in its perception?

Perhaps these powers are not related to ‘faith’ in the sense of belief—or in the sense of a good trait or a decision related to education and the like—but rather a living power connected to ‘faith’. Is it possible that this power functions only in the context of an expanded, hidden consciousness that manifests when a person opens themselves to the realm of their essence, which is beyond the realms in which language is born and functions as a world creator, as it appears to us? Could it be that a person who does not open themselves up to an expanded consciousness will not understand what faith is for someone who has integrated the unknown into their consciousness? Could it be that even a believer who is not open to this unique expanded consciousness will not understand what is being discussed and will confuse faith with beliefs or theology? Could it be that a believer whose consciousness is open to the concealed and the sublime will never be able to express their faith in a language built on everyday consciousness?

And perhaps, just as desire is aroused by the object of the desire, and just as the sense of taste or smell functions when a person eats something or smells something, so these psychic powers function only in expanded states—as a natural power in the human soul?

What is the act that the Kabbalists call ‘for the sake of unifying the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shechinah through the hidden and concealed One’? How can one open up to this ‘concealed and sublime’ or integrate it in our consciousness, given that it is ‘hidden and concealed’? How does this opening up not only ‘change consciousness’ but also ‘change life’ and even more so ‘change the world’?”

This is how our conversation began after we decided to set out on our journey. He was a wondrous person who lived in the world like a walking prayer. From our many conversations, I understood that his choice to be a prayer-person was for him a choice for a life that is attentive and open, at all times, to the ‘beyond’: a life open to the edges of existence and to what is implicit in everything; a life sensitive to the wonder of existence expressed by the words “there is no place empty of Him’; a life that, for him, transformed the world from  ‘this’ world into a world of ‘revelation’ that is constantly revealing itself.

In one of our conversations, he said:

“To be a prayer-person means to be a person who listens with humility and self-nullification, with equanimity and lack of self-interest, to the unknown. In religious language, this action is called ‘prayer for its own sake,’ an intention free of any personal interest, an intention directed towards the unknown, one that listens to the request that seeks to be created, and to the future that seeks to appear.

A prayer-person is a person who is prepared to feel, to know and to direct their attention towards what is revealed from within the Infinite; this is a person who is prepared to create and permutate new letters and words, out of that which is being revealed. It is then that it becomes possible for the powers of doing to coalesce out of the world’s intricacy, and to create oneself as a temple for the flow.