Rabbi Nachman's Advice: Repentance
1) There are three aspects to repentance: seeing with the eyes, hearing with the ears and understanding in the heart (cf. Isaiah 6:10). Repentance involves all of them. One must use one's eyes to look towards the ultimate goal and purpose of this world, and concentrate on it with all one's heart. He must set himself to travel there and nowhere else. And he must use his ears to listen carefully to everything that our holy Rabbis said. Then he will be able to return to God (7).
2) The essence of teshuva, repentance, is achieved through humility. One has to make oneself into nothing -- like a wasteland which people trample over. He must pay no attention whatsoever to opposition or to the contempt with which people may treat him. He should train himself to be silent and to be able to hear himself insulted without replying. One such as this is worthy of the name 'wise' and he will attain perfect repentance -- the 'Crown,' which is the summit of the Sefirot. This is the way to true and enduring glory, the glory of God (6).
3) When a person wants to return to God he must become an expert in the halachah, the law (halachah literally means 'going'). Two kinds of skill are needed: in the 'running' and the 'returning' (cf. Ezekiel 1:14). These two expressions correspond to the rising and falling which King David speaks of in the Psalms: 'If I ascend to Heaven, You are there, and if I make hell my bed, behold there You are (Psalms 139:8). This means that a person who wants to return to God must gird his loins and keep firmly to the pathway of God regardless of whether he makes progress ('if I ascend to Heaven') or suffers reverses ('if I make hell my bed'). If he makes progress and reaches a particular level of spirituality -- be it high or not so high -- he should still not stop here and content himself with his achievement so far. In his case the skill he needs is to know and believe that he must still advance further. This is the skill of the 'running.' On the other hand, even if he falls to a lower level -- and even if he falls into the lowest pit of Hell, God forbid -- he must still not despair in any way, regardless of his condition. He should remain firm and search for God, pleading with Him and begging Him to help in whatever way he can. Even in the lowest pit of hell God is present, and even from there it is possible to be attached to Him. As King David said: 'If I make hell my bed, behold, there You are.' The skill he needs now is in the 'returning.' The only way to achieve true repentance is with these two skills. Indeed, it takes extraordinary skill to understand that it is necessary to struggle all the time in order to serve God. One has to aim constantly for a higher level while at the same time never allowing oneself to fall in any way or become despondent and discouraged. Someone who acquires these skills will be able to walk the path of true repentance, and God's right hand will be open wide to receive his repentance. He will attain to the glory of God, and Man will be placed upon the throne. Happy is he (ibid. 4).
