Similarly, if a person recognizes that his shemiras einayim is not the way it should be, he should feel that he is in a calamitous situation. Not one Shemoneh Esrei should pass without him davening for this. He thinks about it, he begs the Ribbono shel Olam for it. The davening for ruchniyus—and not only the davening itself, but the preoccupation with it—will prevent so many tzaros from afflicting a person, because there is no need to wake him up; he has already awakened himself. He recognizes constantly that he is need of Heavenly assistance, and he truly wants to elevate himself. He is humble before HaKadosh Baruch Hu because knows that he hasn’t yet elevated himself.
Living Our Spiritual Life
In this way, a person can live with teshuvah. He thinks about his ruchniyus. He speaks about it... he strengthens himself in it. Indeed, chizuk is an extremely important aspect of teshuvah. The tzaddikim have taught us that a person must never become downcast as a result of going off course—but at the same time, one must be cognizant of his situation, to be tuned into his spiritual matzav.
When a person lives with spiritual cognizance—we’re not suggesting he should forget entirely about his material troubles, but for large parts of the day—when he davens Shemoneh Esrei with deveikus, when he davens the berachah of תפילה, שומע when he goes to the kever of a tzaddik... what does he think about? For what does he pour out his heart?
We tell a person: If you will daven for your bigger problems, i.e., your spiritual troubles, not only will you feel your gashmiyus problems less... they will also vanish—because their sole purpose was to wake you up, and this was accomplished. Be smart, and live this way. This is how a Jewish life is supposed to look; in all situations, everything surrounds his spiritual state.
