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in him like fire, and control him. Even if he succeeds in overcoming people, even from people who recognize the importance of intent.
them, he remains in great danger, because one day the genie will They know that everything, including inner change, depends upon
come out of the bottle. That being the case, why don’t people it, but they do not know which intention is being spoken of. The
seek a fundamental solution? Why do they persist in gambling intention that has the power to change a person internally is that
dangerously with their lives? You might be a Torah scholar, living which that causes him to set aside time for prayer in which he
a spiritual life, so that outwardly you appear to be far from coarse focuses upon a single goal until he attains it. We must set aside time
and physical cravings. But in the desert the children of Israel lived to want.
lives no less spiritual than yours. Do not think that there are no
more cravings and no more dangers. There are cravings—it is just The Secret of Life
that they are sleeping lightly. If you look within yourself, you will
see that they are still in their full force and might. Don’t you have In The Wisdom of Rabbi Nachman (Sichot Haran 51), Rabbi
the desire to gaze at forbidden sights? Don’t you gain pleasure Nachman of Breslov states that “the principal factor is the will,”
from the many instances that you look around? Doesn’t superficial and he explains: “Although everyone desires and wants to serve
attractiveness—“false is grace and vain is beauty” (Proverbs 31:30)— Him, not all intentions are equal. There are many gradations of
still attract you? If so, know that you are in great danger, and you intent. Even in one person, at every new moment there are great
must do the work of the will. fluctuations in his levels of intent.” That is to say, the following

question is implied: if you say that the principal factor is intent,
Make a personal accounting. Examine yourself until you know
what your true situation is. And then … get to work! You must why are there people who do not succeed and achieve? Certainly,
they also have intent. The answer is: yes, everyone has intent, but
arise to do the work of the will. Spend half an hour each day the secret of life depends upon the nature of that intent: upon
entreating the Creator of the universe to eradicate your negative
desires, to entirely extirpate all of your attraction to sensuality in all its amount, strength and firmness. As Rabbi Nachman says: “The
principal factor is the will. A person’s will to come close to Hashem,
of its forms. If you do not do this, the years will pass by and you may He be blessed, must always be strong and firm” (ibid.). Which
will not change. And if one day you find yourself in situations that type of intent is of principal importance? That which is strong, firm,
you never dreamed that you might come to, that is only because and consistently unwavering.
you never worked on yourself fundamentally. There are only two
possible paths: when a person works, he changes; and when a And the principal element upon which everything depends is that
person does not work, he does not change. a person must set aside time to focus on his intent without allowing
his mind to be distracted—because if a person does not connect
If every member of the generation of the desert would have done
the work of the will, focusing on emerging from sensual lust by himself to his intent and connect his intent to him, it will be a mere
momentary thought that will fly up into the air. If a person does
praying half an hour each day for 40 years, he would have nullified not recognize the importance of planting his will within himself
and entirely disconnected himself from sensual lust, and the
enticements of the daughters of Midian would not have constituted properly, it will not be able to strike roots in his heart and change
him. That can only occur when a person sets aside time to focus his
any kind of a test for him whatsoever. Even if such a person were not intention. Only such consistency and stubbornness in proceeding
entirely cleansed from his lusts, because he had not yet managed to upon this path express a strong intent, and they themselves
eradicate them, he would nevertheless not have stumbled, because strengthen a person’s intent. A person who does this every day is
“in the way that a person wishes to go, he is led.” And since this
person had stood in prayer for half an hour every day and sincerely certainly bolstered with a forceful and firm will, and eventually he
will be able to transform his intent to deed, literally and actually.