Today I ran across a short documentary video that does a great job of introducing the concept of Hitbodedut to a wider audience:
According to Rebbe Nachman:
“Hitbodedut is the greatest thing - above all else. That is to establish at least one hour or more to be alone in some room, or in the field, and to voice one’s dialogue between himself and his Owner. Reasoning and arguing with graceful words of appeasement and conciliation, requesting and beseeching before Him who is Blessed to bring one close to His service in truth. And this prayer and supplication should be in the language one speaks naturally.”
-Likutei Moharan II, 25
Yeshua, himself, encouraged the practice of spending time alone in prayer:
"But you, when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. For your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
-Matthew 6:6
I found the video compelling and I'm sure Hitbodedut would be a worthwhile way for anyone to pray, even if you're not Jewish. If you'll forgive the conceit, I embedded the video in my recent blog on prayer (the topic was going around certain circles in the blogosphere yesterday).
The one thing that comes up for me though, is that it's not always easy, even for people like me who live in a small city, to get out into the countryside to pray. Even going into a walk-in closet for an hour can be a challenge when you live with your family. I envy the men in this video having the flexibility to be able to do so.
Thanks.
unfortunately, I sometimes get in a spiteful or vengeful mood.
I worry that if I were to say what was in my heart, I would, at some point, lose control of my thoughts and would pray for something bad to happen to someone.U