soulcruzerRabbi Yehuda HaLevi: "When I went out to meet You, I found You coming toward me."
A lot of spiritual traditions imagine the path as an ascent. You climb. You earn. You do the work and maybe, if you're worthy enough, the divine meets you at the summit.
HaLevi is offering something different. He's saying the moment you move toward the encounter, the encounter is already moving toward you. What you long for is longing for you.
This doesn't mean you sit and wait. You still have to go out and climb the mountain. But the distance you thought you had to climb was never the full distance.
Striving turns into recognition when you realise the thing you're searching for is already searching for you.
The real work isn't to become worthy. The real work is to stop pretending you aren't.