The innermost room within the historical Israelites’ temple was known as the Holy of Holies — the sanctum sanctorum. It was right here, it was thought, that heaven intersected with earth. Solely the Excessive Priest was allowed via the curtain that marked off this sanctuary, and it was mentioned that when he left it, his face could be aglow.
The thinker Søren Kierkegaard believed that each particular person ought to have his personal sanctum sanctorum, an innermost sanctuary inside his thoughts/coronary heart/spirit that supplied haven to his “personal persona” and barred entry to all interlopers.
In practically each space of our lives, we dwell for, with, and by the dictates of others. We’re motivated by the gaze of a literal or imagined viewers. We behave to keep away from disgrace and win affirmation. We soak up opinions from each nook of the cultural panorama. We’re influenced by friends lengthy after adolescence.
There may be nothing essentially dangerous about this social setup, and it may be the supply of a lot good.
However there should be an space of the self the place the porousness of your persona ends. A dwelling place for these immovable convictions, sacred ideas, and inventive visions you want to maintain unsullied from all that’s silly, degrading, and profane.
There should be a spot within the soul that’s only for you and never based mostly on the frameworks of others, a sanctuary the place you beat a retreat whereas uttering your chosen incantations.
Get out of right here with the concept of turning people into manufacturers and lives into content material.
Get out of right here together with your cynical sneers.
Get out of right here together with your efforts to name evil good, and good evil.
There should be a spot throughout the innermost self the place you’ll be able to draw the curtain closed behind you and convene with one of many holiest issues on earth: unadulterated individuality.
