Rabbi Isaac of Acco, a thirteenth-and fourteenth-century Kabbalist who lived in Palestine, once told a parable about a rather crude man who, through the experience of unrequited love and longing, became a wise sage and healer. According to the tale, the man was smitten by the beauty of a princess who passed him by in the street one day. In his crude way he said to her something to the effect of "would that I could have my way with you." The princess responded, "That will only happen in the graveyard," implying that his vile fantasy would never come true in her lifetime. But the man did not understand that the princess was brushing him off, and instead went to the graveyard and waited for her, thinking she would come that night. When she failed to appear, he simply became more steadfast in his longing and desire, and he continued to await her eventual visit to the graveyard. After many days and nights in this state of single-minded longing, coupled with his continual encounter the death and impermanence in the graveyard, the man saw through the transitory and limited aspect of his sexual longing and eventually was transformed. As he buried his heart's desire, his longing shifted instead to the source of all desire and all love, the Beloved One.

Estelle Frankel, Sacred Therapy