The world needs more Solitude!
LONELINESS
Solitude is a blessing if you know how to embrace it and find inspiration while enjoying it. Otherwise, it becomes the source of persistent restlessness and emptiness. You feel like everything is out of place and that you are not complete as an individual, or that you need to do something or find someone to fill the void you are feeling.
Maybe you need to find a new or different relationship, maybe you need to change jobs or even countries, or maybe you're just plain depressed. That feeling of falling into an abyss or staring at a wall with no idea where to go, it all comes from an inability to cope. And by "it" I mean loneliness .
Loneliness is what you experience when you feel aimless in life, when you feel that nothing makes sense (even if only for a moment). It is surprising how many people are tormented and bothered by feelings of intense loneliness.
Satisfying your desires generates more desires, trying to fill loneliness with the presence of company does not work in the long run. Let's not deny human interaction, company, community life and so on because they are essential for our well-being.
However, they cannot be the center of our lives without great personal drawbacks. Socializing may help you reduce your feelings of loneliness, or momentarily make you forget how lonely you really are, but in the end, it will not allow you to overcome your loneliness.
Most self-help books tell you that the lack of passion in your life makes you lonely. If you’re feeling lonely, chances are you have no real reason to live or continue with your life. Maybe there’s nothing that will keep you awake before your alarm clock goes off in the morning, and so on.
As such, common wisdom tells you to fill your life with something or someone. From the perspective of the great masters, these are still temporary measures. You may be madly in love with something or someone, but that doesn’t mean you don’t feel lonely.
Maybe you need to find a new or different relationship, maybe you need to change jobs or even countries, or maybe you're just plain depressed. That feeling of falling into an abyss or staring at a wall with no idea where to go, it all comes from an inability to cope. And by "it" I mean loneliness .
Loneliness is what you experience when you feel aimless in life, when you feel that nothing makes sense (even if only for a moment). It is surprising how many people are tormented and bothered by feelings of intense loneliness.
Satisfying your desires generates more desires, trying to fill loneliness with the presence of company does not work in the long run. Let's not deny human interaction, company, community life and so on because they are essential for our well-being.
However, they cannot be the center of our lives without great personal drawbacks. Socializing may help you reduce your feelings of loneliness, or momentarily make you forget how lonely you really are, but in the end, it will not allow you to overcome your loneliness.
Most self-help books tell you that the lack of passion in your life makes you lonely. If you’re feeling lonely, chances are you have no real reason to live or continue with your life. Maybe there’s nothing that will keep you awake before your alarm clock goes off in the morning, and so on.
As such, common wisdom tells you to fill your life with something or someone. From the perspective of the great masters, these are still temporary measures. You may be madly in love with something or someone, but that doesn’t mean you don’t feel lonely.
The masters tell us that solitude is a beautiful opportunity to explore your inner self, to reflect not only on what you can do, but on what you have done. When you give your full attention to solitude, you discover an immense reservoir of calm and peace. In fact, solitude is a call from the soul.
The intense awareness of great solitude is nothing less than nirvana. In ordinary solitude, you simply flow with your thoughts and feelings, which are often negative when left unchecked. In a more pristine form of solitude, which I call solitude of the mind, you retain a keen awareness of every little thought, of every passing moment. You begin to realize that you are truly innate, immortal, pure, that you exist beyond the aging body or the mind that won’t shut up.
The wisdom of life begins to dawn on you in such moments of silence. All those you love or hate, desire or abhor, want or avoid, all these people, yourself included, are here only for a short time.
Everyone you meet in your life is on their own individual journey; quite simply, our paths cross. The cure for loneliness, as such, is not about finding something or someone who keeps you interested, happy or occupied. It is simply about finding your center of consciousness and realizing that to taste lasting happiness, you have to turn inward and embrace the beauty of solitude.
The great masters said that solitude is supremely liberating. They called it kaivalya: us, in our own company, enjoying total peace and absorption. Because of our conditioning, our desires and actions, there is a gap between the intellect and the soul. With self-inquiry, reflection and mindfulness, this gap begins to close, and as it does so, you come closer to yourself.
A beautiful woman was drinking coffee in a bakery when a man approached her:
The intense awareness of great solitude is nothing less than nirvana. In ordinary solitude, you simply flow with your thoughts and feelings, which are often negative when left unchecked. In a more pristine form of solitude, which I call solitude of the mind, you retain a keen awareness of every little thought, of every passing moment. You begin to realize that you are truly innate, immortal, pure, that you exist beyond the aging body or the mind that won’t shut up.
The wisdom of life begins to dawn on you in such moments of silence. All those you love or hate, desire or abhor, want or avoid, all these people, yourself included, are here only for a short time.
Everyone you meet in your life is on their own individual journey; quite simply, our paths cross. The cure for loneliness, as such, is not about finding something or someone who keeps you interested, happy or occupied. It is simply about finding your center of consciousness and realizing that to taste lasting happiness, you have to turn inward and embrace the beauty of solitude.
The great masters said that solitude is supremely liberating. They called it kaivalya: us, in our own company, enjoying total peace and absorption. Because of our conditioning, our desires and actions, there is a gap between the intellect and the soul. With self-inquiry, reflection and mindfulness, this gap begins to close, and as it does so, you come closer to yourself.
A beautiful woman was drinking coffee in a bakery when a man approached her:
“Are you alone?” he asked her, with an unmistakable shyness in his voice.
“I’ve been alone for a long time,” she replied with a sigh.
- In that case, can I take this chair?
If you look for someone in your life because you feel lonely, you will end up disappointed. You are looking for a place in someone's heart, and that someone may just want your chair. Sure, having another person keeps you busy, like most worldly relationships, but being busy is not the same as being satisfied or happy. Two lonely people do not make a party crowd.
When you simplify and uncomplicate your life, when you dedicate time to the well-being of your mind and soul, when you live in harmony with feelings of love and kindness towards all sentient beings, you bridge the gap between your intellect and your soul.
When you leave behind your conditioned intellect, you will realize that you are beyond all that afflicts you, far above all that you desire, that you are not just a shining star in the universe, but the universe itself. So who can make you feel alone or pull you out of loneliness once and for all? No one. If there is anyone but you. Your complete self, your beautiful self, your indestructible self that resides within you, that being of limitless glory and magnificence that is forever removed from anything even remotely approaching ordinary loneliness.
The only true and eternal relationship you have is with yourself.
Live it.
Love him.
Value it.
It is worth it.