Hari
Om
Monday is AUM-day; in search of meditation
SOLITUDE. Does
it serve a purpose for the meditator? Does it have to mean 'lonely'? We are
going to explore the writings of a number of notable contemplatives of various
backgrounds and explore the role of solitude in spiritual pursuit. These are
from a collection published by Chinmaya Publications.
A piece now on what happens in silence. (NB, this item is again
edited for brevity.)
SILENCE IN ACTION by Vimala Thakur
You may have three meals a day, a car, a good home, a family and
friends around you… but when you are with yourself, how are you? Is there a
sense of loneliness? It's a funny thing, loneliness, it can creep up even when
we are in a crowd. One gets tired, dragging through the day to day
repetitiveness that so often passes for 'living'. We fall into ruts, even in
our thinking and can see no way out. It is in this condition that we can feel
so alone.
Freedom from your own mind removes the loneliness which settles in
those ruts. This freedom permits being alone, as in solitude, without the angst
of loneliness. Once the mind is silent and learns the art of living in freedom
from conditioning, we find that Love, True Affection, comes forth for all whom
we meet - the ego melts away and is transformed for Love Universal. The
meditative way of life frees us; if enough people took up this way of living,
we could have true hope of a humane society based on freedom and equality.
To work towards such a transformation, it is necessary first to
appreciate solitude. Only in true aloneness is it possible to become a proper
self-observer. Solitude is not idleness; here you can watch, examine and assess
as you process. It is important to note that solitude, true silence, implies
non-verbalisation… even the quiet internal kind. If you are chattering with
yourself, you are indulging in 'company' of past, possible future and so on. It
is essential to be able to stop all this when in solitude, if your intent is to
develop in personality and spirituality, which equals humanity. This 'nowness'
without interaction, even with your own ego, can scare some folks; loneliness
is a fear of being without company. You have to educate yourself to be
comfortable in solitude, to be separate from people and things, to drop
attachments.
The mind, addicted to words, symbols and verbalizations, is
comfortable only when exposed to the chattering of another, or its own
chattering. If the mind is removed from the company of people, it begins to
talk to itself. Soon, tired of even this inward chatter, it becomes bored and
starts to complain. It turns from its addiction for chatter, to a boredom
phase, which prompts and pricks the individual to look for the chatter which is
missing...boredom has no reality, it is a reaction of the mind and ego; but we
have become so conditioned to this prompt, we respond to it as if on autopilot.
If you are alone and the mind reacts "oh I feel lonely",
don't run away to some distraction. Eat your loneliness and drink it and digest
it! Stop running away from yourself. To sit alone and get beyond loneliness
into a true acceptance of solitude, permits the essential, original you to make
an appearance. The person that you, perhaps, never even knew was there.
Thus you can explore new dimensions. A new way of living will begin.
You will be able to see what is truly feared and, with work, recognise that
fear also is a construct of mind and ego.
Create an opportunity, and if you find you cannot bear the austerity
of solitude and silence, or the departure from the orbit of thought, time and
space, then go back and live comfortably the way the world has been lived till
now, accepting that for what it is. Otherwise, follow other paths, which enrich
and strengthen the mind and develop the mental powers, giving further
opportunity to expand the new dimensions, both at sensory and non-sensory
level.
It is a multi-stage process in which there will be mental
rebellions, fears, despairs, questions and doubts. So you observe and keep
observing - the you which is the intellect, the detached self. It is a
non-reactional attentiveness. It does not condemn neither approve any action,
any perceived weakness. A sense of exhaustion may arise, for letting go is an
almost physical process. All sorts of strange and peculiar things can arise as
we attempt to move beyond our conditioned state. If you are serious about
examining and exploring new dimensions, if you are willing to leave behind the
classical, organized, standard paths of inquiry and are willing to allow the
whole "I" consciousness to drop away, you also have to accept all the
impediments as they arise and move past you. It is like moving to a foreign
country, adjusting to language and lifestyle - one has to permit time to absorb
the shock of the difference.
Do not force things; give time for the absorption. Be kind to the
Self which seeks to reveal...be careful, though, not to become complacent or
forget that you’re a participant in your own process. On the frontiers of the
unknown, many an enquirer stays put or gets stuck; there is no desire to return
to the old way of living, but incomplete process results in frustration at not
living in the entirety of ego-lessness; there is a suspension, a limbo state,
which bears no fruit for the personality.
Solitude, silence, non-action, is a very positive and tremendously
creative state. It has its own energy that is qualitatively different from the
energy of ego-consciousness. Meditation, exploration into silence, is a psychic
adventure. Your time in solitude, your period of self-education, prepares you
to be an adventurer into the unknown.
