Meditative Monday

Hari OM

Role of Solitude.

To work towards a transformation through meditation, 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. 

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 prompts and pricks the individual to look for the chatter which is missing... 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. Sitting alone and getting 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.

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 your mental powers.

It is a multi-stage process in which there will be mental rebellions, fears, despairs, questions and doubts. Observe and keep observing, with the intellect, the detached self. It is a non-reactional attentiveness. It does not condemn neither approve any action or 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. Let them rise and pass your consciousness, acknowledging their presence but nothing more.

Do not force things; give time for absorption. Be kind to the Self as it seeks to reveal Itself...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, an 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.