This essay is from my new ebook, “The Edge of Enlightenment”
“I am alone with the Alone. It is not joy. It is peace and a sweet, sad love beaded with sparkling tears.”
~ Sri Anirvan to his pupil, Lizelle Reymond.
Some bodies are happiest when they are behind the closed doors of their home. I am speaking literally of the physical body. My body relaxes ever more deeply into the silence of my own company. It gets tired of having to be in the company of others for too long. Like a wild horse, it wants its freedom above everything else. My psyche is also happiest when parties are over, not when they are going on. It likes to kick off its shoes and put on its old clothes and return to the couch with a cup of coffee and a sweet.
Does this make me antisocial? No, I don’t dislike people. What I dislike is the charade of chit-chat. No one is free boxed in a conversation about what we are doing for the holidays. (I am never doing anything, thank goodness.) This kind of chat often feels like a subconscious competition.
I relish silence and have since I was a child. My quietness was in the body. I loved listening to grownups talk more than I liked the chatter of the children. I wanted to stay indoors and hang out with adults. I didn’t talk; I listened.
We need solitude, time to fall back and regroup. Time to be aware on a very subtle level that doesn’t happen when talking about the weather or politics. God doesn’t seem to visit a chattering mind, either alone or with others. Silence and solitude invite the weary soul to rest.
* If you donate any amount to my website, I will send you the ebook of “The Edge of Enlightenment.” It is not available in paperback, but it is a good read if you are on the path. The link below takes you to the proper page.