Being Alone

“He who is always alone,
he is worthy of God.”
~ Meister Eckhart

.

The meaning of the word ‘alone’ in the Oxford Dictionary is stated as such: “having no one else present”. This sounds like a perfect definition of the Advaitic understanding, and an essential feature of the nature of consciousness, of our deepest sense of being. God is alone because he is all encompassing, and doesn’t have another reality by its side. He is alone in the sense that he is all one. This wisdom is fully apparent in the English word ‘alone’ which comes from Middle English ‘all one’. In the French word ‘seul’ though, this is very different. ‘Seul’ comes from Latin ‘solus’, as in ‘solitude’ or ’isolated’. The emphasis is on being one amidst others, not in being all one. So the sense of being alone can bring in both the feelings of loneliness, isolation, separation, insecurity, protection, but also the sense of being one, whole, self-sufficient, contained in oneself, and ultimately at peace. 

So which aloneness are we feeling to be? The one that will express our sense of lack, or incompleteness, or that other one which is the expression of our fullness, of our happiness? Loneliness implies a form of, and a belief in, separation. So when we say ‘I am alone’ — in the sense of isolation — we don’t really mean it. For we are then not alone, and what we really mean is ‘I am surrounded by ten thousand things and selves’. There is a whole crowd around us. And this is what creates the sense of being isolated, and the capacity to be lonely. If we truly felt alone, there would be no existing place for an ‘other’, and therefore loneliness could never come into existence. The sense of isolation is unknown to our true being. To be lonely is only a feeling, never a reality. It is the plain and invented expression of our belief in separation. Loneliness or boredom may be temporarily covered by relationships and activities, but will reassess their presence when our puny cover recedes.

The irony is that we could never feel lonely if we hadn’t already got, deep down, as our deepest identity, the sense of being whole. In a way, it could be said that our lost sense of wholeness becomes apparent through our feeling ‘alone’, isolated. Loneliness is a form of suffering, the recognition that something is wrong, that we are going in a false direction. A wrong doing is at play. And a correction is needed. This sense of being lonely is not a reality, but an illusory state born out of misunderstanding. To give it prominence, let alone to nurture it, is to indulge in its falseness. So let’s envisage loneliness as the red signal for our trespassing the line of truth. Let it be the sacred occasion for the recognition of our inborn wholeness. 

Loneliness is a wound on our completion. And as all wounds, it hurts. It is a call to realise our wholeness. But don’t go away in search for it. Don’t seek to acquire any thing that you expect will heal this feeling of separation. You won’t heal it but only cover it up. So remain with your loneliness and dive deep into it. Cling to it until it reveals its full significance, which is that you can never be lonely. Loneliness is an impossibility. See the truth of it. Let it come to you. We can never be lonely when being truly alone, we can never be lacking, never wanting anything to fulfil us, to make us whole, we can never be inwardly influenced or conditioned by the world, or anybody. We are alone, when and where wholeness is already fully achieved. 

Nothing exists outside the oneness of our being. We broke it up ourself. Our loneliness is our choice. We have divided our wholeness with a thought, a belief in separation. By asserting our loneliness, we are in fact saying that there are many realities and we are one amongst them. So remain alone, truly alone, and mean it. Be so alone that your aloneness extends to all beings and things. Don’t limit your sense of aloneness. Let it engulf you. Then see if you can ever be lonely again. See how vast your aloneness is. Be yourself that One being who is truly alone. 

.

~~~

.

“This aloneness is not isolation, loneliness, self-enclosing occupation. Aloneness is not withdrawal from life; on the contrary it is the total freedom from conflict and sorrow, from fear and death. This aloneness is the mutation of consciousness; complete transformation of what has been. This aloneness is emptiness, it is not the positive state of being, nor the not being. It is emptiness; in this fire of emptiness the mind is made young, fresh and innocent.“
~ J. Krishnamurti (Krishnamurti’s Notebook)

.

“One who knows for certain that 
‘Self creates All and is alone’
becomes still, desireless, unattached.”
~ Ashtavakra Gita, 11.2 – (Bart Marshall)

.

“It was uniquely alone, not isolated but alone, like a drop of rain which holds all the waters of the earth. It was neither joyous nor sad but alone. It had no quality, shape or colour; these would make it something recognizable, measurable. It came like a flash and took seed. It did not germinate but it was there in its entirety. There was no time to mature; time has roots in the past. This was a rootless, causeless state. So it is totally ’new’, a state that has not been and never will be, for it is living.”
~ J. Krishnamurti (Krishnamurti’s Notebook)

.

~~~

Text and photo by Alain Joly

Quotes by J. Krishnamurti (1895-1986) and Meister Eckhart (1260-1328)

~~~

.

You will find in ‘The Aloneness of Being’ a few quotes to celebrate Aloneness…

Bibliography:
– ‘Krishnamurti’s Notebook’ – by J. Krishnamurti – (Krishnamurti Publications of America, US)
– ‘Meister Eckhart, Selected Writings’ – Translated by Oliver Davies – (Penguin Classics)
– ‘Ashtavakra Gita’ – by Bart Marshall – (Realface Press)

Websites:
– Jiddu Krishnamurti
– Meister Eckhart (Wikipedia)
– Ashtavakra (Wikipedia)

.

Back to Pages

.