What comes in your mind
when we say being alone. Just take a pause and think over it. Most of the
people think people being alone means single or not-married etc. Some people at
some age enjoy being alone, then after sometime they feel they need someone to
take care of them. Some people think being alone means lonely.
I would like to talk from
a different dimension.
Being Alone
means being with our real permanent self as it is and not as it should have
been. It means to be self-content with our self when we are on our
own, with people, nature, things,
good times or bad times.
On the other hand, Lonely
means we feel dejected or depressed even when we are between a crowd
or good times. It is quite possible that we have won something and we find no
one with us to share the happiness.
Let us take some questions which will help you in
understanding whether you know the Art of being alone. Each Yes means you know
the art. Just imagine ; Can you be alone for a 1
hour/ 1 day /1 week / 1 month / 1year
o
Without family
o
Without relatives
o
Without Friends
o
Without Spouse
o
Without Work
o
Without a computer
o
Without TV
o
Without Music
o
Without servants
o
Without sex
o
Without any external entertainment
o
Without any outing
o
Without any vacation
o Without any entertaining
thoughts
o
In the end with our Self as it is
Gurdjieff, a spiritual
teacher once conducted an experiment with 30 followers. He had locked them in a
room. Only the basic necessities like food,
clothing and shelter was provided to them for 90 days. They were not
allowed to talk with each other for 90 days. Within 3 days 15 people left and
within 15 days only 3 people were left. Out of them one was Ouspensky. Gurdjieff
was so strict that he had told that even if someone stamps them by mistake,
they should not say sorry, because no one is there. This experiment was carried
to see whether they can be alone or not. Although this was a very hard way,
which is not necessary, to understand the art of being alone. At the end of 90
days, Gurdjieff took all these 3 followers to the market. When Ouspensky saw
it, he was shocked to see that there is so much madness. It is said in his
autobiography that he said that one madman was talking with other madman and so much
of madness everywhere. Ouspensky told Gurdjieff that being alone was so
beautiful and that why people are so mad.
What is to be learnt from this real experiment is we
need to carry this art of being alone in following stages:
- Be Alone (self-content) on our own for some minutes/hours/days/months and learn the Art of Being Alone.
- Extend this Being Alone with our least priorities (far off relatives etc).
- Slowly move towards our high priorities (spouse, friends, work etc.). Kindly note that everyone has different type of people who are close to them. So each one has to decide on their own priorities.
Key
Points:
- Art of being Alone doesn’t alienate us from the outer world. In fact we become very participative without any stress.
Wisdom Pointer:
- When we were born, we were Alone. While living-we need to learn this art. When dying we are alone.
- Being Alone means being Self-Content or at Peace
- Meditation is one of the ways to learn the Art of Being Alone.
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