Leona: It’s so true that there’s no difference between self-isolation and socializing. I would love to see a satsang on that theme! The loneliness thought is really prominent right now, with me and most of the people I know. I think that is one of the most hard-wired bits of ignorance and responsible for so much suffering. Those of us who know what it is and who we are very fortunate indeed, but for people who don’t, this little time out blip seems like a huge catastrophe.
Sundari: This time we are in now is a great opportunity to see how much of the teachings have assimilated, and to put them into practice. When we talk about the difference between isolation and socialization, we are talking duality and non-duality, satya and mithya. The Self cannot isolate because there is only itself, and there is nowhere it is not. It is never lonely, cannot be, even when the jiva feels lonely. And that’s what is so amazing about Self-knowledge, that both realities can co-exist without touching each other. Or even be in opposition to each other. It’s Ok for jiva to feel the need to connect, it’s built into the program, for most. We are naturally social creatures. But the question, as always, is: Does the need propel the mind to seek outside itself for succor, or is it its own well-spring? Sometimes it does feel like the spring is dry and we need contact with ‘others’. But it never really is dry, feelings between as unreliable a means of knowledge as they are.
We can say ‘I am feeling lonely’ without being identified with the feeling, just missing human connection or touch. Ramji and I being on separate continents miss what we call ‘oxypats”, the oxytocin/shaktipat rush from physical contact. There is nothing wrong with being human as long as you are not identified with it. But when Vedanta people go on about ‘what they learned from isolation’, are they talking about the jiva, or the Self? There is nothing to learn about anything as the Self, it’s really quite boring. Though the jiva may indeed have learned that it loves experiencing ‘isolation’ as all oneness. It’s not loneliness. Or to its surprise, the jiva may learn that it actually misses its ‘fellow human beings’. It’s always both/and in mithya.
But if you think you are a person, then this time of isolation for you has many challenges indeed. A samsari must face their innate aloneness at this time. Loneliness is part of the human condition when we believe we need others to be whole, or we do not know we are the fullness that knows the ‘loneliness’ thought/feeling. What defines this time more than anything though, is not that we are separated from others. It is that we cannot separate from ourselves.
Much love
Sundari