Isolation Equals Contemplation
TIME TO DETACH
Awakening can bring you to beautiful insightful moments, moments and opportunities of growth that lead to a positive direction in your life, to a deeper more meaningful purpose. To the contrary, you might come to a point along your path where the entire process is just too much! You now find yourself in the deepest and darkest of places and you are not getting any relief from anything you have tried. All the band-aid fixes are merely temporary solutions for a much more permanent call to action.
There comes a time when an incredible pull to solitude may come knocking on your door. It starts softly and sporadically in the background, just subtly humming where you can feel its presence, but it’s not enough to act upon yet. Then, suddenly it’s persistence presents as a loud obsessive knocking, a knocking that won’t give up, much like a young determined toddler who won’t take NO for an answer. You know you must do something to honor this call toward solitude, this nagging feeling that you must take time to just be by yourself.
It may be rather obvious why you need to be alone. Your transformation process may be getting out of your control and the only logical thing to do is get into a quiet zone for as long as you possibly can. When life gets hard, when it gets challenging beyond your ability to understand what it is happening, a call to isolation just might be exactly what you need.
It’s also possible that you may simply feel compelled to get into some sort of isolation, or contemplative state, to join closer with who you really are. Life doesn’t have to be going badly to feel an urgent need to commune with your higher self. Being drawn to solitude isn’t necessarily about “me” time or today’s version of “self-care.” This yearning is much deeper than that. It’s beyond the small self. This is diving below the surface into the great unknown, seeking a connection to something greater than yourself.
COMMUNION
The ancient mystics teach us the importance of communion with God, the experience of uniting with our divine essence. Their experiences have been documented and have stood the test of time. The famous individuals such as Pathagoras, Buddha, Confucius, Nostradamus, St. John of the Cross, St. Theresa of Avila, Hildegard Von Bingen, just to name a few, all spent time in solitude, in prayer, in deep altered states of consciousness to seek a true connection with their divine self. These are merely the famous mystics we hear about, but can you imagine how many mystics truly exist? Each one of us has the potential to find this inner communion, so the actual number of mystics is much higher than we realize. Most of us are not forming organizations and institutions with our discoveries, but rather we may simply live life differently, a life of true inner connection, of service, and inner peace.
Whether you are seeking or feel like isolation is your only answer to real freedom, connecting with your “inner” world is a practice to benefit your life. If you are able to answer the call and find a place to be alone for a period of time, then by all means do it. However, for those of us that feel this call, yet have the responsibilities and obligations of our daily life, then finding short periods of time to connect is also a valid option. The form in this world is not relevant, a hut in the woods or on the beach, although it sounds intriguing, is not necessary. What is necessary is the inner journey and the quality of your connection that matters.
DISCONNECTING FROM THE OUTSIDE WORLD
Depending on your current state of mind, spending time in silence can either be a blessing or a nightmare. If you are someone who can detach easily from life, then this is your mini heaven. If you are someone who has difficulty letting the “to do list” pass you by, then silence may be a bit more of a task than an experience of serenity. Whatever way you approach this, the fact that you feel pulled into solitude is confirmation that the knock at your door is calling you elsewhere, to a deeper level of existence. There is more than just the surface life to live. The underworld is slowly removing the cloak of invisibility.
For those that are able to get into complete isolation, no people around, nothing to do, then taking this time to go within, to clear yourself totally and completely, to practice prayer and connecting to source, to breathe into those trance states that are available can be a method of finding that mysticism you are yearning for. Allowing your self the freedom to relax into these states of consciousness can be the beginning of true liberation. Feeling disconnected from the physical realm and getting in touch with the spiritual world can be the beginning of a transformed life.
Don’t get discouraged if crossing continents to the ashrams of India, or settling into the Sedona desert to admire the majestic rock formations for weeks at a time is not within your means right now. If you are not able to take time away from your life, don’t sweat it. The good news is you can create your own personal ashram or breath taking Sedona right within yourself. Maybe someday in the future you will be able to take a more physical trip to solitude.
This may be one of the greatest hurdles the mind has tossed in our direction. The idea that we need to go somewhere to achieve something that is always available to us. If you are going within yourself to discover the larger awareness that you are, then what difference does it make what the physical environment looks like? Remember, the mind, the master magician that it is, will make you believe that solitude is out there in the world, that it’s a physical destination to find, instead of telling you the TRUTH, which is always awaiting you inside of yourself.
The mind will also convince you that contemplation and communion are not possible on a crowded city street, or a busy subway, or an airport with nonstop noise, commotion, and obsessive activity. Because the mind is so distracted with all of the outside chaos, it will work overtime to make sure you don’t feel the SILENCE within, the inner SILENCE and stillness that speaks louder than any densely populated area.
THE PURPOSE OF CONTEMPLATION
You might be asking, “What is the point of discovering silence and deep inner contemplation?” Finding this space within, this treasure of the underworld, is to connect and maintain this larger connection as you begin to step back out into your regular life. Finding peace in solitude is fabulous, however, if you can’t bring it forward in your day to day life, then it becomes lost at sea only to send you on a treasure hunt over and over again. This is part of life, this is what we are all searching for, our divine self. When you discover this aspect of life, then be conscious of bringing it with you all the time. For some the awareness is so incredible you will not be able to shove it off if you tried, however, for others it will be a constant searching to bring forth what seemed so easy while in the midst of isolation.
It’s one thing to find peace within and stay isolated away from society. That type of peace seems much easier to maintain. There is no one around to challenge you in any meaningful way. You are not tossed into the worldly discomforts, interactions, emotional outbursts, or other blockbuster dramas you would encounter while living amongst other people. The true test of communion is, after you have found this inner connection, this expansive field of presence within and around you, how does it change you when you return to living normally in the world?
Are you able to maintain this place of peace and serenity within as you navigate the next unbelievable atrocity on a nearby street corner? Can you feel this beauty within as you get into an argument with a loved one? Do you still feel the silence and solitude while witnessing the evil acts portrayed across the evening news? These are real life scenarios that are important to ask yourself. Otherwise, what is the point of creating that sacred space within?
Establishing a regular practice of prayer, contemplation, meditation, or simple silence, in your daily life will prepare you for a permanent communion as you walk in this dual world. Instead of taking personal time, you will soon be able to maintain this “personal” world as you interact with others around you. This bond becomes unbendable, unbreakable, untouchable, it is so strong, so perfect in its union that you cannot help but use this internal experience as an external guide. Instead of letting the outside instability effect you, you are now allowing the wisdom from within to lead the way.
YOUR SACRED CONNECTION
As you work to find your own sacred connection, be aware that your experience with the divine is yours alone. Other accounts and famous documentation can be very helpful, as well as inspiring, but it isn’t necessarily the way in which you will experience this type of mysticism. You may spend year after year seeking without anything happening inside. This can be frustrating and depressing, especially if you are holding on to expectations of what others have written and recorded.
Let go of any spiritual expectation. We are all spiritual beings. There is no such thing as somebody being more spiritual than another. The only difference is some people know it, while others have not yet realized it, that is all. Sometimes when we drop the expectation and the control over how we find this innate connection, it will suddenly appear in one of the least expected ways. Be open to this possibility and welcome the many ways the divine is capable of communicating with you.