Topic: SOLITUDE

[Jennifer-]

SOLITUDE
I love the stillness of the wood:
I love the music of the rill:
I love to couch in pensive mood
Upon some silent hill.
Scarce heard, beneath yon arching trees,
The silver-crested ripples pass;
And, like a mimic brook, the breeze
Whispers among the grass.
Here from the world I win release,
Nor scorn of men, nor footstep rude,
Break in to mar the holy peace
Of this great solitude.
Here may the silent tears I weep
Lull the vexed spirit into rest,
As infants sob themselves to sleep
Upon a mother's breast.
But when the bitter hour is gone,
And the keen throbbing pangs are still,
Oh, sweetest then to couch alone
Upon some silent hill!
To live in joys that once have been,
To put the cold world out of sight,
And deck life's drear and barren scene
With hues of rainbow-light.
For what to man the gift of breath,
If sorrow be his lot below;
If all the day that ends in death
Be dark with clouds of woe?
Shall the poor transport of an hour
Repay long years of sore distress;
The fragrance of a lonely flower
Make glad the wilderness?
Ye golden hours of Life's young spring,
Of innocence, of love and truth!
Bright, beyond all imagining,
Thou fairy-dream of youth!
I'd give all wealth that years have piled,
The slow result of Life's decay,
To be once more a little child
For one bright summer-day.

Lewis Carroll, 1832-1898.

[Jennifer-]

Samuel Barber, 1910-1981.

THE DESIRE FOR HERMITAGE
(from Hermit Songs, anonymous Old Irish)
Ah! To be all alone in a little cell
with nobody near me;
beloved that pilgrimage before the last pilgrimage to death.
Singing the passing hours to cloudy Heaven;
Feeding upon dry bread and water from the cold spring.
That will be an end to evil when I am alone
in a lovely little corner among tombs
far from the houses of the great.
Ah! To be all alone in a little cell, to be alone, all alone:
Alone I came into the world
alone I shall go from it.

[Jennifer-]

If you want to perceive and understand objectively, just don't allow yourself to be confused by people. Detach from whatever you find inside or outside yourself and only then will you attain liberation. When you are not entangled in things, you pass through freely to autonomy.
-- Zen Master Lin-chi

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have known the silence of the stars and of the sea,
And the silence of the city when it pauses,
And the silence of a man and a maid,
And the silence for which music alone finds the word,
And the silence of the woods before the winds of spring begin,
And the silence of the sick
When their eyes roam about the room.
And I ask: For the depths
Of what use is language? ...
-- Edgar Lee Masters: [from his poem] Silence

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A hermit, aware of such unworldly joy, finds truth from scenes of rock walls, sunset glow, mountain caves and clouds. ... A decent person needs to empty his heart for room for newly realized truth as well as to fill his heart at the same time, leaving no room for worldly desires.
--Choi Joon-ho, Korean art historian

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Solitude and nature are absolutely necessary for the proper development of a human being. It is an admixture of natural life, lived in solitude, amid beautiful surroundings of nature and what we call an arboreal life, which is absolutely necessary for the poise and harmony of the human mind.
--Gopi Krishna

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Every man who delights in uttering a multitude of words, even though he says admirable things, is empty within. If you love truth, be a lover of silence. In the beginning we have to force ourselves to be quiet. But then there is born something that draws us to it.
--Isaac of Ninevah

[Jennifer-]

Far back past deep, dark, silent trees
where no city's seed has e're been sown,
in a forest by the crashing seas,
there lives the hermit all alone.
Wouldn't leave if, per chance, he could;
the slightest change would raise his ire.
Content to wander in the wood,
to dream alone beside the fire.
-- R. Logue

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Outwardly go with the flow, while inwardly keeping your true nature. Then your eyes and ears will not be dazzled, and your thoughts will not be confused, while the secret within you will expand greatly to roam in the realms of absolute parity.
-- Huainan-tzi

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He is a solitary figure, robed in simplicity and kindness. He sits upon the lap of Nature to draw his Inspiration, and stays up in the silence of the night, awaiting the descending of the spirit.
--Khalil Gibran, from The Poet

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am never lonely. A lonely person is one who is not aware of the complete fullness within. When you become dependent on something outside without having awareness of the reality within you, then you will indeed be lonely. The whole search for enlightenment is to seek within, to become aware that you are complete in yourself. You are perfect. You don't need any externals. No matter what happens in any situation, you need never be lonely.
-- Swami Rama, Living with the Himalayan Masters

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The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation.
-- Kate Chopin, The Awakening

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[Jennifer-]

Truthfully, I am "homesick" for a land that is not mine. I am haunted by the steppes, the solitude, the everlasting snow and the great blue sky "up there"! The difficult hours, the hunger, the cold, the wind slashing my face, leaving me with enormous, bloody, swollen lips. The camp sites in the snow, sleeping in the frozen mud, none of that counted, those miseries were soon gone and we remained perpetually submerged in a silence, with only the song of  the wind in the solitude, almost bare even of plant life, the fabulous chaos of rock, vertiginous peaks and
horizons of blinding light.
--  Alexandra David-Néel [traveler and explorer of India and Tibet]

[Jennifer-]

[Jennifer-]

[Jennifer-]

[Michael]

'Alone is alright'

Milarepa

[erik]

[erik]

[erik]

[Jennifer-]

Love that cat!

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Silence promotes your Truth

Many of us are afraid of silence. We will do almost anything to avoid silence. When you are silent people often ask you, "Is there anything wrong?” For some people silence has become wrong. It is a form of communication many avoid. Living your life without periods of silence is akin to playing music without silence between the notes. Practicing moments of silence allows the peace of inner silence, an experience of renewal.

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As soon as a true thought has entered our mind, it gives a light which makes us see a crowd of other objects which we have never perceived before. (Francois Rene de Chateaubriand)

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Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world. (Hans Margolius)

[erik]

[Jennifer-]

In solitude, where we are least alone. (Lord Byron)

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To make the right choices in life, you have to get in touch with your soul. To do this, you need to experience solitude, which most people are afraid of, because in the silence you hear the truth and know the solutions. (Deepak Chopra)

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Children love to be alone because alone is where they know themselves, and where they dream. (Roger Rosenblatt)