Loneliness expresses the pain of being alone and solitude expresses the glory of being alone.
Being in solitude, going apart from the crowd and into oneself, is the only means to accessing that inner source where the authentic self can be found - awakening. What Benes, in the post on cell phone use I cite below, describes is the opposite: fleeing that inner journey. Of course, this can be a fearful and strangely wondrous voyage, full of monsters and joys, but it the only voyage. Here is where creativity can be found and cultivated, and where the authentic self, the true inner awakened self, connects to that higher power which can only be inaccurately described and never caught in a web of words - "Buddha Mind," the "Great Void," "God" etc. Cell phones and all modern technology are some a few of the means by which we avoid this journey and hide in the outward "history" of the ego. Meditation, prayer, study, creativity - all of which occur in solitude, are tools we use facilitate that journey. If we avoid them, we are soon drowned by waves of anxiety and alienation in our loneliness. I resolve to continue that journey inward, and ignore the shoals of fear and ignorance!
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