Solitude: Its advantages and drawbacks in Buddhist practice
(Doug's Dharma) June 9, 2025: The Buddha praised solitude [well undertaken as temporary withdrawal, mental seclusion, peaceful isolation, private intensive meditation, accompanied by piti from samma-samadhi] as highly beneficial.
00:00 Intro
00:48 The benefits of solitude
04:26 Dangers of solitude
07:06 Finding the balance
10:07 Cultivating solitude in lay life
11:47 Buddha's wisdom on solitude
He also warned of its dangers [when not well undertaken, done without the jhanas, the meditative absorptions, "right concentration," the stabilizing inner-stillness of samadhi].
How can we best balance solitude and community in our practice? How can we cultivate solitude [mental seclusion, temporary withdrawal] even in our busy everyday lives?
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What is the ideal place to meditate? The Buddha frequently repeats some of his suggestions. Would it be a thatched hut in the jungle, a tent of robes in the desert, a mound of kusa grass next to a river?
Tiny house?Abodu Quiz(prefabricated small footprint)
The Seclusion Sutra
Viveka Sutta, (SN 9.1) translated by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly
"Oh, foolish mortals! ever blind to fate; too soon dejected, too soon elate" (Alexander Pope).
At that time, having gone to spend the day in seclusion, he was beset by unskillful thoughts, clinging to reminisces about the life of a layperson.
Then the woodland fairy (devata) inhabiting that forest, out of sympathy for the meditator, wishing him success, wishing to return him to his senses, approached and addressed him in verse:
Indeed, that meditator, chastened by the glowing spirit, came to his senses with a sense of urgency for the goal.
*Abyss: not literal (as in Avicior the Downfall of Niraya in general) but figurative in the sense that sensual craving can never be appeased by feeding it, as it is an endless consumer of more and more pleasures, stimuli, and novelty.
In West Virginia we visited Bhante G's Bhavana Society(bhavanasociety.org), a Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist meditation center in the woods. I was assigned a cozy cabin with a funny stove. It was the warm season, so I could hardly imagine how cold it gets part of the year, snowed in, surviving by chopping wood to feed the hearth. Outside, mushrooms sprouted on the damp ground, and all around were trees and plants and a creek farther down by the old country road. This would do for meditation, but there were still many social distractions. One could hardly be silent as people were in the habit of small talk or getting to know one another. External silence is a great support for internal silence, where it really counts if one wishes to absorb into one's meditation object. The visiting nun leading us, as the abbot was no longer himself post-stroke, gave us instruction capable of producing absorption (jhana). One retreatant constantly slipped into piti and swirled his body on his cushion, blissed out. I would look at him, and rather than let myself become annoyed, I would follow suit. I swirled. And piti arose like magic, just a little, enough to know he was onto something. The woodland glen the center is on seemed ideal for fairy spirits of some description, as in "The Rape of the Lock." But I didn't see them. I couldn't feel them; I wasn't still enough. Females, being more sensitive and attuned to nature, claimed they could.
What is the best way to live nowadays? It seems a big house in the country, with a farm and river (with water rights) running through it in some unpolluted idyll might be best. Maybe in the Angeles National Forest like Teri said.
Life in another state would be counter-progress, unless a great meditation teacher was on hand to advise our practice.
Are we neo-hippies or outcaste misfits?
If we pull in the modules, scattered in the woods around a central meeting house for meals and group meditations, what could be better? Visit Wat Metta near San Diego to see a great setup utterly bereft of a good teacher to lead it.
The Dharma guards those who guard it.
If the caves of Europe do not work out, it may be best to lease land along the river above Los Angeles. A group of Buddhists already tried it, but disuse, neglect, and teenage vandalism brought it to ruin. It is right next to the ranger station and parking lot at the entrance to the Azusa route to Crystal Lake. It is below the dam, which could give way at any moment. So that's a consideration.
Nature protects those who protect it.
We were driving in search of the massive new Hindu temple complex or ashram in Chino, California, just east of Los Angeles County.
We turned right instead of left and found a massive Thai Theravada Buddhist temple with a giant stupa that the city was disallowing as a structure. There were food booths for a festival or alms round for many monks set up. But the strangest thing was in the back, there was a small shack dedicated to local Native Americans dispossessed of the region. Why? Buddhists care.
They care more than the locals who took the unceded land and turned it into tract housing and a real estate boom.
We tried to ask the abbot about it, but he didn't understand our questions. We were in awe that it was there. He thought we thought it was odd. We haven't been able to find the place since. It's up a hill on a big street not far from the 60 Freeway. Since few people seem to know about the other giant Thai temple near La Puente, just off of Valley Blvd., it's no surprise. Wat Metta is also Thai Theravada.
If we build an actual abbey or vihara (temple complex) it will either be Burmese Theravada or Afghan-American Early Buddhism, the first in the country. Why? A few Burmese have rediscovered the historical Buddha's teaching and can teach it. Moreover, the Buddha was from Gandhara (not beautiful Nepal), modern Bamiyan, Kabul (Kapilavastu), and Mes Aynak Afghanistan, and the oldest Buddhist writings are from there, which is mind-blowing.
The greatest teacher of humans
The GandhÄran Buddhist texts are the oldest Buddhist manuscripts yet discovered, dating from about the 1st century BCE to 3rd century CE, having been found in the northwestern outskirts of the Indian subcontinent [1, 2, 3]. They represent the literature of Gandharan Buddhism from present-day northwestern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan (ancient Gandhara) and are written in GÄndhÄrÄ«. They were sold to European and Japanese institutions and individuals and are currently being recovered and studied by several universities.
What might we carve into the limestone?
It might cost lots of money to fulfill the dream, and we're reminded of how one Indian guru, possibly Sri Ravi Shankar or some such, handled that. Asked by his disciples, "But, Guru, where are we going to get the money to build an ashram?"
The guru answered, "From wherever it is now." That sounds like the Law of Attraction, which Hicks-Abraham says we are always living in accordance with whether we know it or not.
Congregation awaits sharpening their spears as a ship looms in the distance (Survival Int'l).
.
Ancient island-dwellers kill to keep others away July 17, 2015 (Spooky,Strange)
Our local Neighborhood Watch has nothing on these people -- who will straight kill an outsider if s/he come anywhere near their island. For nearly 60,000 years, an indigenous tribe called the Sentinelese has inhabited this small territory in the Indian Ocean. They are believed to be the most disconnected civilization in modern times, with very little known about their language, their rituals or the island they call home.The Sentinelese people prefer to be left alone, willing to attack anyone who enters their vicinity.
Hatemongers
"love" lion too late. Killing all the dentists won't bring him back.
Eat well and good dental health will make all dentists pay for Palmer's
crimes. Love yourself and your teeth; they're a part of nature (AP).
#CATLIVESMATTER (lol) and other clever slogans sprinkle hateful anti-dentite display by Christian cat lovers. "Palmer, there's a deep cavity [search] waiting for YOU! We stand on the side of Cecil and on the side of love, except for the maniac who condemned the murderous dentist to rot in hell." Hate in the service of love is hate. Love when others hate, love when others love, always love (AP).
The only GUIDE you need
Who are these Sentinelese?
Let us ask the HHGTTG (aka Wikipedia): Sentinelese(also Sentineli, Senteneli, Sentenelese, North Sentinel Islanders) are an indigenous people of the Andaman Islands, in the Bay of Bengal. They inhabit North Sentinel Island, which lies westward off the southern tip of the Great Andaman archipelago. They are noted for resisting attempts at contact by outsiders.
The Sentinelese maintain an essentially hunter-gatherer society subsisting through hunting, fishing, and collecting wild plants. There is no evidence of either agricultural practices or methods of producing fire (B.K. Roy Burman, ed., 1990, Cartography
for development of outlying states and islands of India: short papers
submitted at NATMO Seminar, Calcutta, December 3-6, 1990, National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. p.203).
Their language remains unclassified and is not mutually intelligible with the Jarawa language of their nearest neighbors (Enumeration of Primitive Tribes in A&N Islands: A Challenge,The
first batch could identify 31 Sentinelese. The second batch could count
altogether 39 Sentinelese consisting of male and females adults,
children and infants. During both the contacts the enumeration team
tried to communicate with them through some Jarawa words and gestures,
but, Sentinelese could not understand those verbal words). The Sentinelese are designated as a Scheduled Tribe. More
Americans murder robot android
Hitchhiking robot crosses nations, fails to last 2 weeks in US
Cuteness won't save you. Normally when females hitchhike
in the U.S., they get raped. When men do, they get robbed, beaten, and
left in a ditch. But robots can expect vandalism, sodomy, and
annihilation. The anthropomorphic (human-like)
robot hitchBOT, seen
here during its cross-Canada trek in 2014, was mugged and murdered
yesterday, two weeks into its attempted trip across the U.S. (Reuters).
.
Some who wander are lost.
Vandals in Philadelphia bring Hitchbot's adventure to an untimely end. A hitchhiking robot eager to explore America has met its demise just two weeks into its cross-country journey.
HitchBOT was vandalized in Philadelphia ["City of Brotherly Love"] overnight on Saturday after
exploring parts of Massachusetts and New York, Canadian researchers David Smith and Frauke Zeller
shared on the project’s website. The friendly robot, who sports yellow
polka dot boots and a smiley-face LED screen, had hoped American humans
would shuttle it around the country to see Times Square, pose with the
Lincoln Statue, and tour Walt Disney World, among other destinations on
its bucket list.
“Sometimes bad things happen to good robots,” HitchBot’s creators
wrote. “We know that many of hitchBOT’s fans will be disappointed, but
we want them to be assured that this great experiment is not over. For
now we will focus on the question ‘what can be learned from this?’ and
explore future adventures for robots and humans.”
The hitchhiking robot is an experiment to see how humans interact with robots. HitchBOT previously journeyed across Canada and Germany without incident, in addition to enjoying a three-week vacation in the Netherlands. More
I want to cross over and live on that island, where it's safe. - Me, too. Nirvana is that island.
.
SUTRA: An Island Unto Oneself
Maurice O'Connell Walshe (trans.), Attadipa Sutra (SN 22.43) edited by Wisdom Quarterly
Oh, to have or be one's own island!
"Meditators, be islands unto yourselves.
Atta-dipa. Atta means "self." Dipa means both "island" (Sanskrit dvipa) and "lamp" (Sanskrit dipa),
but the meaning "island" is well-established here. The "self" referred
to is of course the unmetaphysical pronoun "oneself": compare at SN 3.8, Note 1.
"Be your own refuge [guide], having no other; let the Dharma be an island and a
refuge [guide] to you, having no other
"Those who are islands unto themselves...should investigate to the very heart of things:
It is necessary to withdraw [to remain undistracted, to be secluded in body and mind, striving and allowing the silence], to be "an island to unto oneself," at
least for a time (as any meditator knows). This is not done for any "selfish" reason
but precisely in order to make this profound introspective
investigation [that removes pride and allows unselfishness to blossom]. In the other sense, Buddhists would of course agree with
John Donne that "No man is an island." But rather we are inter-dependent.
Here there are many dangers; there it's safe.
"'What is the source of sorrow [disappointment, unsatisfactoriness, all mental-and-physical suffering], lamentation, pain, grief, and despair? How do they arise?' [What is their ultimate origin?]
"Here [within this Doctrine and Discipline, this Dharma taught by the Buddha], meditators, the uninstructed worldling [continued as in SN 22.7].
Change occurs in this person's body, and it becomes different. On account
of this change and difference, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and
despair arise. [The same consideration is made with regard to 'feelings,' 'perceptions,' 'mental formations,' and 'consciousness' together known as the Five Aggregates of Clinging].
The Buddha overlooks island of Borobudur in Java, Indonesia (obergeron/flickr).
"But seeing
As [the early Buddhist scholar] Woodward remarks in KS [Book of the Kindred Sayings,
the British Pali Text Society translation of the Samyutta Nikaya, Vol. III, PTS 1924], one would expect
to find here the words which he inserts in the text: "The well-taught [noble] disciple," as in many passages. If one in fact sees these things
and reflects as said in the text, one will cease to be [an ordinary] "worldling" [and will "change lineage" to become a noble one, that is, an enlightened person].
"the body's impermanence, its change-ability, its waning,
[Viraga, elsewhere translated as "dispassion" (SN 12.16, Note 2), also has this meaning.]
its ceasing, one says, 'Formerly, as now, all bodies were impermanent and
unsatisfactory and subject to change.'
"Thus, seeing this as it really
is, with perfect insight, one abandons all sorrow, lamentation, pain,
grief, and despair. One is not worried at their abandonment, but unworried
lives at ease. And thus living at ease, one is said to be 'assuredly
delivered.'"
[Tadanganibbuto means rather more than Woodward's "one who is rid of all that."]
[The same is done with regard to 'feelings,' 'perceptions,' 'mental formations,' and 'consciousness'].
Savage white killers (rare in mainstream media)Ken D. Wakefield is 43. Investigators say he killed and decapitated his 49-year-old wife, Trina Heisch, and their two dogs and then inflicted injuries on himself, including a severed left forearm and a missing eye. He was booked into Maricopa County (Phoenix, Arizona) jail on Aug. 1, 2015, on one count of first-degree murder and two counts of animal cruelty (Maricopa County Sheriff's Office via AP).
Illegal Jewish settlers in Israel kill burn baby alive (DemocracyNow.org, Aug. 3, 2015)
Why do whites love to kill? The last US public lynching, a family affair, usually enjoyed after church in Christian houses of worship to a hateful god called "Love" (Yahweh).
(Hunter Hunted) Let's go play on our own island! Sperry Inc. will pay.
Big Buddha Tian Tan, Lantau island, Hong Kong, (Michael Jevons/flickr.com)
Aboriginal (Negritos, "small blacks") peoples are in the news lately leading us to the conclusion that maybe they did not come from elsewhere like whites and Asians but were here all along. They exist in Southeast Asia, and above they are the people of India (Dravidians perhaps) surviving on islands and deep in forests, and recently two scientific studies concluded that the first Americans have unexplained traces of aborigine in their DNA. Moreover, older excavations dating back 50,000 years show that the first known arrivals to the USA were negroid peoples, as are still found in very small numbers in Sri Lanka (the indigenous Yakkhas), predating Buddhist arrivals from Gandhara, "Aryan" Central Asia/Iran, and Northwestern India.
The Mohave Native who played nice
Indigenous black Native ?
Irataba (circa 1814-1874) was a leader of the Mohave Nation [California],
known as an advocate for peace with whites and a mediator with the
United States. He was a renowned orator and one of the first Mohave to
speak English. He became the Mohave Nation's Aha macave yaltanack
-- an elected, as opposed to hereditary -- leader.
As a result of his many
interactions with US officials and settlers, Irataba was invited to
Washington, D.C., in 1864 for an official meeting with members of the US
military and government, including Pres. Abraham Lincoln.
He was the first Native American from the Southwest to meet an American
president.
Upon his return he negotiated the creation of the Colorado River Indian Reservation [slow eradication camp],
which caused a split in the Mohave Nation when he led several hundred
of his supporters to the Colorado River Valley. Some historians consider
Irataba a great leader who championed peace, but others feel he could
have done more to defend the Mohave way of life. In March 2015, Mohave
Tribal Chairman Dennis Patch credited Irataba with ensuring that "the
Mohaves stayed on land they had lived on since time immemorial." More
Lion-Man invents new way to play guitar
(Grayson Erhard) Erhard invents new way to treat a six string guitar with sulrprising results, "Tapestry"
Why do introverts tend to be highly spiritual? Society dictates that we follow specific images projected by the mainstream media, so why do introverts tend to rebel from these stereotypes?
Introverts tend to look within for answers versus having the need for societal approval. Often, extroverts will view the introvert as being antisocial, stuck up, or as a loner. But even with these labels, the introvert will stand his or her ground disregarding how others perceive him or her.
If you are an introvert, then you will find comfort in solitude. You often find yourself immersed in deep thought and contemplation. Your need for approval from others is significantly less than the extrovert as you realize that answers come from within.
While you may partake of social occasions, you often enjoy simply watching the environment around you versus being the center of attention, which many introverts try to avoid. On a metaphysical level, the introvert realizes how we are all connected and does not need the external approval and attention that is often sought after by the extrovert.
Approximately 75% of the world are extroverts, which makes the introvert the minority, yet the introvert will not succumb to societal pressure in order to conform.
While some introverts may be shy, there is a big difference between shyness and being introverted. More
Happily detached?
You know what's good about Buddhism? Viveka, mental and physical withdrawal to strive.
There is a kind of "happiness of detachment," aloofness. Whoever is addicted to society and worldly bustle will not partake of the
happiness of renunciation (internal letting go), detachment, peace, and enlightenment" (AN. VII.86).
There are three kinds of "detachment" (viveka) or seclusion according to the Niddesa:
(1) bodily detachment (kÄya-viveka), that is, abiding in solitude free
from alluring sensuous objects;
(2) mental detachment(citta-viveka), that is, the inner detachment from sensuous things;
(3) detachment from the Five Aggregates of Clinging (upadhi-viveka).
Forest meditation under an umbrella-mosquito net, a Thai crot (withfriendship.com)
The Buddha with avian fighting naga (Sharko333/flickr)
[In Savatthi, Ven. MigajÄla asked the Buddha:]
"'Dwelling apart,' it is said, venerable sir, 'dwelling apart': How far, venerable sir, does
one dwell apart, and to what extent does one dwell with another?"
"There are, Migajala, objects cognizable by the [sensitive tissue in the] eye -- attractive,
pleasing, endearing, agreeable, enticing, lust-inspiring.
"And if a meditator
relishes them, welcomes them, persists in clinging to them --
then due to this relishing, welcoming, and persistent clinging,
delight arises. And from delight infatuation arises.
"Infatuation brings bondage, and a meditator who is trapped in the bondage of delight is called
'one who dwells with another.'
"There are sounds cognizable by [the sensitive tissue in] the ear... fragrances cognizable by [the sensitive tissue in] the nose... tastes cognizable by the tongue... sensations cognizable by the body... phenomena cognizable by the heart/mind... and a meditator who is trapped in the bondage of delight is called
'one who dwells with another.'
Museum Buddha, Chauncey McCormick Gallery (Mark Kamermans/pomax/flickr.com)
"And a meditator so dwelling, Migajala, even
though one may frequent jungle glades and remote forest-dwellings -- free
from noise, [in sweet solitude] with little disturbance, far from the madding crowd, undisturbed by others, well fitted for seclusion [of mind and body] -- still one is termed 'one
who dwells with another.'
"Why is this? Craving is the other one has not
left behind, and therefore one is called 'one who dwells with another.'
"But, Migajala, there are objects cognizable by the eye...
ear...
nose...
tongue...
body...
mind -- attractive, pleasing, endearing,
agreeable, enticing, lust-inspiring. And if a meditator does not relish
them, does not welcome them, does not persist in clinging to them then -- due to not relishing them, not welcoming them, and not
persisting in clinging to them, delight fades away, and without delight there is no infatuation.
"Without infatuation, no bondage is
generated. And the meditator who is freed from the bondage of delight is
called 'one who dwells apart [i.e., dwelling free of attachment, without craving].'
The madding crowd (triggerandfreewheel.com)
"And a meditator so dwelling, Migajala, even though one may live near a place crowded with monastics, lay-followers, rulers and royal ministers, and the followers of other spiritual teachers -- still one is
termed 'one who dwells apart [free of attachment, without craving].'
"Why is this so? Craving is the other one
has left behind. And therefore one is called one who dwells apart [free of attachment, without craving]."
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