Expert: Joe McSorley - 1/31/2006

Question
Joe,

Still moving down the path of life trying to sort things out.  I've stumbled upon an interesting problem; that of being alone.  Countless research studies have found that people that are social compared to others who are isolated or less so, consistently live longer, have less disease and are happier.

Buddhism, however, it seems to me places great importance on spending time alone in quiet meditation learning to be still with the self.  Monks, students often retreat for weeks to be alone.  How is this not harmful if we consider the above studies?  

The only answer I could come up with is that for the general population isolation breeds discontent and depression and it is this that is causing harm whereas a trained buddhist is using the isolation productively.  

I'd appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks

Chuck

Answer
Dear Chuck,
     I think there is a lot to this situation.  There is a difference between being isolated and being alone.  A monk might be by himself in a temple but he is still part of the community and not really isolated. The idea is not to be isolated but to remove distractions so you can meditate more effectively.  It is to become fulfilled as realizing self as all nature and not to isolate from nature.  We are social animals and if your self-identity comes from your socialization then being alone could be very stressful but if your self-identity is not contingent upon your socialization then you would be free of this problem.  I think the studies mainly involve those who have been separated from society by circumstance and not choice.  If it is not their will to live this way it must be very stressful.
  I think something else that comes into play here is the difference between some of these monks and the rest of society.  If you've come to a genuine realization about the nature of humanity then you would have a clearly different view of reality then others.  This creates a dilemma.  To be compassionate you need to be in society to help it yet at the same time you realize that there is a certain ignorance of society that is hard to deal with all the time.  In this situation solitude would be a healthy choice.
 As far as longevity goes there are many instances of great longevity with many monks so it might be the difference of choice and happenstance with their being alone.
  Take care,
          Joe