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Wisdom Story
The following story is from an anonymous Egyptian monk who was one of many Desert Fathers and Mothers of early Christian centuries:
Three men loved to work, and they were monks. The first one went about to find strife; he turned it into peace. The second went about visiting the sick. The third went into the desert to live in quiet.
The first man, who stilled contentions of humans, failed to get every person to live at peace with others. For this failure, he was sad. So, he went to the man who visited the sick. He found him discouraged, for he was not able to fulfill expectations he had laid down for himself.
Then, these two monks visited the monk in the desert. The two men related to the third monk their struggles. They asked him to tell them how he had lived in the desert. He was silent. After a little he said, "Come, let each of us go and fill a vessel with water." After they had filled it, he spoke, "Pour out some of the water into a basin. Then, look down to the bottom through it." They did so. He inquired, "What do you see?" They said, "We see nothing." After the water in the basin ceased to move, he said to them, "Look into the water." They looked. He asked them, "What do you see?" They told him, "We see our faces distinctly." He spoke, "So is it with the person who dwells among others. For by reason of the disturbance caused by the affairs of the world, he cannot truly see his own sins. If he lives in the quietness of the desert, he is able to see both himself and God clearly."
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Comments
"Solitude" derives from Latin solitudo. This is from the Latin solus, "alone." Solus comes from the Latin base solo, the source for our "solo."
But this solus the postmodern individual flees from. She flees by drugs, food, television, music, constant chatter, cell phone, sight seeing, and any other means of escape.
Why the flight? Could it be the unreality of the mass life, concealed by immersion in talk and busyness, provides the cultural or religious, even often "spiritual," decor of self-respectability and social-respectability?
Solitude is not a mere escape. The escape from the tyranny of busyness and chatter is inscape into the true self. Quieting everyday agitation leads us to confront honestly the quality of our lives and persons.
In Thoughts in Solitude, Thomas Merton reminds us of the aim of solitude. Solus is not for acquiring a special or exalted spirituality. Nor is solitude the way to obtaining what a person wants~contemplation. Rather, a person seeks solitude to express her full gift of herself to the Divine One. Solitude is the gift she gives to God, a gift of herself.
The contemplative daily engages solitude, even amidst the active life. She has come to know without solus, she cannot give herself fully to her Beloved. She learns that with commitment to solitude she carries a tabernacle of quiet within her amidst the noises all around her. In Quiet she grows to know herself more truly and her God more dearly.
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