How to Be Better Alone

From ‘Essex County’ by Jeff Lemire,
‘You know, there are only two ways
to be completely alone in this world –
lost in a crowd… or in total isolation.’

But there is a better way to be alone, be we in a crowd or isolated.
From the ‘Sutra on the Better Way to Live Alone’:

Do not pursue the past.
Do not lose yourself in the future.
The past no longer is.
The future has not yet come.

Looking deeply at life as it is
is the very here and now,
the practitioner dwells in stability and freedom.
We must be diligent today.

To wait until tomorrow is too late.
Death comes unexpectedly.
How can we bargain with it?

The sage calls a person who knows
how to dwell in mindfullness
night and day
‘one who knows the better way to live alone’
[in only the here and now; instead of anywhere else].

[ad#essex]