It now seems more accurate to designate 𝑖𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 as the polar opposite of 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒, rather than hate, which is an unfortunate byproduct of self-isolation. Of course it is typically fear in some form or another that drives us into our state of isolation. Thus, we can see fear, hatred, and a heart-paralyzing sense of isolation all entangled together at the opposite end of the spectrum from love, which, in its highest register, communicates its extraordinary sense of empathic oneness with all beings, conditions, and states. All-embracing inclusion contrasted with utter exclusion – with myriad shades of gray in between. Of course, when we exclude others, we implicitly exclude ourselves. Before we can embrace others, we must first open up to those parts of ourselves that are timid, shy, and reluctant to come forth. Pretty clichéd when we put it this way, but it is the hardest thing on earth for those who live in the cold – which is to say, “in fear.”
Therefore, courage – and even anger – are closer to love than to the crippling, numbing sense of isolation. How is this? (Hot, steaming, boiling) anger must be clearly distinguished from (cold, rigid, frozen) hatred. Anger, like magma or lava, is fluid, molten, pressurized, and can be way-clearing. Hatred and fear are chilling, hardening, stunning. Anger, when strategically directed at the walls of our isolation – and not at the targets of our projected hatred – can break down and demolish those walls within and around us, rescuing our hearts from their cold, comatose condition. The compassionate heart’s truth demolishes the isolating walls that separate man from man, man from woman, humans from nature and her creatures.
Isolation is not solitude – just as living alone in an underground bunker is not like ascending a mountaintop, quietly and alone, to behold the great valley and our home village below. Isolation is tormented by fretful, anxious, internal noise – while healing solitude is attunement to the soothing silence that is always present at a deeper level within.
I have come more and more to believe that the sense of isolation – so strong in many persons living today – is at the root of most of our individual and collective psychological problems. This sense of isolation is bound up with generally unhealthy forms of egotism (narcissism) and degenerate/spurious forms of individualism. It is also linked with the steady decline of community, along with those institutions and traditions that fostered community in the past. The isolated person generally feels unloved – perhaps unlovable – and this leads to a kind of paralysis or atrophy of the heart, often attended by self-pity and smoldering resentments. To compound the problem, these dangerous and potentially destructive feelings of hatred and resentment are often directed at other persons who are similarly afflicted with profound feelings of isolation. Thus, what began as scattered, random cases of hardened, paralyzed isolation has begun to snowball into a general epidemic that is worsening. Because of the generally crippling effects of this malady, it is unrealistic to expect those who are afflicted with it to easily or quickly bounce back from the afflictions they endure.