Let's close our eyes.
The culture that we are currently part of,
There is a lot of isolation there.
We spend a lot of time alone.
We might be in teams at work,
We might have friends,
Family,
Relatives,
Community,
Volunteering,
But they are lives or roles that we play from time to time.
On an average week,
We spend a lot of time alone,
By ourselves.
That community aspect,
Although we are part of communities,
But the experience of community is missing or is operating at a very low level.
It is convenient to be alone,
But it is quite harmful to be alone,
Emotionally,
Psychologically,
Because we are social creatures.
I'm sure you recognize the feeling when you are in a group of people,
Even if you don't know them.
There is a certain joy in just being around people.
Having said that,
It's even easier to feel more isolated in a group of people if you are lost in thinking.
Thinking about yourself,
Thinking about problems,
Thinking how you are worse than others or better than others.
Unfortunately,
This flavor of thinking is what gets promoted on a daily basis when we are alone.
We get used to thinking only about ourselves.
How much can we think about ourselves?
Given how we have grown up or we have been exposed to,
We rarely think good about ourselves.
There's a lot of self-loathing,
Comparison,
Anxiety,
Fear in being alone,
In operating alone.
We feel quite fearless to do dangerous things with our friends,
But on a daily basis,
When we are alone,
Even simple things become dangerous.
Unfortunately,
This is not the impending doom danger.
This is a long-term,
Unrecognized danger of being isolated,
Of being obsessed about ourselves.
Some of us get creative and we think about what others are thinking about us.
It's a convoluted way of thinking about ourselves.
What happens in this kind of practice that we are in when we actually come across a gathering of people?
It's like a relief,
Relief from this self-obsession,
Which we are not accustomed to.
We've always lived in tribes and groups,
Thinking about others,
Contributing.
This excessive thinking that we do is very alien and its effects are even worse.
Every gathering I've been a part of in the last two years,
You can see a palpable desire that people have been craving this gathering,
This exchange.
Offices are still on a hybrid mode,
Most of them.
Going in to the office is also a sort of punishment.
For some,
It is genuine inconvenience,
But that's very few places we have in our lives where gathering is readily available,
Gathering with relevance.
A good rule of thumb would be to revisit everything that is convenient in the moment.
Everything convenient needs to be re-evaluated for its short-term benefits and long-term costs.
Some of us are introverts,
Some of us are extroverts,
But this need of being around people goes beyond extroverts and introverts.
Over the weekend,
I was at a gathering of people,
Over 400-500 people under a single roof.
I didn't know a single person there,
Yet it was so peaceful,
So familiar,
So nourishing.
I'm an introvert,
But I like being around people.
I don't mean like in a mall where there are people,
But relevance.
And if you think of it,
We are in a society.
The culture is made of society,
Whatever culture we are a part of.
There is no culture without people gathering directly,
Indirectly.
Culture is like the meaning and the gathering is like words.
We all see gatherings,
But we all feel the culture.
We hear the words,
We understand the meaning.
Then there is a special gathering,
A gathering like this.
We're gathering around truth,
We're gathering around clarity,
Happiness,
Which nourishes the soul in a very subliminal way.
Every few months,
I feel the yearning of going to a retreat,
Gathering with truth lovers.
Obviously,
We don't talk about truth all the time,
But the undercurrent of the gathering is truth,
Laughter,
Celebration,
Clarity,
Catharsis.
I know this works for me,
Where even if I'm uttering these words that are unprepared,
They cleanse me,
Coming through me,
And might have a similar effect for you as well,
Because that's the power of this special gathering.
I have been very lucky to find this group very easily,
But there are a lot of these groups that meet.
Even meeting for board games can become an expression of truth,
Of laughter,
Of celebration.
Every gathering,
You are a part of,
Knowing what you know now,
Feeling how you feel now.
You can't but show up that way,
Bringing your truth,
Even in one of the most mundane activities.
The thing is,
We all want to be seen,
And that's what gatherings do.
They allow us to be seen,
Not just seen visually,
But seen beyond our looks,
Our appearances,
Our problems,
Our accumulations.
Even something as simple as going to a studio for a gym,
If you taste what it is like to work out with other people,
That's why I said a studio,
Not a gym,
Where everyone's doing their own thing,
A boxing studio or a yoga studio.
You will see,
Even if doing it for a month,
You will see that stopping would be difficult.
Even if you could do the same workouts at home,
There is something special in the group.
Some people call it the group energy,
But that's the gathering,
That's the community aspect.
This happens very automatically,
You can't will yourself into this,
Or you can't will yourself out of this.
The only thing you can do is be checked out,
Be not present,
To even let it work its magic through you,
By being occupied by thinking or problems.
It's best to re-evaluate all our conveniences,
Because we don't even realize sometimes what it's costing us.
Just narrating this,
I feel nourished.
Just talking about this gathering is so nourishing by itself.
The actual experience of being in a gathering is far more nourishing than this one.
How much to attend,
How little to attend,
It's completely up to you.
Or whether to attend,
Or whether not to attend any of these gatherings,
Or to arrange any of these gatherings,
Is completely your freedom.
But it's better to evaluate our choices,
Evaluate our needs,
Needs of body,
Needs of mind,
Needs of the soul,
And then design our life based on those needs,
Holistically.
There's never a wrong time to feel nourished,
Or to be nourished.
For some it might take a lot more work,
But it's totally worth it.
Thank you.
