74. The Privacy Of Mind

A human being needs privacy. Having privacy means being able to temporarily escape from reality. It is to enter your own world, a sanctuary for you alone. In your own world you are completely in charge: you make the rules, and you decide what happens.

In this way, your private world is a kind of imaginary space. Here, there is no other, there is only you. Here, the distance between your imagined ideal and your reality is much smaller. And if your ideal does not involve other people, your private world might even be your ideal world.

The most private space available to you is always your own mind. The thoughts and feelings that exist there are yours and yours alone. This space cannot be intruded upon by the other. Your own senses impinge on it, but even they cannot harm your imagined ideal. Your ideal can remain perfectly peaceful and calm even when you are surrounded by loud noises and flashing lights.

And it is precisely when the outside world is crashing in on you that you most need privacy. For it is then that you need to escape from the world for a time, to consolidate your own being, which is being diluted by the other that surrounds you and is always threatening to absorb you.

When you enter into your private space, you are able to become yourself again. You can reflect on your experience, and learn how to understand and appreciate it. By doing so, you come to see more of the nature of experience itself. Without privacy, you could not do this, for the world would demand something of you at all times. But your own mind grants you a private sanctuary that is always yours where you can quietly listen to all that is happening within.

It is this listening that is most important. You listen to yourself — to all that your existence is presently expressing — and you become more aware of yourself, of what you need, and of what you must do.