Let us love even loneliness.

A person who is strong in the face of loneliness is truly strong. As children, we cannot bear being bored, and even as adults, we are bored to death. Everyone in the world is helpless before loneliness. This is not because that fellow called loneliness is strong, but because the human mind that fears and avoids(hates) loneliness gives that fellow called loneliness its power. Therefore, when that fellow called loneliness comes, do not look away or turn it away at the door. Welcome it in and look at it. Meet its eyes. That fellow called loneliness slips in like a thief when no one is looking and captures the mind. But once it is seen, it becomes helpless. That little fellow, too, came wanting to be loved, just once! Knowing this, if you say, “All right, come anytime,” leave the door wide open, and even welcome it, it soon subsides. For its purpose is to be loved. Love is the cure for all ills. Beginning with loneliness, the arising of a single thought is birth, and the disappearing of a single thought is death. The way a single thought is born and dies is the same as the way a living being is born and dies. Therefore, always stay awake. When not awake, sleep comes, and dreaming begins. When caught in loneliness, that thing called loneliness becomes the master, and a whole world of dreams takes shape. Once  caught  in loneliness, you have fallen into the world of dreams. It is your own mind, yet your own mind does not obey you. Because you have fallen into a dream! A dream you dream with your eyes open! You pay the price for hating loneliness through a dream! It is a kind of punishment. Because hating is not the truth of the universe, it casts you into a world of falsehood. Only when you wake from the dream do you know for certain that hating is not the truth. No need to love. If you do not hate, it is all love. Hatred is falsehood, a dream, an illusion. When the dream, the illusion, and the falsehood disappear, what remains, just as it is, is truth and love. Because a human being is, by nature, love itself. The place of the original mind is, so to speak, empty, bright, and infinite. Nothing lacking. A being never lonely. Loneliness is a false existence in a dream. To say that people are born lonely is to speak in a dream. Once you wake from the dream, that thing called loneliness, no matter how hard you look, is nowhere to be seen. Therefore, so as not to fall asleep and dream, you must keep your eyes wide open and stay awake. Whether that thing called loneliness comes along, or that thing called boredom comes along— so you can welcome it. The moment you look away, it slips in like lightning and takes hold of your mind. Once you are caught, it is very hard to get free. Not easy to wake from the dream. When you become  fully awake (awakened), no friend is needed. Therefore, not bound  by friends, you are free. You can be  a friend  to anyone. It is the realm of “In heaven and on earth, I alone am honored.” Empty sky, holding the whole universe as one. The richest of the rich. A president is not the point. A tycoon is not the point. You are the master of the world  you made. Loneliness is a good koan. When loneliness rushes in, that is when sleep rushes in. That is the moment you begin to dream. If I look away, I become a slave to loneliness. Therefore, I must always guard my own house. I must stay awake. To know that sleep is coming, to know that I am dreaming— that is being awake. Knowing it comes when it comes, knowing it goes when it goes— then I am the master. I must know when the guest comes and goes in my house. Only then am I the master. As I go on living awake like that, it settles in, and the one who comes, the one who goes— both disappear. Because there is nothing but me. Because inside and outside disappear. Because I have grown infinitely large. Self and things, one. Subject and object, one. By then, there is no coming and no going. It is the realm where time and space are unified as one. It is the realm where time is, yet is not, where space is, yet is not. It is the realm of awakening. That thing called loneliness is not a being that torments me, but a being that longs for love, and a being that teaches me love as well. That little fellow, I mean. Thank you, Loneliness! Without you, how could I have written something like this today! Let us love even loneliness! Even more so, we should not look down upon even the smallest creatures, even insects. Even more so, how could we have a heart that hates another person! Therefore, even toward the things we use at home— the bed, blanket, shoes, clothes— we should not have it in us to treat them carelessly. Even to the car, once in a while, I should be able to say inwardly, “You’ve worked hard.” That is the way of the master. Is that not the very heart that loves even loneliness? Is that not the very heart that loves all things in heaven and earth!