#170

You must make a distinction between two words: lonely and alone. In the dictionary they carry the same meaning, but those who have been meditating, they know the distinction. They are not the same, they are as different as possible. Loneliness is an ugly thing; loneliness is a depressive thing - it is a sadness; it is an absence of the other. Loneliness is the absence of the other - you would like the other to be there, but the other is not, and you feel that and you miss them. YOU are not there in loneliness, the absence of the other is there. Alone? - it is totally different. YOU are there, it is your presence; it is a positive phenomenon. You don't miss the other, you meet yourself. 

Then you are alone, alone like a peak, tremendously beautiful! Sometimes you even feel a terror - but it has a beauty. But the presence is the basic thing: you are present to yourself. You are not lonely, you are with yourself. Alone, you are not lonely, you are with yourself. Lonely, you are simply lonely - there is no one. You are not with yourself and you are missing the other. Loneliness is negative, an absence; aloneness is positive, a presence.