27/11/2025
Awakening Means Nothing Without Each Other (a reflection from my 10 days of silence)
I’m here in the silence, being told not to look at others, not to speak, not to gesture, to be in my own world and let others be in theirs.
The promise? Enlightenment.
The dream at the end of reality.
The prize.
The heaven on earth.
But you know what I feel at this time, in this space?
That I don’t want it —
I don’t want it if it doesn’t come with human connection.
Being in my own head for 10 days, silent, muted, meditative…
It’s fu***ng brutal.
You know what got me through?
It’s the humans.
The WTF sideways glances when they think nobody’s looking.
The accidental drop of a water bottle in a quiet dining hall.
The catch of a shawl on a door handle and the giggle that escapes before anyone can stop it.
…and then there was the one I couldn’t look at,
because one glance and we’d have fallen apart —
full mischief, full laughter, no words needed.
It is those oh f**k I’m supposed to be quiet and perfect moments of connection and joy that got me through.
So I get it.
I get the whole enlightenment gig.
I understand its pull — the desire, the hunger for truth.
But I don’t want it if I have to do it alone.
I don’t want it if it costs me people.
I want the smiles and the laughter.
The tears and the struggle.
The messy, human, beautiful experience of being together.
That’s my enlightenment.
That’s my expansion.
Not from disconnection —
but from the interwoven interactions of other humans.
That’s my light.
That’s my life.
That’s my soul’s mission.
If this resonates, tell me below — I’d love to hear your experience of silence, connection, or awakening.
Let’s not walk this path alone. We weren’t meant to.
