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realize, however, is that he can be more alone, if he chooses,
     in the midst of ten million souls than in a tiny community. To experience the feeling of
     aloneness is a spiritual achievement. The man who runs away from the city in search of this
     experience may find to his chagrin, particularly if he has brought with him all the cravings
     which city life fosters, that he has succeeded only in becoming lonely. “Solitude is for wild
     beasts or the gods,” said someone. And there is truth in it.
    Only when we are truly alone does the fullness and richness of life reveal
     itself to us. In simplifying our lives, everything acquires a significance hitherto unknown.
     When we are one with ourselves the most insignificant blade of grass assumes its proper place
     in the universe. Or a piece of manure, for that matter. Properly attuned, it’s all one come
     Christmas, as we say. One thing becomes just as important as another, one person as good as
     another. Lowest and highest become interchangeable. The own precious self gets swallowed up in
     the ocean of being. It is then that the carrion bird no longer seems hideous, nor merely to be
     tolerated because of his scavenger propensities. Nor do the stones in the field then seem
     inanimate, or to be regarded with an eye toward future walls and buttresses. Even if it last
     for only a few moments, the privilege of looking at the world as a spectacle of unending life
     and not as a repository of persons, creatures and objects to be impressed into our service, is
     something never to be forgotten. The ideal community, in a sense, would be the loose, fluid
     aggregation of individuals who elected to be alone and detached in order to be at one with
     themselves and all that lives and breathes. It would be a God-filled community, even if none
     of its members believed in (a) God. It would be a paradise, even though the word had long
     disappeared from our vocabulary.
    In all the cities and countries I dream of visiting one day thereare, of course, no such communities. Even in the holiest places man is
     prone to act the fool, the bigot, the idolater. As I said before, today we find only
     individuals dedicated to “the good life.” Nevertheless, these isolated individuals are
     bringing about a community which will one day replace the dismembered warring communities
     which are a disgrace to the name. The world does tend to become one, however much its
     component elements may resist. Indeed, the stronger the resistance the more certain is the
     outcome. We resist only what is inevitable.
    I have talked of Big Sur as if it were a place apart, having little or no
     connection with the world. Nothing could be less true. Nowhere else in my travels have I found
     individuals more alert to what is going on in the world, nor better informed. It is rare that
     a community as small as this can boast so many world travelers. I never cease to be amazed
     when I hear that this one has just left for Siam, that one for Japan, Turkey, or Greece,
     another for India or Peru, another for Guatemala, Yucatan, or the Polynesian Islands. Some of
     my neighbors have dwelt for extended periods in very remote parts of the globe. Some have
     lived with the Indians (of both continents), some with the primitive peoples of Africa, Japan,
     India, Melanesia.
    Nearly every one seems to be a specialist in some field, be it art,
     archaeology, linguistics, symbolism, Dianetics, Zen Buddhism or Irish folklore. Men like Ross
     and Tolerton, to mention two near neighbors, have a range of practical knowledge, not to speak
     of earthly and heavenly wisdom, which would be hard to match in any community. Others, like
     the Trotter boys, as they are still called, perform feats of strength in the daily pursuance
     of their tasks which would put glorified “strong men” to shame. Nearly all the women are
     excellent cooks, and the men as well ofttimes. Everyother home possesses
     a connoisseur of wines. And every