A good friend of mine, whom I've known for many years, called me today to tell me how depressing he finds Valentine's Day now that his boyfriend has moved out after a nasty break-up.

So we were thinking about ways he could revel in being alone, and I remembered this over-the-top Buddhist teaching about the joys of isolation....:

"Having utterly isolated himself from the Pleasures of Sense, having isolated himself from evil ways, he dwells, having entered upon the First Jhana, with which is associated reasoning, with which is associated investigation, which has its beginning in isolation, which is full of joy and bliss. This very body, with joy and bliss originating in isolation, he drenches, he saturates, he permeates, he suffuses: there is not a single part of his whole body which is not suffused with joy and bliss originating in isolation."

Excerpt from 'The Fruits of the Religious Life' based on Digha Nikaya 2: i. 71-85

Probably, I'll send him some flowers in Seattle tomorrow, and surprise him, because I love him and wish he lived nearby...