The Practice of Solitude

A private instruction in being alone

Most men believe themselves independent because they are busy. Most men fill silence with noise, movement, or speech. Few have ever met themselves without mediation. Few have ever been alone in the full sense of the word.

This practice offers an interval of deliberate quiet. It is neither therapy nor religion, nor an exercise in self-improvement. There are no goals, no instructions. Nothing will be chanted. Nothing will be achieved.

A Gentle Invitation

Remove all symbols of role: clothing, phone, watch, words. And simply spend a set period of time—unentertained, unhurried, unobserved. The room is white. The garden is private. The weather is immaterial.

At the close, there may be a short conversation, though silence is perfectly acceptable.

Three visits are customary:

1. Introduction: Discover that time, when left alone, lengthens.
2. Resistance: Confront the impulse to fill emptiness with activity.
3. Ease: Recognise that the absence of company is not a deficit but a form of completeness.

It is sometimes said that loneliness is cured by company. In truth, it is cured by solitude. Only in silence can listening occur.

One may, of course, practise this alone at home; yet most do not, or forget, or allow the world to intrude. A structure—like having a tutor in yoga—simply ensures one begins.

Reflections from participants

A few of the men who have taken part were kind enough to send brief notes afterwards. None were asked to write; their words are offered here, anonymously, with permission.

J.M., Melbourne
A man accustomed to constant travel and professional noise.
“I came expecting instruction and left with silence. It was the first time in years I’d heard nothing—and realised it was what I’d been missing.”

R.T., Sydney
A retired teacher who thought himself immune to restlessness.
“At first I felt awkward, as if I should be doing something. By the third visit I understood that doing nothing was the point. I haven’t hurried since.”

A.G., London
Recently widowed, uncertain how to inhabit his own time.
“No man should wait for retirement to discover stillness. It is not a luxury but a correction.”

D.W., Adelaide
An engineer whose mind rarely stopped calculating.
“It’s remarkable how much of life can be discarded once you learn to sit still for an hour.”

The Terms

Sessions are arranged privately and individually at a discreet Blue Mountains home. Each lasts between one and two hours.

The Practice is not advertised elsewhere and accepts fewer than six participants each year.

The fee of $3,000 for the complete series of three visits, (payable in advance) is deliberately substantial, not for enrichment but to mark the seriousness of the undertaking. Silence, like any rare commodity, requires a little ceremony to be properly appreciated.

• There are no levels, no certificates, and no promise of transformation.
• Those who need to ask what it is will find out soon enough.

Enquiries by email only.

About Geoffrey, your Host

The Practice of Solitude is conducted by a former teacher and masseur who has spent many years exploring the disciplines of attention, silence, and the social cost of noise.

I have worked with men from a wide range of professions and temperaments, most of whom arrive overextended and leave somewhat less so.

I make no claims of expertise beyond experience and offer no doctrine beyond the usefulness of stillness.

My preference, as always, is for quiet work done well and without fuss.

Solitude is not withdrawal but recovery of one’s own balance.