Ashtar Command Book Blog : Take to the hills, old man

Saturday, October 4, 2025

Take to the hills, old man

For *whatever strange reason* I asked the AI this question. The question (or the quest?) might be more interesting than the answer, frankly...

Let´s say I want to almost exclusively contemplate God/the Divine in solitude (no rituals, no institutions) and in addition to this, study scriptures, again in solitude. What would be the best religion or religious/spiritual sub-tradition to join?

That’s a profound question, and the way you framed it (“contemplating God/the Divine in solitude + studying scripture, without ritual or institutions”) immediately brings to mind a few traditions that have, historically, specialized in that kind of solitary, contemplative pursuit.

Let me sketch some options across different religious landscapes, so you can see which resonates most with you:

1. Christianity – Hesychasm / Contemplative Prayer

Core idea: Direct, interior prayer of the heart (“the prayer of Jesus”), seeking union with God in stillness.
Why it fits: Hesychast monks often withdrew into solitude, practiced ceaseless prayer, and studied scripture (Bible + Patristics) quietly.
Rituals? Minimal — the essence is silent prayer, watchfulness, and scripture reading.
Institutional dependence? Historically monastic, but the practice can be adapted privately.
Downside: Orthodox tradition is tied to sacraments, but as a solitary discipline it can stand independently.

2. Sufism (Islamic Mysticism) – Khalwa (solitary retreat)

Core idea: Solitary remembrance (dhikr) of God and contemplation, sometimes in extended retreat.
Why it fits: Some Sufi lineages emphasize withdrawing from society and focusing on God alone; Qur’an study in solitude complements this.
Rituals? Dhikr can be as simple as silent invocation; you could practice it without institutional ties.
Downside: Traditionally requires guidance from a shaykh; going entirely solo could risk losing the depth of the tradition.

3. Advaita Vedānta (Hindu Nondualism)

Core idea: Solitary contemplation of Brahman (the Absolute) and scriptural study (Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Shankara’s works).
Why it fits: Historically, many Advaitin monks renounced ritual and temple life to live as solitary forest ascetics focused purely on study and meditation.
Rituals? Optional; many Advaitins dismiss ritual as secondary.
Downside: It requires a tolerance for metaphysics rather than a personal-God focus (though you can approach Brahman as Saguna — personal).

4. Zen Buddhism (especially Sōtō Zen or Rinzai solo practice)

Core idea: Solitary sitting meditation (zazen) and study of sutras or Zen texts.
Why it fits: Zen hermits in China and Japan withdrew to mountains, living almost entirely in contemplation and occasional scripture reading.
Rituals? Zen has rituals in monastery life, but hermit-Zen can be stripped down to pure sitting + reading.
Downside: No “God” in the theistic sense; the Divine is encountered as Emptiness or Buddha-Nature.

5. Christian Mystical Tradition (outside institutions)

Think of people like Meister Eckhart, the author of The Cloud of Unknowing, or modern solitary contemplatives.

Core idea: Silent contemplation of God beyond images, “unknowing” prayer, private scripture reading.
Why it fits: Entirely doable without institutional life.
Rituals? Can be reduced to none.
Downside: Some tension with official church structures if done totally outside them, but the spirit is very aligned.

6. The Desert Hermit Archetype (cross-tradition)

In almost every religion, there is a “hermit” sub-tradition:

Hindu sannyasins
Christian desert fathers
Buddhist forest monks
Sufi dervishes in khalwa
All share: solitude, scripture, contemplation, little to no ritual.

✨ My take:

If you want theistic, God-centered contemplation in solitude, the best fit would be:

Christian Hesychasm / apophatic mysticism (God as personal Beloved, deep silence, scripture focus).
Or Advaita Vedānta’s jñāna-yoga path (if you lean more toward philosophy/metaphysics and don’t mind a less personal God).

If you don’t mind non-theistic framing, Zen hermit practice is probably the purest model of what you describe.

👉 Question for you: Do you want your contemplation to focus on a personal God (someone you address), or on the impersonal Absolute (pure consciousness/Being)? That will narrow this down very sharply.

What about contemplation of a "pantheist" nature, contemplating God´s creation or the creation as part of the Divine?

That’s a very fruitful refinement. Contemplation of a pantheist or panentheist kind — where creation itself is experienced as the Divine or as a direct manifestation of God — has deep roots in multiple traditions. It’s a middle ground between strict theism (“God as wholly other”) and impersonal nondualism (“Brahman = consciousness only”).

Here are some traditions that explicitly encourage solitary contemplation of the Divine as manifest in nature and creation:

1. Christian Mysticism (Nature as God’s Revelation)

Francis of Assisi, Meister Eckhart, and later poets like Thomas Traherne all saw creation as a transparent sign of God.
In contemplative solitude, scripture and nature are both “books” revealing God.
Eckhart especially: “Every creature is a word of God.”
Ritual is not necessary — one can simply read scripture, then contemplate creation as God’s presence.

2. Spinozan Pantheism (Philosophical)

Spinoza equated God with Nature (Deus sive Natura).
His “intellectual love of God” (amor Dei intellectualis) is basically contemplative study + recognition that all finite things are expressions of the one infinite substance.
No ritual, no institution needed: just reflection and study.
This influenced modern pantheist spirituality, often practiced in solitude.

3. Advaita Vedānta (Qualified Nondualism / Vishishtadvaita, Kashmir Shaivism)

In Advaita proper, the world is Maya (appearance), but in Kashmir Shaivism and Ramanuja’s Vishishtadvaita, creation is the body of God.
Thus, contemplating nature is literally contemplating Śiva/Viṣṇu.
Scriptures (Upanishads, Shaiva Agamas, Gita) often encourage solitary meditation on the universe as divine expression.

4. Sufi Mysticism (Wahdat al-Wujūd)

Ibn ʿArabi and poets like Rumi saw all creation as the self-disclosure (tajallī) of God.
Solitary contemplation of the natural world, poetry, and Qur’anic verses was seen as encountering God in every form.
Again, ritual not strictly necessary — the heart’s gaze is the real “practice.”

5. Romantic & Transcendentalist Traditions (West)

Thinkers like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau (“Walden”) championed solitary immersion in nature as a direct way of experiencing the divine.
Inspired partly by Vedānta and Sufism.
Very close to pantheist contemplation without formal religion.

🟢 Which path fits your description best?

If you want explicit pantheism: Spinoza’s line, or modern Pantheist/Panentheist contemplative currents.
If you want personal-God-but-in-all-things: Sufism, Vishishtadvaita Vedānta, or Christian mysticism (Franciscan/Eckhartian).
If you want nondual but creation-affirming: Kashmir Shaivism is uniquely rich here — it affirms the Divine play (līlā) in every aspect of creation.

✅ Summary:
The richest traditions for pantheist-style solitary contemplation are:

Christian mysticism (Eckhart, Francis, Traherne)
Sufi mysticism (Ibn Arabi, Rumi)
Kashmir Shaivism / Vishishtadvaita Vedānta
Spinoza + Romantic/Transcendentalist lineage in philosophy/literature

All of them let you bypass ritual and institutions while immersing yourself in scripture + creation as direct experience of God.

Would you like me to suggest a “contemplative reading list” — scripture and texts (from different traditions) that explicitly teach this vision of God-in-creation, suitable for solitary study?

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