I have a student here, a psychotherapist, who insists that most peoples' problems stem from an inability to spend time alone – a fear of loneliness. And I think I agree. Yet her idea of being alone is to spend an evening sitting in front of the TV pigging out on a large tub of ice-cream, so I guess there are degrees of alone. Meditation is, if you like, pure alone time – solitude without even your thoughts for company; time spent listening to what tentatively emerges from the shadows when we are, truly, alone.