“To listen deeply is an act of love.”
St. Benedict.
In these last several decades we
humans who are wired to love but also to listen move through this
world as if we were deaf. All the tools of listening have been
declared obsolete in the way we live – a way opposite to ancient
wisdom.
The ears, our most recognized tool for
listening are bombarded with endless noise and information. Rarely
do we have the opportunity to let in that which nourishes the soul.
Whispers of nature, words of joy or on the other hand a neighbors plea, a cry of need are barely heard
unless those who cry out resort to drastic measures. We have come to
shun silence. Silence is the womb which teaches us to hear and
understand all life in which we are interwoven. Hardly anyone listens
to and discerns the voices and whistling of the winds, the slapping
of the waves, the songs of birds.
We have lost the knowledge of
listening with our eyes (sic) – the discerning glance that
interprets the smallest lining of a cloud by which we once could tell
weather patterns, the fleeting grimace of pain on a face, the way the
trees lean or the birds fly – they all have a message – yet we
have forgotten their interpretation.
We have forgotten the knowledge on how
to listen with our hands. Most of the time we fear or despise touch
– yet the hand's energy merges with its surroundings – telling
stories about a tense body, reading the events of the surrounding
ether. Hands read and listen to textures, forms, densities, moisture
or dryness and movement and sometimes things unexplained.
At some time we could listen with our
whole body. We leaned against a tree and we heard and saw the
connection of all life – the history of an area may have been
revealed to our minds.
Laying on the earth, humans became one
with it, noticing the slightest imbalance and shutter.
Laying in the boat the ancients could
listen to the waves, currents and their forebodings – a knowledge mostly
lost.
And then there is the heart. Our
diminishing compassion has closed so many hearts. Yet only through a
compassionate heart can we listen for the pain, the needs, the hope
and the dreams of our brothers and sisters whether two- or
four-legged. Open hearts can listen deeply into other's lives. If our
hearts could learn to truly listen again, I believe, we could long
prevent the so prevalent suicides and shootings.
What closed most of our listening
devices?
FEAR!
Fear of hearing things we don't want to
hear.
Fear of uncertainty, for the things
beyond the rational cannot always be touched or proven.
Fear of seeing things we don't want to
see.
Fear of discomfort.
Fear of touch -lest it be too intimate.
Fear of being vulnerable – who wants
to appear weak?
Yet, fear is the opposite of love –
and only genuine love opens our listening tools.
Love opens our heart in empathic and
compassionate care.
Love gains insight through its caring
touch.
Love' s eyes discern the smallest
whisperings of nature, a sigh, or painful facial expression
Love hears without judgement all that's
said and unsaid.
Love embraces all, the proven and the
unproven.
This is the mark of wisdom –
knowledge of ancients.
We think we do not need it and it's obsolete.
Yet, without it we cannot function.
We cannot survive without listening
with all our being.
Without it we walk in darkness.
