Today's Saying: The purest, primal form of listening is not listening to or for anything or anyone.
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Dip into the River of Silence Be cleansed, refreshed, renewed
This day and every day Amen
Elizabeth Mills. In the Stillness.
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A church invited the Sage to its monthly prayer breakfast to share his views on worship. He sat quietly before the group. Seeing their unrest, he said, "I didn't come with a plan to say anything. Do you want to ask any questions?"
After more time of awkward silence, one asked, "What do you and your followers say to God when you worship together?"
Mostly nothing.
But can you tell us what you do?
Listen.
So, you listen to God?
No, we listen.
But what to?
Possibly, the best I can say is - We listen to nothing.
How can that be? How can you listen to nothing?
Well, it's something, isn't it?
That makes no sense.
That's why we listen.
No one else had any questions for the Sage.
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We, in our dualistic thinking, position an object other than ourselves to listen to or for. Listening, then, is an act of expectation.
In spirit, one can listen without listening having an end. Listening becomes its end, which is to say, just listening.
In this listening, listening to or for can arise spontaneously. If it does, it is welcome. If not, that is welcome. We do not need to suppress to listen to nothing. And, if we make nothing into another object, we are back to listening with an end in mind - nothing becomes an object.
To listen is to be present. Yet, we do not have to turn this being present into another purpose - being present to or for. The first act of presence is being present, or presence being presence - meaning itself. So, we can say listening and being present is the same endless act with no reason for itself outside itself.
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse. The book is a collection of poems based on wisdom traditions, predominantly Christian, Buddhist, and Sufi, with extensive notes on the poetry's teachings and imagery.
