We talk and talk and talk, and all this brings us no closer to wisdom.
If you wish to understand the deep truth that is in God and in yourself,
keep still and listen; become poor in yourself, desiring nothing and knowing
nothing and possessing nothing. Only when you are empty
of all your chatter will there be room enough in you to receive
the gift of wisdom you long for.
*Jon M. Sweeney, Mark S. Burrows. Meister Eckhart's Book of Darkness & Light: Meditations on the Path of the Wayless Way.
* * *
After meditation, a group member read a beautiful reading from a Jewish writer. We were to be receptive to how the selection spoke to us (Lectio Divina) and could share that with the group. Near the end, the passage referred to listening to God or listening to another as both important.
The mindfulness bell rang. The leader invited sharing. What came powerfully to me during the reading I offered the group: "To me, listening to another is listening to God." What I did not say, which also had arisen to my mind-heart, was, "How could it not be?"
So, I ask you ... "How could it not be?"
* * *
The group, being strongly conditioned to believe in theological duality, so separation between "God" and "self," so "self" and "other" ... I was not sure how it would respond. It appeared to offer no response at all. Yet, no response is a response. Possibly the passive response was that such was a surprise.
Members of the group shared thoughts again in the well-ingrained, 'sacrosanct' vocabulary of separation - God and we object to one another. I am subject speaking to object God, who listens, and God becomes subject speaking to object me, who listens.
Our thought and language patterns speak separation and distance - even our brain is divided; the pattern is relatively true - absolutely, impossible. In the Unity, speaker and listener are speaking and listening, yet it is the play of One.
Hence, when I write or say 'God,' I am not referring to a deity outside what is fully present here, as intimate as intimate can be intimate. God is in the speaking, listening, and silence from which it comes. It is God's play. We are God's play.
* * *
Jesus said, "When you've seen me, you've seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father?" He could have said, "When you've listened to me, you've listened to the Father." But is this only true of Jesus?
When I intimately see you, I see God. When I wholeheartedly come out of myself into your speaking, I am listening to God.
* * *
Why do we pray for God to speak and not listen to God speaking all around us? To us? Within us? Are we waiting for some extraordinary voice when all Nature, including people, speaks the Word? When all Life speaks, why do we give unhealthy devotion and worship to particular persons or classes of people? We can, for example, not listen to God all week but go to a church building to listen to a preacher, thinking now God will say something. God was speaking Monday thru Saturday.
Do you think a preacher, roshi, guru, priest ... can mediate the Word any better than your friend, child, lover, or a stranger at the check-out line of the local grocery store - or the bird singing from the tree in your backyard? When we align with Grace, we will hear the Word in every direction to which we turn.
* * *
Jesus spoke, "Let those with ears listen" - Do we have 'ears'? Sadly, not everyone can hear - and I, as Jesus, am not referring to a fleshly, funny-looking organ on the side of the head and sound waves.
Yet, this missing of the Voice is a consequence of creating a god-image of distance and separation from us rather than part of the warp-and-woof of daily life. And if we are not listening daily, we will likely not hear anything on a set-aside day.
* * *
What hinders us from listening? One thing is we often hear but are not listening. The opening poem speaks of the cluttered mind. How can I listen without there being space within for listening to arise? How can a mind chasing after thoughts or the next thing to get done listen?
Simplifying the mind enhances the capacity to listen deeply, attentively. We listen deeply when present fully. With stillness, inner and outer, we listen. We listen to the Voice that has been everywhere.
Now, the Voice arises with things seen and heard. The Voice appears through presences, seen and unseen.
* * *
Interestingly, during the reading in the group, after the first of three readings of it, I decided to stop listening to the words and their meaning, which is how we usually listen. We listen to what is being said, not who is saying it.
I started listening to the reader through mindful attention to her voice. What arose was a deeply-felt love for this human being reading for us.
So, that was a lesson for me. We can miss the most important ingredient of sharing by focusing on the content only as what is being said, the secondary content - rather than the principal content - the one speaking.
So, you may wish to try this. Practice listening through the voice of the one talking, reading, singing ... rather than first to what is being spoken.
*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.
