A Doorway to Presence
A Doorway to Presence
From our friend Lindsey V. in the New York Center
One of the easiest ways to be present is to listen. — The Teacher
Listening can be a simple and profound experience of presence and connection. If we are sincere with ourselves, we see that we rarely listen completely. While another person speaks, we are often preparing an answer, comparing what is said with something we already know, judging, remembering, or wandering into imagination–or actually interrupting the speaker. All this happens mechanically. We hear the words, but only a small part of us is actually present. We disconnect.
The attitude one has towards listening can distort the wisdom one receives. — The Teacher
Usually, we listen primarily with the intellectual center. Someone speaks and immediately the machinery of thought begins: I agree. I disagree. I know this already. What should I say next? But listening can involve all the centers. We can receive the meaning of the words intellectually, feel their emotional tone, and remain aware of the sensations of the body. When the different centers participate together, listening becomes less an act of interpretation and more an expression of presence. The mind does not reach outward to capture or interpret everything it hears. It becomes receptive and open.
Gurdjieff repeatedly emphasized that what is ordinarily called attention is insufficient for inner work. He expressed the principle simply: “Attention is acquired only through conscious labor and intentional suffering.” Listening can become one form of that conscious labor. For myself, working against a habit of interrupting people while they are speaking, both in person and on the phone, has become an alarm clock for sleep.
Instead of allowing attention to follow every passing association, we can make an effort to remain receptive—to the person speaking, to the body, to our inner state, and to whatever else may be entering our ‘field.’ Ouspensky taught that the higher centers are already developed and continually functioning, but that in our ordinary condition we have little connection with them.
Our inner world is filled with too much noise. Associative thoughts, imagination, identification, negative emotion, and constant inner talking drown out the quiet voice of higher centers.
There is a voice that doesn’t use words. Listen. — Rumi
We cannot command the higher centers to speak, but we can become more capable of receiving their influence. When moments of unusual clarity, conscience, understanding, beauty, or a feeling of connection appear unexpectedly, the temptation is immediately to explain them, possess them, or reduce them to something we already know. A different response is simply to listen. This requires leaving room for something genuinely new. Mechanical attention recognizes what it already knows: it compares, labels, judges, and associates. Conscious attention is willing not to know. It can remain before an impression without immediately reducing it to its name. This openness may be essential for awakening, because if every new impression is immediately translated into the language of our personality, we continually recreate the world we already know.
I believe that much unseen is also here. Here the profound lesson of reception, nor preference nor denial… — Walt Whitman
Listening to another person offers the same opportunity. To listen fully requires us to at least temporarily forget about ourselves and our story. We become quiet enough to allow another person to exist without immediately translating everything into our own opinions and experiences. This is true external considering: making an effort to see another person from his or her position rather than continually from our own. My Aunt can no longer communicate very clearly but I can see how it touches and soothes her when I am able to listen to her with my whole body and mind. To be present to her.
Deep listening is the kind of listening that can help relieve the suffering of another person. — Thich Nhat Hanh
We can think of practicing listening completely as part of our education in being present to what is before us. The art of listening is the art of being present. When attention becomes quiet, spacious, and sufficiently free it can hear what is in the moment and can receive things we may have never heard before.
To listen is an art which is not easily come by, but in it there is beauty and great understanding. — J. Krishnamurti
The Jewish Bride, Rembrandt, c. 1665-1669
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