So I'd like to begin this Dharma talk with a poem by the poet Dana Falls.
She writes,
I'm trying to listen at the level of the soul,
To hear the liquid gold that flows in from source,
To receive the mystery with all my inner senses.
I can't tell you how I do this exactly.
It's a matter of attuning and also choosing to receive.
It isn't so much a practice as a way of life,
Opting for quiet so I don't miss the gifts that come from who knows where to keep me focused on the truth.
I'm not sure why inner listening means so much to me,
But I think it's why I'm here today.
What the universe has to say to me is this,
There's only one consciousness shining through the whole.
Open to it,
Breathe it in,
Receive it fully.
By being yourself without shame or excuses,
You add your small puzzle piece to the infinite frame of the unknown.
This is what I'd like to explore with you,
This poem,
This way of listening.
In the past weeks,
We've been looking at the framework or the criteria for speaking and communicating that's guided by the Buddhist principles.
And we framed these teachings as questions that we can ask ourselves before speaking,
Or we can reflect upon after we've spoken.
And those five questions that we have looked at are,
Is it true?
Is it timely?
Is what I'm about to say beneficial?
Can I deliver it in a kind way?
And will it bring us together?
And this week,
I want to extend these questions into another realm of communication.
And that is of listening.
I often teach that mindfulness practice,
This practice of paying attention,
Is a kind of honesty practice.
You know,
We see ourselves honestly,
No part left out,
The good,
The bad and the ugly,
Right?
But mindfulness practice could also be considered synonymous with listening.
We're really tuning in and listening to ourselves from the deepest level.
We begin listening to our breath,
And we come back to our breath as our life force.
As our life force.
And then we sometimes get pulled into listening to our sensations in the body.
Sometimes there's a pain.
So that pulls us away from the breath,
And we pay attention to that for a time.
We listen to the feeling tones,
The emotions,
And we listen to the thoughts,
Not as commandments,
More like watching the show of thought.
Watching the appearing of those top 10 tunes that are often set in the mind on repeat.
All these areas we're listening to,
Watching with honesty,
What's it like?
You know,
What's it like to be in this body with these particular conditions?
If there's one capacity that is central to our spiritual life,
It is our human capacity to listen.
You know,
When the Buddha sat under the Bodhi tree on the night of his enlightenment,
It wasn't so much to do,
Or to get,
Or to make something happen,
But to listen inwardly.
Really listen with all of his senses to the nature of this world that we're born into for this period of time.
So our meditation practice is a practice of remembering,
And also reclaiming the mind,
Reclaiming this art of listening.
Historically,
The first disciples of the Buddha were called the listeners.
You know,
Back in the time of the Buddha,
There was no written communication.
There's no radio or TV.
All communication happened orally,
And people had to listen,
Or speak,
For the news.
Like all the knowledge and education,
All the knowledge and wisdom,
All the knowledge and wisdom,
All the knowledge and education,
And entertainment,
And music,
And poetry,
Was received from someone speaking them.
And because of that,
It's my belief that people listened in a different way 2,
500 years ago.
If they wanted to remember something,
They just couldn't go and look it up on Google.
They had to either memorize it for themselves,
Or find someone else who had memorized it.
And this art,
This skill,
It seems to have been lost in the modern world,
Or it actually hasn't even been developed.
It's what St.
Benedict called,
Listening with the ear of the heart.
So we're training in this art of listening,
By listening to our bodies,
And our feelings,
And our thoughts,
With a kind of humble curiosity.
The humility comes from starting to see and understand that the mind has no shame.
It will go anywhere.
You know,
But we learn to ask,
You know,
What is this anxiety trying to tell me?
What is this disappointment trying to tell me?
We learn to ask,
You know,
What is this anxiety trying to tell me?
What is this disappointment really about?
So we're kind of getting under the words.
There's a story that I heard about a man who was having difficulty in his marriage,
And so he goes to a therapist,
And the therapist tells him,
You have to listen to your wife.
So he goes home,
And he comes back a week later,
And he says to the therapist,
Well,
I listened,
But nothing changed.
And the therapist said,
See,
You have to also listen to what's between the words,
What's not being said.
So as we explore this topic of listening this week,
We start with the way we listen to ourselves.
And the question that I would like to raise and explore with you in the time that we have is what in your life is asking to be listened to?
We all have something.
What is singing to us?
What is crying or weeping?
What wants to be heard?
This is the question for our reflection.
What are the messages of our body or our heart that it's time to honor?
What in our life is asking to be listened to?
Let's reflect on that for a moment.
