Art of Listening

The modern man, amidst the noisy hustle and bustle of modern life, has unfortunately forgotten the art of right listening. Now what is right listening and what importance and implications does it have on the life of today’s man? Let us have a look.

It would be interesting here, to first take a ‘past backward’ sneak post-view into the times of Buddha and Mahavira. While both of them gave immense importance to right listening in their teachings, Mahavira in particular insisted on this aspect so much so that he even called his beginner sannyasins, Shravakas. Shravak comes from the word ‘shravan’ which means ‘to listen’, so shravak means one who knows how to listen. Thus Mahavira’s sannyasins would be initially learning this art of right listening as Mahavira believed that unless the seeker knows how to listen correctly/rightly, he would not be able to understand what his Master is exactly trying to convey to him. Also, if the seeker knows how to listen, then the Master need not repeat his teachings or instructions given to him over and over again. Just one sentence or a sutra, a word, a gesture or even a look from the Master and whatever needed to be conveyed will be conveyed. And Mahavira is said to have communicated with his disciples like this only. He would give messages or instructions/musings to his main disciples telepathically or esoterically and later they all would report to each other the same message although they were at different places at that time. Now this was really some kind of ancient SMSing (spiritual message servicing!).

Anyway the right listening is always by default followed by the right understanding. Then half the work in the spiritual seeker’s life is already done and he wouldn’t have to google any more from here. Great, isn’t it?

So what exactly is this Art of Listening? Before we go into this, let us understand the difference between listening and hearing. Our ears are the most passive of all the sense organs. They hear sounds and noises all the time, even while we are asleep or awake or engaged in some activity. But this is just a mechanical and unconscious act. Listening is conscious hearing. All arts are basically feminine perhaps because of their subjective and introspective nature. No wonder all artists, worth calling the name, are naturally feminine, delicate or vulnerable types.

Now in order to understand the art of listening, some preparation is definitely needed. First and foremost is relaxation. A stressful person can never listen. Both body and mind need to be absolutely relaxed. This will eventually bring the person to something called ‘heartspace’. This ‘heartspace’ is totally opposite of ‘mindspace’. Mind is masculine, heart is feminine. Mind doubts, hearts trusts. Mind questions, heart only has answers. Mind analyses, heart syntheses. (Remember: Mind is just a different ‘tool’ than Heart and not higher or lower)

So heartspace means the inner space which is intuitive, trusting, loving, harmonizing, peaceful, centered and crsytallized. This is the right ‘heartset’ to learn the Art of Listening and music is the perfect tool to practice it with. And if we can do it with music then we can apply it to any area or dimension of our life.

Music anyway is one of the most comprehensive tool for meditation and spiritual growth. If we can rightly listen to music, we can in the same way listen to our inner voice or intuitions and eventually the ‘sound of one hand clapping’ as Zen Masters say or just the ever present ‘silence’ in us. Usually we are so full of our own self-important and self-centered yakety-yak going on constantly in our ‘global’ minds that we can no longer listen to the more ‘local’ whispers of our body, heart, life and what to say of our soul trying to communicate with us.

A simple meditation technique will help. Arrange for some music you feel like playing at the time of this meditation, ready to be played in your music system. Sit comfortably in your room, take a few deep breaths and now put the music on. Let the body be completely loose and relaxed and gradually come to the ‘heartspace’ we have earlier talked about. Visualize that you are in your inner sacred garden complete with lush green landscapes, water bodies, butterflies, sun shine et al. Love is in the air… Now listen to the music from this heartspace as if it is coming from a distant and faraway place. Feel that you are at the center and all is happening on the periphery. Be alert, attentive and aware about each and every sound that is reaching your ears, whether it is music or some traffic noise or a child crying somewhere, doors being opened/closed, all… But now the mind need not analyze anything, nor judge whether it is good or bad because if you do this then you are still in the mindspace. You are just passively listening to all the sounds including music without any analysis or judgment but yet fully alert so that no sound can escape your attention.

Be in this state for as long as you can manage but it should be at least for about 10 minutes. Once you get the knack of it, you can try this at anytime without music or any props, just listening to the sounds around you. THE KEY IS: to be totally relaxed, centered and passive or detached and still fully alert, awake and attentive like a tiger in the forest. This is what is called conscious hearing: Listening. Apply this to all areas and dimensions in your life and lo! you are already living an enlighteningly conscious life! During the course of your daily activities just try to catch hold on to this ‘awakened heartspace’ and see how musically you can transform your life.

Congratulations shravaka, you have just got the SMS, the right SMS! Forward it your friends and share this divine download… Less talk-time, more listening-time, will certainly do for a change. Good luck pals!

PS. The words ‘mind’ and ‘heart’ used here are in the context of this article only. Nature has given us these three wonderful tools: body, mind and heart. All spiritual paths evolved and developed up till now have been based on these tools only. They are body-oriented, mind-oriented or heart-oriented or some combinations of these three tools.

Amano Manish
www.amanomanish.com