{"id":7341,"date":"2024-02-01T08:00:59","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T00:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=7341"},"modified":"2024-06-21T05:56:44","modified_gmt":"2024-06-20T21:56:44","slug":"322-spiritual-life-and-listening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=7341","title":{"rendered":"322. Listening and Our Humanity"},"content":{"rendered":"

13\u00a0<\/sup>The reason I speak to them in parables is that \u2018seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.\u2019\u00a014\u00a0<\/sup>With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says: \u2018You will indeed listen but never understand, and you will indeed look but never perceive.<\/span><\/strong>
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>For this people\u2019s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut\u00a0 their eyes, so that they might not look with their eyes, and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn – and I would heal them.\u2019 16\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cBut blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.\u00a017\u00a0<\/sup>Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. <\/span><\/strong>(Mathew 13: 13\u201317<\/span>, NRSV<\/em>)<\/span><\/p>\n

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Teachers of communication tell us that many people do not communicate, they just take turns talking. This suggests that people do not listen while others are talking. Well, in many situations, it\u2019s difficult to concentrate and listen well \u2013 to give full attention to the speaker, to hear the words spoken, and to be able to absorb what is being said. The reasons are many. For one thing, \u00a0preoccupied with a desire to dismantle whatever the speaker says, we constantly make\u00a0 mental preparation of responses to issues while someone is speaking. For another, bored and attention dissipated, we just drift off to something else away from what the speaker is saying. We bring up three points for discussion in this regard.<\/span><\/p>\n

[1] Without silence there can be no listening<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout the ages, spiritual writers urge three things upon us as being vital to our spiritual life and journey: listening to the Holy, listening to others, and listening to ourselves. Deep listening can both move and change us. But to be able to truly listen in all these places requires both courage and vulnerability.<\/span><\/p>\n

Br. David Steindl-Rast, OSB reminds us, \u201cwithout silence there can be no listening.<\/em>\u201d Silence is the space in which words are heard. The Hebrew sage Solomon ibn Gabiol likewise says, \u201cThe beginning of wisdom is silence. The second stage is listening.\u201d<\/em> We do not hear silence, but it is that by which we do hear. To enter the house of wisdom and start to truly listen, we need to first cultivate an interior silence. With interior silence, we are better able to feel and value the silence that surrounds everything else.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s all about listening if we are to notice, listen to and connect with the movement and breath of the Holy in our own stories, feelings and experiences in all of life. The American theologian Frederick Buechner puts it well:<\/span><\/p>\n