How to Listen

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How to Listen

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Admittedly, I'm not the best listener. I want to be, but I'm still too into being heard, on my evolutionary journey. Speaking my truth, speaking from the heart, speaking authentically - these are all concepts I have been working on for years and of which I have a good understanding and can do now without as much effort as I once did. What you hear from me, isn't a lie. But after all this time of speaking in this way, I began to wonder if just simply speaking my truth, being true to myself and expressing myself authentically was enough to truly be of service in the world. The answer. No. I have been missing the essential piece of listening. Oh, I can hear myself, no problem. And perhaps in my quest to let go of self-criticism, I have become deaf. You see, it is not enough to speak my truth, from the heart, authentically. I must listen. To be willing to hear, even the negative self-talk so that I can make a choice. But if I don't first hear, we can not choose. Ganesha comes to mind - the great Revealer and Remover of obstacles. Just as Ganesha reveals to remove, so must I listen to let go and hear. There is so much to this concept of listening. My current desire is not so much to stop listening to myself or listening internally- this will be an on-going lifetime journey, but to spend time listening to others, to Nature, to the world around me, so that I can be of true service in the world.

To help me, I turned to TED (see Current Obsessions for awesome TED Talks on listening). And what I learned from speakers on the subject of listening was this:

  • If you want to help, shut up and listen! Listen to the people you want to serve. Ask questions like:  Have you tried? Would you be willing to explore? What do you think about? What do you need? and most importantly: What do you want?
  • Most people are entirely unconscious of what they listen to, that intention is very important, sound places us in time and space. Listening is the main way in which we experience the flow of time. Listening is something we are losing. Through technology, we can record, we can write, we can blog, and our world has become much louder, filled with sound. We are impatient, we want sound bites. And the art of conversation is being replaced by personal broadcasting. Bingo. Guilty. I crave conversation. I have been missing conversation.
  • There is a vast difference between translation and interpretation. It is simply not enough to experience the surface level. We need to listen, to ourselves first, our motivations, our conditioning, etc., but then take time ... take time to listen. We need time with people in order to interpret them, not just translate them.

I would love to hear your thoughts! Let's start a conversation.

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Another Vision

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Another Vision

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I seek what I am, to be what I am. I have a habit of thinking of “body,” on the one hand, and of “spirit or energy” on the other. But nothing exists separately. There is a unity of life. I wish to live it, and I seek it through a movement of return toward myself. I say there is an outer life and an inner life. I say this because I feel myself as distinct, as existing apart from life. There is, however, only one great life. I cannot feel separate from it, outside it, and at the same time know it. I must feel myself a part of this life. But it is not enough to desire this or to seek an intense sensation of it. I can enter into the experience only if I have first come to unity in myself, only if I have come to be a whole.

There are two movements in me: a movement of energy from above which, if I am free enough to listen to it, penetrates and acts through me; and another movement, dispersed and without order, which animates my body, my thought and my feeling. The two are very different, and I cannot bring them into accord. Something is missing. My attention is unable to follow them at the same time. Sometimes it settles on the void, the infinite, on emptiness; sometimes on the form. When the attention settles on emptiness, it is the form that dissolves. When the attention is on the form, the sense of the void disappears. It is necessary to pay the price.

Can I be free enough to receive what is unknown, behind all my avid movements toward the outside? This unknown, which is behind and beyond, cannot be perceived by my senses. I am able to see a form, but I cannot know through my senses the true nature of what it is. My thinking knows forms but cannot grasp the reality behind them, the reality of what I am, which appears just before and after each thought or feeling. What we experience—sounds, forms, colors, thoughts—cannot exist without a background. But this background cannot be perceived by my senses. It remains unseen, not experienced. The forms and the reality are parts of a single whole, but they exist in different dimensions. The real is not affected by the material of my thinking and cannot absorb it. Reality is on another level. Yet the material of my thought absorbs the real and constructs illusions based on forms. The form acts as a veil hiding the reality. When the reality of myself is not felt, I cannot help but believe in this illusion and call it “I.” Nevertheless, the illusion is only a mirage which dissolves the moment silence is established.

I have to see that there is a space between thoughts, a void that is reality, and I need to remain as long as possible in this space. Then another kind of thinking appears, clear and intelligent, a thought of another level, another dimension. I see that the usual thought, which is limited and measureable, can never understand that which is beyond measure. With my usual vision I see the physical aspect of the world. With this other vision I see another dimension in which the immeasurable has its own movement. If my centers are absolutely still, without any movement, the energy can pass through them. I see what I did not see before. I see what is. In this seeing there is a light, a light that is not ordinary. Things appear and disappear in the void but are illuminated, and I am no longer so taken by them. In this seeing I can understand my true nature and the true nature of things around me.

It is not a matter of fighting indifference or lethargy or anger. The real problem is vision—to see. But this seeing is only possible if we return to the source, to the reality in us. We need another quality of seeing, a look that penetrates and goes immediately to the root of myself. If we look at ourselves from outside, we cannot penetrate and go deeper because we see only the body, the form of the seed, its materiality. Reality is here, only I have never put my attention on it. I live with my back turned to myself.

Jeanne de Salzmann


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Playlists: April 2013

 

April 25, 2013 Noosa - Sail Hannah Georgas - Fantasize Blond Redhead - My Plants are Dead Still Corners - The White Season Intimate Stranger - El Horizonte Burning Hearts - Deep Waters Savoir Adore - Empire of Light Dane Buoy - So Lucky sami.the.great - Dresser Drawer Citizens! - Love you More Pure Bathing Culture - Ivory Coast

April 23, 2013 Holocene - Bon Hiver Hatoa - Bonobo Satyam Shivam Sundaram - Thievery Corporation The Spice - Random Rab Jewel of Now - Random Rab Wonderwall - Ryan Adams Cicadas and Gulls - Feist Nectar Drop - DJ Drez Grandmothershpere - East Forest Mandalam  - Nadaka Shanti - MC Yogi

April 21, 2013 Three Aums - Nada Sadhan Guru Mantra - DJ Drez The Spice - Random Rab Being with Yoga - Baharamji & Mashi Shri - DJ Drez Seven Devils - Florence + The Machine See the Rain - Rocket Empire Mangalam - Dakini Lounge Hondo - Momoswezi Hatoa - Bonobo Hanna's Theme - Chemical Brothers Kiara - Bonobo Walk in the Sky - Bonobo Nightlitel - Bonobo Dragon Mudra - DJ Drez Whisper of our Ancestors - Liquid Bloom Breathing Out - Shaman's Dream

You can find playlists of mine on goodtigeryoga.com. Let me know if you like the tracks, I'm happy to share.

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Design Mom

April 22, 2013: Design Momwww.designmom.com I am so loving Gabrielle Blair's blog Design Mom. My friend Jen Moore of Jem Raw Chocolate (Gabrielle's husband Ben Blair is Jen's cousin) turned me onto it last week. I LOVE the French-ness of this site and I especially love the Olive Us episodes the Blair family (which includes 6 children) and Tiger in Jar came up with. Adorable.

 juneinfield

 

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