Thursday Seeds: Inner Listening

It can only happen when you stop and do so with intention. The reason could be, as I saw on a TV show last night, to reaffirm that happens next. A brief pause even in a critical emergency that can deviate the course of the outcome. It was the case in diagnosing a patient.

A few seconds of waiting in that setting that can seem like a life time. And yet, it’s only long enough to hear what wasn’t heard or to correct what was likely mis-heard. It happens. We want the best things to happen and yet that might not actually be what is actually going on. That course reset won’t happen unless we take a moment to listen.

Ok, you stop to listen and hear nothing.

Did you stop long enough? Did you hear the sizzle of the boiling food inside the pot? And did the scent tell you as much or more than the sound? You still have to pause, even if the “listening” isn’t from your ears. It could be another sense that you are using. Some of those senses develop over time. You’ll note those smells and the way the range looks with the pot set on it. Did I burn the contents? Yes or No.  Time for action.

And so the pause to listen or take note is a huge part of the inner listen. What if all you hear are others talking? What are they saying? Did you hear them right? Were they even talking about you?

Listen deeper.

Tuning those voices out around you. Turn off the TV. Now listen and hear your own voices within. In meditation, they call it monkey mind when you are working on your laundry list of things you need to do today. Or that one thing that you can’t forget doing. Or it’s some strange thought that arises because the power is off and you are in new surroundings. The sounds around you aren’t familiar and your own mind has something to say about it.

Listen deeper.

You’ve been still for 15 minutes and it’s only then that you hear a sequence of tones. They make you smile and you don’t know why. After your meditation, you go to the piano and find the notes. They arrive with a new melody that is just spilling out of you because you believe in the string theory you just used to listen deeper. It happens with words. It happens with “happy mistakes” on a canvas. It happens when you tilt the camera at an angle that you never do normally.

Trust the soup.