Practice right listening
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September 10, 2010
Having the courage to respond spontaneously to all situations and patience to listen, is what I call practicing right listening. For practicing right listening, you need to have courage. You need to have patience. You need to have the courage that you can respond spontaneously, and you need to have deep patience, and a passive attitude. We are habituated constantly to be aggressive, being prepared with all answers.
The human mind is made of a stuff which is called preparing a solution and answers for the problems and questions which do not exist!
If you just remove that part from the human mind, you will become enlightened now. Nothing else is required.
Remove the part of your mind which goes on creating answers and solutions for the problems which does not exist.
If you remove that part, you will no longer have a mind. You will have pure intelligence.
Watch yourself when someone is talking to you. You are not listening. You are preparing your answer for them!
Even before they start talking, you start preparing your answer.
That is why your answer never matches their question!
Because you have not even heard the question, but you have prepared the answer; you are ready with your answer.
At most, if you are a little intelligent, you do a little stitching and tailoring to match your answer to their question.
The art and science of right listening is - not being prepared.
Don't be a solution breeding company!
Just listen.
Just listen.
When you listen without being prepared to hear something, you will hear what people are actually saying. You will know what people mean when they talk. Because people don't say what they mean, they don't mean what they say.
As long as you think they mean what they say or say what they mean, you are in a mess. You have not learned the art of listening.
Communication can happen only if at least one side is ready to listen. If both sides are just preparing the arguments and answers, neither will understand where the other person is coming from. Usually, when two minds talk, neither the person who is speaking means what he says, nor the person who is listening listens to what he says! So let the confusion be absent at least on your side. Then you will see all the responses from your side will be a solution. Whatever is getting created from the other side, you will be able to just see it and solve it.
