By learning to listen with what St Benedict calls ‘the ear of the heart’ we learn also to become more sensitive to the tone of voice in other people. Someone telephones us or calls by out of the blue and starts chattering away. If we are alert we may detect from the tone of their voice that what they really want is to speak about something else – and so we wait patiently. Our task then is to listen wholeheartedly, not to rush in with good advice! More often than not it is the depth and quality of our listening that enables the other person to find their own solution.
Tag: listening
Compassion
Many people make donations to good causes such as poverty and famine relief, medical research, the RSPCA, and to charities assisting the ever increasing number of refugees. But there is another aspect of compassion which is much more personal.
When someone asks to share with us some problem or dilemma, we have to identify with them, get under their skin as it were, to empathise with them. We may not be able to find an immediate answer for their issue but by listening wholeheartedly their burden is often lightened. Once again, it is through the simple practice of meditation, of learning to listen within, that we become more aware and better able to hear the needs of others.
Listening
However centred we may become through the practice of meditation, we are still only beginners. Attracted by our centredness, people may be drawn to us to talk about their innermost fears, anxieties, weaknesses. Our task, when this happens, is simply to listen. Often that is all that is required. What we must avoid is the temptation to give advice. It is the totality of our listening that can often act as a mirror for the other person.