Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. Novato, CA: New World Library, 1999, pp126-7.
When listening to another person, don’t just listen with your mind, listen with your whole body. Feel the energy field of your inner body as you listen. That takes attention away from thinking and creates a still space that enables you to truly listen without the mind interfering. You are giving the other person space -- space to be. It is the most precious gift you can give. Most people don’t know how to listen because the major part of their attention is taken up by thinking. They pay more attention to that than to what the other person is saying, and none at all to what really matters: the Being of the other person underneath the words and the mind.
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When we do lectio divina, reading a passage and sitting in silence with it, allowing it to reverberate within us and hearing it with the ear of the heart, we hear even familiar passages in a new way. Tolle describes how to listen to others in this same way, noticing the silence within ourselves and giving that silence as much attention as the person’s words. In this way, we can hear what is most important, without being too distracted by the words, which are sometimes misleading. We begin to see with our third eye how people really are feeling and what they are really trying to say, and we have a better sense of how to respond from deep within ourselves.
Loving God, help me to listen for your silence. Help me to hear you speaking to me through others. Help me to hear what is really being communicated and respond with a loving heart.
Dearest Godess, Creator, May I listen to You with my whole being, which itself emanates from your essence. May I, in turn, offer this sacred space of me to others, whom You bring into my space. May I learn respect, stillness, serenity, peace and generosity in Your spirit with Your creation-- all of us. Thank you for always hearing me. Awomen.
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