THE ART OF LISTENING

The greatest gift that the god has given us is the ability to be silent, if we so choose. The choice is ours, as one need not listen to others and does his piece of non stop talking which may irritate others. A good listener always scores over others in his path to progress.

We seldom make use of our listening ability. Instead we like to hear our own voices, and because of our ego, few of us make for good listeners. The truly learned are always good listeners. Their humility makes them good listeners. But we expose our ignorance to the learned, by talking when we are supposed not to.

A koel and a crow are similar in appearance; unless the crow opens its mouth to caw, we cannot tell the difference easily. In the same way, if we observe silence when in the company of the learned, there is the possibility that the fact that we are ignorant may not become apparent. The moment we venture an opinion, our ignorance is on full display. Thus Listening is an art that we must cultivate.

When we are full of ourselves, we are proud like a majestic elephant. But it is only when we listen to the learned that we realize how little we know. The words of the learned are like a medicine for the fever of pride. But to even know that we have pride, we must realize the folly of attachment to worldly things.

Our ignorance feeds our pride, our pride keeps us from paying attention to the words of the wise, and this further feeds our ego, and we are trapped in this web of pride and ignorance. We are like a dog that has found a bone.

The bone is almost bare, with very little flesh on it. The dog chews the bone and the act of biting the hard stuff, makes the dog’s gums bleed.

The ignorant dog thinks that the blood has come from some flesh attached to the bone, and so it bites even harder, making more blood come forth from its gums. And this the dog continues to do without knowing that it is its own blood that it is tasting, and not the blood from any flesh in the bone. We are like this dog with a bone. We do not realize the dangers of attachment to worldly pleasures. We do not realize that such attachment keeps us from liberation.

We must therefore cultivate the art of listening, so that we may benefit from the words of the learned. Let us practice the art of listening and perfect the same for our own good.

Be blissful.

S.SEKAR

Contact: sekrajc@yahoo.com