Listening

Namaste, everybody. Thanks for being here. Hi, Mom.

So we'll do a 20-minute sermon and then a meditation in light.

Today, I'd like to talk about listening.

Listening is one of the most endemic qualities of higher states of consciousness and enlightened consciousness: our capacity to hear, to see. Listening is a little bit of a similar word to see, or to know, to be aware of, but I think listening has its own qualities when it's used in particular.

When we listen, listening is an art. There's a vast complexity to the topic, and it's not something we just do. We have to practice it, and we have to prioritize it. If we don't, we just have an atrophied capacity for listening that's not particularly developed. If we do, our listening can become one of our greatest sources of joy, of capacity to love, of apprehension of information, a faculty of perceiving truth, the faculty of being able to care for another.

So let's start with the most obvious instance of listening: listening to another human being.

When one listens, it's essential that the mind is in a state of abeyance. That means the mind is not interpreting, comparing, judging. If one is comparing what they're seeing and hearing with the past, or their own interpretations of the world, their own goals, their own concerns, then all of that acts as a filter of distortion, or completely missing the words and the feelings and everything that's being shared.

If somebody's talking to me about something, and I'm just thinking about how I can use that for something else, or how I have some concern, even for them, then how am I supposed to apprehend that ever-so-subtle, ineffable quality of experience that they're trying to convey?

The world cannot be put into words. Nothing we say can really encapsulate what we're trying to share. Words are pointers to something ineffable, something that we're alluding to, trying to describe, like a poem describes a sunset, but it's not the sunset. They're trying to describe something that is beyond description.

When one hears these words, when the words land on the ears of another, the other must look to where those words point. Otherwise, they just hear words.

The faculty of the heart must be exercised in the entire process. You can't just be in your head with it. You have to try to apprehend the gestalt, which means that the sum is greater than the parts, to feel the totality of the condition that is being alluded to. It's an allusion. Words are an allusion to a condition that is more than a part, but actually a whole, entire ineffable state.

So we have to get in touch with our hearts to really listen to another. When we're listening, we're trying to feel the condition of another. Perhaps we're trying to feel what it is that they need, or want, or are.

Sometimes we listen when they're speaking. Sometimes we listen when they're not speaking.

Imagine you're a great chef. What makes a great chef? Well, you have to be a great listener, because you have to know the palate and the feelings of the people you're serving. If I make pie for somebody and they like the dried part more than the squishy part, and if I observe, I have this capacity to better care for and better be of service to the people that I am in contact with, because I'm paying attention.

Now, they may not have said, when they left all the mushy part and only ate the crusty part first, they may not have said anything, but I was listening to them.

So I try to do that with all of you when I'm here. I'm listening. I can completely feel Ariella's openness. She's like a sponge. I feel that, Ariella, so thank you for that.

Listening, a lot of times, is not of words, and it's not when somebody's necessarily trying to share something. It certainly very much is also when people are sharing something. When somebody wants to convey something, it's perhaps even more important that we, well, it's a different kind of importance, right? We should always listen, but when somebody wants to convey something, how do we hear what they mean?

You have to get out of your head. You have to get into your heart, and you have to practice this as an art.

Meditation, for those of you who've been neglecting this but care about love so much, is the direct cultivation of one's capacity to listen, because what we're doing is we're emptying ourselves of ourselves. When we empty ourselves, we have the ability to stop and be without exclusion. I can look at the whole because I'm not constantly having a responsive mind. My intellect is not constantly interpreting, responding, creating images, creating ideas. How can I see another through all of that?

It's an interesting thing, because most people would say, "Well, I have to interpret." No, you don't have to interpret to hear the whole. It comes through in a different way.

The assimilation of the gestalt, the apprehension of the whole, means that one is not focusing on the part, but almost in this open state. It's kind of a vulnerable state, because there are no walls being put in place. There's no funnel being required for the information to go through. You're just there. It's an art. You have to discover the depths of this and the potential of this.

When we listen to another, it requires us not to be arrogant in our projection. "I see the world this way. This is the way I do things, and therefore I project everything onto that. That person must have acted that way because that's what I would do." This is how the mind generally works, unless we are prepared to push that aside.

If I act a certain way and then I project onto others the reasons for why they might do something, it could be completely wrong, and generally it is not at all correct. Everybody's so vastly different.

Listening requires us not to assume we understand anything about the other, or anything about the world, or anything about why somebody would do something.

I do things primarily because of my heart chakra. I'd rather not pick up the $100 bill on the floor if it took away from my heart chakra, because I'm more interested in my heart energy. That's a little foreign to a lot of people. People might do things because it's an esoteric, energetic quality that most people aren't feeling. Chakras, they don't even believe they exist. People think it's a dogma. You can feel them.

So we have to be beginners and not be arrogant in our projections, and say, "I don't know why this person is what they are and why they feel what they feel. I'm coming to them, and with every effort, with every moment, I am assuming that I have more to learn and hear."

That's a great attitude to actually listen.

To love another, one must care for another. But to care for another, one must know another, know their condition. I can't love my plant if I don't know when it needs water or when it needs less water. I can't love my mom unless I actually know her, and she shows me a little bit of who she is, and what she cares about, and how she feels.

Listening allows us to know. We listen so we know, and we know so we can care for and love the people, everything within our field, our plants, our couch, whatever it might be.

Listening is also to ourselves. To love oneself, you have to say, "Well, what is it that I really want?" But if you're so bombarded with insecurity and self-judgment, or "What will other people think?" and "I have to do this," you ignore the subtle intimations of the heart, the longings, the real reason that we're here, the Dharma singing inside of you.

So we have to get really quiet to hear those subtle intimations. The quieter we are, the more we can hear, because the center of self is gone, and there is only that to which we listen.

If one is interested in art, art is directly related to the capacity to listen to what is coming through oneself. Planning sometimes interferes with listening, because the moment begets the moment, begets the moment. What feels right in the moment, that serendipity, that spontaneous unfolding of beautiful experiences and synchronicities, comes when there's enough spaciousness to listen to the unfolding of time.

That's essential, too. Of course, that's mixed in with the consistency of something like a class. But we have that mixture of consistency and flow. Flow includes listening.

What am I supposed to say right now? I don't know. That's why I do this silent thing, and listen. I don't choose the next word. The next word comes to me.

Instead of resisting, "Oh, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. What's that person's name? What's that person's name?" just be quiet. You're not supposed to know the person's name right now. It'll come to you when it's meant to be. Mom.

But unless we can become truly silent and without the response of thought, how can we truly listen? Unless we sit down and practice that on a regular basis, and clear the momentum of machinations of thought, the machine of thinking, da-da-da-da, kind of reacts, sees this, reacts automatically, it's all our past, it's all our conditioning. Unless we can clear that through the actual practice of subduing the mind, then how can we listen, and how can we love?

Listening is also beauty. There could be the most grand, spectacular nature event in front of you, or your child could be being born, or your grandchild could be being born, and you could miss the whole thing because you're just lost in thought.

Listening allows us to experience the beauty of life. It's paramount. This is why, you see why I love meditation so much? It's paramount.

I think what's most important is that we listen first. It's nice to be listened to, but sometimes people don't know how to listen, and the best thing we can do is listen to them and teach them through the feeling and experience of listening. Because once somebody's been listened to, I think they feel inspired, and subconsciously they start to realize that they could listen better.

Any questions or comments?

Colleen When you spoke about listening to other people, seeing what their needs are, I was thinking... No, just lost it. Hold on.

Adam Wes Good.

Colleen Just paying attention. Is that the same as listening? Not really.

Adam Wes Well, yeah, giving your attention. Paying attention matters. Looking and saying, "Okay, this person's showing up to the food bank, and they're frazzled today. Why are they frazzled?"

Listening, trying to... Well, it's more than that. A lot of times it's very subtle things, like, what is somebody dealing with? How can I care for this person in front of me who can't necessarily articulate what it is they need help with?

When I teach math, a lot of times I have to listen. My math students don't have any idea what they're supposed to be learning, right? I'm supposed to be guiding them, but I have to look and see where they are in their state of learning. Are they understanding this aspect or that aspect? How do they feel about it? Are they feeling frustrated because of this insecurity? There are all kinds of types of listening that are at play.

Does that help?

Colleen I can do that with little children. It's harder for me to do that with adults, so I need to work on it. But I do look at children, and I can listen and see what their needs are. So I'm paying more attention to them than boring adults.

Adam Wes Well, adults are complex and sometimes very simple at the same time.

Sometimes listening is just looking at somebody's heart. What's going on inside of them? Without responding. Sometimes we might respond with our own worry. That obscures the listening.

There has to be a very selfless quality in the act of listening. It's almost an acceptance, objectivity in a way, and also a warmth, an affection.

The heart knows the other by becoming the other. It's literally the feeling, the empathic faculty. We are the other. Love thy neighbor as thyself, because I am my neighbor, because my empathy is active. Their happiness is my happiness. Their strife is my strife. I want the world to be happy, make others happy, and be happy. It's a Groundhog Day thing, from the film.

It's just so important, because if there's the capacity to listen, then there's a greater level of communication. You can be closer with the people you love most.

If you have a group of five people, or six people, let's say six, who really know how to listen to each other, then that's a very beautiful family unit, or a group of friends, or Sangha, right? Because people aren't just in their own world, walking around the star of their own show, completely missing everybody else.

There's so much joy in it, because when you listen, your heart swells with love. It's nice to be able to love the people you want to love, especially, and everybody.

All right, 6:25.

I should say, listening has a lot to do with truth. If one is interested in the cosmos, in mathematical truths, in physics, in enlightened principles, they have to get very quiet and see the truth. The truth is seen without comparison.

It's very important not to say, "Well, to see something, I have to compare it to something else." The truth is known by becoming the truth. You can't really know it as an idea. That's just another pointer. You become it through this immersive, empathic quality.

To think that one has to compare some previous experience to define the truth is to miss that the truth is complete in its own right. If you had to compare it, then ten different people would have ten different life experiences that they compare something to, and they would all see a different truth. But the truth is specifically singular. Otherwise, it wouldn't be the truth.

Truth is suchness. It is the is-ness. It is what is happening in the most simple, obvious way. So-and-so didn't wear that shirt because they were insecure, because they thought that's what they were thinking. Something simple.

All kinds of truths happen within us, and we can see them as they are. How can one see things exactly as they are without distortive tendencies? Well, you have to not be comparing these things.

Truth brings us together. If the news was centered on the truth, everybody would agree. But it's centered on all sorts of agendas, all sorts of, "Well, I want this instead of that, and they want that instead of this."

But ultimately, there's a truth that could really be loving to all human beings. They're pro-this and they're against it, but they're pro-this because they feel this way, and they're against it because they feel this way. Neither is wrong, maybe. Maybe both of them need to be supported, and a self-transcendent solution needs to be found.

Usually, that's not what politics is about, right? There are no self-transcendent solutions. "This is my way or your way," which is not really the most enlightened, loving perspective.

Of course, criminals cannot be allowed to have their way. But as long as everybody's free will is honored, and there's space, and they're cared for, that's the self-transcendent solution.

Scott, do you have anything to share?

Scott J I think you were cooking pretty well there.

Adam Wes What do you mean by cooking?

Scott J Oh, that means doing really well. Millennial terms, sorry. More so channeling, honestly. It's probably how the newest generation is describing watching other people channel without really knowing it. "Oh, you're cooking." If you're doing a freestyle, a rhyme or something like that, they would say something like that.

Adam Wes In jazz, we say, "That cat was cooking." Sax player, cooking.

Scott J Oh, no kidding. Yeah, there we go. Definitely. I see how it ties in.

My one thing was, when it comes to the heart experience, it was maybe something more so new for me in the last couple of years. But really, as you were saying, that empathy, that empathic sort of feeling, when you start touching more people...

I honestly had a general question for you, since I figure you probably have more experience with it. I was very good at maybe one-on-one conversations, getting the empathic energy to flow through and understand that person before I had any sort of metaphysical interpretations of it. I understood that.

But really, once I started to do the study, I was more so seeing the subconscious of the people around me, too, and how it all sort of cues in and moves like that.

Adam Wes Can you say that last sentence one more time? This is one of the problems with listening. You can't divide your attention. I got a text from Andrea at the same time that I read while you were speaking. Can you tell me one more time? You cannot divide your attention when you're listening.

Scott J Listening and paying attention, exactly. The great divide.

Certainly, in larger groups, there was a point where I was starting to get overwhelmed because it was the voices of so many people. That energy, it's in and outside of us, and it's relating to what other people were saying. They would have a separate conversation, but I felt it was so much of me, and whatever I was saying, I felt like was so much of them in the setting. It was really feeling one with the whole space.

Not just the people, but really the space itself, and what kind of picture that party or that bar, wherever I was at that time, was really trying to say or portray.

It was something new to me, and it's just really cool to hear you be able to talk about it, too, and say that's also your experience. It all connects to the heart and love as well, because that's really where that energy center touches everyone, the heart.

Adam Wes Yes. Our center and every other center, ultimately the center of the universe.

To listen to a crowd, listening becomes an impetus for action, right? One way to do it is to become very silent and just let your heart decide, like Aladdin said to Jasmine.

"Let your heart decide" means, okay, well, I'm listening, and in a way, I'm just a cosmic puppet. I'm just moving. There's no choice, right? That's also part of listening. I'm responding correctly to everything because I'm empty.

Scott J Hmm.

Adam Wes It doesn't mean that I know everything.

In each moment, we dump the hard drive and fill it up again. Dump the hard drive, fill it up again. Listening is this recursive emptying.

What is, is. What is not, is not now and not later. What was and what will be is not is-ness.

That oneness happens when we are completely absorbed in the moment, and our heart is moving us, because our heart is the whole, entire concurrence of one singular movement of the universe of which we are a part.

So we have to be content with not knowing when we listen, or knowing what we know at that moment, which is a part of listening.

All right, let's meditate. Thanks for listening. I hope that was helpful for everybody. One of my favorite topics.

Let's begin our listening meditation.

To be present with the moment is to listen.

We must enter the Sabbath.

Cessation.

Stop becoming and see what is.

Be what is.

Bring the heart into light.

Luminosity.

Soften the astral energy structures of the heart.

See the luminosity radiating from that physical location in the center of the chest.

Bring the third eye into light.

The luminosity purifies the energy.

Forehead.

Frontal lobe.

Look directly at the luminosity.

Notice its colors and qualities.

Listen to the light by seeing the light.

Potential.

Bring the light into the golden stove, the navel center in the lower abdominal area.

Feel the fire.

The light is on.

Use the luminosity to activate the chakra.

Bring the light into the back of the head, the Shiva Granthi.

The back of the heart, Vishnu Granthi.

Lower back, the Brahma Granthi.

Try to bring that luminosity into the entire spine.

Bring the spine into light.

Glow.

Points.

Who am I?

To whom has creation occurred?

To whom is the body within time and space?

Know thyself.

Who is that timeless, ancient entity and witness?

Give up the burden of selfhood, if just for a moment.

Be nothing.

No one but existence.

Bring your entire being into light, and then become only light.

Namaste.

You look beautiful, Mom, and glowing.

Colleen I don't know what you do to me, but I get so... I'm yawning, my eyes are watering. I had a nice little whatever doze in the middle.

I think my computer sound's not good. When my eyes are closed, I can hear you talking, but I can't hear what you say.

Adam Wes Maybe. Tell me about your light experience.

Colleen All the sunset colors. A lot of that in the beginning, and then an interesting something, like a white background with little blue dots on it.

Adam Wes Like a light blue or a dark blue?

Colleen Light, I think. I think light, yeah.

Adam Wes Did you feel your navel center?

Colleen No.

Adam Wes Practice it. Feel your navel. Activate your navel. It could change your life.

Colleen Bye.

Adam Wes I know you usually don't feel it, but you have to give it a try. Just try to put your hand there. Try to feel the magnetism.

Colleen I'm going to do...

Adam Wes It's willpower.

Colleen Baggle happened.

Adam Wes Yep, well...

Colleen Thank you. It was very nice.

Adam Wes You're welcome. Thank you.

Colleen Thanks, Adam.

Adam Wes You're welcome. Ariella, would you like to share?

AriellaShira L That was just the most amazing and incredible meditation. Thank you, Adam.

Adam Wes You're welcome. Thanks for being here.

AriellaShira L Out of bounds. I can't even find words, but it was just the best meditation I've ever had.

Adam Wes Meditation is so beautiful.

AriellaShira L Yes.

Adam Wes Magical.

AriellaShira L Being in the light, and then not being anything, it feels tough.

Adam Wes Way to flow with the meditation and really do it. Thanks for holding the wavelength together. It wouldn't be the same without you here.

AriellaShira L Oh, thank you.

Adam Wes Thanks, Ariella. Namaste.

All right, everybody, it's 6:59. I want to make sure to honor everybody by stopping on time.

Maybe one quick share from Scott. Scott's always got a nice, potent share, so it shouldn't take too long, either.

Scott J I just want to say that this was my first time. I knew about the Shiva, and then Vishnu for the heart, and then Brahma for the root. But that was my first time in a meditation being able to feel them behind my spine, and then also envision the gods as I see them, too. That was pretty cool. I've never had a guided meditation like that.

Adam Wes Nice. Did you feel the nectar, the amrita move? It's a thick Kundalini-type energy.

Scott J Definitely did. I don't have the greatest control with long-form concentration unless it's qi medicine. I only know one pattern. Honestly, that's kind of how it is.

I could feel the chakras very strongly, too. I could feel fluid in there for a while, but it kind of overwhelmed my mind at one point, and then I teetered off a little bit.

Adam Wes Okay. Well, I'm so glad you felt it. Nice.

Scott J Thank you.

Adam Wes Namaste, Dad, Jenna, Ariella, Scott. Bye, everybody.

Listening requires emptying ourselves of thought and projection so that the heart can apprehend the whole, know the condition of another, and remain present with what is.

• Listening is an art that must be practiced and prioritized.
• The mind must be in a state of abeyance, without interpreting, comparing, judging, or projecting.
• Words are pointers to an ineffable condition. Listening looks to where the words point.
• The faculty of the heart is needed to apprehend the gestalt, the whole condition being shared.
• Listening includes what another person says and what they reveal without speaking.
• Meditation cultivates listening by emptying ourselves of ourselves and subduing the responsive mind.
• Listening requires the humility of a beginner and a willingness not to assume that we understand another.
• We listen so we can know, care for, and love the people and everything within our field.
• Listening to ourselves requires enough quiet to hear the subtle intimations of the heart.
• Truth is seen without comparison. It is suchness, the simple isness of what is happening.
• Listening includes being content with not knowing and allowing the heart to respond in the moment.
• Presence allows us to experience the beauty of life rather than miss it while lost in thought.

Practice listening as an open, selfless presence. Allow the mind to become quiet, set aside comparison and projection, and receive another person, yourself, or the moment through the heart, with the willingness to remain a beginner and not know.

• Regular meditation as the cultivation of silence and the capacity to listen.
• Moments when interpretation, comparison, judgment, or worry obscures what is being shared.
• The feelings and needs another person may reveal through words, silence, and subtle behavior.
• The difference between hearing words and looking to where the words point.
• The subtle intimations of the heart beneath insecurity, self judgment, and concern about others.
• Spaciousness for the moment to unfold without excessive planning or an automatic response.
• Listening first, especially when another person may not yet know how to listen.
• The luminosity of the heart, third eye, navel center, back of the head, back of the heart, lower back, and spine during meditation.

• What becomes audible when the mind grows quiet?
• What is another person communicating beyond their words?
• What is the heart quietly asking for now?