Active listening
February 14, 2008
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You have a choice. Will you listen?
You cannot grow as a human being if you cannot listen to others. It cannot be done.
Active listening is a form of listening that involves the entire body. It asks of group members to listen to one another with their bodies and not just their ears. Listening with the ear is active enough when done with intent and purpose. But in group of people who have meditated for a long a time or have done other types of work to develop listening as a practice, listening with the ear allows to much room for wandering.
Listening is a major problem in this country. So fed have we become with media images of politicians and news anchors shouting, that we have become adjusted to it. But this continual violence keeps harming this country in many important ways.
Those we disagree with on fundamental issues are serious about wanting this country to be a better place and most of what they have to contribute is for the good of all. It isn’t that we refuse to see that; we are literally incapable of seeing that. The violence of language has made us all so fear stricken that the only thing we can do when faced with disagreement is to shout back or to walk away. But to really listen is a lost art of civility. This problem exists for everybody, those on my side and those on the opposite side. There is a thorough lack of listening capacity in this country and an abundance of shouting at each other. What is it going to do? Make someone start to agree with you? Very doubtful. Are you going to understand why someone else thinks the way they do? Very scary, for some reason.
I really understand why someone wants to propose waterboarding suspected terrorists. I really do. It is awful and I disagree, but I really do understand it. What I cannot stomach is the lack of concern that the proponents of this torture display. “It’s a no-brainer” Dick Cheney says. That is awful. I want the vice-president to lay awake at night pondering the enormity of these kinds of decisions. But the moment he considers this a no-brainer, he has given up on all civility. He is no longer a fully human being, because he lacks the fundamental capacity for empathy. And without empathy, this world is truly doomed. I really believe that.
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