Listen!

The way to discover the freedom of the wisdom of egolessness, the masters advise us, is through the process of listening and hearing, contemplation and reflection, and meditation. They advise us to begin by listening repeatedly to the spiritual teachings. As we listen, they will keep on and on reminding us of our hidden wisdom nature.
    Gradually, as we listen to the teachings, certain passages and insights in them will strike a strange chord in us, memories of our true nature will start to trickle back to us, and a deep felling of something homely and uncannily familiar will slowly awaken.

Glimpse After Glimpse
Sogyal Rinpoche

I have a friend who has taken upon herself to quit smoking by joining a support group. She is doing well but has noted that, when the group convenes, it is chaos. Egos as large as Sequoias take over and gobble up all the time. Remarkably, this doesn’t happen in most of our AA groups; especially ones that have a format that has time limits for sharing and prohibits crosstalk. I have learned to listen in this disciplined environ and this has been the most valuable tool I have found to help me towards emotional sobriety. This is no special innate talent I possess because I know I am as ego-centric as the worst of us. But sitting in the rooms and hearing what others are saying, without running an inner commentary or engaging in a debate… thinking of what I want to say instead of listening, has developed as a habit over time that carries itself with me outside of the rooms. Again, I admit, this is not my normal state of mind and for most of my life I have not been this way. Perhaps at one time I might have had the humility to do so but this quality had to be encouraged in order to resonate in my heart the true nature of the Heart of Compassion.
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