Listening to You/to God

  

Listening is a far more difficult process than most people imagine. Really to listen in the way that is meant by the masters is to let go utterly of ourselves, to let go of all information, all the concepts, all the ideas, and all the prejudices that our heads are stuffed with. If you really listen to the teachings, those concepts, which are our real hindrance --- the one thing that stands between us and our true nature --- can slowly and steadily be washed away.

Glimpse After Glimpse

Sogyal Rinpoche

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   There are times when I sit in meditation with a head full of worry or just plain monkey chatter. I rise from my cushion feeling as though I haven’t accomplished anything at all. I go about my daily business… make coffee, put a bagel in the toaster, perhaps pay some bills, wash up whatever dishes are in the sink from the night before and, voila, there it is… the answers come when my own house is in order! 

   Stilling the mind is also more difficult I ever imagined… to really listen. Once, while in a conversation with another person, I was thinking of what I wanted to say while she was talking… I was already prepared with an answer to something I thought she was saying… I was stopped midstream “How can you hear what I’m saying when you are always interrupting?” The truth was that I hadn’t said anything yet. She'd read my mind… Wasn’t that how I often pray?... asking…, busy with worry… interrupting God as the Heart of Compassion is handing me the solution… the answer to my prayers before I prayed at all… but I am not hearing because my mind is too busy interrupting.
 
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