silence shared in words
presents
Intellectual Listening Is a Kind of Deafness
If you listen to me
intellectually
you miss,
not something, but all.
Intellectual listening
is a kind of deafness.
When I say something,
you can listen to the word.
You have
a mind,
a library in the mind
of all your prejudices,
philosophies,
ideologies.
The word has to go
through all those
preconceived
patterns,
and by the time it reaches to you
it is no longer the same.
It has changed
so many times,
passing through the whole process
of intellectual listening,
that when it comes out
it is absolutely something else.
And yet it appears to be rationally
the right thing;
it fits with your mind.
The process of listening has managed to cut it here and there,
to change it here and there,
to color it here and there,
to make it
what you want it to be,
not what it is.
And you will agree with it;
it is your own idea,
it has nothing to do with me.
Listening intellectually is not listening at all.
It is a way of avoiding.
The right way is
that you don't bring your mind in
and let
me go into your innermost being
without being hindered.
Then there will be
an understanding.
Then there will be
a communion,
a real
listening,
because in the very process of listening,
you have changed.
Now the agreement that arises in your being
is not agreeing with your mind,
it is agreeing
with something new,
which your mind
knows nothing of.
The mind is always old,
and the truth is always new;
they never meet,
they never coexist.
You are fortunate
that you can listen
the right way
putting the mind aside,
just
allowing me to sink
deeper and deeper within you.
Then even though
words have been used,
silence has been conveyed.
Even though words have been used,
that which cannot be said
has been said -- at least has been heard.
And saying is not important,
hearing is important.
Right listening means you will never ask
how to do it.
For example, if I am
talking about silence
and you are listening the right way,
you will never ask
how to be silent
because in the very listening
you would have tasted it.
In the very listening you will have
experienced it
the window has opened.
The people who listen intellectually
are bound to ask later on how to do it.
Their question about how to do it
signifies
that they have missed
what was conveyed to them.
It is not only words that I am saying to you
I am conveying my very heart.
The words are only vehicles.
Through the intellect the vehicles will reach,
but I will be left behind.
When you are listening without the mind,
the vehicle
becomes unimportant;
its only use is
that it helps me to reach to you.
It is my outstretched hand,
so that I can touch your heart.
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