A Mind That Is Caught Up In Words Cannot See Or Listen

To be able to listen,

To see,

Is an art.

It's an art of living.

Listening,

Not the superficial listening.

The mind only reacts to verse.

That's not listening at all.

Because that kind of thing is rather mechanic.

The mind is trained to learn a language,

To speak,

To react to the verse.

This whole process is very,

Very mechanic.

And the mind,

Which is stuck in verse,

Is very mechanic.

It's very dull.

Listen means listen attentively.

The true listening must go beyond the verse.

So the mind can really understand what those verse are pointing to.

To be able to listen requires a very quiet mind.

The mind is not caught up in the reaction to verse.

We have abused the language to such an extent for all kinds of self-expression,

For all kinds of egocentric ends.

The word,

The expression triggers a lot of thoughts,

Images.

If the mind is caught up in that,

The mind couldn't really see or listen.

Actually,

Seeing is listening.

Listening is seeing.

To have a very quiet mind that can enable the listening attentively,

The mind must be able to make discriminations,

Make subtle distinctions between the verse,

Between the images it triggers.

So the mind can observe the reaction to the verse without being caught up in the reaction.

Then it is possible to listen attentively.