#22: The Ear of your Heart

Hi Folks,

Do you listen with the “ear of your heart?”

One of my favorite poets, Mary Oliver, wrote in her poem The Dovekie, in her book Why I Wake Early:

…Listen,

Once again,

as again, and again,

we are given

this single wisdom:

to know

our world

is to be busy

all day long

with happiness…

During these difficult times, it seems to me so important to listen. We need to listen to ourselves and we need to listen to one another and we need to listen to nature.

Listening — truly listening — is an important component of having a good life. Listening opens us up. Not listening closes us down.

I am reading a book right now with the long title Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? I have been thinking a lot about racism this semester with my CSUMB students. It has been a dark and deeply depressing study.

I don’t know what the answers are, but I do believe they will come from learning to listen to one another. We need to listen to one another as other people speak their truth. This is uncomfortable, but perhaps that discomfort can become a source of motivation.

We need to listen not only with our ears, but with our hearts. I once asked a monk what it means to listen with one’s heart? His answer was that we listen in such a way that we are willing to be changed by what we hear.

“To know our world/is to be busy/all day long/with happiness.” It is easy to take this too literally. It is poem after all, and poems are meant to stimulate thought rather than dictate thought.

Happiness comes from giving to others and what better gift than to listen? To listen with one’s heart is to open up the space of happiness even in the midst of sorrow. One great question is to simply sit with them and say something such as, “tell me your story: what is it like being you? What has brought you sorrow? What has brought you joy?

Then don’t talk — simply listen with the ear of you heart.

To Listening!

Apophat

#21: Are you blooming?

Hi Everyone,

I read somewhere: “A flower does not think of competing against the flower next to it. It just blooms.” Am I blooming? Are you blooming?

In one of my classes, we focused on learning about imagination last week. I tied this in with what we are learning about how visualizations impact our brains just as if we had done the activity itself instead of imagining it.

When we learn about the importance of visualizing, it becomes essential to use living an examined life to not just learn from the past, but to also visualize the future I would like to create.

You can take time to imagine the kind of career you would like. For example, in my life, I wanted to have the time to continue to be a reader and not too busy or tired at night to continue to be a lifelong learner. For me, that led to basically remaining in college for the rest of my life!

But it is also important to imagine the kind of relationships you want, the kind of marriages you want, the kinds of jobs that will not only allow you to provide for yourselves, but also to contribute in some way to making the world a better place.

Many of the great sages and mystics have told us that love is the true source of our being. I don’t know if this is true or not, but I want it to be. I want to believe it…but I also see my own flaws and I see the world around me. But what would my life and the world look like if I imagined a life based on love rather than on fear, on forgiveness rather than bitterness, wisdom rather than group think?

Even if it was not ultimately true, would not living in such a way help me at least personally to bloom? And what if it were true? Then basing my life on love would also mean that I was aligning myself with the universe, with ultimate reality. A life aligned with love, at the service of love and blooming with love. What would that look like? What would it feel like?

So what do I do know? That imagining such a reality helps me to activate it in my own life and how I experience the world and my relationships. I don’t want to live filled with fear. I want to live as if love is the source of my being.

To Blooming!

Apophat

#20: The Purpose of Life

Hi Folks,

Why are we here? What is the point of our existence? Is it just to have as much fun as possible? If we judge the value of our life by the fun we are having, it seems tome we are setting ourselves up for disappointment. Fun is great. I find going to concerts fun and I do that a lot. But I try to avoid judging the value of my life by how much fun I am having.

Instead, I try to take the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson seriously: “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”

There are many ways to be useful, from giving our time to others and other such things as giving money to support organizations I admire. But there is something important we can give that is not often talked about. My own inner transformation might be important not so much for me as it is for the greater community.

People who make growth a priority help shift the consciousness of humanity. They “vibrate” at a finer level and this impacts those around us. It may be that we can only serve this purpose when we are in the present moment. Only then can we be a channel.

One of my favorite poets, Mary Oliver wrote: “To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.” For me, this means bring my attention to the present moment and practicing gratitude for everything that I have. To pay attention requires an effort to be present. We can’t be present when we live like robots, passing our lives in a passive daydream.

When it is difficult to find the energy to pay attention and let go of the past and future, it helps motivate me to think I am not doing it just for myself, but for all people. As humans, we can open our minds and hearts and allow this finer energy to penetrate our planet the way sunlight does. At least that is my hope.

I believe this not because I can prove it in a conventional sense, but because I have had the good luck to be around people I think are highly evolved and just being with them is better than anything they actually say.

To make some difference in the world is a wonderful goal. But do I look at my own inner transformation and awakening as part of that service? It is worth looking into and seeing if it rings true for you.

“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.”

To Attention!

Apophat