There are various forms of listening. You can listen with your ears; you can listen with your mind; and you can listen with your heart. Of these, the deepest mode of listening is with your heart. We can learn to listen to the heartbeat of the world.
Listening with Your Heart Practices
- Silence. We begin by connecting to a place of absolute silence inside our heart. It is an eternal silence, without birth or death, without color or form. It is sung in the Heart Sutra.
Reference: Kazuaki Tanahashi, The Heart Sutra—Comprehensive Guide to Mahayana Buddhism
- Go Deep Inside Your Heart. There are three energy fields encircling and inside your heart: The physical electromagnetic energy field; the qi (or ki) energy field; and the energy field of unconditional love. This last is the energy field we seek to connect with. As we practice, we have glimpse that this energy field, our true self, and the entire universe are one and the same.
- Now Simply Listen Through This Energy Field of Love, like the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Guanyin, to the sounds of the world as they surface in your consciousness.
- Then Connect and Merge with whatever appears before your Heart-Mind (Kokoro)
References and Illustrations
- Upheaval. If your life is in Upheaval, try this meditative practice, and let it bring you peace and comfort.
A Koan: Caring for That One
When Dongshan was not feeling well, he was asked,
“You are not feeling well. Is there one who doesn’t get sick?”
Dongshan said, “Yes, there is.”
Then he was asked, “Does the person who doesn’t get sick take care of you?”
Dongshan said, “The timeless monk is taking care of that one.”
Then he was asked, “What happens when you take care of that one?”
Dongshan said, “At that time, I don’t see sickness.”
—Book of Serenity Case 94
- Beauty. “I Know that My Redeemer Liveth.” This is the concluding aria from Handel’s Messiah. It is one of the most beautiful masterpieces ever conceived. It transcends religion, and touches all of humanity, although its setting is a religious one. Here is the Text:
Book of Job # 19
25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
26 Though worms destroy my body yet in my flesh shall I see God…
Corinthians # 15:20-22 For now is Christ risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleep.
It was as though Heaven
Had softly kissed the Earth,
So that she in a gleam of blossom
Had only to dream of him.
The breeze passed through the fields,
The corn swayed gently to and fro,
The forests murmured softly,
The night was so clear with stars.
And my soul spread
Her wings out wide,
Flew across the silent land,
As though flying home.
(Translations by Richard Stokes, author of The Book of Lieder (Faber, 2005))
- Samuel Barber, Adagio for Strings
- Enno Morricone, Gabriel’s Oboe
- The Moment. There is a famous quote of Goethe from his classic poem Faust:
“If the whole world I once could see
On free soil stand, with the people free.
Then to the moment might I say,
stay awhile, thou art so fair.”
I hope you enjoy explore listening in the deep heart’s core.