Today's Gift
You should not have your own idea when you listen to
someone.... To have nothing in your mind is naturalness. Then you will
understand what he says. —Shunryu
Suzuki
A person who is mistrustful and self-centered has difficulty listening to someone else. Perhaps someone we are close to wants to be understood by us. But we do not hear them on their own terms because we are so intensely involved with our own shame. So we react to our feelings of guilt rather than really hearing what they want to say about their experience. Or we may be so worried about who has control that we fail to receive the information we are being given. Then we respond with "Yes, but..."
True learning comes - like true intimacy - when we have an open mind. As we detach ourselves, separate from our own ego, we hear the other person better and grow more intimate.
May I learn to set aside my own self-centeredness. Today, I will grow more if I set my ego aside when others are talking to me.
A person who is mistrustful and self-centered has difficulty listening to someone else. Perhaps someone we are close to wants to be understood by us. But we do not hear them on their own terms because we are so intensely involved with our own shame. So we react to our feelings of guilt rather than really hearing what they want to say about their experience. Or we may be so worried about who has control that we fail to receive the information we are being given. Then we respond with "Yes, but..."
True learning comes - like true intimacy - when we have an open mind. As we detach ourselves, separate from our own ego, we hear the other person better and grow more intimate.
May I learn to set aside my own self-centeredness. Today, I will grow more if I set my ego aside when others are talking to me.
From Touchstones: A Book of Daily
Meditations for Men©
Read more Daily Motivations at http://thework-in.blogspot.com
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