True Listening

News
No new updates for this week.

Quote
"Perfect health, sincerity, honesty, straightforwardness, courage, disinterestedness, unselfishness, patience, endurance, perseverance, peace, calm, self control are all things that are taught infinitely better by example than by beautiful speeches"
-Sri Aurobindo

My Thoughts
Many people have opinions on almost every subject and are willing to share those opinions with anyone they meet. Oftentimes people have opinions on things that they have little or no experience with. Don't get me wrong sitting around and having deep discussions or positive conversations can be great, but I believe developing listening skills is far more important.

Most people don't really listen. True listening is when you listen without forming any thought as to what your response will be. Many people appear to listen but the whole time they are just waiting for their turn to talk. True listening takes practice, but it can be developed over time.

Becoming a true listener can help you connect with humanity more as well because now you are actually listening to what the other person is saying. Usually people judge the other person (and/or what the other person is saying) almost immediately and then start forming their reply. So by truly listening you will start to have less judgments.

I didn't become a better listener until about three years ago. I am much better now than I was before, but of course I can still develop my listening skills further.

This all ties in with the idea of changing yourself before trying to change the world. If you want people to be more kind, first you must be more kind. If you want people to do more, first you must do more. If you want peace, first you must start bringing peace to where you are.

I suggest that this week that you try to truly listen to someone.

Have a great Chuseok.