Learning to Hear…

“Now faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God”

To “hear” in the Christian Tradition implies not just mental assent, or cognitive knowledge acquired through listening with my ear, but rather to an encounter experienced because my heart heard!

To “hear” is to encounter the One who spoke. It is to be penetrated with the light, thought, and personhood of another. It is a meeting, an exchange, a signing of the others signature in my soul.

To “hear” God, is to be sufficiently awakened so as to be less aware of myself and more of Him. It is when from His centre, the Creator Being, communicates and His communication is received by one who wanted to hear. “I hear you”, implies “I know your voice, your presence, your being sufficiently to identify it. All human hearts know the voice of God. Few human minds are awakened to it. Often it is our belief or chosen non-belief in God which causes our mind to be our greatest hindrance in hearing.

What I believe God is, what I believe the Bible teaches, what I believe God demands or wants, what I believe I am….these are the idols and illusions which must fall before I am ready to “hear”.

All have the grace to “hear” available to them. All may hear. God is forever communicating Himself, everywhere, to everyone, in every time.

Quantum Physics is discovering that all matter, all that we can perceive, is made up of two key components, energy and information. The Divine, God, is the source of all energy which composes the matter I see. He is the source of the information that defines the nature and form of matters manifestation.

“ALL THAT IS” is an emanation of His mind and will. The ancient Hebrews called His energy, The Shekinah Glory. Scripture says, “His Glory fills all the Earth”. It fills all that is, and it fills all He is. For the glory mentioned in the ancient Scriptures is His very Presence. There is nowhere therefore where God is not! “He upholds all things by the Word of His command” may be translated into “His Word is the information that gives energy form and mass. He permeates & indwells all His creation, and is at the same time totally other than His creation. The information and energy is a manifestation of God, but it in itself is also sourced in God. God is more than His Word and His glory, yet His Word & Glory is a clear expression of Him.

The very atoms that today compose my physical body were in another form and mass before my conception. But the same Presence (energy) and Word (information) gave them and maintained them in being. The Koran said that God is closer than the vein on my neck. The Hebrew Genesis Scripture says the God breathes life into Adam and he became a living being. He is closer than the air we breath or the blood which flows in our veins, or the thought that aids us to be aware of our own existence. How can we be separate from the very being and substance which upholds so absolutely our very existence?

Separation from God through sin and fall is a cardinal doctrine of most of western Christianity. How separate was Adam after his fall? Who came to him as he hid in the garden in the genesis account? Whom could he hear calling his name? Who led him out? Who conversed with him? Who clothed Adam and Eve? Who covenanted with them, or promised them the Deliverer who would crush the serpents head?

Who was it who related to all and any of fallen humanity who was willing to listen from Adam to Abraham, from Moses to the Prophets? Jesus, Himself, is The WORD made FLESH. The word heard by whom?

Separation…what is it other than the bondage to our own prideful minds who choose to create gods in our own image?

Separation is the fruit of our consciousness of sin. Yet sin in itself is the child of the separated heart. Which came first? The concept of separation came first in the genesis account. The tempter in the ancient story lies to Adam concerning the nature and intention of God, implying that God was withholding something. The only thing Adam lacked in Eden was the knowledge of evil. Evil is the void or absence of good, or the manifestation of the polar opposite to good.

Separation is a state of conscious which births it’s own belief systems, thoughts, religions, sin deeds etc. It is a consciousness which divides humanity even within the individual self. We perceive we are separate alone, one ego separated from, and threatened by others. We live as individualists and pursue the gratification of our ego self. We live our existence in a dream illusion based upon an ancient lie.

“Where can I go from your presence? If I go to the heavens, you are there, if I descend into the pit, you are there too”.

The Christian Scriptures speak of a Lamb slain before the beginning of the world, a God who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, a plan to awaken mankind devised before the creation of mankind.

The Gospel (Word / information), which is the power (energy) of God for all who believe (hear), is the simple announcement that we ARE reconciled through the cosmic and eternal sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary. The “veil was torn” in time and space, to redeem mankind beyond the realm of time and space. From the first baby to the last baby to enter this Earth, all have the same reconciled relationship provided for them through the atoning sacrifice of Christ. He was not just paying for sin, but through the total kenosis (self-emptying) of God, He was birthing us, by His death, into Union with the Trinity. The created man and woman now may awaken to total Sonship. To be God’s child, one with Him. Adam and Eve may now enter a greater Paradise, a truer union, a more perfect Creation.

Awakening, is the renunciation of the primordial lie and it’s spawned illusions (repentance – “change of mind, will, & direction”) , and belief (Hearing of the Divine communication) in unity with ourselves, others, and God.

Four qualities that open us to a place of hearing:

1. Awareness.
2. Openness.
3. Humility.
4. Obedience.

AWARENESS

“We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are”. – Anais Nin -

“The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers”. – M. Scott Peck –

Awareness understands that we have been dreaming. It is to become conscious that there is another true self that lives other than the ego self.

Awareness makes you the Watcher who sees the mind creating its own illusions and projecting them outward onto life and others.

Awareness awakens to the savage reality of its own true human need. We have lived in our many masked personalities and know little of our true self. Who will reveal to us who we really are? Who will free us of our phantom gods to show us the One True God? Who will enable us to see, hear, and respond to others for who they really are instead of simply reacting off them due to our damaged ego self? Who will show us how to prosper, live in harmony, and share life & resources equally with all on the planet? Who will speak the wisdom that will enable us to return to Eden and cohabit in peace with nature?

The awareness of the total sleep state illusion of human knowledge is the first step towards seeking both the right questions and the true answers.

I am aware, that I have not been aware, that I have awakened from a sleep of illusion. I am aware of my absolute need, my absolute “not knowing”, a quest and a hunger now purify all intention leading me back to the source of my true self.

I can only hear if I am listening. I will only truly listen if I need to hear and have come to the end of my own answers. I will only truly hear when I am predisposed to obey. I will only obey when I am convinced of the folly of all ways but God’s.

Openness

Openness refers to openness of mind and heart. It is the Poverty of Spirit of the Beatitudes of Jesus. This openness is the beginners mind in Zen. The teachable spirit of the Disciple in Hinduism. The submitted heart in Islam. It is true Childlikeness. “Unless you become as little children, you shall in no way enter the Kingdom”.

Only an open mind can see, hear, and receive.

Humility

When I listen, what do I expect to hear? When God speaks, His Word is absolute Truth. Humility is the disposition to receive without resistance both the positive and negative from His lips. I am what He says I am. He is what He says He is. Life, meaning and purpose are what He reveals them to be. This is humility. It rests upon the surrender of the will and the death of the false self. It liberates the true self to live consciously united to The Divine Other.

Obedience

Obedience is the wisdom which acts on what is heard. To seek the Word, hear it, and then not obey is pure folly! Obedience is the true asceticism of the Christian. “Not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” who enters into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my Father”. (Jesus)

Following Jesus means relating back into the Trinity as He did. We learn the Way of Jesus through obediently walking in the footsteps of Jesus.

Conclusion

Through Awareness we come to the knowledge of how great our need is to listen and hear.

Through Openness we do not seek to qualify what will be said.

Through humility we accept what the Other has to say as Truth.

Through Obedience we walk out what we hear and thus manifest the Word in our lives. This is the original purpose of the Word being spoken in the first place.

The Secret is to Listen.

" I always begin my prayer in silence, for it is in the silence of the
heart that God speaks. God is the friend of silence—we need to
listen to God because it's not what we say but what He says to us and
through us that matters". -Mother Teresa -

We live in times of inner anxiety and turmoil. That which has been presented as security proves itself time and time again to be illusion. We work, educate our families, grow older, retire, and garden. In all the process of living out the expectations placed upon us, our hearts silently whisper, "who are you?" , "why are you here?", "what is the way to your inner peace and rest?". "Is there a God?", "how can I experience Him or Her?", "Where is God when I suffer?".

The questions tumble up from our spirit, disturbing the fragile entertainment pleasure we buy at so high a price. What must we do with the questions of our heart?

We must learn to listen. Only the heart that listens can know itself, others, and ultimately know God. To learn to listen I must arrive at the first step into the secret of the spiritual and human life.

I arrive at a place of conscious unknowing. I know that I do not know! As in the parable of the prodigal son I arrive at "the end of myself". In reality it is only the end of the particular illusions I have chosen to lull me into a state of imagined safeness. A sleep of the heart, while my personality and ego pursue the arduous task of existence. We all live our life, our relationships, our faith experiences in an unconscious state. In this state the false self is never questioned, the relationships serve me and my happiness alone, and the Godhead is to my liking! Blase Pascal once wrote, "God made us in His own image and likeness and we have been striving to return the compliment ever since".

One day the Apostles were arguing "Who is the greatest?" . This is a dynamic we see in the home, work, society, and among the great religions & political ideologies of mankind. Jesus brings a child into their midst. He says, "Unless you become as little children, you shall in no way enter the Kingdom of Heaven". Strong words to the foundational leaders of Christianity! Would that the leaders of each faith community hear them today.

Beginners Mind.
The zen master Shunryu Suzuki wrote, "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few". Beginner's Mind is the intentional starting place for all listening. It is the original mind or open mind or inquirers mind. It is called Poverty of Spirit in the Christian New Testament. Jesus teaches in the Beatitudes, His core teaching that "Blessed are the Poor in Spirit, for their's is the Kingdom of Heaven". The kingdom of Heaven is the reality of God.

It is the adult, who chooses to be the child. We are invited to choose to become the Watcher, the one seated at his feet. The disciple who listens and watches to discover the inner Way of his Master. "I have come to give you life, and life in abundance" the Master tells us. What do we know of life? What do we know of unconditional Divine and human love? What do we know of the secrets of the inner ways of the Christ-life? I listen to hear my heart. I listen to hear His heart beat in mine.

Rejoicing in Poverty.
If we can see that we do not see, then we are indeed wise. We do not boast to God about who we are or what we have done. We feel the mystical urgency of our own impermanence and mortality and rush to the presence which speaks of that which we do not know. We sit, we learn to be still, we wait, we listen. It is enough to be there in the centre of stillness with our minds quietened and our ego self stilled.

BE STILL.....AND KNOW.....THAT I AM.......GOD.

What excitement there is in a child's heart on Christmas morning as he jumps out of bed and runs to the Christmas tree. In that moment he is aware of his perfect poverty and perfect wealth. All that may be his is abandoned with glee to discover all that will be his. This is the excitement of Contemplative Prayer. Because the individual is not in control of the relationship, but rather waits on the pleasure of the Divine to communicate as He wills, then every prayer session is discovery. I will discover the three great foundations of the inner life. But I will also discover He who is my source, and in discovering my source of Being I discover my true self. For only in the stillness of God can I ever hope to discover my true self.

The three foundations of the inner life.
The three foundations are very simple realities. They are Stillness, Silence,and Simplicity. I must quiet my chattering ego if I am to hear my heart. My heart draws strength from the pregnant solitude of silence. Silence is never empty. "His glory fills all the earth", "Where can I go from His presence, if I go to the mountains He is there. If I go into the depths of the pit, He is there also". Such was the experience of David. Such is the universal experience of mankind. As we still our souls to listen, not with our ears, but with our heart, we enter awareness of the Presence, the Anointing, the I am. Silence has been described as the language of God. God communicates heart to heart, spirit to spirit. His/Her, (for male and female are in God's image), deepest communications are intuitive and transrational. Through simplicity of heart and singleness of intent we focus our consciousness and become aware of that which is. When our hearts awaken from the sleep we were in we are enlightened to the realities of God. We see as we are seen. We know as we are known. We cease to create a false life and self and embrace our true and actual self.

To Listen...
To dispose our heart to quieten our mind, to sit in the pregnant void of silence, this is faith. We listen, because we know there is One who speaks. We listen, but discipline the ego/mind because we do not want to impatiently create our own conversations with ourselves, telling ourselves what we would wish to hear. We are still, we are present, we are there in the Presence. Sometimes our senses pick it up and we "feel" the Presence of God. More often we perceive little with our senses, but our hearts, our spirits, feed and become saturated with the Divine. Only later will we notice how inwardly balanced we have become. Only later will the fruit of the presence of the Divine Spirit become evident, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, forbearance etc. To have the same inner character as Jesus we must drink from the same wells. "Out of your belly shall flow rivers of living waters. By this He spoke of the Spirit which had not yet been given".

Prayer is as easy as breathing...
So gradually we discover that Prayer is listening. Prayer is an exchange of Presence. We listen to the language of God which is Silence. We are still. We practice oneness with His Presence breathing Him in, breathing out initially our fears, anxieties, wounds and hurts. We let go with each exhaled breath which carries with it all we are aware of by way of burdens. The NOW MOMENT moves from surrender to infilling and again we intentionally breath in the Breath of Life, the Ruach or breath / Spirit of God.

So our prayer is lived only in the NOW MOMENT. The past is like water under a bridge, it will never be ours again. The future is His and will be given only moment by moment, but it is not yet here. All I really have, the only reality, the only important thing, is this NOW MOMENT. I will never have another like it. He is present in it. I listen. I encounter. I am filled. My NOW is one with HIS NOW MOMENT. It is a sacrament, the Khiros moment, in with God communicates his inward self to all.

"Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life."
-Tich Nach Hahn -

So we begun to speak of "Listening". There is no place where God is not communicating his Self to all. He indwells all, communicates through all, transcends all. in Him we live, we move, we have our being. Hearing is a reality of the heart not of the mind and certainly very rarely of the senses. Deep calls to deep, His Heart to Yours.

Be Still

And

Know

I AM

God.