Someone once suggested to me that meditation was a form of listening. For the sake of discussion I will accept this premise. It begs the question: for what should we be listening? Certainly not for the chatterbox mind, so for what? Should I perhaps be listening for the pulse of the universe in order that I might be more in tune with the world around me? Should I be listening to my own inner self that I might understand myself the better? Perhaps I should be listening to the cries of the world in an attempt to seek to alleviate them. Then again, perhaps I should be trying to hear some peace and quiet. But somehow I hope I can do more than that. So what can I hear? Is there, in fact, any satisfactory answer? Since meditation is done quietly it seems obvious that we are not listening for anything audible. So should I be listening to my emotions to tell me how well my training is going? Or perhaps I should just be listening for anything, so that when I am ready to hear it I would just simply hear it and that would be that.
For a very long time I struggled to understand the meaning behind all this listening, but still I came up with no satisfactory answer. So, in the end, I neither tried to listen nor tried not to listen, but just let listening come and go
along with everything else.

David Pigg
Harrogate Group

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