Introduction
What is your purpose in reading this book?
Would you like to learn more about:
Creating a virtuous cycle of self-reflective learning?
I order fifteen to twenty books every summer to read and harvest the best parts on 3 x 5 index cards, which I transfer to a blog…listening to these “best parts” lead me to other books in a virtuous cycle of learning.
Why you do the things you do?
For me, there’s no better reason to do something than LOVE…and real love requires that we stop, pay attention, and listen deeply in our relationships with self, people, nature, and the Divine.
Peering into the seabed of your consciousness?
I borrowed this phrase from my first meditation teacher Easwaran Eknath who describes the profound experience of reaching the seabed of consciousness, something that I occasionally experience in meditation which is described in the chapter on listening to the Divine.
Gaining more insight into the feelings and needs of others?
One of the continuing challenges in my life is understanding the feelings and needs of others. When I frame these understandings as a listening game, it can be a daily source of merriment as I often guess incorrectly.
Managing conflicts in healthy ways?
It seems that every day holds conflicts (inner and outer), which I often stumble through, sometimes work through, and occasionally resolve by attentive listening.
Providing love for others?
Gary Chapman’s “love languages” assist me in listening for the love language of others and providing the specific kind of love they need…affirmations for my partner, quality time for my sons, and works of service for my employer.
Experiencing health benefits from spending time in nature?
From spring to late fall, part of my morning is spent in the backyard near the koi pond, listening to the tingles of the sun on my skin and the enriched air from the fig tree and green plants nearby—these often enhance my mood and energy and can linger through the morning.
Feeling a closer connection with Mother Nature?
One of my daily Mother Nature practices is to hug the trunk of a forty-foot cedar tree in our backyard, listening with my senses of touch and smell. If I’m listening well, I sometimes intuit subtle feelings and energies–too intimate to put into words…i’m honored to call the cedar tree friend.
Creating a garden of Eden?
During the past decade, I’ve slowly transformed our landscape on the home property (which was mostly lawn) into an edible “Garden of Eden,” a kind of food forest. Currently, we enjoy over eighty edible plants and trees: nut and fruit trees, varieties of berries and grapes, root vegetables, vines, herbs, flowers, and an assortment of traditional annual vegetables. The process of creating and tending the garden of Eden requires patient listening to the land and the plants to understand how everything works together as a living being, an interconnected system of relationships. I find much pleasure, beauty, and joy in this kind of nature listening.
Meditation and Contemplation?
For over three decades every morning I meditate, and in the last two decades, I also meditate in the late afternoon or evening. This special kind of listening to the Divine frequently energizes, revitalizes, and sustains me.
Discovering greater value and meaning?
I’ve been a reader ever since seventh grade when Mom brought home some paperback books from the drugstore to help me cope with an illness that left me confined to the living room sofa for over a month. My love for reading is a special kind of listening toggling between listening to the author and to my own thoughts. Listening when reading swings open the doors to the universe, yielding greater value and meaning.
Exploring engaging and embodying the Divine?
I enjoy dancing Roth’s Five Rhythms every Sunday with my son for the past ten years, and listening to his Ethnic Beatz session every Friday evening. I also make it a priority once a week to invite the Divine to co-create with me colorful mandalas and compose haikus.
Perhaps there are other things you would like to learn about listening to the SONG of life…jot a few of them down here and/or listed questions that you would like to explore.
Topics I’d like to learn more about:
1.
2.
3.
Questions that I’d like to explore:
1.
2.
3.
