Shared Soul
“Listening
arises from a deeper place, and it seems we can only hear the living
to the extent that we have truly lived, only understand pain and joy
to the extent that we have allowed ourselves to be touched by life.”
Mark Nepo
(The Book of Awakening, p.101)
I confess to having a
hearing problem. Nothing is wrong with my ears other than old age,
but none the less, hearing is often difficult. It's hard for me to
hear things like the Creator being referred to as “He,” the white
supremacists claiming that America belongs to them, and so on. It's
almost as though my ears cringe and shut down. I think I stand in the
majority when I say there are many things I don't like to hear, and
therefore, I try not to listen. But if we continue on this path, it
will be like the break up of Pangaea during the early Cretaceous
Period, with continents drifting apart and oceans forming between
them. The divide will be complete, with no going back.
Listening and hearing are
related, but very different things. Listening requires
understanding—that is, empathy—being able to take another
person's world view. If, for instance, I were a person living in
poverty, it would be very difficult for me to listen with
understanding, to people who live in gold-clad houses. I've never had
that experience, so I cannot relate. Conversely, if I were a person
who had never lived in anything but a gold-clad house, I would have a
hard time listening with understanding those who exist in poverty.
Empathy requires that we be willing to listen from the heart, and put
ourselves into the shoes of someone who is very different from us.
Empathy is an art—and it's almost a lost art. It requires that we
connect at the soul level.
Empathetic listening can be
learned, but we have to want to learn it. Life itself is a great
teacher. No one is exempt from loss and pain. The rich as well as the
poor experience these. Being born into wealth does not insulate one
from the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” And, all of
us, poor and rich alike, experience the joys of love and renewal. We
stand on common ground. What is required for empathy to be learned is
that we allow life to teach us—that we not shield ourselves from
feeling the pain of loss but use it to increase our understanding one
another. We must learn to hear and to listen; move away from anger
and judgment, and renew the bonds of our collective humanity. We
share a soul; surely we can learn to share a world.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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