"It takes training, focus and the ability to create silence in the soul to learn how to listen, whether to God or to a fellow human being." -Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
In my life, I find myself most at peace when I take time to try and calm down spiritually so I may listen to the still, small voice. Proper preparation, time, and mindset can help heaven feel close.
The above quotation from Rabbi Sacks sets the sacred task as "To learn how to listen". Listening is not just the simple act of paying attention, but requires preparation. Sheer focus is not enough; training and developed ability are required.
But as in the above quotation from Rabbi Sacks, such listening requires a silence in the soul. It takes time and planning to clear out the clutter in our lives and make some space for breathing, for peace, for divinity. There is always one more chore to get done, one more box to check, one more distraction. And yet, God invites and empowers us to take time apart from the business, from the constant hum about us, inviting us to draw near, to seek, and to find.
How might we learn how to listen to God? How might we prepare, or develop this ability? As in a previous quotation, Rabbi Sacks meaningfully counsels, "Listen deeply to those you love and who love you."
With regards to improving or developing our ability to listen, might I suggest that the answers are as close as they are numerous. Each of us, often many times a day, has multiple interactions with others. How engaged are we in listening? When someone else's lips move as they deliver a message to us, are we receiving the message as it is being delivered, or do we find ourselves drifting away or shutting down? Do we interrupt? Do we strive to thoughtfully enter that person's head space to better understand not only what they are saying, but where they speak from?
I know I have mountains of work left to do to improve my listening skills, particularly when it comes to focusing on the present, on the here and now, and the person right in front of me.
And we may suppose that the fruit of such efforts is not necessarily improved memorization or rote recitation, but a deeper understanding of the depth of humanity, of the motivation, and of the divine imprint of goodness on those we strive to listen to more charitably and deliberately.
