There is an art of listening. To really listen, you have to put aside all the prejudices and ideas you have about everyday life. Listening is difficult. We never really listen because our mind is too cluttered with valueless things, therefore it is never free. We think we know so much, we have an opinion on everything, so that it becomes very difficult to listen. When you know how to listen completely, this act generates a form of liberation.
You can only learn when you are caring and passionate. And when you are passionate about something you learn quickly.
When you learn against your will, it's an effort that boils down to an accumulation of facts, without great importance. Listening with interest requires no effort, no concentration. On the other hand, listening when one is busy judging, evaluating, measuring, criticizing, turns out to be an effort that dissipates attention. There is concentration and there is attention. Concentration is a selective thought process that pushes things aside to focus on others. This implies a tension which results in an effort to push aside images coming forth, in order to keep only those which interest us.
And then there is the attention, which does not result from a thought process. Attention is not a selective process, and when one is fully attentive thought ceases. Because thought is of time, whereas attention is of the present moment. To be attentive is to observe the fact of a truth. To be dependent on thought is to observe the image, the abstraction. Thus, we discover that it is possible to perceive the intrinsic nature of a thing, to observe the truth of a fact, by learning to listen differently and giving it full attention.
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