One day I was weeding the garden with a teenager, and he said to me, Sometimes I see something that is very beautiful, but my mother says it is not beautiful. I looked deeply into his situation, and I said, Is there a young lady you think is beautiful but your mother does not? He was shocked. How did you know that? He thought I could read his mind, but when you listen deeply, with all your attention, you can understand many things right away. After that, he revealed the whole story to me, and I had the opportunity to help him. I said, True beauty is profound. Don’t be attracted just by a smile, hair, or eyes. Try to see the depth of beauty. I suspected this is what his mother had wanted to tell him, but had not been able to. The aim of deep listening is understanding. When someone is suffering, if she can find one person with the willingness and capacity to sit quietly beside her and listen, that is a great encouragement. Whether what she says is easy to hear or shocking, we don’t reject it. We train ourselves to listen in order to understand. When we listen deeply, we are Avalokiteshvara. – Thich Nhat Hanh, Cultivating Our Bodhisattva Qualities
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 21:59:19 +0000
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