Developing Listening Skills
According to the Taoist way of seeing things mastery in any of the arts require you to develop your listening skills. Being an artist of the Taoist persuasion myself, developing the ability to listen is intrinsic to my creative growth and to the efficacy of whatever I’m doing.
To heal another person, you have to be able to listen to their energy. Traditionally this is done by listening to the sound of their pulse through your fingertips, as well as listening to the sound of their voice as they explain their condition, as much as listening to the words. To deal with someone in a potentially combative situation when exploring the martial arts side of things, you have to develop the ability to listen to your opponent’s energy and even to their thoughts. When engaged in composing a work of art in any artistic form of expression, you have to learn to listen to your muse as your primarily role is to express what she’s asking you to convey. And as an artist of living theatre you have to learn to listen to the guidance of your subconscious mind, that aspect of you connected to the collective mind, in order to intuit which moves to make next.
To expand your conscious awareness, thus expanding who and what you are and by extension, your sphere of experience, the Taoists developed many ingenious tricks.
The ability to listen to the energy and thoughts of others is one of the Taoist master-skills. Once you can hear what the universe is telling you moment by moment beneath all the clamour of the superficial realm, it’s impossible to put a foot wrong.
To expedite the ability, massage both ears vigorously between thumbs and forefingers getting into every nook and cranny and keep going till your ears are burning.
Now press in just in front of each ear, into the small depressions you’ll find at the tops of the jaw joints.
Next, press the tops of the wrists in the centre, where your watch-winder would touch if (wearing the watch on your left wrist). Press firmly for 20 seconds or so.
Finally, having now stimulated your aural chi in this way, relax everything and concentrating from the centre of the brain, listen behind you in a wide arc.
Don’t try and distinguish sounds, merely listen and allow the sounds to present themselves.
The key though, is listening behind you and the more you do, the more you’ll hear the sounds of the universe beyond the usual limited human range.
Practice this daily and you’ll feel a distinct in increase in ability to hear what the universe is telling you within only a day or so.
And from where I’m listening it’s telling you you’re going have a truly spiffing few days. I wish you the music of the spheres with angelic chorus resounding mellifluously in your inner ear and a beautiful day ahead.
Love, D