Welcome to Day 28of our 40-Day Retreat.
“There is a power involved in listening”
Today, I want to continue with listening, to deal with another aspect of listening, the power that is involved. There is a power involved in listening and I want you to become more aware of this. You can listen in a way that can give power to the one before you. You can listen in a way that can share power with the one before you. You can listen in a way that takes power from the one before you. So it’s extremely important to be aware of the power exchanges during listening. You can be very quiet and yet you can do so much in this space.
Actively observe your listening
There is a power in listening that we need to be aware of. When you listen, begin to observe what is happening. How do I feel emotionally? How do I feel mentally? How does my ego feel in the listening? Do I feel I am less when I am listening? Do I feel comfortable to speak more as I listen? Do I feel peace as I listen? Do I feel love as I listen? Do I feel energized as I listen? These are manageable qualities in the space of listening. This is so important.
Creating in the space of listening
In my own listening, I am conscious of this. ”What is the power involved in my listening?” When I am listening to someone, I make my mind quiet. I bring my mind into a very peaceful space. The peaceful space allows me to pick up the thoughts of the other – not just the words, but the energy of the thought. The peaceful space allows me to see the emotional exchange in the space. I strive to create a space of comfort, of love, and that may change to compassion. With emotions I can hold the space with such a comfortable energy that the person feels the power to speak.
Many times I am looking at how I listen and what that does to the other person. So when I listen and create a comfortable space, a loving space, the person wants to speak. They become empowered to speak. They are feeling empowered and all I am doing is listening. All I am doing is listening with love, and I see how the person begins to warm up, begins to be energized by my listening.
I see how they begin to share. Even the things, that they may not think of sharing, begin to come up in the space. It’s a joy for me to see the extent to which they share in such situations; you can be so much in oneness with them that they share, what you say, “their entire heart with you”.
And just in the quality of listening you get so much from the other person. So one of the things I love to do, is to bring that comfort into the space, that love into the space and see what happens, see what the possibilities are. See to what extent the person begins to share, and of course, as I’ve been telling you, that person becomes my Universe. So I’m opening my heart to my Universe and I’m watching what is coming to me. I also believe whatever comes to me is my gift from my Universe.
Listening can empower or disempower
Listening with love, openness, respect, and compassion, gives power to the other person. Of course you can well imagine when you listen with hostility, anger, and pride, what happens to the other person - the comfort level is lost. They keep things within them, they feel the fear of exchange and trust goes away. Your respect may go away. And what happens in such an exchange? The person becomes disempowered.
This happens in listening. I wonder how many of us really are aware of what is happening in the listening. How we can make people contract without knowing it and how we can make people open up, by how we listen?
Listening can remain peaceful
When I am listening to someone and exploring ideas or brainstorming then I want to be extremely peaceful in my mind because I want to pick up every idea, every thought. When I want to get intuition from within, or attract that information from my Universe, I become very peaceful. My mind is quiet, extremely quiet. In that space so many ideas come to my mind. Even if I am walking into a gathering and I want to influence a gathering without speaking, I am in a huge space of listening.
I come into the space and I am exuding peace. I make my mind very quiet and I extend this quality into the space. I think my field of being is growing, my peace is growing and it’s filling the whole space. I fill the space and I sit there as a presence. Suddenly I hear voices get softer. I begin to feel that they are noticing my presence in the space, without saying a word. Suddenly I am influencing the space and I see the quality of conversation changing, and all I did was sit. I was listening and extending my peaceful Being to fill the space.
Listening and speaking at the same time
When you are listening and speaking at the same time, that’s another dynamic exchange. You are listening in a peaceful space. You are listening with an open heart and you allow the same qualities to flow in your speech. When you speak you continue to look at what kind of energies are flowing. When the listening and the speaking carry the same energy, there’s a beautiful feeling of oneness with the person you are communicating with. There is a sharing of energy and no one feels lesser than, but both are uplifted in the whole experience. There’s an energy in the listening and speaking. Listening and speaking become almost as one in the space. So when you are not speaking, you don’t feel unfulfilled. There is as much fulfillment in the listening as there is in the speaking.
This exchange can take place not only with people but other forms of life and nature, other expressions. You can listen to a tree. If you are really quiet enough, you can really feel that you are communicating with a tree. The tree is also expressing presence. It’s also expressing energies, and you can feel that you are dialoguing with a tree or a pet or an animal, or the Universe. You are communicating with the earth for example, because the earth is sending out vibrations. When you are really listening and you are really harmonizing with the earth, that becomes a wonderful aspect of communication. Some people are so close to the earth and its energies that they are aware of changes that are going to take place. What a wonderful way of being perceptive to energies and sharing energies through listening.
“By being humble, you become powerful”
What is extremely important is what happens to the ego, in listening. It’s important to be aware that you can take peoples’ power away simply by listening, or you can give them power.
Of course you know that giving people power is a way of also gaining power. If only people will understand this more. By being humble you become powerful. You see Mahatma Gandhi, you see Mandela, Martin Luther King, how by non-violence they became so powerful, by not being aggressive, invading.
You gain power when you become humble. People tell you more, people honour you more, just by quietly listening in a space: listening with humility, listening with love, listening with respect, you feel more powerful and the reason being you are closer to your essence. You are closer to your real seat of power. I wish that you can really experience this in your exchanges with life - It is important to note where you listen from, what kind of space, what it does to your power and to the power of others.
I leave you with that message today. Observe what happens as you speak or communicate in your interaction with your Universe. Here you can really co-create the energies you want in the space and not be a victim.
Post-meditation words:
Welcome back everyone. Just to say to you that in this seemingly passive posture of listening, you can actively communicate with the Universe in ways that lift you and lift others around you. How wonderful it is to be able to be aware of this and to use this to enjoy the human experience. Have a divine day everyone. 
