From Illusion to Enlightenment

The following is a tiny extract from my book “From Illusion to Enlightenment,” . . . the audio book is now available. It is from the first chapter, The Art of Listening. I am talking to a group of professional people who are, basically, life coaches.

“First of all you need to know exactly what I mean when I ask you to listen. I expect you to listen to what I am saying, not rely on the recorder for my words. When I am speaking to you – like now – I am speaking in the moment. If you are listening to me, you are not thinking – and without a doubt, you are thinking! People think as they listen, but when they do this they are not truly listening, they are hearing. Today, most people don’t know the difference between hearing and listening. Let me put it this way; you can think your way out of the moment, but you cannot think your way into it. When I speak, I speak only in the moment. This means that if you are listening to me, you are inner-silent. In this way, we connect. However, if you are thinking while I am speaking, we do not connect, so you will forget most of what you heard while not listening.” I smile at them. “This however, is considered normal. Beware of normality!”

“But . . . surely if I hear your words I will remember them,” Todd protests. “This is part of my training.”

“Oh sure. You might well remember a small conversation, but during one of my Intensives I talk in one and a half hour sessions pretty much all day for five days. Many participants by the end of the first day are exhausted, simply because they have no idea how to relax and listen. They don’t teach this in schools, so kids grow up establishing a false relationship with knowledge and information. Even adults do not seem to realise that information is just exactly what the word implies: in-formation, unformed, unrealised, not yet actualised. And all for the sake of something as simple as listening.”

And so the book continues as I discus the magnitude of the little things in life. It is the little things in life which are so often huge, but overlooked. It is the simple truths that are most profound, yet so casually dismissed by the subconscious mind. Listening is a conscious act, while hearing is almost always subconscious. For most people, their life is lived unmindfully bypassing true living!

So all that remains is for me to remind you to CONSCIOUSLY . . . choose, live and be LOVE in your thoughts, words and actions.