Tag: advice

Listen, or your tongue will make you deaf

Posted on by philipdodson

The human race has entered a stage where no one listens anymore.

We hear but we do not listen. We surround ourselves in a bubble of our own views, an impenetrable echo chamber of hatred and fearmongering against other bubbles. There is no time for listening, instantly dismissing someone before they have even finished their sentence, based on judgements of our mind of what that person represents.

Listening requires pausing from thinking about our own answer, it requires not thinking about how something affects us and it requires not evaluating what the person is saying while they are saying it. It requires empathy, it requires the ability to understand, it requires the ability to actually take in a viewpoint different from our own. It requires a love of all human souls and a realisation that we are all equal no matter what, we are the one-life, the human race.

An indigenous saying from North America sums up listening well – “Listen, or your tongue will make you deaf”.

It’s real life

Posted on by philipdodson
‘Old Father Thames’ by Philip Dodson

Take a moment, right now, this very instance and breathe, in slowly and out slowly. Notice your belly expand and contract as you take each breath. Breath in and out for maybe a minute or 5, it doesn’t matter, it only matters that you are aware of your breathing.

Sit still and listen, notice the background sounds like a ticking clock or birds tweeting, notice the smells, see without labelling it, just look.

Take this moment and repeat this for a few minutes and then notice what’s changed. Of course, if you feel more peaceful and calm, then you could choose to repeat this more often, in fact, as much as you can.

Consciousness is real life as it is only found in this moment, we can not be it in the past or the future, they are just fantasies of our minds