Listen ...

Listening - Now who does not know the meaning of LISTENING!!!
Answer is ... all those in sorrow, disease, stress, etc. all kinds of negative experiences.

Listening is to hear while being present. Another way to put it would be: hearing 100%, with awareness.

Now you would think what is this crap. We always hear things 100%, and we are always aware about same. But, Are you ? I'll come to the point directly. When I say I listen to people 100% I need to check whether I am listening to them or am I just listening to myself (even when they are still speaking). It sounds funny but this is true for 99% of the world and I don't know where the other 1% is.

When I am in conversation with a person, my mind(EGO) is always giving judgments about the person and his style, etc. Instead of listening to him/her I start listening to my mind, which goes on speaking its own story in the background. Most of the time predicting what the opposite person is gonna speak. And sometimes that turns out to be correct and my EGO gets some sense of success. And the mind goes on louder and faster, which leaves no scope for me to even hear the opposite person, I just make a plastic face as if I were listening and was very much interested in the content of the talk. We just don't care or don't respect the opposite person at all. Most of our such victims turn out to be our families. The non-listening then becomes the cause of communication gaps(obviously), misunderstandings, stress, and what not.

Well the outcomes can go beyond this and I won't go deeper into that now, as the topic is LISTENING.

Another aspect to Listening is to listen from something. This means, I already have a predefined conversation about a person. And as soon as a dialog between both of us starts, I listen from that predefined point of view. I perceive the whole conversation as per my past experience with that person, ruling out the possibility that there might be a newer and more fresh concept to be shared. Here too I just listen to my EGO!

Listening also applies to situations, which can also be called perception. I find listening to be a better suiting word. As per our listening to the situation we react.

When I am listening 100%, I am always at peace, in harmony. Life becomes beautiful and positive. Even nature helps me in doing so.

Listening 100% and Listening from nothing (having no predefined perceptions) is the way to Live fully!