When we encounter something we are moved to change.
In the third part I am inviting you to place yourself in Nazareth. Just go there.
You do not need to imagine where the bathroom is or the pots and pans. That can be self defeating. Let Nazareth be a symbol of a place of interaction.
In Luke 1:39 after Mary has had the interaction with the angel she says “you see before me the Lord’s servant. Let it happen. Let it be done according to your Word”. Repeat those words in your heart. Don’t concentrate on the words. Concentrate on the presence in them.
The first part however is listening by Eugene Gender. Eugene says “One of the dangers of our culture is that we focus and lose the ability to listen”. The Biblical notion of obedience starts with listening. Seeks to hear and ends in submitting to what is true.
Michael Leunig commented “you can’t love at speed”. You can’t relate to things at speed. You can’t be present.
Saint Benedict at the beginning of his rule talks about listening. The first word used in our school is listening. To pay attention. Be there. Presence has at the heart of it the whole notion of listening. From the prologue – “listen with the ear of your heart”.
There are two concepts in Eugene Gender’s notion of listening. One is the felt sense. The other is the open question.
First the felt sense. Have you ever met a person and within seconds you started to feel something like “I like this person” or “I can get along well with this person” or alternatively, “something is wrong” – “I can’t put my finger on it, but, I don’t like this person”. OR, when you are house hunting. You go into a place and think, I don’t like this. It might be the colour or the windows. We have the ability to receive thousands of messengers and compute them in one feeling. One felt sense.
Yet. Given our rationalistic culture. This amazing ability to know reality and connect tends to be oppressed. Tends to be crushed. Our schooling system (in Australia) cuts us off at the tonsils or maybe at eye level. We think of brains. We think of knowing as a rational thing. Problem solving. Rational kind of knowing enables us to know about 1% of what we are capable of knowing. The other 99% goes begging.
Felt sense is the ability to know beyond the rational. If you can access that (felt sense). You will won’t know a lot more that you know that you know. And you never know…
You have been carrying around all this wisdom and you won’t access it. Because…You will feel intimated by all these people solving.
My mentor (Adrian) Van Kaam in United states says “life is a mystery to be lived and not a problem to be solved”. Mystery…is inexhaustible and intelligible. No matter how much we explore the top of my little finger. We will never get to the point where will know everything about the top of my little finger.
Research takes us to a sub atomic world. What does it all mean? Inexhaustible intelligibility. Mystery. When you get out of bed in the morning. When you stagger to the bathroom and look in the mirror there is Inexhaustible intelligibility looking back at you. There will never come a time when we can say “no more questioning” or “We have exhausted the intelligibility”. This just will not happen. Beg your pardon Stephen Hawking (physicist) and Richard Dawkins (evolutionary biologist). It is ludicrous to even suggest it. What they are saying is “there will come a time when there is no need for any more questioning”.
To be a human is to be a questioner. A quester. A searcher. There will always be a question. Even if it is only “why”. What is it saying? Inexhaustible intelligibility. So that the knowing never ends. Rationality does not like mystery. Rationality finds mystery scandalous. A front. Rationality wants to bring closure.
One of the issues of Creative Waiting is “you are not in control”. It is turning up and graciously acknowledging “I am not in control”. Therefore, the centre of what is happening here is somewhere other than my life.
Eugene Gender’s felt sense puts us in touch with what is going on. A biological analogy or metaphor it is somewhere down here in your tummy. Rather than somewhere up here in your head.
In the Zen tradition the place of knowing is stomach.
The other concept that Eugene Gender concept of listening is the open question. An open question is a question you ask with your head but answer with your gut. Put it another way… you ask the question…then go within…and wait. Listen.
Feel the difference between these two questions. Suppose you are distressed. You are upset about something. And, I say to you “why are you upset?” or…I say to you “What is it like?” Why? ….What?....
The why question. Where does this take you?....into your head. And your head thinks it knows and yet your head does not know. Your head knows part of it…one percent. I am upset because Michael insulted me. That is why I am upset. No.. Michael’s insult was the catalyst that caused me to be upset. There is a lot more than what you are experiencing at the moment than simply what Michael said.
It is the What question which starts you listening to more. What is it like? If you ask that question, they will often turn their eyes and look off into the distance. Where have they gone? They have gone down into their feelings. If I say why are you upset Andrew, you may not be able to finger it out. You have to pay attention. Be there. Listen. This is somewhere in your tummy.
Day 3 - Activity
Listen to the audio by clicking the play button above.
Spend 10 minutes in silence and reflective meditation
Reflect on these questions
Reepeat in your heart Mary's words for 5 minutes each day.
What is the two concepts of Eugene Genders concept of Listening?
Why is the concept of listening so impact? What is your experience of listening?
Throughout your day...listen with the focus on your gut or body, what do you experience?
In the third part I am inviting you to place yourself in Nazareth. Just go there.
Michael Leunig commented “you can’t love at speed”. You can’t relate to things at speed. You can’t be present.
Yet. Given our rationalistic culture. This amazing ability to know reality and connect tends to be oppressed. Tends to be crushed. Our schooling system (in Australia) cuts us off at the tonsils or maybe at eye level. We think of brains. We think of knowing as a rational thing. Problem solving. Rational kind of knowing enables us to know about 1% of what we are capable of knowing. The other 99% goes begging.
Eugene Gender’s felt sense puts us in touch with what is going on. A biological analogy or metaphor it is somewhere down here in your tummy. Rather than somewhere up here in your head.
