It is interesting to know that hearing is one of the first senses to develop when we were in our mother's womb.

We can hear her heartbeat and muffled sounds from the world outside through the sea of amniotic fluid that bathed us.

Now look at the card. Can you hear the sound of the ocean like the seal on the image? Hearing connects us to our primal emotions and memories and is thought to be the last sense to leave us when we die.

We listen to learn. We listen to be aware. We listen to be alert and to connect us to others and our environment. Listening can be difficult, particularly when we are unpractised. Sometimes we don't want to hear. And we live in a noisy world where we often have a broken relationship to silence. What might we hear when we turn the volume down, if we move into silence? What is going on beneath the surface?

Generous Listening is a term coined by the On Being Project. They describe it thus:

"Listening is an everyday art and virtue, but it’s an art we have lost and must learn anew. Listening is more than being quiet while others have their say. It is about presence as much as receiving; it is about connection more than observing.

Real listening is powered by curiosity. It involves vulnerability — a willingness to be surprised, to let go of assumptions and take in ambiguity.

The generous listener wants to understand the humanity behind the words of the other and patiently summons one’s own best self and one’s own most generous words and questions"

Generous listening is attending with curiosity, compassion and non-judgement. If we lean in and truly listen, we give one of the most precious gifts of our concentrated attention. Then we might say: "I never saw it that way".

The gift is not just to the other, but to ourselves as well as it gives us the opportunity to learn and to grow. In Buddhism a bell is used to punctuate meditation practice - it brings us into presence. It reminds us that when listening, there is only now.

Generous listening happens with your whole bodymind involved.This is listening with the intention of taking in everything, suspending disbelief, being ready to be changed. Listening without prejudice is hard, our emotions are often stirred and we're prompted to react, to jump in to defend, to disagree, to argue, to attack, to have our say.

Generous listening is the primer for all communication. If we can learn and practice listening in this way we will open up possibilities. This is where the treasure lies. We see a bigger world, a world with freedom from limitations. Generous listening might be the most important thing we do. Now read the poem 'Keeping Quiet' by Pablo Neruda

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