The Yogabliss on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning. We explored how our senses guide us into kinship. In our “inter-relationships” we allow the world inside us. We also offer ourselves up to the world. We bring intimate attention to this experience of being alive. Deep listening can sustain us in the present as the past continues to live and our futures are formed.
We drew on the wondrous work of David George Haskell: Sounds Wild and Broken. We head from the Emergence Magazine interview: Listening and the Crisis of Inattention. This is a conversation that “touches on the legacies of kinship that are present when we listen, and how deep experiences of beauty can serve as a moral guide for the future. ”
We heard from Mary Oliver’s poem, At the River Clarion, from her Devotions collection. Mary hears the river speaking to her. “Said the river I am part of holiness.” Like David, Mary calls for our intimate attention and deep caring. Both writers encourage embracing our senses as a way of engaging the world.
Social activist Valarie Kaur reminds us that: “Deep listening is an act of surrender. We risk being changed by what we hear.” You can “hear” Valarie’s vibrant voice in her film, Divided We Fall. You can read her memoir, See No Stranger.
