How To Listen

Some people think that because they have ears, they can sit and listen. But it is not the ear that listens or even hears. One must be a listener to make his ears hear. If the listener is absent, if he is occupied, or if his hearing is ob­scured, he will never hear, even if you play drums next to his ears.

Listening and hearing is a science and a great art. One must have the needed equipment, but he must also be able to use it artistically and creatively.

Let us take the equipment:

1.      clear hearing and healthy ears

2.      a healthy, sound brain

3.      a clear consciousness

4.      focus or concentration

5.      calmness and serenity in emotions

6.      power of memory and recollection

7.      hearing with the mind and intuition

It is known that people listen through the body where their focus of con­sciousness is. For example, if they are materialistic-physical, they hear things related to their body and that body gives them the final translation of a conver­sation. If they are emotional, the emotions translate and respond to the dis­course. If they are mental, their approach will be mental, depending upon their mental condition.

Even our needs, wishes, dreams, and aspirations have a powerful effect on what we hear.

There are three requisites for listening:

1.       You must understand the words.

2.   You must be able to duplicate them with your own words without in­troducing changes in meaning.

3.       You must be able to see the significance of the speech, which lies be­yond the words and the meaning of the words.

This means you must have a threefold listening, listening to: the words the meanings the significances

In other words, you must have physical hearing, mental hearing, and sub­jective hearing.

The three above points that the speaker hints at are the subjective side of his speech. Influential speakers have a good way of using words with their proper meaning...

Listening is an art and it is a science. Good listening makes you a good speaker.""