In the world there exists many lecturers that amaze the auditorium with their eloquence, however, few are those who know how to listen.
To know how to listen is something very difficult; in truth, there are very few who know how to listen.
When the Master or Mistress or the lecturer is speaking, the auditorium seems to be alert and following their words, they seem to be listening and alert, however, in the psychological depth of each one of them there is a secretary who is translating the words of the lecturer, that secretary is the “I”, the myself, the oneself. The work of that secretary is to misinterpret or mistranslate the words of the lecturer.
The “I” translates according to its prejudgments, pre-concepts, fears, prides, anxieties, ideas, etc., etc., etc.
The students in the school or the people that form the auditorium are, in reality, not listening the lecturer, they are listening to themselves, they are listening to their own Ego, their beloved Machiavellian Ego, which is not disposed to accept the Real, the True, the Essential.
Only in a state of alert novelty, with a spontaneous mind, without the weight of the past, and in state of complete receptivity can we really listen without the intervention of that ‘bad secretary’ called “I”, myself, oneself, Ego.
When the mind is conditioned by the memory, it only repeats what it has stored. The mind, conditioned by the experience of so many yesterdays, can only see the present through the dirty glasses of the past.
If we want to learn how to listen, in order to discover the New, we must live according to the ‘philosophy of the moment’. It is urgent to learn how to live from moment to moment without the preoccupations of the past and without the projections of the future.
The Truth is the unknown from moment to moment. Our minds have to be always alert, with complete attention, without prejudgments and pre-concepts in order to be really receptive.
It is necessary to learn how to live wisely, to refine our senses, to refine our behavior, our thoughts and feelings.
It is of no use to have a great academic culture if we do not know how to listen, if we are unable to discover the New from moment to moment.
The rough, rude, deteriorated and degenerated minds can never know how to discover the New. Those kinds of minds only understand (in a mistaken form) the absurd translations of that secretary called “I”, Ego, myself.