Deep Listening is Stillness

 

Our true nature is stillness,

The Source from which we come.
. . . .
The deep listening of pure contemplation
Is the path to stillness.

All words disappear into It,
And all creation awakens to the delight of
Just Being.

                                                    —Thomas Keating, “Stillness”

During our consideration this week of Jeremiah 5 we had a fascinating discussion of the word “listen”. God calls us to ‘hear’ and ‘fear’. The prophet explicitly and implicitly is speaking God’s word to anyone who will listen. Scripture calls us again and again to hear is we have ears! We seem to be missing understanding, comprehension, perception and reception. 

In these days of chaos and confusion there is a lot of shouting going on as though the louder and longer, the better and convincing.

But what if we are to “listen” with our entire being. What if we are being called to return to a more theological and pastoral understanding of listening, deeper, present, unobstructed. 

It seems that is what Father Keating is getting at in his poem Stillness. Stillness is not silence, just as listening is not hearing. Contemplative listening gathers up all words and offers enlightened being. 

Listen for the still small voice.