Listening and hearing are a union within Awareness. One can hear through more instruments of the body than one’s ears. We hear through our hands, like massage therapists or when holding the hand of a child, an elder, or someone. We might lift a supplement bottle and listen to the body’s response for or against it. We hear through our tongue. Tastes have sound; they have vibration. And vibration, on any and as many levels as possible, is what hearing is about.

Listening is the completion or fullness of hearing. Does one listen to the guidance one receives, listen to the vibrations of the child or elder or anyone else? Do we listen to the taste in our mouth, the scent in the air, or the wisdom of our body? Our karma is constantly expressing in beneficial, neutral, and troublesome ways. Are we listening? There are layers of thought and emotion behind any words spoken by anyone. Are we listening to some or more of it, hearing more completely what this person is saying?

Hearing and listening are ways through which we can be more aware, present, and participatory in our shared life with all beings and dimensions of being.