There is an art of listening. To be able really to listen, one should abandon or put aside all prejudices, preformulations and daily activities. When you are in a receptive state of mind, things can be easily understood; you are listening when your real attention is given to something. But unfortunately most of us listen through a screen of resistance. We are screened with prejudices, whether religious or spiritual, psychological or scientific; or with our daily worries, desires and fears. And with these for a screen, we listen. Therefore, we listen really to our own noise, to our own sound, not to what is being said. It is extremely difficult to put aside our training, our prejudices, our inclination, our resistance, and, reaching beyond the verbal expression, to listen so that we understand instantaneously. That is going to be one of our difficulties.
Krishnamurti
from the book The First and Last Freedom
source: http://www.jiddu-krishnamurti.net/en/the-first-and-last-freedom/
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Further quotes from the book The First and Last Freedom:
- Liberating truth
- The real is near
- Understanding the Seeker
- Freedom from the fear of what is
- The capacity of meeting everything anew