| |
love is. There are no nuances, no rhythm, no waves, no vibrations. It is dead.
When Jesus says the word prayer, its meaning is not the same as when someone writes the same word in a book. The whole life of Jesus is a prayer, from beginning to end. Every particle of him is prayer; every inch of his body is filled with it. Thus, what Jesus conveys when he says the word prayer is very different from what is conveyed by the word in a dictionary.
Whenever one speaks, it immediately creates a sort of tuning in, a getting in touch with the listener. The soul of the speaker soon approaches that of the listener. Doors open up; the listener's defenses begin to give way.
When you are listening, if you are fully attentive your thinking has to stop. The more attentive you are as you listen, the less you will think. Your doors open; you become more receptive to the other. Now something can enter in directly without being hindered; you and the speaker become known to each other. In a very deep sense, a harmonious relationship is established. The speaking comes from without, yet it echoes deep within the listener.
Such a relationship cannot be established when one is reading, because the writer is absent. When you are reading, if you do not automatically understand something you have to make an attempt to understand it. But when listening you will understand without effort.
If you are reading a book based on my speaking that has been reported verbatim, then you will forget that you are reading because you know me. After a few moments, you feel that you are not reading -- that you are listening. But if the wording is changed or the style is changed slightly in the reporting, the rhythm and the attunement will break. When those who have listened to me once read my spoken words, reading becomes as good as listening to me. But there are differences because, still, a change in medium changes the intent of what is said.
The difficulty is that what I am trying to tell will change in accordance with the form of expression. If I use poetry, it will impose its own conditions: a particular arrangement of words, the rejection or selection of particular
|
|
|