mits
Junior Member
Posts: 92
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Post by mits on Jul 27, 2013 6:19:14 GMT -5
Hi,
So in one of his books, called the listening attention by Bob Ferguson available on the Amazon Kindle Marketplace. He discusses this in-detail but I find it requires some cryptography skills in discerning this thing he is writing about. Well I'm talking about it here as I want to put it into practise in my life. The listening attention is to look with attention but without any interpretation. He goes on to say that it utilises the inner ear and eye is turned towards the heart and outer world at the same time. See why a serious reader like myself would be con fused by this. He talks about watching yourself, but doesn't go into details so am I watching my thoughts or what?
He even goes on to say that many of the problems we have can be solved by asking an answer from within, then practising patience until the answer appears. Is this how you can get in touch with the small still voice within because I'm thinking that could be God's voice or if your prefer universal wisdom.
Any thoughts on this topic...
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Post by earnest on Jul 27, 2013 6:51:59 GMT -5
Hi, So in one of his books, called the listening attention by Bob Ferguson available on the Amazon Kindle Marketplace. He discusses this in-detail but I find it requires some cryptography skills in discerning this thing he is writing about. Well I'm talking about it here as I want to put it into practise in my life. The listening attention is to look with attention but without any interpretation. He goes on to say that it utilises the inner ear and eye is turned towards the heart and outer world at the same time. See why a serious reader like myself would be con fused by this. He talks about watching yourself, but doesn't go into details so am I watching my thoughts or what? He even goes on to say that many of the problems we have can be solved by asking an answer from within, then practising patience until the answer appears. Is this how you can get in touch with the small still voice within because I'm thinking that could be God's voice or if your prefer universal wisdom. Any thoughts on this topic... I like Bob's book and have found the term "listening attention" has been helpful. The bit in bold above sums it up! I think it can be helpful to perhaps start with what's right in front of you. What about directing this type of attention to your breathing, or sensations in the body? What do you find when you just attend to breath/sensations at a level prior to interpreting them? I find a rich vibrant aliveness! At that level I can't find any problems either. Problems only start to appear once I start interpreting whats being experienced (and having a chronic illness, I've had lots of practice at observing this). This is one example of what can be revealed and I'm sure others have examples as well.
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Post by topology on Jul 27, 2013 8:12:18 GMT -5
Hi, So in one of his books, called the listening attention by Bob Ferguson available on the Amazon Kindle Marketplace. He discusses this in-detail but I find it requires some cryptography skills in discerning this thing he is writing about. Well I'm talking about it here as I want to put it into practise in my life. The listening attention is to look with attention but without any interpretation. He goes on to say that it utilises the inner ear and eye is turned towards the heart and outer world at the same time. See why a serious reader like myself would be con fused by this. He talks about watching yourself, but doesn't go into details so am I watching my thoughts or what? He even goes on to say that many of the problems we have can be solved by asking an answer from within, then practising patience until the answer appears. Is this how you can get in touch with the small still voice within because I'm thinking that could be God's voice or if your prefer universal wisdom. Any thoughts on this topic... I haven't read Bob F's book. I can only take what you have said and respond with how it hits me. Most of us automatons move through this world thinking that we know what things are. "That is just a tree" "that is just a dog". In thinking "just a" we dismiss the object from our attention and relate to it as if it is unimportant or even has negative meaning to us. The conceptual understanding is a cardboard cutout, a false front that we erect in front of things to keep them at a distance. We do it with people too, relate to them through the built up image we have in our mind's instead of relating to them directly according to how they are manifesting in the experience. In using the card-board cutout (our intellectual understanding) as a surrogate for direct experience, we tell the universe that we think we know the truth of how it is instead of allowing the universe to reveal itself to us directly. The alternative is to set aside what we think we know and go directly to our present moment experience to receive and let the universe inform us about it's nature. We begin to commune with and allow our experience into us deeply instead of pushing it away. With respect to an eye towards the Heart, I see this as entering into a mode of compassionate/intuitive responsiveness. Instead of querying the image in the mind for what things "should" look like and how to fix it, the experience informs you directly/intuitively about what it needs. The intellect isn't completely dismissed, but it is not the primary vehicle for understanding a situation. We allow ourselves to be informed. We receive. We listen attentively and in that space of receptivity we listen for how the heart wants to respond. We listen for that response calling to us for fulfillment. In order to hear clearly, we have to listen past our personal reactions and personal expectations to what "feels right" when we commune. As a practice, find something you can easily commune with to get a feeling of what it feels like to be communing. And then see if you can expand your ability to commune with things you would normally reject from your experience and attention. When you commune, understanding emerges, when you understand, you can't help but love. Commune with your enemies, commune with your loved ones, commune with your work, commune in your play. Don't let your thoughts about the world stand in your way of being whole.
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Post by zendancer on Jul 27, 2013 8:14:30 GMT -5
Hi, So in one of his books, called the listening attention by Bob Ferguson available on the Amazon Kindle Marketplace. He discusses this in-detail but I find it requires some cryptography skills in discerning this thing he is writing about. Well I'm talking about it here as I want to put it into practise in my life. The listening attention is to look with attention but without any interpretation. He goes on to say that it utilises the inner ear and eye is turned towards the heart and outer world at the same time. See why a serious reader like myself would be con fused by this. He talks about watching yourself, but doesn't go into details so am I watching my thoughts or what? He even goes on to say that many of the problems we have can be solved by asking an answer from within, then practising patience until the answer appears. Is this how you can get in touch with the small still voice within because I'm thinking that could be God's voice or if your prefer universal wisdom. Any thoughts on this topic... I agree that Ferguson's explanation may seem a bit confusing, but Earnest is correct; the practice is to shift attention away from thoughts to what is seen, heard, or felt. Listening attention is quite powerful, and is sometimes easier to pursue than visual attentiveness. Sounds do not trigger as much commentary or reflection as sights. To make it very easy, sit down, close your eyes, pick a sound (the hum of a refrigerator, the chirping of crickets, etc), and simply listen. If thoughts arise, shift attention back to the sound. Avoid commenting upon the sound or interpreting what is heard; simply listen. Become a huge ear that only listens. This is listening attention, a form of ATA. Last night Carol and I were discussing this form of attentiveness, and we both agreed that "universal sound" is the easiest sound to attend, and it can be heard at any time. Universal sound is the faint (sometimes loud) ringing/roaring in the ears that is similar to the sound one hears when holding a conch shell to one's ear. As for solving problems or finding answers to questions, yes, simply contemplate the issue in silence. It is like turning the question over the body's inherent wisdom. The "still small voice" is not usually a voice; it is the body's way of non-verbally revealing whatever it is that you existentially want to know. This kind of listening is more like waiting in mental silence for an answer to appear. The answer can be in the form of a voice (rarely), or an image, or a sudden realization. The body is intimately connected to reality, so it already "knows" the answer to any existential question that can be asked. The trick is to ingnore the intellect's jabbering long enough for the body's inherent intelligence to manifest itself at the level of conscious perception.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2013 8:40:28 GMT -5
Sounds do not trigger as much commentary or reflection as sights. Obviously you've never had a sudden, severe bout with tinnitus. lol. I can tell you first hand that that trauma got my full and undivided attention, and not "in a good way". But after the storm had passed, some interesting insights were seen. Funny thing, I ordered Bob F's book here, and was enjoying the read, when somewhere in the middle I lost interest, mid sentence even, then x'd out the page and haven't been back since. Which is nothing against Bob, this is a fine book on the subject.
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Post by zendancer on Jul 27, 2013 8:54:57 GMT -5
Sounds do not trigger as much commentary or reflection as sights. Obviously you've never had a sudden, severe bout with tinnitus. lol. I can tell you first hand that that trauma got my full and undivided attention, and not "in a good way". But after the storm had passed, some interesting insights were seen. Funny thing, I ordered Bob F's book here, and was enjoying the read, when somewhere in the middle I lost interest, mid sentence even, then x'd out the page and haven't been back since. Which is nothing against Bob, this is a fine book on the subject. Yes, I thought about commenting on tinnitus, but concluded that that was a separate subject. Any loud or painful sound would obviously trigger some commentary and a desire to escape from the sound, but I was referring only to ordinary non-painful sounds. My point was that humans rely more on sight than any other sense, so it is natural that sights trigger more thoughts and internal commentary than sounds. Riding as a passenger in a car and looking at "a red truck" approaching in an opposite lane is more difficult for most people to look at in mental silence than closing the eyes and listening to universal sound or the sound of wind rushing past the window.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2013 9:11:49 GMT -5
Thanks ZD, yes, tinnitus is a different conversation, and the idea that it's an "imaginary sound" makes it even more curious. But I know what you're saying about gently moving the attention back to a 'refrigerator hum' as opposed to focusing on the thoughts that may crop up, and about sights ability to dominate one's attention.
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Post by ???????? ???????????? on Jul 27, 2013 9:27:46 GMT -5
As for solving problems or finding answers to questions, yes, simply contemplate the issue in silence. It is like turning the question over the body's inherent wisdom. The "still small voice" is not usually a voice; it is the body's way of non-verbally revealing whatever it is that you existentially want to know. This kind of listening is more like waiting in mental silence for an answer to appear. The answer can be in the form of a voice (rarely), or an image, or a sudden realization. The body is intimately connected to reality, so it already "knows" the answer to any existential question that can be asked. The trick is to ingnore the intellect's jabbering long enough for the body's inherent intelligence to manifest itself at the level of conscious perception. What if my existential question is what numbers will win the lottery jackpot next week?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2013 10:26:46 GMT -5
Hi, So in one of his books, called the listening attention by Bob Ferguson available on the Amazon Kindle Marketplace. He discusses this in-detail but I find it requires some cryptography skills in discerning this thing he is writing about. Well I'm talking about it here as I want to put it into practise in my life. The listening attention is to look with attention but without any interpretation. He goes on to say that it utilises the inner ear and eye is turned towards the heart and outer world at the same time. See why a serious reader like myself would be con fused by this. He talks about watching yourself, but doesn't go into details so am I watching my thoughts or what? He even goes on to say that many of the problems we have can be solved by asking an answer from within, then practising patience until the answer appears. Is this how you can get in touch with the small still voice within because I'm thinking that could be God's voice or if your prefer universal wisdom. Any thoughts on this topic... He's talking about the perceiver or the awareness that you are... It's not a matter of what you are though, it's a matter of what you are not...and that is all perceptions, which are thoughts, feelings, and all the senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. As well as being the perceiver of thoughts you are the perceiver of sight, and one of the perceptions of sight is your body, as in your arms as they extend outward from your boundlessness, typing on the keyboard of your computer, then hitting the create post button... You are the perceiver of the entire universe, but You are not the perception of the entire universe... You are the perceiver of the body, thoughts, feelings, tastes, smells and hearing of mits, but you are not the perception of mits... I find it helpful when shifting attention away from reason to remember that you the perceiver, aren't doing anything and that no matter how beautiful or ugly things are in the world, it's what's happening and nothing can change that... And indeed nothing has to change because you are the untouchable perceiver...
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Post by zendancer on Jul 27, 2013 10:28:40 GMT -5
As for solving problems or finding answers to questions, yes, simply contemplate the issue in silence. It is like turning the question over the body's inherent wisdom. The "still small voice" is not usually a voice; it is the body's way of non-verbally revealing whatever it is that you existentially want to know. This kind of listening is more like waiting in mental silence for an answer to appear. The answer can be in the form of a voice (rarely), or an image, or a sudden realization. The body is intimately connected to reality, so it already "knows" the answer to any existential question that can be asked. The trick is to ingnore the intellect's jabbering long enough for the body's inherent intelligence to manifest itself at the level of conscious perception. What if my existential question is what numbers will win the lottery jackpot next week? Oddly enough, your question is not as silly as might be imagined.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2013 10:37:56 GMT -5
As for solving problems or finding answers to questions, yes, simply contemplate the issue in silence. It is like turning the question over the body's inherent wisdom. The "still small voice" is not usually a voice; it is the body's way of non-verbally revealing whatever it is that you existentially want to know. This kind of listening is more like waiting in mental silence for an answer to appear. The answer can be in the form of a voice (rarely), or an image, or a sudden realization. The body is intimately connected to reality, so it already "knows" the answer to any existential question that can be asked. The trick is to ingnore the intellect's jabbering long enough for the body's inherent intelligence to manifest itself at the level of conscious perception. What if my existential question is what numbers will win the lottery jackpot next week? That's the problem, there is no next week, there is only now and when next week does come, it will still be now...
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Post by ???????? ???????????? on Jul 27, 2013 10:45:14 GMT -5
What if my existential question is what numbers will win the lottery jackpot next week? Oddly enough, your question is not as silly as might be imagined. It was a honest to God question. So is it possible to find out what the numbers will be?
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Post by ???????? ???????????? on Jul 27, 2013 10:45:43 GMT -5
What if my existential question is what numbers will win the lottery jackpot next week? That's the problem, there is no next week, there is only now and when next week does come, it will still be now... TMT
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2013 11:10:18 GMT -5
Oddly enough, your question is not as silly as might be imagined. It was a honest to God question. So is it possible to find out what the numbers will be? Too much reasoning...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2013 11:18:47 GMT -5
Oddly enough, your question is not as silly as might be imagined. It was a honest to God question. So is it possible to find out what the numbers will be? not even wolfram alpha knows, you're gonna need divine intervention perhaps
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