The Listener

Listening 

This blog post was inspired by a quote I saw on facebook, recently, which said, ‘the biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.”

Truly listening to someone, or being listened to, fully, deeply, and completely, with an open heart, is such a gift to give or receive. For when we are truly listening— Who is the Listener? and to Whom is It listening? The answer to both these questions of course, is the Soul.

Listening to the Soul’s Voice, either our own or another’s, is a truly sacred act. Learning to allow your life to be guided by that Voice, is one of the golden keys to moving forward on your spiritual journey.

I would like to share a story from my own life, where listening to my soul’s voice, and then the voices of others’ souls, formed one of my life’s most pivotal and tenderly held experiences.

About 10 years ago, after studying the art of Spiritual Direction, or 'soul-companionship', at the Vancouver School of Theology, my soul guided me to do a project I called "The Listener".  The goal and intention of this project was to simply go to random places in the downtown core, and offer my services as a 'Listener' to anyone who needed to be listened to.

I designed a sign, then went to a local sign maker and had two little sandwich board signs made up. On one side at the top was printed ‘The Listener’ and below that, a logo I came up with that was a heart, formed from two ears facing each other. Across the bottom was written ‘hear for you’ (yes, I know…it’s kind of a corny play on words!) and on the back was written my favourite Rumi quote: "There is a Voice that doesn't use words. Listen.” The larger sign was about a foot square, meant to be placed on the sidewalk in my chosen spots, and the smaller one, about 6”x6” for a table-top placement  at coffee shops etc.

So one sunny day, with newly printed signs in hand, I made my way downtown. I walked around until I determined, through my soul’s guidance, which spots would be the best to sit down and 'hang out my shingle’ ...and to just wait to see who might want to sit down and simply be deeply and attentively listened to.

Well, only a couple of brave souls took up the invitation, but what an honour and a privilege to be invited into that oh so sacred space, by another. One moment stranger, next moment, soul companion.

This is the soul healing miracle of truly Listening, and can be equally transformative to both Listener and Listened to. Such a simple an act, and yet so deeply profound.

I still have those signs… Maybe it's time for another go at it. So many unheard hearts and souls out there who long to be Listened to. 

 

"Whole Body Relax!"

Relax... and Listen.

The other day in class at the Vancouver Centre where I attend regularly, my teacher Master Thai Siew Liang, was leading us in a meditation.

She said it would be a silent meditation, with no music, nor even any chanting (or sound power as it is called in Master Sha's system of healing and meditation). This was a bit unusual, in that we generally chant something, --even if the chanting is done silently. (Yin)

But this time, Master Thai Siew's only instructions were to totally relax, and to focus on our 'ming men', an acupuncture point just beneath the skin, in front of the spine, in a direct line back from the navel. 

She shared how during her first visit to China to meet Master Sha's teacher and spiritual father, Master Guo, she was very surprised that his only instruction to them when he led them in healing meditation was "whole body relax!"

Relaxation, she learned, is a vital key to healing, and to going deeply into the 'hero condition', where healing takes place. In this condition, you lose sense of the boundaries of your physical self, and fall gently into the vast 'stillness' that all meditators seek. Total relaxation of the mind as well as the body is needed to do this.

So the silent meditation began. I closed my eyes and totally and completely relaxed, focusing on my ming men, as Master Thai Siew directed.

The summer evening was hot, and the door to the Centre was open to the traffic noise of the busy street outside. But those sounds quickly disappeared, and I soon noticed the sound of chanting arise from the silence. 

It wasn't coming from my mind though...  I understood that it was the voice of my soul. I could distinctly hear my soul chanting "Bao Yuan Shou Yi Master Sha"...a mantra roughly translating as 'become One with Master Sha'. What a beautiful message!  I realized that the chanting had not started with the onset of the meditation, but that the meditation had only provided the means through which I was able to hear it. Our souls are always chanting! How blessed we are!

In our days, so filled with tasks and schedules and to-do lists, so filled with the constant internal chatter and external sound pollution of the urban life most of us live, it's easy think that we are not able to to find silence. But we can access it anytime, anywhere. Try it for yourself right now and see. Just  'whole body relax'...and listen. What message does your soul's voice have for you?

Thank you Master Thai Siew, Thank you Master Guo, Thank you Master Sha.

Sacred Landscape and the Soul's Voice

It took me quite some time to find an image that felt just right, for the background of my blog cover page. It had to be an apple orchard, and there is a very good reason why. It was in an apple orchard, where, at about the age of 7,  I first experienced the Divine.

Over the back fence and beyond the fields behind my childhood home, stood the remains of an ancient and once vast apple orchard. That orchard was 'my' place, and within it, 'my' special tree, a tree I went back to again and again for many years, to think, to play, to dream.  It was a source of comfort, companionship, even love, for me. It was my friend, a sacred sister, rooted in holy ground. It was my 'anam cara', a Gaelic word meaning 'soul friend' I had discovered, written down and tucked away with a quiet knowing that it somehow held some special significance for me.

Most importantly, it was there that I first experienced the Presence of the Divine.

I carried this deep and innate sense of the sacredness of apple trees and apple orchards into my adult life, but it wasn`t until 1991, when I started my quest for the feminine face of God, that I began to understand the why of this deep affinity, and how the Divine begins to lay the stones of our life`s path from very early on.

Some years earlier, I had written, entirely in flow, a fairy tale called "Rhadra and the Rainbow Fish", and was told by a scholar who studied these things, that there were many symbols and hidden meanings in it. So I began to research archetypal symbolism in fairy tales, mythology and folklore, and was awestruck to discover that the apple tree had long been held as the representation of the Goddesses`sacred heart of immortality, and of transformation through the feminine energy of the Universe.

I began to deeply explore ways of discovering my soul`s purpose in this life and world, voraciously studying everything I could get my hands on, on the subject, eventually developing a course aimed at helping others discern God`s Presence and Call in their lives.

Another deeply imprinted sense of the sacred came to me through my Celtic roots. So when I discovered the great significance of the apple for the Celts, who called their after-life paradise 'Avalon', meaning 'Apple-land`, a place ruled by the triple Goddess whose priestesses chose as their place of worship the holy ground of the apple orchards, I felt I had reclaimed another piece of my soul's story. I knew then that the concept of ancient ancestral memory being carried at the cellular level, was for me, more than a theory. It was a profound personal truth. As an artist, singer and healer, I have found great joy in producing images and sounds that spring out of my Celtic inheritance.

My life-long relationship with God that started with those early conversations in my childhood apple tree, eventually led, in 2000, to a discernment of  a Call to the ministry. But what kind of ministry?... Ordination via a Masters of Divinity seemed too traditional an approach for me, and besides it was years away. Other approaches such as Matthew Fox's University of Creation Spirituality in Berkley California seemed too radical, and besides, it was too far away.

Then one day I came across a calendar from the Vancouver School of Theology, and noticed a course called "Spiritual Direction". Thinking that it sounded interesting, I sent away for more information and in a few days received a booklet about the course. I opened it up and read the introductory description:
" We are living in an axial moment in the history of the planet. In such a moment the ancient ministry of 'soul-friending'-- 'anam cara'  is being recovered, (anam cara! rang through my mind as I read on...) providing a process in which persons or groups meet with a soul friend, in order to discern deeply and faithfully, God's Presence and Call" 
I closed the booklet, revealing on the back cover the logo for the Spiritual Direction course... a Celtic cross in the shape of an apple tree. I had been shown the next step on my path. Thank you Divine. I am blessed.

Today, 14 years later, I am more deeply connected to the Divine Presence and the soul's voice than I ever thought possible, because in 2009, I listened, and my soul led me to Master Sha. I am deeply humbled and honoured to now be a Divine Channel in training, to become a representative of this Great Teacher, something I never dreamed possible. I am so grateful to God for all that I have been given, for directing my soul, heart, mind and body, to where I am today, and to be able to serve others.

I hope through my blog, you too will look through the stories of your life, both past and present, to see how the voice of your own soul is speaking to you, and that this will help you to more clearly discern and follow that Voice... the 'still small Voice', which is with us always, to guide and help us.