Associated with the practice of deep listening is the practice of loving speech. We must learn to speak with love again. This is a thing that can be done in a practice community where brothers and sisters practice loving speech every day.
There are pacifists who can write protest letters of great condemnation but who are incapable of writing a love letter. You have to write in such. away that the other person is receptive toward reading; you have to speak in such a way that the other person is receptive toward listening. If you do not, it is not worth the trouble to write or to speak. To write in such a way is to practice meditation.
I remember a young American who came to us to practice. One day he was asked to write a letter to his mother, which was easy for him. On the other hand, it was impossible for him to write a letter to his father. His father had died, but he still suffered every time he thought of him. Just the idea of picking up a pen to write to his father already caused him a great deal of suffering.
I proposed the following practice to him. For one week he practiced mindful breathing, saying to himself, "Breathing in - I see myself as a child of five." When one is a little boy of five, one is very fragile and vulnerable. As he was breathing in, he saw himself as the object of his own compassion. During the second week, he meditated on his father: "Breathing in - I see my dad as a little child of five; breathing out - I smile at the little boy who was my dad."
For a whole week, the young American practiced very faithfully and very enthusiastically. He put a photo of his father don't the table and every time he walked into the room and looked at it, he practiced mindful breathing. He had never imagined that his father could have been a child of five. Suddenly the young man acknowledged the presence of his father as a little boy. It was the first time that he realized that his father had suffered as a little boy, and suddenly he felt compassion. Finally one evening he found it possible to write the first letter to his father. That transformed him completely, and now he has peace in his heart.
Meditation is the practice of looking deeply into the nature of your suffering and your joy. Through the energy of mindfulness, through concentration, looking deeply into the nature of our suffering makes it possible for us to see the deep causes of that suffering. If you can keep mindfulness and concentration alive, then looking deeply will reveal to you the true nature of your pain. And freedom will arise as a result of your sustaining a deep vision into the nature of your pain. Solidity, freedom, calm, and joy are the fruits of meditation.
- TNH
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