I love those moments, when I tune-in to Deep Listening.
I am standing light and evenly balanced on my feet. I am slightly bent forward as my awareness accommodates to a middle point between an imaginary overlooking eye above me and the grounding touch of the floor with the soles of my feet.
Creativity wants to have it all: lightness, vigilance, spontaneity, playfulness, acceptance, self-love, confidence, inner-breath and sense of space.
For me, Deep Listening is a state where I am carried by presence. As my choice of words implies, it is a passive state, essentially a magic. The way I have been approaching it has been to first clear my thoughts and return to bodily awareness. Then my inner intelligence moves its focus and attention towards its own outer boundaries. It has the motion of expansion. Once there, I remain still, welcoming and alert.
Before tapping on what happens next, I would like to write a few words about what I referred above as the boundaries of intelligence and the way there. Instead of describing it, I offer a simple exercise which I frequently practice and which might convey it better:
Take a few moments to reach a quiet state, and to find comfort and peace within the boundaries of your body. Imagine a small ball of light, hanging in the middle of your chest. The light is white or pink, and is filled with good intentions and trust. Spend a few seconds with the feeling of being protected by it. Now, allow the ball to slowly grow, so it fills your entire body. Allow yourself to be carried away by its expansion as you feel your body in its entirety. Spend a few seconds in that state, allowing the vibrant light to wash each and every cell of your body with a cleansing and healing flow. Then allow the ball to expand further until it covers the space or room that surrounds you. Stay there for a few seconds and expand it further, repeating the process, covering your district, your family, your country, your continent, the world, the outer space. At each point, linger for few seconds to contain its vastness and to fill everything and everyone within it with its vibrant energy. Do so until you reach a point when you can no longer contain the ball, and then allow it to expand beyond the boundaries of your grasp. Once there, make yourself comfortable in this state, stay there with permission to linger, without trying to understand, reason or mentally process. Allow yourself to simply be idle. At this point, your identity (or sense of self) reaches its limit, beyond which it cannot persist.
When I am tuned to creative work, or may I say to Creativity itself, I strive to bring myself to that place and state.
In this place, as a person who stands upon the brinks of the walls surrounding an ancient city, I can internally look in all directions: backwards, inwards, to the sides, forwards, up and downwards. As long I maintain my focus, I have a clear, instantaneous, almost simultaneous access in all directions.
Looking backwards, I recall my memories and my past. Not necessarily the events themselves, but rather their weight and resonance on the person I am today. Here I embrace my past as the only possible one I could have, I acknowledge my scars as lessons worth being endeavored, and trust the good path I am at. It is here where Healing takes place.
Looking inwards, I can tune into my body and mind. I can sense my body and the state of my emotions, the inner tides flowing along my neural pathways. Amidst the rush of life, while being in a state of lesser awareness, these tides manifest themselves as thoughts, worries, internal narratives, daydreams, actions and even experiences. But here, standing upon the wall, they are freed from the burden of creating imaginary narratives. They lose their grip on experiencing. They are free to roam without being reacted upon. This insight is an invitation to cultivating Wisdom and Growth.
Looking sideways, I can see my fellow men, my brothers and sisters who are committed to growth, standing beside me on that wall as partners on the journey. That tunes me into Connection, and ultimately to Compassion.
Looking upwards, I can sense the Guidance and Protection. I can trust the reason behind everything that happens. It allows me to drop my worries and silence the stream of thoughts. I can submit to Faith.
Turning downwards, I sense the healing power of the earth under me. I am tuned to self-acceptance, forgiveness and love, like the earth that supports us all, holding the weight, and eventually accepting our bodies as we decay.
Having the full support of all of the merits and qualities described above, I can turn my attention looking Forward, towards the Big Blue in the Ocean of unconsciousness, and immerse myself in Deep Listening.
Deep Listening does not necessarily mean listening with one's sense of hearing. It is rather a holistic experience of being silent, as the senses abandon their regular functionalities and unite to a singular beam of heightened sensitivity. In this state the spirit is joyful and you are fully present.
Deep Listening implies lingering in silence. Linger until a stream of expression makes itself available to you and invites you to take a ride. I often feel that the stream of expression, may it be a sound, a melody, a movement or a sequence of words, was there all along. One does not need to create it or to push it through. What I do need to do is to unite with it. It is an act of gentle submission. One should also be aware and clear that the expression makes itself available to you, rather than being superficially imposed by a thought, discomfort, urge or fear (for instance, the fear of doing nothing or being silent). One should also be aware that the stream of expression must not necessarily be understood by you or others, as long as it does not deteriorate the well-being of others or their freedom of expression.
Once a stream of expression appears and I allow myself to act as its channel or its ambassador, I do so while keeping my presence and gentle vigilance until the stream subsides or is replaced by another.
The more I get experienced in being in that state, I find that I am able to extend this state or quality of presence to longer times and to incorporate it into daily life, tuning into the art of living and life of creativity.
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As a final note, I can share that the more the years pass by, I find that being in the state of Deep Listening and being in silence also reunites me with the Longing to Unity, the ever present force that kindles life, all lives. It is then that I remember once again that the path to Unity can only be carved by choosing Happiness.
Gidi Farhi,
11/11/2022, on the bus from Rome to Matera
Thank you to Steve Schofield and Anni Lattunen for valuable suggestions and proofreading
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