One morning, after a night on call as a fourth-year medical student, my friend Tom and I decided we wanted to go to a movie. The Cecil B. DeMIlle film, “The Ten Commandments,” was playing at a downtown theater.
Thinking the place would be empty on a Wednesday noon show, we were surprised that the auditorium was filled with about 10 or more grammar school classes of 4th grade students. We had sat forward, so the crowds were behind us.
From the moment they were seated, we heard persistent whispering accompanied by the unwrapping of plastic packages of candy. It was truly the masses surrounding us. We almost felt we were in Egypt among a cast of thousands. (Take note for the next Passover seder.) It was a steady background soundtrack which played well in harmony with the movie. It never varied. It sounded like white noise. The entire movie played with an added cast of many low voices and activities.
Except when God spoke. During the scene of the burning bush and while Moses was on Mt. Sinai receiving the 10 Commandments, the theater went dead silent. You could have heard a jelly bean drop.
This episode is a parable for how the human mind works. Our thoughts provide a constant stream of background noise that occupies our waking hours. It probably also feeds us during sleep. When something we consciously deem important happens, we quiet the tumult and focus our attention.
As we engage with other people, the insistent frontal cortex is busily trying to butt into the conversation. Even when another is speaking, the brain is working to attract the attention of the mind. Thoughts are so active, it’s almost as if there really is a homunculus driving cerebral activity. Just try to not have any thoughts for 30 seconds. Difficult, if not impossible.
That movie theater was like a big, mostly hollowed out, human brain. Busy thinking. Constantly producing and expressing random content. Ideas, judgments, and desires keep popping in and distracting. We get used to it. We subconsciously make efforts to tune it out.
Unless it starts screaming. Sometimes it yells just to assert itself. Maybe there is a real emergency that incites it to bellow. Then we better listen to that voice within our heads. But usually it’s just prattle for the sake of babble.
Every individual person has the power to control his or her mind. God doesn’t have to speak for us to do that. We just must really want to focus on our surroundings and shut off the internal dialogue. It also takes some practice. If we want to hear God’s still small voice, we must be well practiced at shutting down the inner dialogue.
People conversing with each other formulate their next speech during the preceding monologue. We are preparing our response as another is talking. Listening to a friend, we have hundreds of kids whispering and unwrapping candy inside our skulls. This impairs the ability to hear all that is being said. A person is not fully attentive. We’re not mindfully listening.
Do we want to listen to everything someone else is saying? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe we have something more important to say. The brain thinks so.
We certainly want to be heard.
The best way to make that happen is if we concentrate on hearing and wait for our turn.
We tend to listen more carefully to a speech with which we agree. When we disagree, the speaker gets tuned out by the rush of emotions and arguments arising in our brains to refute and reject every statement. When the subject and opinions being expressed coincide with our own, it is easier to give our undivided attention. If it is really important to us, we can summon a meditative, laser sharp attentiveness to the moment.
Today, increasingly, people do not want to hear things that conflict with their strongly held views. Listening to a point of view with which we disagree is cause to alert the schoolkids within to commence making noise.
Aside from the fact that meaningful human communication and understanding and compromise all suffer from disallowing a broad spectrum of ideas, the heightened background noise defeats the prime spiritual objective of existence. The promise of humanity stems from joining together against the binding forces of terrestrial nature. The world was created and evolved with separations. Bridging the differences among people, ideas, and aspirations into unified coherence and harmony is the path to spiritual ascension. Inclusiveness guides the process.
Material life is a limiting experience. Boundaries prevail against all human pursuits. Our collective challenge in life is to push at those walls. Borders, abilities, and capabilities allow us to reach only so far. Everything extends to a point which cannot be surpassed. Life will never be eternal. We can never exceed some, possibly as yet undetermined, records of accomplishment. As mortal beings, we live within the confines of the physical universe.
Bringing the eternal and infinite spiritual world into association with our physical lives adds expansiveness. Joining the Earthly and Heavenly powers enhances our perceptions in ways that amplifying the senses and extending the innate powers cannot do. We must embrace the human soul to incorporate ethereal strength.
The way to do this is to overcome the senses and the thinking. Meditation is the method. It is possible to silence thought, suppress emotion, and resist sensory distraction. A cleared mind supports spiritual awareness. The more this activity is performed, the greater the skill to accomplish it.
Mindfully listening to those with whom we disagree, hearing every word, and permitting these foreign ideas to reach us is a challenging but fruitful exercise in meditation. It is concentration against adversity. Sort of like lifting weights to become stronger, going against any inclination increases the resources and flexibility of the brain. We grow much more going up the ladder than down the slide.
Pushing all that whispering and crackling out of the head to tolerate (though not necessarily to endorse) ideas that may feel repulsive or antagonistic is a rewarding endeavor. It builds the mind, invites the soul, heals the world, and repairs the creation.
Science, philosophy, and psychology are never settled fields. Human interaction and acceptance lines the path to deeper understanding. Applying listening skills to every conversation furthers forward movement in these areas.
As a benefit, it helps to bring the Earthly and Heavenly realms together. Truly hearing each other, giving fair minded attention to what others have to say, and not rejecting the unfamiliar promotes a meditative state. On many levels, this creates Heaven on Earth.
The essence of living is struggling. Self imposed immobility, artificial conflict, and resigned apathy are ridiculous additions to the obstacles inherent in a material world. Striving to overcome the built in barriers is rewarding and joyful. These energize our lives. Imagining new ones only adds stress, anger, and negativity. These drain our lives.
Replace the harmful self-defeating endeavors and resistances with those that comfort. Opposites have coexisted throughout human history. They support each other when antagonism is avoided. In this way, we can achieve our ultimate potential.
Health and Spirit by Dr. Jack Zoldan 