Listen!!

by Katherine Daiki Senshin Griffith

Listen to the actions of the Perceiver of Sounds, how aptly she responds in various quarters. Her vast oath is deep as the ocean; kalpas pass but it remains unfathomable. She has attended many thousands and millions of Buddhas, setting forth her great pure vow.
– from The Lotus Sutra, Verse 25

In Chinese culture, the Snake is a symbol of wisdom, mystery, and adaptability. It is often associated with transformation and growth, as in the shedding of a snake’s skin. Unlike the bold and outgoing Dragon, the Snake represents calmness and introspection, which are essential for guiding one’s life with wisdom and grace.

Entering the Year of the Wood Snake, there is so much we might like to shed. We are witnessing so much suffering, it can seem not like just the end of a year or an era, but the end of life on Earth as we’ve known it. Mother Nature seems pissed and bent on shedding us if we don’t make things right with her.

No matter where you fall along the cultural or political spectrum, this mess can all seem overwhelming. We’ve collectively created it, so what do we do now? I’ve heard from so many that they don’t know how to respond or what to do.

Bingo! This “I don’t know” is a good thing. Beyond the “I don’t know what action to take,“ the deeper Not Knowing, that sheds all concepts, helps us refrain from jumping back into old unhelpful patterns that aren’t up to the problems before us. It’s an invitation to take the backwards step. Empty out completely.

But then what?

Listen!!

Deep Listening is the theme for our Spring Practice Period, starting now and going through May. This listening isn’t just with the ears. It’s with every pore of our being beyond the six senses. As Bottom says in A Midsummer’s Night Dream, when he wakes up from being an ass: The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report… This captures what it’s like to experience our essential nature which cannot be grasped but is forever being revealed.

“Deep Listening is the theme for our Spring Practice Period.”

Zen Master Hakuin is famous for the koan: What is the Sound of the Single Hand? When you clap together both hands a sharp sound is heard; when you raise the one hand there is neither sound nor smell.

Thanissaro Bikhu says that maybe this koan refers to sights, sounds, smells, and tastes that clap against the mind and cause it to clap back. What is the mind that does not react to the senses but just observes them? Yamada Koun puts it this way:

In fact, each one of you, although you see and hear the various phenomena of the phenomenal world, are actually, in your most essential self, completely transcending the world of color and sound. It is from here that a wondrously free activity emerges in the case of the Zen master.

So, this Spring, I challenge each of us to listen with that Mind.

Listen openly to different points of view not your own. Listen for what is underneath, for what is not said, for what you’re not hearing.

Listen to the interplay of bells and drums. Listen while chanting to the beauty of both harmony and cacophony.

Listen to your body’s feedback. Do your eyes need to turn away from a screen? Do you need a nap or more sleep? Is your belly full? Have you been sitting at your desk too long? Do you need to move around, shake it up, stay off that leg, see a doctor? Do you need to dance, weep, scream, or hug?

Listen in the morning to: birds, sunlight, rushing cars, growling stomach, sleepy eyelids, jackhammers, breakfast smells, to do lists, garbage trucks. Listen to the feelings of excitement or dread for the day. What needs to be shed to be of benefit?

Listen in the evening to: birds, twilight, rushing cars, sirens, dogs, helicopters, children, marching bands, ice cream trucks, sports cheers, vendors, news reports, dinner smells, temperature drops. Listen to your feelings about your day. What needs to be shed to be of benefit?

Listen for the call of the new path, the new way of doing things, the route not tried. What needs to be shed to travel it?

Listen to your thoughts without clinging. What messages about yourself and the world need to be shed? What’s really going on below the surface? Excessive ruminations are a sign something needs to be addressed. What do you need to shed to do that?

In the space between thought and action, listen for when to challenge, when to let go, when the needed action becomes clear. Listen for both your impatience and hesitancy, and for what ingredient you may be missing.

As we listen, we find we are not alone, but interconnected. Some may feel the same way and some may have other feelings, skills or points of view. But no matter the stance, we’re in this together. We Buddhists may think we know that, but listen for when we don’t. We all experience the affects of climate change for Nature doesn’t pick and choose.

Listen for ways to reinforce our sense of connection. The rugged individualism threaded through our culture’s fabric doesn’t encourage asking for aid or the building of community. When we are given or offer help, we may realize subconsciously that’s what was wanted all along; that’s who we are.

Listen to someone’s suffering besides your own. Listen to someone’s suffering as your own. Hear all cries of the world as your own.

But don’t just listen to the doomsday news, the hate and divisive othering. Hear the kind words and actions, good deeds not trumpeted, and insights coming from all directions.

On ABC’s What Would You Do? actors act out scenes of conflict or illegal activity in public settings while hidden cameras capture whether or not ordinary bystanders intervene, and how. Variations can include changing the genders, races, or actors’ clothing, to see if people react differently. The situations often pertain to prejudice; race, sex, religious beliefs, physical and mental disabilities or appearances, sexual harassment, vandalism, theft, financial trouble, parenting, and social status. When they are interviewed after the reveal, the bystanders often tear up with their feelings around the injustice or kindness to complete strangers. These tears are the sweet dew of the Perceiver of the World’s Sounds, for:

She can quell the wind and fire of misfortune and everywhere bring light to the world. The precepts from her compassionate body shake us like thunder, the wonder of her pitying mind is like a great cloud. She sends down the sweet dew, the Dharma rain, to quench the flames of earthly desires.

“Listen to someone’s suffering besides your own.”

In Why We Can’t Wait, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said: Just as lightning makes no sound until it strikes, the Negro Revolution generated quietly. But when it struck, the revealing flash of its power and the impact of its sincerity and fervor displayed a force of a frightening intensity.

We are still experiencing the power of the revolution that expanded into rights for women, all ethnic groups, the disabled, and every sexual preference and identity. And now, more than ever, we are experiencing the backlash from these movements. Listen for what is being generated quietly now, the sound of the one hand. Tune into what your capacities and gifts are and how they might serve. Keep some quiet space open so you can hear.

Listen as the stillness, the ever-present vast space, to that:

Wonderful sound, Perceiver of the World’s Sounds, Brahma’s sound, the sea tide sound–they surpass those sounds of the world; therefore you should constantly think on them, from thought to thought never entertaining doubt!

Harken, to your deepest self! What do you hear?

Sensei Senshin is the ZCLA Head Teacher.