Listening to The Beloved - Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

 ...listening is not an effort, not a technique...
Listening springs from the desire to be with the one whom
you wait to hear ["The Beloved"].  Listening is a coming
close, waiting for Presence to materialize into words, to
form ItSelf out of Silence.  Listening is a relationship, even
in the silence when nothing is heard.  Learning to listen is
to allow our self to be present without imposing or demanding,
to hold a space where something can be told, where meeting
can unfold between...lover and The Beloved; where openness
is answered.  The lover is the one who listens, whose being
is born to listen to The Beloved.  Without the lover, how
could the song of The Beloved be heard?

At the beginning we have to learn the art of listening, the art
art of being present, attentive and empty.  We have to catch
the still, small voice of The Beloved, and not interrupt, not
ask too many questions.  We have to learn to be silent,
because listening is born from silence.  The listening of the
heart is always an act of love, a coming together [communion],
even when nothing is heard.  Listening is a wisdom.  It is
feminine, receptive, hidden...  Rumi knew how central a part
it plays in our wordless relationship with The Beloved:

"Make everything in you an ear, each atom of your being,
and you will hear at every moment what the Source is
whispering to you, just to you and for you..."  You are - we
all are - the beloved of The Beloved, and in every moment,
in every event of life, The Beloved is whispering to you
exactly what you need  to hear and know.
Listen [to The Beloved] and you will discover it every
passing moment.  Listen, and your whole life will become a
conversation in thought and action between you and The
Beloved directly, wordlessly, now and always.

We need to rediscover
how the heart listens to its Beloved.

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Sufi Mystic

Excerpts from an article called:
The Circle of Love
on Spirituality and Practice

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Photo from the Internet