Mind States – September 2007
Heart Listening Beyond Suburbia
by Bernie Prior
Whether we live in a big city or a small country town, once we feel the longing and the calling of the human heart to unify to the deepest reality within, we must begin to meet “what is” in our daily lives with a growing sense of purpose and transformation. How can any of us expect to live a full life, a complete life, one of deep trust and deep love if we still listen, even just a little, to our personal stories?
Have we forgotten we are involved in a greater and vaster story? This is the story of life––endless, beginning-less. This is not the petty story of an egoic mind. Please don’t think I am putting anyone down or belittling our personal experiences of life. That is not my intention. Egoic or not, we have learned a lot from the life story of “the me.” But isn’t it time that we moved on?
Have we still not learned as yet that there is no other, no me and you, no one to get better, no one who fails, no one who wins and no one who can run away from what is? The “one life” story of humanity and the wisdom nectar of truth and love that has come from that impersonal experience is available to all just under our surface of conditioning and ambiguity. Is it not true that it is up to the individual to discover what is unreal within our inner environment of self as reflected in our outer expression of manifest life?
Surely we can only be pioneers of global change if we are prepared to change and face ourselves within. This means going beyond those deep-seated fears that puppet us from the shadows and make our life choices for us from a place of fearful and doubtful control. Meeting life as it is in any environment––whether in the city, in the office, on the street with a stranger or at home with loved ones––can open the door to the immensity of our being. So many possibilities of deep truth emerge and much potential for love can flow into form. We can “listen” radically to life, but also with softness and gentleness. We can turn off the personal sound track of identity, with its ambitions, anxieties and projections, seeking only pain relief from our wanting and our cell phone. We are part of a vastness not beyond our human experience. We do have a power deep within ourselves to bring about deep-rooted transformation in the individual and therefore within humanity. No matter what the environment, all life mirrors back to us the light of truth and love.
So sit down in the street, in the shopping mall, in the middle of downtown. Relax and listen to the bus cluttering down the road, to the feet on the pavement, to the birds chattering away, to the children playing, to the conversations of individuals walking by.
Truly listening focuses our attention into the silence that gives everything form and that brings all things to life. Yet this silence also remains in deep rest. One touch of truth, one touch of love, in our lives can transform our entire experience on all levels of who it is that lives.
Bernie Prior speaks passionately not only of absolute truth but also the truth behind man and woman, and their expressions as divine partners in existence. Bernie calls us to look at life through fresh eyes. With deep insight into the human condition, with compassion and using his direct experience as a mirror for participants, Bernie Prior’s teaching is both profound and practical. It reveals the way to live an ordinary life with extraordinary presence and awareness. Bernie is touring in California during September. See www.bernieprior.org for details.