Any effective
communication or learning starts with ‘listening’ or ‘reading’. Listening is
not mere hearing. In Tibetans monastery, ‘pot’ analogy is given to explain
listening.
If you want to fill a pot
with clean water, following three conditions must be satisfied:
- The
pot must not be kept upside down. No water can enter a
pot which is not rightly positioned. Similarly, the listener must pay attention
to the speaker. If one’s attention is somewhere else or wandering in different
directions, nothing will be received or will be received in bits and pieces
which is worse than not listening at all.
- The pot must not be dirty. If it is dirty, the water will also get dirty as soon as it enters the pot. Similarly, the listener must suspend all doubts, biases, notions, beliefs and any form of conditioning while listening, so that the purity of speaker’s thoughts is retained in the listener’s mind. We often start doubting the speaker’s authority and knowledge or get busy in forming our own questions while listening. These are barriers to active listening and they must be dropped.
- The pot must not be leaky. No water can stay in a pot which is leaking. Similarly, one must improve one’s memory to retain the thoughts in entirety. Often a lot is forgotten soon after the speaker stops or the reading ends. One may, therefore, take notes to prompt the memory for later recall.
At
this stage, one may say “I got what you said. But, I have doubts on its
validity.”
Therefore,
whatever is listened to or read must be subjected to the following further two
steps to bring about real learning and internal transformation:
Reflection:
In this step, you bring forth all the doubts and raise queries. Reason out
every answer and clarification. Seek expert’s opinion and guidance. At the end
of all this, if it still doesn’t make sense, then it is not useful for you and
it is best to be ignored. However, if it does make sense, then you may feel
deep within a sense of unshaken conviction. You will be able to explain it to
others as if it is your own making. You will become knowledgeable.
Yet,
there may be little or no internal transformation even with this newfound
knowledge. You may continue to act and behave like before. This is because the
last step is yet to be covered.
Absorption:
In this step, you allow this knowledge to seep in the subconscious mind. You
meditate over it. Look for relevance in day-to-day living. It is like
marinating the food with spices. This step may take its own time. Patience and perseverance
are the keys. Over time, this knowledge will start reflecting spontaneously,
without any effort, in your thoughts, actions and behaviours.
At
this point, the knowledge has turned into your true ‘learning’.
