June 2016

STAY SILENT AND LEARN
     When you meet someone, you are no longer going to be the first one to speak. Stay silent and learn. Don’t impose your boring life story on the other person. Let the other person talk. Then write down what you have learned.

DEVELOP SPIRITUAL HEARING
     Christ gave a statement of astonishing insight, as all true spiritual statements are astonishing and marvelous. That statement went as follows: “Let he that has ears to hear, let him hear.”
     Now of course he was not talking about hearing the winds in the hills of Galilee or hearing the sounds of merchants in the market place. As always, he was talking about something above this world. He knew all about that world above this earthly sphere that we live on; he understood it.
     I want you to begin to understand your need to develop spiritual hearing. It will come to you as, for example, you follow the principles that you've heard here; and as you listen and want to hear, you will.
     That hearing obviously has to be personally experienced by you, but when it finally comes there is no question at all in your mind but that you are hearing a message from another world.
     You know finally, listen to this, you know that you are no longer talking to yourself. You have become silent in your mind and in your emotions. And in that silence God is able to speak to you and you will recognize it.
     This new hearing that you have is totally unlike anything else. It is immediately recognized when it really happens to you. And when it happens, that is the same thing as you changing from a mere human living from thoughts and ambitions and anxieties.
     Your nature starts to change so that while you still have a mind and still have emotions and still have a physical self, while you have those, you understand that something, this voice that you are hearing, is operating on and through your mind, your feelings, your body, your voice, your reactions. And that voice is giving you instructions on what to do and how to get out of the dark cave that is felt by you.
     Feeling is the same as hearing. And hearing changes what you do with your whole composite nature, self. You are following the orders of this spiritual voice, the voice of God; you are following those orders. And to your great interest and delight you find that you don’t want to go down to visit your friend's house anymore where you were going to have drinks and chatter about nonsensical things, trivial things.
     You are interested to find out that without you making any plans or any thoughts about it and no conflict, all of a sudden it comes to be eight o’clock — and you used to go down to your friends house and drink, do whatever foolish things you used to do, you find that of yourself, without thinking about it, you don’t want to go. You want to stay home and be with and increasingly enjoy this new nature that is hearing this voice. Oh, you get so eager to hear more. You’re not going to hear it down with those beer glasses clicking. You’re not going to hear it down there with all those loud voices and you know it.
     See what has happened? You have made your choice just to hear. Making that choice, you did hear. And what you heard the voice saying was, “Stay home and let Me talk to you instead of those sick friends, the whole sick world.” And it was the easiest choice of your life, right?
     What is more pleasurable than not to be under the dragging compulsion of getting in the car and going down there again and putting on the false face as you went in the door. And it’s your turn to buy the drinks, your turn to lead in the foolishness maybe.
     Oh what a pleasure to cut off the drain of your whole life. Nothing is more pleasurable than to be in a position of knowing what Christ was talking about when he said that. You know that you can listen any time you want, twenty-four hours a day, yes, even while you are asleep. God doesn’t sleep; he is always ready to talk to you, twenty-four hours of the day.
     And you will get such a wish to be always listening. And if you catch yourself beginning to get a chattering mind, or you catch yourself being attracted for the moment to the noisy mob out there — the time will come when you’ll be able to catch yourself in time. You’ll want nothing more than to stay home all the time. Being at home means living with yourself, with this true nature, which is always receptive, always listening for the little insight, the little warning, the little advice so that you don’t have to think your life as you used to.
     Stay home and listen and you will hear.