Knowing The Unknown

Sometimes in life, you stumble across the most amazing people. This is one of the things I like about the internet. Although you may never meet some of the one's you may get to know via the internet, you still develope the recognition of who that person is through their writings and posstings of opinions. You can spend a whole lifetime with some people - spend huge amounts of time together and never really know anything about them at all. You may get to know what they like in their coffee, what style of clothing they prefer, what their hobbies are, but all these things are superficial. Knowing these things isn't knowing the person - it is knowing that you have the ability to observe and remember such things. Sometimes we mistake our ability to observe and remember for knowing. We are satisfied with just what we observe about others and really knowing them becomes less important.

What is in one's heart comes out in words, whether it be spoken or written. More often than not, for a lot of people, hearing is thought to be just the ability to do just that - hear with our ears only. But, I think hearing others words is much more than that. Hearing involves thinking about and meditating about the words we hear. Doing this leads to greater understanding when we hear what one has to say at any given time, meditating on it, and putting that together with words said in the future from the same person and meditating on those as well. At first the hearer may only get some understanding from what they heard, but after future meditation, their mind is capable of getting further understanding from the words.

I believe because of lack of this understanding of hearing, that it can be easier for one to really get to know another by never meeting them and reading their written word. Reading takes concentration and thought. It shows more of a desire to really want to know what others are saying because the reader has to take the action and make the effort. Most people when they read pause at various times to ponder the significance of what they read and how it relates to the whole picture thus far. They go back to it in their mind during the day giving it more thought. When they put the written words down and return to it, they first take a moment to put themselves back into what the other has written. Sometimes, even months after reading something, a new understanding with deeper meaning comes to the reader.

Sometimes we get frustrated because we don't feel as if others are talking to us and letting us know how they feel. When we find ourselves in this position, it may be helpful to look to ourselves to see how we are hearing.