# PRE-EMPTIVE LISTENING

The visual experience was so amazing, that after a couple of days i started getting interested in how animals listen.

Listening actively and openly to everything which was happening, as openly as a new born baby, seemed like a good first step.

But, one afternoon i was busy listening to various sounds, when i heard something sudden... and i didn't know if it was a bark or a sneeze.

When we are focusing on sounds which are actually happening, we don't notice sudden warning signals until a split second after they happen.

Sights and smells generally last at least a few seconds. But sounds are sometimes very sudden and vanish in a fraction of a second. Listening requires and stimulates nowness like no other sense.

## Beyond The Panorama

Panoramic listening is an active, receptive presence. But in its most sensitive form it is pre-emptive. It's anticipatory listening, always ready and waiting, before things happen.

A useful idea to remember is how predators listen-out for specific signals when hunting specific prey.

Imagine how early man would listen-out into the distance to find wild boar or buffalo; or nearby for tasty insects... and if they didn't pay attention the split second a bee buzzed by, they'd miss the honey forever.

Close your eyes, and do a bit of ear yoga, stretch out in all directions, searching for sounds, nearby and far away. I believe vulnerable animals' survival depends mainly on a sensitivity to faint sounds nearby; whereas predators will often listen-out into the distance.

It depends where you are and what sort of background noises there are, but i often listen-out for dogs and children; at night for owls and hedgehogs; if it's raining then creaking floorboards and car doors slamming. I don't hear them often; hearing them is irrelevant, listening-out for them is the vital part.

Listening-out for specific signals is a useful step, but any form of selective attention overrides the transparent openness necessary to hear split-second sounds in advance.

Vulnerable animals must openly and actively listen out for surprises, Always conscious of sudden changes in the everyday background noise. Always listening-out for the unexpected.

At times, a useful question is "what's the next new sound going to be?"

We experience vibrations throughout our entire body. I think most people have experienced this at a rock concert, and consider how deaf people will listen to vibrations with their hands. So, as soon as you are able to integrate the idea – listen-out with your whole body.

## Inner Peace

While experiencing the visual panorama, it's often possible – vaguely and slowly – to still think and want.

The same is true when listening to modulating sounds like the river or rainfall. There's a tendency to slip in and out every half second following the general trend of sounds, but still thinking. It slows the thoughts, but it doesn't stop them.

The value of anticipatory listening for humans is that it is impossible to think or want anything at the same time. There may be surface observations – a bird, a car horn – but it's impossible to develop any idea as long as a sentence.

Animals only use their senses like this for a few seconds at a time. A few seconds is enough to interrupt the habitual human routines of thinking and wanting.

There is no better, more direct, or readily available method than pre-emptive listening to stop thinking and wanting anything, and enjoy a moment of real inner peace.

At first, I used pre-emptive listening in combination with panoramic vision. It can be used independently but it doesn't have such immediately noticeable effects. These experiences are all developed in the Warm-up Exercises. But again, first...

The Priority Pages continue with Survival Strategies
(Chapter One continues with Breathing, Smelling, and Tasting)

Back to Chapter One : The Animal Teachings
Back to THE PANORAMA SENSES Priority Pages