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 seemed like a good first step – as openly as a new born baby.

I soon realised that when we are focusing on any specific sound, we don't notice sudden warning signals until a split second after they occur.

And one afternoon, i was busy listening intensely to the wind in the trees, when i heard something sudden... a second after it had happened... and i didn't know if it was a bark or a sneeze.

Such distinctions could be a matter of life and death to a rabbit or mouse.

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.

Do a bit of ear yoga, stretch out in all directions, searching for sounds. Nearby and in the distance. I think vulnerable animals' survival depends largely on faint sounds nearby; whereas predators listen in 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 for such specific signals is a useful step, but any form of selective attention overrides the transparent openness necessary to hear split-second sounds.

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.

Except possibly when they feel safe at home in a warm burrow  – animals miss out on the sensory pleasure of birds singing, but they survive by noticing when the birdsong suddenly changes. They miss out on any sensory pleasure in nature's music; but they survive by listening-out for the interruptions.

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, it makes the thoughts slow and repetitive, or first level observations, but it doesn't stop them.

The value of anticipatory listening is that it is impossible to think or want anything at the same time.

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.

We are all making ourselves unhappy by continuously focusing, continuously thinking and wanting – chasing after the next focal point, the next missing part in our satisfaction puzzle.

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 Witness Report
(Chapter One continues with Breathing, Smelling, and Tasting)

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