PRE-EMPTIVE LISTENING

After exploring the visual panorama, i started getting interested in how animals listen.

I can't remember exactly how it developed. Listening actively and openly to everything which was happening was a good first step – as helplessly and vulnerably as a new born baby before it learns to filter out the boring everyday sounds.

A deer listening-out for danger. But i soon realised that listening to everyday background noise is irrelevant for animals.

And however beautiful the sound of the birds or the river, listening to them is a distraction which could end dangerously. When we focus on any specific sound, we don't notice sudden warning signals until a second after they have happened.

Sounds are sometimes very sudden and vanish in a fraction of a second. Smells and sights generally last at least a few seconds. Listening requires and stimulates immediacy 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 is anticipatory listening, always ready and waiting, a second before things happen.

Animals need to listen for things which haven't happened yet, but could occur at any moment.

Do a bit of ear yoga, stretch out in all directions, searching for sounds. Nearby and in the distance, especially the really faint ones.

A fox moving its ears and listening. Predators listen 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.

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 very often; hearing them is irrelevant, listening-out for them is the vital part.

Listening for specific signals is a useful step, but any form of selective attention inevitably limits the full panoramic awareness of a vulnerable animal.

Vulnerable animals must openly and actively listen out for surprises, even faint or distant ones. Always conscious of sudden changes in the everyday background noises. Always listening-out for the unexpected.

Sensory Pleasure vs. Staying Safe

Except possibly when they feel safe and are dozing – animals miss out on the sensory pleasure of birds singing, but they survive by noticing when the birdsong suddenly changes; they miss out on peacefully listening to silence; but they survive by noticing when the silence breaks.

It is possible to experience the visual panorama and still vaguely and slowly, to think and want. For humans, the value of anticipatory listening is that it is impossible to think or want anything at the same time. Any focal point overrides the transparent openness necessary to hear split-second sounds.

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.

There is no better, more direct, or readily available method than pre-emptive listening to stop thinking and wanting anything, or at least to slow down thoughts for a few seconds, 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 Witness Report
(Chapter One continues with Breathing, Smelling, and Tasting)

Back to Chapter One : The Animal Teachings
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