What is Listening?
Diving into our most profound practice.
This week, we plumbed the depths of a psychoactive and multi-dimensional technology — an experience hidden in plain sight. The heart of the wisdom keepers. Listening.
On Sunday, we began a new theme for the month — Resonant Dialogue — starting with an inquiry into Listening. Far beyond the flattening ideas of listening that may have been imposed by school teachers demanding we “pay attention,” listening, at its core, is a mystical practice.
We began by ‘listening’ to the flow of our breath, clearing our minds, and gradually listening to the body. For we cannot truly separate the two. From the body, we began to listen to the space, noticing that it is only through the field of energy called the body that we can feel space — and one another.
Listening is a profound gift for the Resonant Man. It allows him to become an “opening” or “clearing” (to use Heidegger’s term), which he brings to the world around him.
This gift is the foundation of the relationship between Resonant Men, and is key to what we practice during out weekly gatherings. To listen in such a way that allows a man to fully come forward in all his being is a profound and, unfortunately, rare affordance.
Having taught several Dialogos initiatives before, I always begin with listening. Listening is the foundation of dialogue, and of speech itself. Not to mention that we learn to speak through listening. Listening always has this ‘beyond itself’ quality. It’s what allows me to understand meaning when I am in Mexico, even without a full grasp of Spanish grammar. It’s what enables a child to understand their parent, even when they speak beyond the child's current capacity. In fact, from an educational standpoint, it’s crucial that the teacher speaks from a place just beyond the student’s current understanding, while the student listens their way into new comprehension.
Listening is a psychoactive force in resonant dialogue. The level of ‘numinous’ or profound listening is what allows the dialogue to transcend the everyday. I would argue that we actually need to listen a possibility into the space before we can speak it.
As we become more adept in our listening, we’ll learn to speak from our listening. This is a counter-intuitive but important notion I developed through the Dialogos school. When we speak from our listening, we’re actually listening to ourselves, not necessarily knowing where our speech will lead us.
When we delve deeper into this, the listening is no longer ‘our’ listening. It’s just listening. When we listen deeply to the collective field, our locus of being begins to be located somewhere between ourselves and beyond ourselves, in the field. We can speak from this place. The emergent field of listening, generated by every man in the space, is the collective well from which we draw wisdom.
The more we walk the path of the Resonant Man, the more our way of being becomes a listening. As we undergo healing and clear blockages in our energetic body, new channels of listening open. These channels of information are something we bring with us to every field of dialogue and interaction we participate in. Simply by being present, someone whose listening body is sufficiently awake will begin to vibrate the blocked channels in others around them.
Ultimately, the Resonant Man’s power comes from beyond him. His work, in a sense, is to become a channel capable of tapping into greater insight, greater love, and greater wisdom—all of which require listening.
When he can do this, he becomes a source of immeasurable value to those around him. The kind of man who can trust in a deep, intuitive guidance. Moving purposefully in his masculinity, while drawing upon the greater wisdom of the feminine.
Over the next month, we’ll continue to explore Resonant Dialogue, delving into the nature of fields, flow, and emergence.
Called to Step in ?
We welcome inspired men to join our container throughout its development. We recognise not everyone feels the call at the same time, and others have commitments that prevent them from joining right away.
We’re excited to be building this potent and developmental field of friendship, resonance, and deeply rooted masculinity for those who join us.
The Resonant Man meets globally every Sunday at 7pm UK time.
Free Introduction with Matthew and Jacob:
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Registration
If you’ve already had an introduction with either of us or participated in the Summer Open you can register directly below.
The Resonant Man membership costs £125 per month.
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