This Light in Oneself: True Meditation

by J. Krishnamurti

Can you listen not only to what the speaker is saying but also to your own reaction to what is being said, and not correct your reaction to conform to what is being said? Then there is a process going on: the speaker is saying something that you are listening to, and you are also listening to your reactions to what is being said, and you give space to the sound of your own reactions and also to what is being said. It means tremendous attention, not just getting into a kind of trance and going off. If you listen, in that listening there is a miracle. The miracle is that you are completely with the fact of what is being said and listening to that, and listening also to your own responses. It is a simultaneous process. You listen to what is being said and your reaction to what is being said, which is instantaneous, and you listen to the whole sound of it, which means having space. So you are giving your whole attention to listening. This is an art that is not to be learned by going to a college, passing some degrees, but by listening to everything—to a river going by, to the birds, to an aeroplane, to your wife or your husband—which is much more difficult because you have become used to each other. You almost know what she is going say, and she knows very well what you are going to say, after ten days, after ten years; so you have shut off your hearing altogether.