LISTENING

The gift of listening is a blessing.

It demands a calm willingness to involve oneself in the situation of the other.

By using the resources of our own experience, empathetic imagination and intellect, we attempt to listen deeper and more carefully to the other.

How deeply we have understood the other is shown in the questions which we put to the person speaking. Appropriate question as such drive the conversation forward, deepen it, and guide it out of self-absorption towards broader horizons.

These questions inspire trust and self-knowledge. They hold up – the more selflessly, the more clearly – a mirror to the other’s face.