Listening For Guidance

The whole course of things goes to teach us faith;

We need only obey. 

There is guidance for each of us

and by lowly listening, 

we shall hear the right word…

Place yourself in the middle of the 

stream of power and wisdom

which flows into you as life, 

place yourself in the full center of that flood,

then you, without effort, are impelled to truth, 

to right, and a perfect contentment.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Cited in Prayers for Healing

Emerson speaks of a voluntary obedience that is supported or empowered by our willingness to listen meditatively; to listen with a quiet or humble heart to the inner stirring of the conscience and to the convictions of the soul. 

     Emerson recommends to us the art of intuitive listening, and to allow ourselves time: time, space, temperament, and he recommends developing a willingness to suspend the chatter of our minds. In this passage, he is urging us to place ourselves in a receptive state of mind and heart where we can “flow” expansively.

When I have been able to find, allow, or permit or invite such a willingness to listen for the truth, it has become a prized state of contemplative awareness. Once I get over any initial resistance, usually based on the clock or the calendar, I can embrace and welcome this shift in consciousness that had been a far more elusive or difficult task than I would like to admit!

     When I can suspend my concern for the pulls and pushes of the ego, and the demands of the outside world, I can adjust my awareness. I relax, so that I can soften my view of life, and will begin to feel as if I was placed in the middle of Emerson’s stream. 

     Slowly, I would begin this attunement – to feel enriched by the gleanings of my intuitive listening/hearing. Then over those precious moments, and with diligent discipline and repetition, I have increasingly learned how to trust those words and feelings that come to me as inspiration, and that can inform me intuitively as a reliable source of guidance.