Friend speaks on listening
Hermione Legg spoke on a BBC Radio 4 programme on 6 January
Quaker Hermione Legg was one of the guests on episode three of BBC Radio 4’s The Listeners on 6 January.
Hermione explained how Quakers sit in silence during Meeting for Worship, beginning from the first Friend’s arrival. She described the importance of taking time to listen after someone has spoken.
‘Life would have no meaning without listening to each other. Listening is as fundamental as breathing,’ she said.
Fellow guests included percussionist Evelyn Glennie and poet Katrina Porteous. The three women spoke of the importance of listening and how it differs from hearing. Evelyn Glennie said: ‘Hearing is about accepting what comes at you without really analysing it. Listening is about paing atention. It’s about focus and concentration. It’s about patience. It’s about connecting with that sound.’
The programme is available on BBC iPlayer.
Comments
And listening out of a deep experience of silence is an experience quite different from hearing in the conventional sense. In the experience of silence (or ‘soul-silence’) we touch something beyond words and meaning. We touch the silent soul of the speaker. We may even do this with one another when no words are being exchanged at all. There is something special in ‘soul-silence’ that reaches beyond the words.
By BrianH on 14th January 2016 - 17:23
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