During a Life Harmony session one of my clients shared that she’s contemplating starting her practice of Satsang as a business. Satsang is sacred listening.
Listening is a creative force that transforms relationships.
Listening to yourself elicits full self-expression—speaking from your soul.
Listening is being fully present—to Source, to Self, to Others.
Listening beyond words is a sacred act.
How often do you engage in the practice of Satsang?
“Whatever you are not changing, you are choosing.”
— Laurie Buchanan
www.HolEssence.com and our Facebook page
© 2011 Laurie Buchanan – All Rights Reserved
Tuesdays with Laurie 
Ah Mom do I have to? How many times have I read about this part of our practice, yet how many times do in forget during the day, that I am not listening, or I am listening to the “wrong” message or am tuned in to the “wrong” channel.
Starting and being in the practice of listening to hear the deeper message is a practice that allows me/us to walk a path with more clarity, more presences, speaking and acting from Love…
Jeff – Your opening made me laugh! As a professional observer — photographer — I know that you additionally listen to what’s not being said. We both know that sometimes that’s even more important than the words.
yes, Laurie, you are correct… There are moments when photographing that listening is very important in the silence of the moment.
Jeff – “…in the silence of the moment.” Yes
Jeff’s comment mirrors my thoughts exactly Laurie. The brevity of the post speaks volumes too. And as far as word-pictutres go “listening beyond silence is a sacred act” . . .let it sufice to say that both the words and the picture conveyed the message most eloquently – thank you.
Alison – I’m so glad you enjoyed this post and reader comments. Thank you for letting me know.
Satsang is a Sanskrit word that means “gathering together for the truth” or, more simply, “being with the truth.”….It also means “being with good/righteous companions.”
(these are not my own original thoughts)
-Arvind K.Pandey
http://indowaves.wordpress.com/
Indowaves – Yes – you’ve got it! When a participant in the art of deep listening resonates with the teaching, it’s because the truth of themselves already knows this. The teaching simply brings that memory into a conscious place — a place of remembering. My friend Barbara Kass wrote about “remembering who I truly am” on her blog post this morning over at Eternal Presence. Here’s a link: http://eternalpresence.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/observing-presence/
thanks for the plug, Laurie!
Barbara K. – You’re welcome. It’s always a pleasure to point people to delicious food for thought 🙂
What a wonderful practice–and one that I should engage in more often. Recently, I had attended my first Yoga session. It was so filling and provided me with an opportunity to engage in Satsang. I’ve written about this experience today on my blog.
Leanne – I was JUST over there. I especially enjoyed when you said, “I love Yoga’s spiritual aspect. You told us to set an intention. Mine was to relax–and it worked.”
Readers – for those of you who’d like to see what else Leanne has to share about her first Yoga experience, here’s a link to her blog: http://sweatercursed.blogspot.com/
Thank you so much for offering the link, Laurie.
Leanne – My pleasure 🙂
I am still working on getting my Satsang business up and working on line – Wise Ears…
I am listening to myself because my body has demanded I do nothing but healing work for the last few months. As my energy returns I am building my business once again as I need more than 10 clients to make a go of it….I am excited for your friend because there are so many people who need to be heard – someone to hear their truth.
I rarely use the word Satsang, because very few people understand it…
thank you for sharing your good words today…Very clear – I tend to write about it with too much complexity.
Patricia – I had a GREAT BIG HUNCH you’d resonate with today’s post 🙂
Sacred listening…. yes…. 🙂
Terrill – I know that you resonate — I can see feel the energy of your grin from here 🙂 And I very much enjoyed your SECOND THURSDAY TEASER over at Creative Potager today. I know it was a SMASHING SUCCESS the first go-round. Whoohoo!
Well, Laurie this is certainly an angle to ponder when I hear myself at teh front of the room and reflect if what I said is indeed the direction I had initially aimed for. I am not all that familiar with Satsang, but love it’s arc and inner benefits.
So potentially, one might say that I engage in this every day, whether I realize it or not.
Sam – You most certainly do, my friend — you most certainly do 🙂
When I am with a person I try to listen very very deeply. It often feels, though, that I need to slow down while on-line and listen more deeply in this format, too. Thank you for the good reminder. Sacred listening is something I think most of us can remember to do more deeply.
Kathy – I’m glad for your visit today. I picture you sitting in the woods that surround your home listening — deeply listening — on many levels.
I am often reminded in my meditations to “listen to the voice within, I already have what I need, I need to go into the stillness and listen”. That is so very hard for me, I want to rattle on about this, that and the other, most likely because I might hear something I don’t want to know or acknowledge. Great strides are made in the quiet places of the soul.
Sandi – What you said here is vital, “…go into the stillness…” and “Great strides are made in the quiet places of the soul.” In my experience, those ingredients — sillness and quiet places — are healing balms.
I have heard of satsang, Laurie, but didn’t bother to look it up until today. I love the idea of sacred listening. I especially like that we are each our own teacher. Now, I definitely am going to explore more.
Barbara K. – Turn about is fair play. You’re always giving me things to think about and explore.
I have heard of listening and paraphrasing, but not this. I guess I would comparing it to listening in the silence for Gods plan and God talking, guiding on our journey in love and beauty…..sometimes we can be our own downfall and not listen for those silent moments that really talk, wether it is a cool, soft breeze, trees dancing, children laughing and having a good time, or just a sincer smile from a good friend…..
Kim – You’ve listed some extremely healthy ingredients here: “a cool, soft breeze, trees dancing, children laughing and having a good time, or a sincere smile from a good friend.” I hope that some of the items you’ve listed will be part of your weekend 🙂
This pairs well with my latest post! We must be on the same page! Harmony is glorious…
Catie – I just read your post and enjoyed it to pieces!
Readers – I can highly ecommend that you head over to Catie’s post and see what it’s all about — you’ll be glad you did 🙂 http://therosebandit.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/behind-every-man/
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Hi Laurie
So much in that idea.
I recall vividly the first session I had with the “Society for practical philosophy” in 1980, and their first practice was simple awareness.
It started with sitting, closing eyes and becoming aware. The pressure of butt on seat, clothes on skin. Then a systematic relaxation of muscle groups, starting at the feet and moving up. The a few minutes awareness on breath, then bringing in awareness of sounds and space, and finally opening eyes, and bringing it all together.
I also clearly recall the first time I spent over 40 minutes in silent mediation and “broke through” to a place within of almost infinite stillness. The only thing I could liken it to was like being at sea, alone, in a small boat, on a calm day, over the horizon and out of sight of land. A sense of vastness, and smallness – all together, and of calm.
I find the monkey minds of ego so very useful, and it is also very powerful to calm it, and listen closely to the deeper levels of the intuitive mind at work. That mind is so vast within each and every one of us that it is hard to comprehend.
I ran the numbers recently on what it would take to simulate a human being in action in software, and it is about 10^70 floating point calculations per second. The best machines currently in existence can do about 10^16 FloPs (10 petaflops). Given that it has taken us about 80 years to get from 1 flop to 10 petaflop, we might be able to simulate a human being in real on our best computers in about another 200 years. Given current technology, building such a machine would take more than the mass of the entire solar system to build.
We are complex entities.
We are each so much more than we can ever consciously comprehend.
That which is within each of us is amazing in its depth and complexity, whatever we choose to call it.
Communicating with it is very much worth the effort.
Ted – I really like you statement, “I find the monkey minds of ego so very useful…” — it’s a wonderful shift in perspective, a wonderful reframe that many of us don’t think of. And I oh-so-agree that “We are each so much more than we can ever consciously comprehend.”
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