True Listening - a Manifestation of Love

True listening, total concentration on the other, is always a manifestation of love.(p.127) true listening involves bracketing, a setting aside of the self. (p.127-p.128) The energy required for the discipline of bracketing and the focusing of total attention is so great that it can be accomplished only by love, by the will to extend oneself for mutual growth. Most of the time we lack this energy. Even though we may feel in our business dealings or social relationships that we are listening very hard, what we are usually doing is listening selectively, with a preset agenda in mind, wondering as we listen how we can achieve certain desired results and get the conversation over with as quickly as possible or redirected in ways more satisfactory to us. (p.128) Peck, Morgan Scott, (1985/1978).The road less traveled. New York: Simon & Schuster.

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