Listening Without Thought

I do not know whether you have listened to a bird. To listen to something demands that your mind be quiet - not a mystical quietness, but just quietness. I am telling you something, and to listen to me you have to be quiet, not have all kinds of ideas buzzing in your mind. When you look at a flower, you look at it, not naming it, not classifying it, not saying that it belongs to a certain species - when you do these, you cease to look at it. Therefore, I am saying that it is one of the most difficult things to listen - to listen to the communist, to the socialist, to a congressman, to a capitalist, to anyone, to your wife, to your children, to your neighbour, to the bus conductor, to the bird - just to listen. It is only when you listen without thought, that you are directly in contact; and being in contact, you will understand whether what he is saying is true or false; you do not have to discuss.