When we don't listen, we are shutting ourselves off -- not from others but from ourselves. We can't do anything from a place of knowing. When we think we know something, we don't listen. We have to empty ourselves over and over, return to unknowing, and just listen. And listen. And listen... And once we listen, we have to act. The functioning that comes out of listening -- out of "Attention!" -- is compassionate action. If we don't listen, we can't act with compassion.
In our time the impulses of evil have become so powerful throughout earthly evolution that inner powers reaching far beyond what is ordinarily called good or moral will have to be found if humankind is to be able to cope with them. What is so particularly -- and immediately -- necessary in this connection is the mastering of that spiritual process which has been defined as "moral breathing", the beginning of which is forgiveness.
We can forgive! Everyone can forgive what lies within them to forgive. We can forget what ought to be forgotten instead of rummaging about amongst old injustices. We could draw a line beneath all the old that wear us down and which we are not in a position to get to the bottom of. We can hold fast to the idea that what is fruitful is alone true. We must be able to work together again, in harmony and without excluding the people we do not like ... out of love for humankind, for the whole of erring humanity.
