Listening by heart

Every term I teach a section of EL1515 (introduction to Christian education). And every term I use Parker Palmer’s book To Know as we are Known. Every term I also get at least a few complaints about the book — it’s not practical being the biggest one. At the very beginning of the book Palmer talks about seeing with “wholesight,” by which he means both the eyes of the mind and the eyes of the heart. Lately I’ve been thinking we need to find ways to do “whole hearing” and “whole taste” and “whole touch” as well. But again, I’m sure some percentage of my students will complain that this is unrealistic, impractical, and so on.

Yet there are communities who have been practicing this way of knowing, and the forms of teaching and learning that grow out of it, for millenia. I was captivated by this description, from the Sisters of St. Benedict, of their process of discernment for new leadership. One writes:

All the while we are called to a special mode of listening as monastics. The Prologue to the Rule of Benedict invites us to “Listen with the ear of your heart.” So each Sister prayerfully prepares her heart to be:

• INTRIGUED by differences, instead of divided by judgment of the other
• Poised to VALUE each perspective, hers and others
• SURPRISED by the possible, instead of enumerating problems
• Attentively LED by the Spirit when acknowledging what challenges her
• TAUGHT by each speaker, because we are all equals. </ul></blockquote>

  What a powerful way of talking about "listening by heart," which I think aligns with Palmer's notion of "wholesight."