That afternoon, on his way back to the hermitage,
the young man saw a middleaged man sitting on his porch, looking troubled, turning a cup of water in his hands without drinking.

Seeing him, the man called out:

“Hey, you’re done with your tasks? Got a moment?
I… I’m really overwhelmed.”

The young man sat down.

The man began speaking —
without beginning, without end, without order:

“My wife is angry with me…
My son ran away from home…
Work is falling apart…
I don’t know how to live anymore…”

His voice cracked.

The young man felt compassion and said:

“Don’t worry, everything will be okay. You should calm down…”

But the more he spoke,
the darker the man’s face became.

“You don’t understand.
Everyone tells me ‘don’t worry,’
but how can I not worry?”

The young man tried again:

“You should think more positively. Maybe try—”

The man cut him off:

“That’s easy for you to say.
You’re not in my situation.”

The air grew heavy.

The young man fell silent.

He realized:

Every piece of advice he gave only made the man more distressed.

He took a deep breath.

Then said softly:

“Please continue.
I’m here.
I’m listening.”

The man looked at him —
this time, his eyes softened.

He continued speaking,
but slower,
less tense.

The young man said nothing.

No fixing.
No advising.
No analyzing.

Just listening.

After a while, the man sighed —
but this time, it was a lighter sigh.

“Thank you.
It’s been a long time since I could say everything.
I feel lighter now.”

The young man smiled.

“Because you just heard yourself.”

When he returned to the hermitage,
the teacher was under the porch, removing dry leaves from herbs.

He looked up:

“What did you learn today?”

The young man replied:

“I saw that when someone suffers,
they don’t need advice.
They need to be heard.

When I was silent and present,
he found his own answer.”

The teacher nodded.

“Good.
Today you understood:

Meditation in listening is mindfulness in being present with the one who speaks.”

 

1. Advice does not heal — presence heals

The teacher said:

“When you give advice,
you speak from the head.

When you listen,
you speak from the heart.

A suffering person does not need solutions.
They need a safe space to see themselves.

Advice is noise.
Listening is silence.”

The young man remembered the moment the man softened —
not because of words,
but because of presence.

 

2. Jiddu: ‘To listen is to be free from yourself.’

The teacher continued:

“Jiddu once said:

‘To listen is to be free from yourself.’

When you truly listen:

· you don’t interrupt
· you don’t judge
· you don’t compare
· you don’t prepare your reply
· you don’t try to fix them

You open like the sky.

And in that sky,
they see their own clouds clearly.”

 

3. Avatamsaka: Listening is interbeing

The teacher said:

“The Avatamsaka teaching says all phenomena interare.

When you listen to someone,
you become one with them.

There is no ‘I listen to you.’
There is only listening.

When there is no two,
understanding arises naturally.”

The young man felt this deeply —
when he listened,
the boundary between him and the man faded.

 

4. Listening is the greatest gift

The teacher said:

“You cannot give someone peace.
But you can give them the space where peace arises.

You cannot give someone answers.
But you can give them the silence where answers appear.

Listening is the greatest gift,
because it carries no self.”

 

5. Practice: listen with your whole being

The teacher said:

“From today, when someone speaks to you,
practice listening with your whole being:

· with your ears
· with your eyes
· with your breath
· with your presence
· with your heart

When you listen like this,
the other person heals themselves.”

The young man looked at the dirt path leading to the hermitage —
a path he walked every day,
but today it felt quieter, wider.

Advice can make people close.
Listening makes people open.