Deep Listening (‘Dadirri’) — Day 199
We are using our penetrating human awareness in order to deeply observe and experience ourselves 'as nature'. Although it comes from a different culture, this same practice, resulting insights, and way of life is described beautifully in the reflection below.
Across all cultures and times, anyone who looks closely and listens deeply finds the same thing – because it's simply the truth of what we are – that we are nature and that inside of us is a deep and innate peace.
Dadirri - A Reflection By Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann
What I want to talk about is another special quality of my people. I believe it is the most important. It is our most unique gift. It is perhaps the greatest gift we can give to our fellow Australians. In our language this quality is called dadirri. It is inner, deep listening and quiet, still awareness.
Dadirri recognises the deep spring that is inside us. We call on it and it calls to us. This is the gift that Australia is thirsting for. It is something like what you call "contemplation".
When I experience dadirri, I am made whole again. I can sit on the riverbank or walk through the trees; even if someone close to me has passed away, I can find my peace in this silent awareness. There is no need of words. A big part of dadirri is listening.
In our Aboriginal way, we learnt to listen from our earliest days. We could not live good and useful lives unless we listened. This was the normal way for us to learn - not by asking questions. We learnt by watching and listening, waiting and then acting. Our people have passed on this way of listening for over 40,000 years...
There is no need to reflect too much and to do a lot of thinking. It is just being aware.
Our Aboriginal culture has taught us to be still and to wait. We do not try to hurry things up. We let them follow their natural course - like the seasons. We watch the moon in each of its phases. We wait for the rain to fill our rivers and water the thirsty earth... When twilight comes, we prepare for the night. At dawn we rise with the sun.
We don't like to hurry. There is nothing more important than what we are attending to. There is nothing more urgent that we must hurry away for. We are River people. We cannot hurry the river. We have to move with its current and understand its ways.
PRACTICE
"Inner, deep listening and quiet, still awareness."