Listening Book (eBook)

TheWay the Eyes Are with the Ears Theeyes are hungry. They eat brain energy. When you close your eyes your brainopens to your ears, sound rushes in to fill the sphere of the skull. Yourmother's lullaby just before you drop off to sleep. Earphones on, lying on thecouch, Beethoven's Seventh, your arm over your eyes. The candle sputters,lovemaking sounds in the pitch dark, then whispers and laughing. Openyour eyes: now the brain is crowded, and the bright screen of sound grows dim. Whenpeople are listening intently with their eyes open, a strange thing happens.Their eyes roll up a little bit, and a glaze comes over them as if the surfacehas congealed. I love that little roll-up. Oh, those Swami Eyes! It means thatthe hearing, just for a moment, has become hungrier than the vision. And theway people's eyes suddenly retreat to a neutral corner when you are sayingsomething truthful to them? That means they heard you. Andwhen people stare straight ahead, it means that everything is being heard andnothing is being shown. Sometimes this gaze is so powerful and beautiful thatpoems are written about it afterward. Listento the sounds you are hearing now. Then close your eyes and listen, and openthem again. Try to hear the same way in both cases. Notice how the eyes arewith the ears. TheSound Horizon Listeninginto the distance is like looking into the horizon. Whenwe gaze at the horizon, our vision goes beyond our eyes and sees forever. Whenwe listen into the distance, our ears reach beyond the farthest sounds, and theinfinite becomes sensible. We get a fix on our position in the boundless world. Thealternative is like being stuck in traffic and never sensing beyond the streamof it.Webegin to think like cars. It is like staying cooped up indoors with no windows.We need the big picture and the long radius. We need to check out thelong-range coordinates. Goout of your way, if you have to, to look steady and long at the place whereearth and sky meet. Likewise, discover places where your ears can soar out tothe edge of audibility. Find a lull in the evening, a valley, a distant remove,a quiet dawn, and listen into that boundary. You can disappear beyond it intowhere you really live.