Hearing the Sounds of the World

Earth Dreams: Zen Buddhism and the Soul of the World

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Hearing the Sounds of the World

Deep Listening as a Dharma Gate

Amy Kisei

Jul 18, 2025

Transcript

Greetings Friends,

As we move through our Summer Read of The Hidden Lamp: Stories from 25 Centuries of Awakened Women this week we focused on Case 10: Asan’s Rooster. The koan is one of devotion, deep listening and awakening to our true undivided nature.

Here’s the case.

Asan was a lay woman who studied Zen with Master Tetsumon and was unremitting in her devotion to practice. One day during her morning sitting she heard the crow of the rooster and her mind suddenly opened. She spoke a verse in response:

The fields, the mountains, the flowers, and my body too are the voice of the bird—what is left that can be said to hear?

Master Tetsumon recognized her enlightenment.

This koan describes an experience of reality, ordinary mind before identification with conditioned habits of separation.

What Asan realized— is our natural state. There aren’t boundaries that separate the senses. Our seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, thinking happen in the open field of awareness. There aren’t boundaries between ourselves and the rest of the world. Everything we experience is part of the flow of our life. We are one body. There isn’t some distant “us” apart from the flow of experience.

Why don’t we experience this wonder, freedom and intimacy? Well, we are. We do.

We are never separate from reality.

Its just that our attention gets hooked onto objects.

Our habits of distraction, separation, disinterest and wanting things to be different— seem to obscure the open, inclusivity of our awakened nature. And so, we don’t see what is right here, closer then close.

This mis-perception is why we practice, we practice to reacquaint ourselves with the oneness, belonging, connection, freedom and love that is our nature, our ordinary mind, our natural state.

We practice and have moments of realization, moments of awakening where our fascination with our habits of mind drop away, and we wake-up to the reality of our one life. We wake up to the one body of mountains, buildings, flowers and our body too as the voice of the bird, or the sound of the subway or the ring of the alarm.

We are one body. This life is one life. Open your senses and wake-up to our shared life. Feel the spacious presence of mind’s nature, clear, open, wake—all inclusive.

In this dharma talk we explore the practice of listening as a dharma gate. This is a rich and deep practice that we can practice in meditation, in our relationships, with ourselves and as we move through the world. Listening invites intimacy, awakens spaciousness and presences. I invite you to practice listening with us this week. Here are some pith instructions for listening as a practice.

What are you hearing? Open your senses.
Let love guide your listening—
as your sense of self opens beyond the limits of the physical body.
The body of sound is vast and spacious. It includes the entire world.
Listen closely, the sound is better.
Be open to the pleasure and joy of listening.
Drink it in.
Try to listen without judgment, label or preference.
Hear sounds as if you were listening to a strange, experimental piece of music.
Feel the boundless quality to your listening—no inside, no outside, no in-between.
Hear the cries of the world.
Hear the joys.
Let your listening include the waves of feeling moving through your own body.
Compassion arises from this kind of listening.
Can you hear the seemingly silent objects that surround you?
Hear with your eyes, with your whole body, let all of your senses participate in your listening.
Listen to the silence, the apparent source of sound.
Is there anyone that can be said to hear?
Who is that one?
Rumi says:
Listen, and feel the beauty of your
separation, the unsayable absence.
There's a moon inside every human being.
Learn to be companions with it.
Give more of your life to this listening.
Give more of your life to this listening.

As you reflect on this koan and the practice of listening, what resonates for you?

Have you ever had a taste or glimpse of awakening? What impact did it have on your life?
What is your experience with listening as a practice?
How is listening connected to compassion in your life?

Weekly Online Meditation Event

Monday Night Dharma — 6P PT / 9P ET Join weekly for drop-in meditation and dharma talk. This is where the Summer Read is happening if you want to join the discussion and practice live. Schedule here.

Feel free to join anytime. Event lasts about 1.5 hours. ZOOM LINK

Zen Practice opportunities through ZCO

Grasses, Trees and the Great Earth Sesshin—August 11 - 17, in-person at Great Vow Zen Monastery (this retreat is held outdoors, camping is encouraged but indoor dorm spaces are available)