Seven Thousand Ways to Listen Staying Close to What Is Sacred [Paperback]

From the #1New York Timesbestselling author, “a consummate storyteller with a rare gift for making the invisible visible” (Publishers Weekly), this beautifully written spiritual memoir explores the endless ways we can listen for life’s deepest messages.

Mark Nepo moved and inspired millions of people with his #1New York TimesbestsellerThe Book of Awakening, a spiritual day book. Now, in this new exploration of the human journey, Nepo inquires into the endless ways life asks us to listen. Having experienced hearing loss, Nepo affirms that listening is one of the most mysterious, luminous, and challenging art forms: “Whatever difficulty you face, there are time-tried ways you can listen your way through. Because listening is the doorway to everything that matters.” Weaving together memoir and meditation exercises, Nepo offers many ways to listen to life and live more fully. A moving exploration of self, our relationship to others, and the world around us, this remarkable guide unpacks the many ways we are called to redefine ourselves and to name what is meaningful as we face life’s challenges.Seven Thousand Ways to Listen

BEYOND OUR AWARENESS

I WAS DRAWN TO write this book about listening without knowing that my hearing was breaking down. This holds a great lesson about a deeper kind of listening. For something deep was calling, drawing me to explore different ways of being. Life was offering me a chance to re-align myself with the world. When I say something deep was calling, I’m referring to that element that lives in our center, which overlaps with the essence of life itself. Like an inner sun, this common center has a spiritual gravity that pulls us to it. This unending pull to center malÓù