About two years ago, I attended a meditation retreat at Myanmar. There were yogis (practitioners) who come from countries such as USA, Korea, Vietnam, Hong Kong, German and many more.
One day, while I was walking passed a group of Vietnamese who were having discussion, the sound that the make caught my attention. I am, in no way, understand any Vietnamese language and therefore couldn’t understand what they were talking about.
A spark of light strike at that instant. I was amazed by how we, human being, able to make different kind of sounds for communication, and we called it language. I was also amazed by the wide variety of sounds and notes we can make, with different intonation, different syllabi, and people who learned it can understand what message it convey. Look at the languages such as English, Chinese, Spanish, French, Hindi, Malay etc. And in most of these languages, there are dialects speak by some ethnics group. All these languages and dialects, has their unique sounds.
We use all these sounds to convey messages. And if we are able to learn how to make the sounds the other person spoke, we can communicate without difficulties. It is really amazing on how the tongue twists and turns and arranges its position to come out with the sounds.
Many, has in fact misuse the difference in making sound as an excuse for the conflicts among human. If we look deep down on the reasons we make sounds, we can see that we only have one common intention: that is to communicate. Sounds we make (language, as we call it), is only an instrument or a tool that we use. Communication in fact can come from many different ways, such as the tones, the facial expression, body language, and many more.
For those who are more sensitive, we can, actually communicate by sensing the feelings, aura, or emotions of the other person. Is it something new? No, in fact, those who have extra sensory abilities are able to communicate through these ways. We use language only because we have been taught since young that words and sounds are the only way to communicate. If we were not restricted as a child and were told to learn to read by feeling the feelings of the others, then, we will have extra communication skills.
Looking back into how we human communicate nowadays, if only we could talk less and sense more, instead of listening to the words of what the other person say, and pay attention to the feelings, emotions, and mental state of the other person, we could be a better person in understanding the others.
Maybe it is now a new era for advance communication skills. To understand that using language barrier as a limitation and restriction to communicate is no more acceptable. We could open up the new field to listen with the softness of the heart; to understand with the loving kindness that inherent in each and every one of us.
No comments:
Post a Comment