I am totally delighted by Recording and Listening. Well... okay, sure, there are times when I'm more delighted than other times, but that's bound to happen in any lifelong relationship. And that's something I realized recently: I want to be in a long-term, committed relationship with Recording and Listening. Recording and Listening assists me to be in a long-term relationship with my heart.

What's wonderful about sticking with a commitment like "I'm going to Record and Listen every day" is that eventually one does it under every kind of circumstance. Conditioning and the voices throw everything at you: not enough time, I don't want to, this is dumb, I can't, I won't, and on and on. That's the ebb of doing it every day. The flow of it as a daily practice is life and love. The flow is miracle after miracle, and having favorite recordings, and finding random recordings where Life said the wisest things even if “I” don't remember ever saying them.

And I can happily report that the ebb and flow changes over time. Over the years, conditioning's shenanigans get less and less entertaining and I entertain them less. And if I were to draw an arc over the years of my Recording and Listening practice, it would bend overwhelmingly toward Life and heart-connection. Recording really does keep working over months and years. It has truly helped me to live a more connected and happy life. And the best part — a truly fun thing — is that it also works in the moment! It works to connect me in this singular present moment to the heart and to Life.

To spell it out, there are a few miracles here:

It works in the moment.

We do it and we connect with truth, wisdom, breath, and life in the very moment we press record.

It works over a lifetime.

We do it regularly for weeks and months and we see a big difference over time. We start to "habitually" live in the mind of Recording and Listening through our days. We ingrain the voice of heart-wisdom into everyday life.

It works.

This might be the most important miracle! There is something we can do to turn away from suffering. There is something we can do (in addition to all of our other practices) that changes the focus of attention— that purposely opens our hearts to the present moment.

About a year or so after I started Recording and Listening as a practice, I had a technical mishap and lost all the recordings I had made. The recorder I was using broke and I had no backup. I saw many things when that happened, but what I remember clearly to this day is my grief. I went through grieving the loss of those recordings.

Sure, I knew that I could start again and that I hadn't lost heart-connection or Life's love; I had just lost the recordings that represented Life's love to me. But still, I was sad. What the sadness told me was that I was also in love. There is a lot of love in grieving. It was clear from then on that I am in love with Recording and Listening. And I'm committed. I'm in it for the long haul.

Gassho

Do you have a favorite R/L insight, idea, or practice tool? We’d love to hear it! Send us your favorite quick tip (75 words or less) or submit your idea for a blog post.