In our last class, Carole mentioned she had been looking at Chinese characters for listening, ting in Chinese. kiku in Japanese. Here is one character for the sort of deep, embodied listening that we have been discussing in class:

As Carole mentioned, there are several characters for listening, and each carries an inflection of meaning. In Japanese kanji, for instance, the word kiku means both listening and hearing, and there are different characters to express different meanings.

The top character represents hearing: the ear is represented in the middle, with the lines on either side representing a gate. In the words of Rev. Masato Kawahatsu, a minister at the Konko Church of San Francisco and Konko Center of South San Francisco and a teacher of shodo, or Japanese calligraphy (and who penned this calligraphy), “Together, our ears are the entrance gate for sound or words.”

The character on the lower left, similar to the Chinese character in the top illustration, represents a deeper sort of embodied listening. Rev. Kawahatsu, tells this story to illustrate the difference between hearing and listening:

[The second character for kiku] means “to listen to,” which consists of four parts. The left side is an ear and the top of right side lines represent the number 10. The center lines represent an eye, and below it represents the heart or soul. Together, they mean to listen to 10 people’s feelings from the heart or soul through their eyes.

A few weeks ago, I had an opportunity to attend a seminar in Los Angeles and to learn about “to listen to.” The seminar’s main speaker was the Rev. Shohei Tsuda, a popular Konko minister from Japan. He said many people with great suffering come to his church from all over Japan. He described how he does not say much, but simply looks into their eyes and listens to their stories about their inner feelings and sufferings.

There is a saying that our eyes are a window to our heart and soul. Tsuda said he can feel with his heart and soul what kind of problems people have just by looking into their eyes. I knew the importance of “to listen to,” but learned that I should listen to others with my heart.

We should not just listen with our physical ears alone. If we listen with our heart and soul, we can solve many difficult problems. Even worldwide situations can improve.

You can read Rev. Kawahatsu’s complete blog post here.