First you should understand what has been said by others. Then you can make the valuation of the words that you have listened to. A goldsmith can test the purity of gold. One does not have any means for the evaluation and weight of words.

A word needs somebody to understand it, somebody to give it meaning; otherwise it is only a sound. What are words? – Sounds to which we have given certain meanings. Meanings are arbitrary, so the same word can mean one thing in one language, another thing in another language, and something still different in another language. A word has no meaning of its own; a word presupposes meaning.

Kabir says – learn to listen.

If you are listening with all kinds of prejudices, that is a wrong way of listening; it is really a way of not listening. You appear to be listening, but you are only hearing, not listening. Right listening means you have put aside your mind. It does not mean that you become gullible, that you start believing whatsoever is said to you. It has nothing to do with belief or disbelief. Right listening means, “I am not concerned right now whether to believe or not to believe. There is no question of agreement or disagreement at this moment. I am simply trying to listen to whatsoever it is. Later on I can decide what is right and what is wrong. Later on I can decide whether to follow or not to follow.”

And the beauty of right listening is this: truth has a music of its own. If you can listen without prejudice, your heart will say it is true. If it is true, a bell starts ringing in your heart. If it is not true, you remain aloof, unconcerned, indifferent; no bell rings in your heart, no synchronicity happens. That is the quality of truth: if you listen to it with an open heart, it immediately creates a response in your being – your very center is uplifted. You start growing wings; suddenly the whole sky is open.

Do one experiment:
Listen to the sounds of the birds, the wind passing through the trees, the river in flood, the ocean roaring and the clouds, the people, the far-away train passing by, the cars on the road, each sound has to be used.

And listen without any imposition on what you listen to – don’t judge; the moment you judge, listening stops.

The really attentive person remains without conclusions; he never concludes about anything. Because life is a process – nothing ever ends.

Only the foolish person can conclude; the wise will hesitate to make conclusions. Conclusion is possible only when everything has come to an end, and nothing ever comes to an end: it goes on and on forever. So listen without conclusion.

Just listen – alert, silent, open, receptive. Just be there, totally with the sound that surrounds you.

And you will be surprised: one day suddenly the sound is there, you are listening, and yet there is silence. It is true silence that happens through sound.

Escaping to the mountains is of no help; that silence is false.

The real silence has to happen in the marketplace, surrounded by all kinds of sounds and yet silent within, utterly silent.

That pregnant silence becomes the door to god.