Awakening Practice 27: Seeking to Understand Before Seeking to be Understood

This is number 27 of a 30-part meditation series inspired by Adyashanti. This episode, drawn from the Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi, invites you to seek to understand yourself and others before seeking to be understood. When you understand yourself deeply, the demand that others understand you begins to melt away. Your heart and mind open, and you enjoy life more. Demanding that others understand BEFORE you try to understand them can block awakened consciousness from streaming through you. By seeking to understand, you open energetic pathways within yourself through which your own insight can flow.

These practices build on each other, so you can listen consecutively, but if there is one in particular that speaks to you, feel free to stick with it. Based on the teachings of Adyashanti, they can be used alone or as a companion to his audio series, The 30-Day Wake Up Challenge, or his book, The Direct Way: 30 Practices to Evoke Awakening. This meditation correlates to Day 27. In some cases, the meditations are also loosely inspired by the teachings of Andrew Holecek, Pema Chodron, and Eckhart Tolle.  I hope you enjoy.

Music: Lovingkindness by Six Missing (used with permission).

Audio: Eric Fischer. 

Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
 where there is hatred, let me sow love;
 where there is injury, pardon;
 where there is doubt, faith;
 where there is despair, hope;
 where there is darkness, light;
 where there is sadness, joy.
 O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
 to be consoled as to console,
 to be understood as to understand,
 to be loved as to love.
 For it is in giving that we receive,
 it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
 and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.