Spiritual Practice

I believe that listening is a way to pay special attention to others and to provide care. It holds so much potential for each of us to connect, empathize, help, and possibly even heal others and ourselves where we hurt the most.

Listening is my spiritual practice. It gives me a deep sense of meaning and purpose in my relationships with my friends and family. And listening is the heart of my work as a hospital chaplain. In a word, it’s my vocation. And it’s what I love to teach others in my workshops and webinars on spiritual health.

So, I wrote a book about listening.

For Hospice & Palliative Care Volunteers

In my book, How to Be an Even Better Listener, I tried to demonstrate a spirituality of listening that’s more about the human spirit in general than any religious beliefs in particular. It offers a way for palliative care and hospice volunteers to connect more deeply with the significant or the sacred dimension of life—in feelings of grief and joy, in music and in silence, and always through our relationships with others and with ourselves, in and through our stories. It includes a variety of clinical vignettes from my own practice, and some helpful practical recommendations from doctors, nurses, and spiritual leaders. I even include some of my own story and my own connection to the importance of listening in my life. It’s for hospice and palliative care volunteers, but it’s relevant to everyone, I think.

As one reviewer said,

Robert Mundle speaks beautifully to the art of listening and the gift of presence. He reminds us that we all have stories to tell and that we are connected by our longing to be seen and heard.

You can listen to a podcast about my research for the book here.

And you can buy a copy of my book in my online bookstore here.

Other Books

Below is a short list of other books about listening that I’ve enjoyed. They have influenced me in different ways, both spiritually and intellectually.

Social Research

You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why it Matters, by Kate Murphy. New York: Celedon Books, 2020.

While I interviewed hospice volunteers for my book, journalist Kate Murphy interviewed other skilled listeners in various other occupations for their helpful insights on the art of listening. She interviewed a CIA agent, focus group moderator, bartender, radio producer, and a top furniture salesman.

You can read a review of You’re Not Listening here.

And you can buy a copy of it in my online bookstore here.

For the child in each of us

The Other Way to Listen, by Byrd Baylor and Peter Parnall. New York: Aladdin,1997.

This is a children’s book with deep meaning for all of us. It tells the story of an old man who had a special way of listening and experiencing the world, and of a child who hoped to learn his secrets.

The child says,

I used to know an old man who could walk by any cornfield and hear the corn singing.

Walking together out into the desert, the child and old man practice listening to the rocks, hills, and lizards.

The old man says,

When you know “the other way to listen” you can hear wildflower seeds bursting open. You can hear rocks murmuring and hills singing, and it seems like the most natural thing in the world. Of course, it takes a lot of practice, and you can’t be in a hurry. Most people never hear these things at all.

This book reminds me of a conversation I had once with a spiritual director at the end of a silent retreat a few years ago. She told me that when she was a young girl growing up on the prairie in Saskatchewan, her grandfather taught her how to listen to the sunset.

You can buy a copy of The Other Way to Listen in my online shop here.

Practical Instruction

Listening: The Forgotten Skill, by M. Allen. New York: John Wiley and Sons,1995.

This is a practical self-help guide by an expert teacher based on her extensive experience leading seminars on active listening for organizations worldwide.

It begins by asking two questions: (1) What does it feel like to really listen to someone else? And (2) What does it feel like when someone really listens to you?

I used that second question in my research interviews with hospice volunteers for my own book on listening, How to Be an Even Better Listener.

Philosophy

The Other Side of Language: A Philosophy of Listening, by G. C. Fiumara.  London and New York: Routledge, 2013.

This one is for academic readers who appreciate philosophers like Wittgenstein, Heidegger and Gadamer. It includes chapters on silence and listening, dialogic interaction and listening, and Socratic listening.

Spirituality

The Sacred Art of Listening: Forty Reflections for Cultivating a Spiritual Practice, by K. Lindahl. Woodstock, VT: Skylight Paths, 2002.

This book guides readers through forty practices of deep listening, including silence, reflection, and presence.

Of course, there are lots of other books about listening out there, including:

• The Art of Listening in a Healing Way, by James Miller
• Seven Thousand Ways to Listen, by Mark Nepo
• Do Listen: Understand What Is Really Being Said, Find a New Way Forward, by Bobette Buster

You can find them and other important books about listening and relationships in my online bookstore

Have you got any recommendations for me?

Thanks for listening!

Robert