to learn about anything, two states are essential: a quiet mind and attention. That is the only way you listen to another—it does not matter if it is to your wife, to your children, to your boss, to the crows, or to the call of a bird. There must be quietness, there must be attention; and in that state you are listening. That means you are already active; you are no longer sluggish; you have already broken away from this habit of half-listening, half-agreeing, half-being serious