You are actually listening to your own opinion. Usually when you listen to some statement, you hear it as a kind of echo of yourself. This is how we communicate with each other.

We just see things as they are with him, and accept them. We put very little emphasis on right and wrong or good and bad. When you listen to someone, you should give up all your preconceived ideas and your subjective opinions you should just listen to him, just observe what his way is. Today I read the Communication chapter in Shunryu Suzuki's book, 'Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind.' It was a breath of natural fresh air, compared to the often artificial atmosphere I experienced at RSSB gatherings. It was aggravating to talk with someone who wasn't really there, because their mind was split between attending to our conversation and monitoring whether they were coming across as the exemplary RSSB disciple that they wanted others to see them as. I came to feel that I'd rather be in the presence of an honest sinner than a hypocritical saint. So some members of the group took this to mean that they should look as if they had overcome these supposed character defects, even if in reality they still possessed them. The RSSB teachings decried the 'five deadly sins' of lust, anger, greed, attachment, and egotism. They would put on what they thought was a virtuous demeanor, though from what I could see, it just looked fake, artificial, pretentious.

I did this myself, though not to the degree that I observed in many others. During the 35 years I was an active member of an India-based spiritual organization, Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), I observed a lot of unnatural behavior.

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