Listening Deeply
Level 1, Unit 4 

Unit 4: Listening Deeply

This unit invites students into a radical reimagining of listening as a revolutionary practice—one that moves beyond mere auditory reception to become an act of profound presence, witness, and solidarity. Through embodied explorations, students will discover how deep listening disrupts dominant communication patterns that privilege speaking over receiving, assertion over receptivity, and noise over silence.

Throughout this journey, students will engage with listening not as a passive activity but as an active stance of radical openness—creating space for voices and experiences that have been systematically marginalized. They will practice the revolutionary discipline of suspending judgment, challenging the conditioned impulse to immediately respond, categorize, or dismiss another's truth.

The unit positions listening as both a personal practice and a collective responsibility—one that honors the inherent dignity in every voice while acknowledging the unequal power dynamics that determine whose stories are amplified and whose are silenced. Students will explore how genuine listening requires a willingness to be transformed by what we hear, particularly when engaging with perspectives that challenge our own worldviews.

Key Explorations:

• Embodied listening practices that engage the whole self in bearing witness

• Critical examination of how power and privilege shape listening dynamics

• Reciprocal relationship between silence and reception as complementary practices

• Listening across difference as a practice of solidarity and justice

• The three-breath pause as resistance against reactivity and rush

This unit cultivates listening not merely as a communication skill but as a radical practice of love—creating spaces where authentic connection becomes possible and where the revolutionary act of being fully present with another becomes a pathway toward both personal and collective liberation.