Beyond Words - March 28, 2010

Below is a story from Zen buddhism that I adapted to speak to nonviolent communication.

One day a student asks the Nonviolent Communication Certified Trainer “Why are you hiding the final secret of NVC from me?” The master says that he has kept nothing hidden but the student continues to demand to know how to live the NVC way. One day they are walking and a bird sings. The master asks, “Did you hear the bird sing?” “Yes,” said the student. “Then you know I have hidden nothing from you.” “Yes,” said the student, and he was enlightened.

In this story though the student had worked with NVC for years, the artistry of living from the heart had not been achieved. The student was still trying to follow a formula, a description based on words, when actually NVC/Compassionate Consciousness is “beyond words” just as it is “beyond wrongdoing and right doing.” By hearing the bird sing, the heart of the student was awakened, and she saw that living from the heart was the secret of NVC. NVC is really not so much a secret really, but a choice to being open to hear the song of life around us.