Some signs emerge in this saeculum (age) from realms beyond visible reality—signs that are invisible to the eyes but perceptible to minds and hearts trained to listen. This ability to listen, to perceive the unseen, is a quality possessed by those who are made of light rather than opaque matter (the majority).
In this brief passage (I, 10, 2) from De Civitate Dei by Saint Augustine, we can trace the nature of these signs, which guide us in cultivating the practice of listening.
Signum 1: Nudus exivi de utero matris meae, nudus revertar in terram. Dominus dedit, Dominus abstulit, sicut Domino placuit, ita factum est.
Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Just as it pleased the Lord, so it has been done.
Heidegger speaks of being-toward-death, but here we might speak instead of being-toward-nudity. Listen to your own "nudity," your essential humanity, and see yourself beyond the layers that conceal this naked truth. Make it your ultimate aim to stand bare before your destination. When that moment comes, it is only your true self—your nakedness—that you will bring with you, not the layers that cover it.
Signum 2: Magnas facultates...quas cito fuerat moriens relicturus
Those things [layers] that, in dying, one would soon abandon.
Signum 3: Experimentorum disciplina
In the harsh trials of life, you learn the discipline of listening.
Signum 4: Apprehendere veram vitam
Heidegger speaks of being-toward-death, but here we might speak instead of being-toward-nudity. Listen to your own "nudity," your essential humanity, and see yourself beyond the layers that conceal this naked truth. Make it your ultimate aim to stand bare before your destination. When that moment comes, it is only your true self—your nakedness—that you will bring with you, not the layers that cover it.
Signum 2: Magnas facultates...quas cito fuerat moriens relicturus
Those things [layers] that, in dying, one would soon abandon.
Signum 3: Experimentorum disciplina
In the harsh trials of life, you learn the discipline of listening.
Signum 4: Apprehendere veram vitam
By listening, you seize the real meaning of life and find the place of your heart.
Signum 5: Ubi est cor tuum, illic erit thesaurus tuus
Signum 5: Ubi est cor tuum, illic erit thesaurus tuus
Where your heart is, there will be your treasure also.
Your heart will be drawn to the true object of your listening—your thesaurus, your treasure.
Signum 6: Ubi enim sint omnia mea, tu scis
Your heart will be drawn to the true object of your listening—your thesaurus, your treasure.
Signum 6: Ubi enim sint omnia mea, tu scis
At that very moment, you will know where all that matters to you resides.
Signum 7: Ibi enim habebat omnia
Signum 7: Ibi enim habebat omnia
There, in fact, is what you needed to know, revealed through the practice of listening.
Signum 8: Si non praecedente sapientia, certe consequente experientia didicerunt
Signum 8: Si non praecedente sapientia, certe consequente experientia didicerunt
If innate wisdom did not teach you this, then surely experience has.
Through these signs, you are invited to develop the faculty of listening—not only through wisdom but through the lessons of experience. By listening deeply, you come to know yourself and the truths that lie beyond the visible, preparing for the journey that awaits all of us.
Through these signs, you are invited to develop the faculty of listening—not only through wisdom but through the lessons of experience. By listening deeply, you come to know yourself and the truths that lie beyond the visible, preparing for the journey that awaits all of us.
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