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Publisher's Summary

The New York Times number one best-selling author of The Book of Awakening weaves a tapestry of deep reflection, memoir, and meditation to create a remarkable guide on how to listen to life and live more fully.

Known for his penetrating books on resilience and suffering, poet, philosopher, and cancer survivor Mark Nepo continues to go deeper into what matters and to sift the wisdom that comes from confronting and recovering from the physical and spiritual challenges of life. In Seven Thousand Ways to Listen, he offers new lessons and insights on the importance of giving our full attention to all that life has to offer.

Written in Nepo’s beautiful, lyrical style, Seven Thousand Ways to Listen traces the story of his own hearing loss while unfolding a deeper understanding of how to listen to the world around us and to honor its connections to our internal life and callings. A moving exploration of self and our relationship to others, the book unpacks the many ways we are called to redefine ourselves and to name what is meaningful as we move through the changes that come from experience and aging and the challenge of surviving loss.

“Listening is the way we befriend the life we’re given,” Nepo writes, and he has structured the book around three lasting friendships: our friendship with wisdom, with experience, and with each other. By listening and tending to each, he explains, we can awaken to life and restore our vitality.

Filled with helpful instructions on how to return to what matters throughout the day, this enlightening book explores the many chances we have to listen and to be enlivened by what we hear. Ultimately, Nepo teaches us how to act wholeheartedly, so we can inhabit the gifts we are born with and find the language of our own wisdom.
©2012 Mark Nepo (P)2012 Simon & Schuster

What the critics say

“If you live the questions, life will move you into the answers. Mark Nepo offers you a map to explore the sacred in your own being.” (Deepak Chopra, author of Spiritual Solutions)
“Ninety percent of writing is listening. To receive the world and to receive ourselves. In this book Nepo has generously taught us how to listen. Do the reflective exercises he suggests to lead you deeply down the path.” (Natalie Goldberg, author of Old Friend From Far Away and Writing Down the Bones)
“Nepo has mastered a unique way of inviting the reader into a meditative state while reading his sublime wisdom about everyday life. I found his work a comfort - and that's a rare find these days.” (Caroline Myss, author of Entering the Castle and Defy Gravity)

What listeners say about Seven Thousand Ways to Listen

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Great way to deep listen

I live a very busy and hectic life, this book, even for 10 minutes every morning became part of my mediation routine. I can never sit for too long, this book allowed me to get centered first thing in the am

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  • HeyJude
  • 2019-06-15

Couldn’t connect...

I see the reviews/ratings and I think what am I missing here? I love Mark Nepo’s work. I love listening to him. So what am I missing? And that’s where I remind myself that there’s times I’m not going to have the same experience as others and that is just how it is. This one just put me to sleep. Maybe that’s the positive for me... I got some extra recharge time through sleep.

1 person found this helpful

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 2020-12-07

Just speed up the narration

After reading reviews I was concerned it would.be a hard listen. Just speed up narration to 1.20 and it will sound like normal speech.

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  • Thomas Biesanz
  • 2020-01-22

Great depth and inspiration!

As a cancer survivor myself, Mark Nepo‘s books have open me up to many dimensions of deeper living. This book is my favorite.

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 2018-07-17

too slow

it was extremely slow. I can't finish it. I have a hard time listening to it.

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  • Leftside Heavy
  • 2016-09-20

True North conversation

Real, honest, beautiful. The stepping down upon the Earth, and greater knowing, as if for the very first time but aided with a spiritual set of eyes that encourages me passed the dark passages of my life. That they are necessary. That light is found there. That it was in me all along.

Most of this beautiful conversation I have always felt but could never articulate it in such empathic, understanding, and concerning for the listener's ear. Mr. Nepo sounds like one of my favorite teachers, his confidence and belief in me, and what I can do for myself and the world, present in his every word built through his life experience.

I was sad to end such a beautiful conversation, to sit intently, and learn, and be moved. I am grateful, and yes, we will meet on another mountain top via some other trail, the way of yet another high pass!

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  • Beatrice Berk
  • 2016-08-09

what?

What disappointed you about Seven Thousand Ways to Listen?

incomprehensible

Has Seven Thousand Ways to Listen turned you off from other books in this genre?

no

How did the narrator detract from the book?

trying to hard to sound wise and deep, too invested in his own thoughts that don't quite hit the mark as far as I can tell.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

no

Any additional comments?

no

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  • morganchild
  • 2016-06-13

Just listen

You will slip into a quiet open space where you will just listen. At times you will need to pause for the waves of wordless thought.
There are 7,000 ways to enjoy this book.

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  • Charbel
  • 2016-05-10

just wonderful! loved every single table topic!

Mark Nepo knows how to play with words and keep us engages at all times. the meditations were wonderful and the lessons unforgettable.

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  • Neshama
  • 2014-03-04

Deep soul stirring wisdom

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I highly recommend this book for anyone on a soulful journey through life. Nepo's poetic prose and soothing voice are like yoga for the spirit.

3 people found this helpful