I was reading some philosophy this morning that prompted me to reflect on the nature of communication and, particularly, on the need for greater discernment in how we receive and interpret the “data” of our lives. The need for greater ‘sensing’.
By data, I don’t mean simply facts, figures or words. I mean the whole field of information available to us: the spoken and the unspoken, the visible and the invisible, what is said and what is left unsaid, what we observe intellectually and what we sense more intuitively.
Perhaps one of our most important human capacities is the ability not simply to receive all this information, but to discern its meaning. What lies behind or beyond? To sense into it.
Why does that matter?
Because communication is extraordinarily layered. Beneath words can sit intention, assumption, emotion, experience and belief. The capacity to move through those layers, without becoming captured by them, allows us to seek something deeper: the truth, quality and intent within an exchange. And that increasingly feels important.
We live amidst an extraordinary abundance of information: facts and supposed facts, data, opinion, interpretation, commentary and judgement. Yet more information does not necessarily produce more wisdom. Indeed, an excess of information may make wisdom more necessary, not less.
The real challenge, then, may not be acquiring more information but developing the inner discrimination to know what deserves our attention, what is true, what is partial, what is distorted, and what serves a greater coherence.
What allows us to make that distinction? We might call it wisdom. Wisdom asks us to go beyond immediate mental reaction and emotional response. It asks us to become still enough to sense what lies beneath them. We might describe this as listening from a deeper centre of ourselves: the higher self, the soul, or that part of human consciousness capable of holding a larger perspective.
This does not require us to abandon reason. Quite the opposite. The capacity to think, truly think, is one of the greatest gifts of being human. But perhaps our finest thinking occurs when intellect, intuition and ethical discernment work together rather than in isolation. The mind can analyse the fragments; wisdom helps us perceive the whole. And from that wider perspective, greater coherence becomes possible.
In the early 1800’s Reverend Stewart invited people to consider the following when speaking:
‘Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?’
To which we might add, does it illuminate, or merely add more noise? Does it contribute to greater understanding, connection and possibility? These questions matter whether we are receiving information or creating it.
Every time we contribute an idea, opinion or interpretation, we enter the consciousness of another person. Our words can clarify or confuse, connect or divide, enlarge understanding or narrow it. That makes communication more than a skill. It makes communication a responsibility.
This responsibility becomes even greater for those in positions of leadership, whether in business, politics, religion or community life. The greater our influence, the greater our capacity to shape not only what people think about, but the quality of the conversations through which they make sense of their world. Leadership therefore asks for more than eloquence or persuasive power. It asks for discernment.
If we are blessed with the extraordinary human capacities to think, sense, discern and communicate, surely there is some responsibility to use them well. Not to muddy the waters further, but to clarify them. Not simply to make ourselves heard, but to listen deeply enough that what we eventually contribute carries something of value.
And perhaps, at its highest level, that is what wise communication asks of us: to allow thought to be informed by consciousness, words to be guided by wisdom, and communication itself to become an act of service.