The Ferryman’s Virtue
The ferryman’s greatest virtue is listening. When the two men were sitting on a tree trunk late in the night Siddhartha told him his story. Vasudeva listened with great attention and took everything in. Siddhartha could feel him receiving his words into himself."the speaker felt him receiving his words into him self, quietly, openly, unhurriedly, missing nothing, not jumping ahead through impatience, attributing neither praise nor blame-just listening." Siddhartha felt happiness speaking to such a listener. Vasudeva asks Siddhartha when he is done with his story if he will live with him. Siddhartha accepts and tells the man that he will learn from him, this is when Siddhartha asks Vasudeva if he will be his teacher. Vesudeva replies “The river taught me how to listen; you will learn from that river too. The river knows everything; everything can be learned from it...” This is how the ferryman is teaching Siddhartha and he will learn much from the river.
The ferryman’s virtue is important because when you listen you learn more than when you just talk and ask questions. Siddhartha will learn a lot from the river and this is how he will start to become enlightened. He will also become enlightened from watching and listening to Vasudeva.
I feel that listening is not something the people are good at today. For example many celebrities don't listen and they just talk and talk. If people began to listen maybe they would make better choices. I also think that listening is a very big part of enlightenment because if you just talked and told people what to do you would have a big ego; and you can’t become enlightened with a big ego.