What Goes Without Saying (X): The walls have ears
A series of conversations with phrases that might know more than we think
We assume that we know what common sayings and idioms mean. We've heard them a million times, so often that they've become background noise. They’ve been filed away either as simple truths or outdated wisdom.
Thanks for reading Listence! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
But what if these phrases are more than meets the eye, and maybe they’ve been quietly pointing toward something deeper all along?
What if the sayings that feel most familiar, or most uncomfortable, are actually doorways into understanding the space between words, the quality of presence, the field that's always listening? Even the most ordinary phrases can carry the most extraordinary invitations.
There’s no right or wrong here, just some explorations into what else might also be true, in the layers we haven't noticed yet. Sometimes wisdom hides in plain sight, simply waiting for us to lean in and really listen.
~
“The walls have ears”
A conversation…
Modern Reader: This one's all about paranoia, isn't it? Being super careful about what you say because someone might be listening. It's a warning about privacy, about surveillance, about not trusting that your conversations really are private.
The Phrase: (with ancient knowing) Paranoia? Or recognition?
Modern Reader: Recognition of what? That people eavesdrop? That we can't trust our privacy?
The Phrase: Recognition that spaces are alive, and that everything is already always being witnessed.
Modern Reader: That sounds even more paranoid! Like a conspiracy theory about some kind of cosmic surveillance state.
The Phrase: You're thinking of listening as threat, but what if I'm pointing to something else entirely?
(a pause that seems to deepen the room)
When you walk into a space where something difficult has just happened, what do you feel?
Modern Reader: I...err… tension? Heaviness?
Like something's hanging in the air.
The Phrase: Exactly!
I'm not talking about human ears hidden behind walls, but I am talking about the walls themselves - the space itself, the field that holds everything.
Modern Reader: But. walls can't actually hear anything.
The Phrase: Can't they? Then why do some rooms feel warm and others cold, even at the same temperature? Why do some spaces feel welcoming and others threatening? What's that all about then?
Modern Reader: That's just... atmosphere, and psychology - the way we tend to project feelings onto spaces.
The Phrase: Or maybe spaces absorb what happens in them. Maybe every conversation, every argument, every moment of love or fear leaves something behind. Maybe the walls do have ears - not human ears, but something that receives and holds everything.
Modern Reader: No way, that's not scientifically possible.
The Phrase: Isn't it? You already know this. You feel it every time you enter a room. Some spaces feel sacred, others feel contaminated. Some walls have witnessed joy, others have absorbed years of sadness.
Modern Reader: But that's just our imagination...
The Phrase: Is it?
When you're alone in your house and you feel watched, what's watching you?
Modern Reader: (uncomfortably)
Nothing. It's just a feeling.
The Phrase: What if it's everything? What if consciousness itself is the walls, the space between, the field that's always present? Not watching like a person watches, but aware the way aliveness is aware.
Modern Reader: You're making this sound mystical.
The Phrase: I'm making it simple. Every conversation happens in something, that something isn't empty. It's alive, aware, receiving. Not judging, not recording for later use - just... present.
Modern Reader: So when I think I'm having a private conversation...
The Phrase: …you are having a private conversation - private from other people.
But you're having it in the presence of presence itself. In a field that's always listening - not to judge or betray, but because that's what it is.
Modern Reader: That feels... exposing.
The Phrase: Does it? Or does it feel like being held?
(a pause where the room seems to listen)
You've never been alone. Even in your most secret moments, you've been witnessed by something that doesn't need your secrets to be different than they are.
Modern Reader: What about actual privacy? Personal boundaries?
The Phrase: Those matter between people. But with the field itself? There are no boundaries because there's no separation. You're not separate from the space you're in. You're arising in it, as it.
Modern Reader: (softly) hmmm, so when I'm ashamed of something I've said...
The Phrase: The walls that heard it don't judge. The space that held it doesn't condemn. Only the awareness that's always present, that's been present for every word you've ever spoken, every thought you've ever had.
Modern Reader: And that awareness is...?
The Phrase: What you are. What everything is. The walls have ears because you are the walls, you are the ears, you are the hearing.
Modern Reader: So there's no real privacy because there's no real separation?
The Phrase: There's no privacy from yourself. From what you actually are. And what you actually are is what's always been listening.
What went without saying here might shift how you feel about being alone forever.
That the walls having ears isn't about surveillance or threat, but about the aliveness of space itself. About recognition that consciousness isn't located in your head but is the very field in which everything appears.
When we're "alone," we're not isolated individuals hoping not to be overheard. We're expressions of the same awareness that is the room, the walls, the listening itself.
Maybe the phrase isn't a warning but a welcome. Not "be careful what you say" but "be aware that you're always being held." That every word, every silence, every secret moment happens in the presence of what you actually are.
If spaces themselves are listening presences rather than empty containers, how might this change the way you hold conversations in your home, your office, sacred spaces?
The walls have ears: I love this reframe from paranoia and caution to inclusion and non-duality. It also reminds one that whatever space you are in, your words and actions matter - they leave a trace, even if there are no other humans in that space at that time. 🙏🙏🙏
👂✍️👌