In Deep Philosophy, we sometimes speak about connecting to our “Inner Depth,” while at other times we speak of listening to “voices” of reality. These two concepts, Inner Depth and Voices, use different metaphors, but they are two sides of the same coin. “Depth” is a visual metaphor, taken from the world of things located in space. It asks us to imagine the surface of our being versus the depth “inside” us. In contrast, “voices” is an auditory metaphor which asks us to imagine meanings as pure object-less and space-less voices. To combine these two metaphors, we may say that our “Inner Depth” is the “place inside us” where we can “hear” the voices of reality – not theories-about reality, but the music of reality itself in its realness. In this sense, to contemplate from our Inner Depth is approximately the same as to listen to the voices of reality.

Since the voices of reality are not object-of thought, we cannot capture them by theorizing “about” them. In order to relate to them, we must embody them within us, and in order to do so, a special kind of discourse is needed: Resonating. Resonating is a way of relating to ideas in a contemplative way. In a broad sense, resonating is a PROCEDURE that is used in contemplative sessions. In a more specific or narrow sense, resonating is something more: It also includes a specific MENTAL STATE.

As a PROCEDURE, resonating means that we respond to ideas – the ideas of a companion or of a text – by speaking “alongside” them rather than “about” them. Instead of analyzing those ideas, instead of evaluating or criticizing them, agreeing or disagreeing, we speak as if we were singing or playing together with them in a concert, side by side. In Deep Philosophy sessions, companions resonate with each other like jazz musicians improvising together with their different musical instruments. They respond to each other, complete or modify each other’s sentences, develop musical themes, and together create a rich symphony of meanings.

As a MENTAL STATE, resonating means not just following these procedures of speaking, but also internalizing them within us. When I resonate, I receive ideas into myself as pure meanings, as voices of reality, and I let them resonate in me beyond my intellectual faculty, in my entire being. Ideas are no longer statements or theories about the way things are, but expressions of “meanings” or “voices” that relate in complex way to each other, as well as to my own voice – the voice that emerges from my past experiences, human experience, and reality in general.

These interactions create new qualities of meanings, which we experience as precious insights or understandings. Just as the soprano and the baritone create new qualities when they sing together, in an analogous way two meaningful ideas create new meanings which do not exist in each voice separately.

Note that in the realm of objects and of statements-about, resonating makes no sense. In a world of true-and-false, of facts and objects, you cannot accept two contradictory statements – for example, that the self is a thinking thing (Descartes) AND ALSO that the self is a fiction (David Hume). Only one of them may be accepted as true. In contrast, in the world of voices we can embrace them both. This does not mean that any idea is just as acceptable as any other idea, and that resonating is arbitrary. Resonating in a “symphony” of philosophical ideas is no more arbitrary than playing in a musical concert. When musicians improvise, the sounds they produce are intentional and precise, even though no general rule guides them.

Since there are no guiding rules in resonating, it may happen that different people react differently to the same voice. This is not because voices are “subjective” or “a matter of opinion” – these expressions belong to the visual world of thinking-about, of different “perspectives” on the same “thing”. Rather, each one of us plays a different part in the symphony of ideas. What resonates within me depends in part on the voice of my own personal experiences, which may be different from yours. This is not a question of subjective opinions, but of different ways of participating in reality and resonating with it.

We may conclude, then, that in order to resonate internally, we must leave the world of objects and enter the world of voices. We must enter it fully, not just in our rational thoughts but in our entire being, together with the voices of our past experience, our personality, and who we are. Such personal voices are not always fully audible to my fellow contemplators, and sometimes not even fully audible to me, but they still resonate among us and give birth to new melodies. Part of my personal voices express human reality in general, part of them express my own personal being, so that overall they are communicable to others and yet also unique.

In summary, the PROCEDURE of resonating is designed to help us resonate INTERNALLY, and thus help us enter the world of meanings or voices. We can then “listen” to the music of reality, and we can also express our own voices and compose new meanings. In this way, resonating allows us to join the grand symphony of reality and participate in it. Or, to use the visual metaphor, it helps us become a wave in the ocean.