---
title: "Listening as Threshold: Language and Silence Between Human and Non-Human"
sousTitre: "Two Paths Toward a Shared Attention"
description: "Between ʿAttār’s symbolic mediation of language and Abram’s sensory immersion, listening unfolds as the condition for a relationship where human and non-human are no longer divided by words, but bound by what precedes or transcends them. Without prescribing, these propositions sketch a space where perception becomes attunement, and the heart, a reflecting surface."
date: 2026-09-04
lang: en
tradition: transversal
auteurs: ["Farid al-Din Attar", "David Abram"]
---
# Listening as Threshold: Language and Silence Between Human and Non-Human

Two propositions on listening stand face to face, without contradiction. One begins with language to reveal its symbolic function; the other, with sensory silence to bring forth words. Neither reduces the relationship between human and non-human to a matter of communication or understanding. Instead, they describe its conditions—where words are no longer tools, but thresholds.

## The Heart as Mirror

Attar offers an image: the heart as a reflecting surface. The beauty of the beloved—whether human or bird—cannot be possessed or analyzed. It reveals itself only when the heart becomes that mirror.

> Likewise, if you cherish the beauty of your beloved, know that your heart is its mirror.
>
> — **Farid al-Din Attar**, *Mantic Uttaïr, ou le Langage des oiseaux*. éd. after the French translation by Joseph Héliodore Garcin de Tassy, Imprimerie impériale, Paris, 1863.

Here, language is not primary. It is what allows us to move through appearances toward what founds them. Words do not directly designate beauty; they direct our gaze toward what makes it visible: the heart. This is not metaphor, but a concrete proposition. The heart is not a passive vessel, but a place where beauty is reflected—provided it is polished by [attention](https://viasophia.org/lexique/attention/).

This proposition does not separate human from non-human. The beloved may be a bird, a mountain, or another human being. The relationship does not depend on the nature of the other, but on the quality of the mirror. Language, in this view, is not an obstacle, but a means of preparing that mirror.

## The Attunement of Rhythms

Abram, for his part, begins with a different experience: perception as synchronization. The body is not a distant observer, but a participant whose rhythms align with those of things themselves.

> Perception, in this sense, is an attunement or synchronization between my own rhythms and the rhythms of the things themselves, their own tones and textures.
>
> — **David Abram**, *The Spell of the Sensuous*. éd. original English edition.

Here, listening precedes language. It is not symbolic mediation, but immersion in the textures and tones of the world. Words come only afterward, as an extension of this primary attunement. They are not bridges to an external truth, but echoes of that synchronization.

The non-human—the tree, the river, the animal—is not an object to be named, but a partner in this dance of rhythms. Perception is not passive reception, but active participation, where the body falls into phase with its surroundings.

## A Shared Threshold

The two propositions do not converge on a single truth, but on a shared condition: listening as threshold. For Attar, it is what allows us to move through language toward what surpasses it. For Abram, it is what precedes words and brings them forth.

Neither reduces the relationship to a question of communication. Instead, they describe its conditions: a heart that becomes a mirror, a body that attunes to the world’s rhythms. These conditions are not steps to be crossed, but dispositions to be cultivated.

In both cases, language is not an obstacle, but a passage. It does not separate human from non-human, but binds them through what precedes or transcends them. Listening is not an end in itself, but what opens a space where relationship may arise.

## Sources

- Farîd al-Dîn ʿAttâr, *Mantic Uttaïr, ou le Langage des oiseaux* — Imprimerie impériale, Paris, 1863, trans. Joseph Héliodore Garcin de Tassy
- David Abram, *The Spell of the Sensuous* — 


Canonical source : https://viasophia.org/en/articles/2026-09-04-ecoute-comme-seuil-langage-silence/