Back in the third century AD China, King Ts'ao sent his son, prince T'ai to study under the great master Pan Ku. When the prince arrived at the temple, the master sent him alone to the Ming-Li forest. After one year, the prince was to return to the temple to describe the sound of the forest. When T'ai returned, Pan Ku asked him to describe all that he could hear.
"I could hear the cuckoos sing, the leaves rustle, the hummingbirds hum, the bees buzz, and the wind whisper and holler," replied the prince.
The master told him to go back to the forest to listen to what more he could hear.
For days, the prince sat in the forest listening. Then he started to discern faint sounds unlike those he had ever heard before. A feeling of enlightenment enveloped the boy. When he returned, the master asked him what more he had heard.
The master nodded approvingly. "To hear the unheard," he said, "is a necessary discipline to be a good ruler. For only when a ruler has learned to listen closely to the people's hearts,hearing their feelings un-communicated, pains unexpressed, and complaints not spoken of, can he meet the true needs of his citizens." - From the column Happiness@Work by Prof Srikumar Rao in Corporate Dossier, The Economic Times, March 12, 2012
