SS: Pooja and japa we saw about. We move on chintanam or contemplation. What is the difference between thinking, reflecting and contemplating?
SK: I reflect on something that I have already experienced or read. I contemplate on things which I wish to experience. I wish to see. I think about anything and everything from present futre and past.
MN: Reflections are like learnings where you look back on what are the takeaways from an experience you just had...Not all experiences make you reflect...
DN: I see it in an evolutionary sense- thinking, reflection then contemplation. Reflection is non involvement in a thought whereas contemplation requires applied or deep involvement in the thought
RB: Sorry to go back to Japa for one sec. Br. Gautamji gave a good analogy for Japa. It's like going to the gym. At first you don't really want to go and hardly see any benefit. Eventually you feel better and can't do without it.
VS: So nice Rishi
I'm still thinking about the difference
SS: General differences expressed so far are fine. We also need to think about the difference in the context of vedanta.
MN: Swamiji is contemplation application of the knowledge that you learn from a scriptural text in life; I feel contemplation is imbibing the knowledge put forth in scriptures and making it your own...
VS: Thinking is probing and understanding the meaning
Reflecting is imagining the same meaning or idea in action. There might be more questions and we probe and understand it better.
Contemplation is practice of the thought, analysing and masticating it like a cow does to an already eaten grass. Day in and day out we try to relate and apply this, and the thought becomes my own. And I keep probing further and further until I am convinced.
And such a nice thought Sunita and apt for today's discussion. We can't appreciate unless we have taken the trouble to understand it.
GP: Thinking is as natural as breathing for us. There is a steady flow of thoughts in us every moment. Sometimes we don't even pay attention to them. But often we focus our thoughts on a particular subject. All this constitutes thinking.
Reflection is bringing back thoughts from our memory and playing it back to get more clarity and to make it more firm within us. So when we study vedanta, we learn a new idea during satsang or while reading or listening. We then bring back this idea in our mind and replay the idea. This act of replaying it in our minds and then establishing it in our intellect is reflection.
Su: About thinking I have the same idea as GP. Reflection - is trying to understand the logic and science but behind the concept so that we can make the idea ours and become more convinced. So it's about this self dialogue that we will have within to argue out so that the intellect becomes convinced. Once convinced assimilation can happen
Mere belief is of no use... we have to become convinced. Iam convinced about the law of gravity that's why I will not even entertain the idea of experimenting with jumping from a height.
Conviction can Come only with reflection, where my mind after all the tossing and turning of the idea in my head has on its own come to conclusion that the concept taught is the Truth.
GP: Contemplation is the next step after japa? Where we focus on and try to soak in the idea gained by our intellect through reflection. Contemplation should then help move the idea from my intellect into an actual experience.
I am not very clear how exactly contemplation is different from reflection though.
KG: My thougts
Japa - tool to focus. Mantras and Namam
Contemplation - focus on idea provided by the mantras, Namam, shastras, etc
I thought contemplation and reflection are same?
'Thinking' is general sense of mind. 'Contemplation' is directed 'thinking'.
DM: As per me thinking is a cognitive way of making sense of any concept presented. Reflection is the process of slowing down the mind n breaking the concepts n my analysis about the concept and making further sense. I m not too clear abt contemplation. But responding to this question I am thinking because its my top of mind response.
GP: Is contemplation a stepping stone into meditation?
SS: Yes
SR: Can we say swamiji?.
Thinking is action of mind to produce thoughts, ideas opinions judgments. Reflecting - deeper thinking, knowledge made clear, doubts removed. Contemplating- assimilating knowledge, focussing on meaning.
SK: I reflect on something that I have already experienced or read. I contemplate on things which I wish to experience. I wish to see. I think about anything and everything from present futre and past.
MN: Reflections are like learnings where you look back on what are the takeaways from an experience you just had...Not all experiences make you reflect...
DN: I see it in an evolutionary sense- thinking, reflection then contemplation. Reflection is non involvement in a thought whereas contemplation requires applied or deep involvement in the thought
RB: Sorry to go back to Japa for one sec. Br. Gautamji gave a good analogy for Japa. It's like going to the gym. At first you don't really want to go and hardly see any benefit. Eventually you feel better and can't do without it.
VS: So nice Rishi
I'm still thinking about the difference
SS: General differences expressed so far are fine. We also need to think about the difference in the context of vedanta.
MN: Swamiji is contemplation application of the knowledge that you learn from a scriptural text in life; I feel contemplation is imbibing the knowledge put forth in scriptures and making it your own...
VS: Thinking is probing and understanding the meaning
Reflecting is imagining the same meaning or idea in action. There might be more questions and we probe and understand it better.
Contemplation is practice of the thought, analysing and masticating it like a cow does to an already eaten grass. Day in and day out we try to relate and apply this, and the thought becomes my own. And I keep probing further and further until I am convinced.
And such a nice thought Sunita and apt for today's discussion. We can't appreciate unless we have taken the trouble to understand it.
GP: Thinking is as natural as breathing for us. There is a steady flow of thoughts in us every moment. Sometimes we don't even pay attention to them. But often we focus our thoughts on a particular subject. All this constitutes thinking.
Reflection is bringing back thoughts from our memory and playing it back to get more clarity and to make it more firm within us. So when we study vedanta, we learn a new idea during satsang or while reading or listening. We then bring back this idea in our mind and replay the idea. This act of replaying it in our minds and then establishing it in our intellect is reflection.
Su: About thinking I have the same idea as GP. Reflection - is trying to understand the logic and science but behind the concept so that we can make the idea ours and become more convinced. So it's about this self dialogue that we will have within to argue out so that the intellect becomes convinced. Once convinced assimilation can happen
Mere belief is of no use... we have to become convinced. Iam convinced about the law of gravity that's why I will not even entertain the idea of experimenting with jumping from a height.
Conviction can Come only with reflection, where my mind after all the tossing and turning of the idea in my head has on its own come to conclusion that the concept taught is the Truth.
GP: Contemplation is the next step after japa? Where we focus on and try to soak in the idea gained by our intellect through reflection. Contemplation should then help move the idea from my intellect into an actual experience.
I am not very clear how exactly contemplation is different from reflection though.
KG: My thougts
Japa - tool to focus. Mantras and Namam
Contemplation - focus on idea provided by the mantras, Namam, shastras, etc
I thought contemplation and reflection are same?
'Thinking' is general sense of mind. 'Contemplation' is directed 'thinking'.
DM: As per me thinking is a cognitive way of making sense of any concept presented. Reflection is the process of slowing down the mind n breaking the concepts n my analysis about the concept and making further sense. I m not too clear abt contemplation. But responding to this question I am thinking because its my top of mind response.
GP: Is contemplation a stepping stone into meditation?
SS: Yes
SR: Can we say swamiji?.
Thinking is action of mind to produce thoughts, ideas opinions judgments. Reflecting - deeper thinking, knowledge made clear, doubts removed. Contemplating- assimilating knowledge, focussing on meaning.
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