What is True Contemplation ?

I felt to cover some of the basics today. Just some of the basics so that we're all on the same page. I feel like it could be helpful. But just because I said we'll cover the basics, don't feel like you don't need to hear this or you're too advanced to hear this. It's simple and yet it's very important for everyone to hear. Firstly, it's very important to understand what we mean by contemplation. We say 'Contemplate this', and Gyana Yoga is the path of contemplation. But it is different from how you would use the term in the world usually. In the world when we say, you should contemplate this, what does it actually translate into? In the world it means you should think about it. So, put the question 'What is the meaning of life?' and then, what happened, how do you contemplate? You wait for the thought to arrive. And if a thought arrives repetitively or it has the right handles into your conditioning, then that can seem like the Truth. So, if you're like super lovey-dovey in your conditioning, when the thought arises saying Oh, the purpose of life is to love, or to experience love, 'That's a good answer, okay, I found it', you see. But what is the basis for the conclusion that this is the answer? With what benchmark, with what tool can we measure the rightness or wrongness of this answer? We do that, but what is the better way to do it, because in fact we are in Satsang to be free from our conditioning, isn't it. So we keep applying our conditioning as the benchmark of Truth. Like, some of you are attracted to the topic of free will versus God's will, and you love it, because that's your conditioning. When I start talking about that, you say 'Yes, yes, yes, so good I came to Satsang today'. Another one couldn't care less about this. They are just interested in devotion or something like that, so they're just like 'Oh, all this stuff...'. But when I say, okay, devotion is the key, then [demonstrates an interested expression]. So, if we keep using that benchmark, which is our present condition, then what we're doing basically is just deepening that conditioning with more and more affirmation about what we think. And that is usually the delusion of spiritual progress. 'I got a set of concepts – now I just amplified them, I deepened them, I heard this from Guruji [Sri Mooji] also, I heard this from Ananta also, Papaji [Sri H.W.L. Ponja] also used to say this, Bhagavan [Sri Ramana Maharshi] also said that, and today I found that Nisargadatta [Sri Nisagadatta Maharaj] also, and that's exactly the same thing, I found it!' But what are we doing? We're just in confirmation bias. So we're just confirming what we think we already know. So there must be a better way. And I noticed that with all of you, many times when you say you're contemplating, you are just thinking. You're using your intellect and your judging what is produced in the mind with the potency of your conditioning alone. So that is not the path of contemplation or Gyan Yoga. So, what is it really? The questions can be there, in fact the Sages have given us the questions, so if the question is for example, Who am I? how to answer this question? Or, Were you born? Guruji [Sri Mooji] has asked so many beautiful questions in the Invitation [An Invitation to Freedom]. How to answer them? If the answer is just going to be 'You know, I'm fine with everything except that can-you-die-question, how do I really know?' Now the thing is, if you don't know one of the answers then you don't know any of the answers. It is just that you are convinced about the rest of the answers and you're unconvinced about one answer. But Truth is not a matter of conviction. Belief is a matter of conviction, a deep belief is called a conviction. So, this is fundamental. I'm starting with this in Satsang today because I'm going to show you to use the right tool, so you don't play around any more, don't mess around any more, you're going straight to the point of this. Notice, if you are able to say ‘Yes, I do know the answer’, or ‘No, I don't know the answer’, which aspect of your Being are you auditing to come up with that conclusion? I'll repeat that. You may say 'Was I born? Hmm, I know the answer...I was never born' or 'I don't know the answer. I don't know whether I was born or not'. So, which aspect of your Being would you look at to confirm this? Take a moment or two. [Silence] Were you born? Notice that if it is just a matter of conviction saying ‘No, I was not born, I was not born’, and then the more I do this the more I will convince myself that I was not born. But that is not the game that is being played, and yet many of us may feel like coming to the end of spirituality or Self realization is to be convinced about these things. 'I am the Self, I am Brahman Itself. Till I'm fully convinced I'm Brahman, and I don't think I'm the body, till then my search is not over'. That may be the usual paradigm of the spiritual quest, but that's not what it is at all. It has nothing to do with that. You could take all your convictions and throw them away, I couldn't care less. It doesn't matter to me what happens in that aspect of your Being called the mind, it doesn't matter. If you say you're fully in this for Truth or you say you're not in this for Truth [and] you actually want something else, it doesn't matter. It's just mind stuff. Now, all of you playfully bring some attention to this mind stuff, allow it to come. Be clear about it as you spot it that this is mind stuff. [Silence] Notice, this is what we call the mind. This one makes claims to knowledge. These thoughts, they make claim to knowledge. You will say, this is how the world is, this is what life is, this is how your partner is, this is how your Master is, this is how your Sangha is. All of these claims will come as this, like this, you can notice that? So, this is the mind. Now, if you're contemplating like 'What happens to me after death?' and you're referring to the same instrument for a solution, then that is not true contemplation. If it says you are timeless, or if it says death is the end of everything, don't bother with anything after death, it doesn't matter. These are both just conceptual conclusions and they cannot bring you any sense of Reality. It is just mental claims, it is just proclamations from that which cannot decipher one moment of your existence. Like, if you ask What is this, right now? What is here right now? It cannot capture or decipher one moment of even your perception, forget about that which is beyond perception. Your mind just cannot do it. So if it cannot capture one moment of even your perceptions, then don't rely on it to allow it to tell you the story of your life. Not one moment does it know. So, if I ask you now, How is it going? How is it going for you? This is a common one, in normal conversations you can of course just reply whatever comes up, but really, you are relying on this instrument to tell yourself how it is going for You? You are relying on the mind to tell you how it is going for You? But the mind doesn't know. It cannot know. Reality is too broad for it to understand. So, how is it going? All good [chuckles]? What usually happens, we take a stream of perceptions which are available in memory and we try to make some broad conclusions about it saying 'Yes, very good, I'm doing so well', but who decided what will come up in that moment in your memory? I say to you 'How is it going?' In the memory you're just like laughing, laughing, laughing, but those were just ten moments of yesterday, the rest of the thousands of moments you only cried. But your answer will be 'Ah, I'm doing very well'. Notice the unreliability of the imagery as well as the labeling of the notions.