Thinking about It

Swamini Supriyananda - Chinmaya Mission

Do you ever stop and think about why you do what you do everyday?

Australian psychologist turned Hindu Monk, Swamini Supriyananda, provides insightful answers to your contemporary questions and challenges. Her captivating anecdotes, infused with the philosophies of the ancient Hindu teachings, are guaranteed to inspire us to think about it!

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345 episodes
Updated March 13

Episodes345

Newest first

Nov 2, 2020 · 9 min
Introspection Course 1 - Day 6 of 8
Having applied the cyclical technique of detect, negate, and substitute to our lives, the next organic step is to introspect on how well we practiced it. Eventually, a lifestyle change is brought about for we become more aware. We can recall better our actions, thoughts, and emotions during introspection, while also remembering to carry out our substitution strategies during the day. So today, we look back at our choices of yesterday and reflect on today's happenings, gauging how well we implemented them.
Oct 31, 2020 · 9 min
Introspection Course 1 - Day 5 of 8
As we understand the nuances of our being, we may have found something counterproductive to what we are working towards. It's not something we want for ourselves and naturally, we wish to remove it. This is "negate", the third step of introspection. But eliminating creates a space that cannot be left unfilled. So we consciously substitute our eradicated action, thought or emotion. Today, we find one unpleasant detail to negate and brainstorm on all possible substitutes before choosing one to implement.
Oct 31, 2020 · 9 min
Introspection Course 1 - Day 4 of 8
In "detect", the second introspection step, rather than simply knowing our experiences, we see the reason or cause-effect relationship behind our daily actions, thoughts, or feelings. For instance, we evaluate a thought as the cause of our speech or as an effect, caused by an emotion or someone else. But what is most important to understand is that we may not instantaneously have clarity and an answer. Today, we introspect on our day's happenings, looking for the connections between our experiences.
Oct 29, 2020 · 9 min
Introspection Course 1 - Day 3 of 8
Introspection involves 5 steps: notice, detect, negate, substitute, and grow. Today we focus on the first 2. We start by attentively seeing our mind, noticing different nuanced thoughts and details. With the next step, as we look at ourselves, naturally, we detect. But to do so in an objective, practical and pragmatic manner is essential. So as we think back, remembering our day and its sequential happenings, we observe and assess "How happy am I with this action/thought/feeling that I experienced?"
Oct 29, 2020 · 8 min
Introspection Course 1 - Day 2 of 8
Our BMI tools provide a structured way to think about ourselves. Through the body, we look at how we are perceived and at the qualities of our actions. With our mind, we notice all the varied feelings we feel and the degrees to which we feel our mixture of emotions. With our intellect, we check our voice of reason and the stock of knowledge we use to make sense of world and ourselves. Today, we introspect on the exact same question as yesterday, but going through our actions, feelings, and thoughts instead.
Oct 28, 2020 · 9 min
Introspection Course 1 - Day 1 of 8
Over the next 8 days, the technique of introspection, or mindfulness, will be outlined. We start with preferably writing something down via the old-fashioned method of pen and paper. Compared to writing on an electronic device, this is less structured, allowing more freedom and flow in the way we express ourselves and our thinking. Writing things down also helps us better identify our thoughts and connect with ourselves. Today, we introspect on the question, "How happy was I, all throughout my day?"
Oct 21, 2020 · 8 min
Self-Unfoldment - Regulating The Mind
Introspection is a powerful technique to understand and regulate our mind-intellect unit. We start by observing the thoughts and reactions we had throughout the day. Then, we evaluate them and can detect the different types of thoughts we had. As we identify our thoughts, adjusting and negating, replacing them comes naturally. The repetition of this process empowers us to understand ourselves and our motives better. This clarity and growth makes us happier and more free as we make more purposeful choices.
Oct 14, 2020 · 9 min
Self-Unfoldment - Our BMI Tools
Our body, mind and intellect are our purposeful equipment to be worked around or be improved. Via the body and its senses, we act and engage with the world and people in it. The mind pulls us outside, enabling us to enjoy and fulfill our wants. Conversely, the intellect pulls us within, towards our spirituality, empowering us to evaluate, appreciate and understand. Maintain clarity of the specific functions they serve to objectively accept the tools as they are and not identify with them.
Oct 8, 2020 · 8 min
Self-Unfoldment - Success, In and Out
Success can be achieved in the world both outside and inside. We successfully explore and understand the world outside at large, like via science, economics, or politics. Conversely, we find success inside as we reflect and pursue goals related to our personality and wellbeing within. Unfortunately, as we try to find happiness and peace more or only in one world, we dampen the success of the other world. So neglect neither. Maintain a balance between worldly and internal success and thrive in that balance.
Sep 30, 2020 · 9 min
Self-Unfoldment - What is Success?
For each one of us, success is the ability to be found within and brought out in efficient action, skill, or knowledge. Using religion to turn inwards, we can find that latent potential before awakening it to be actively used and experienced. As we constantly choose to use and think about that discovered wisdom or talent, we become proficient at it, can easily repeat it, and develop it into a habit.
Sep 23, 2020 · 8 min
Self-Unfoldment - A Manual, For You
Hinduism and our scriptures are kept alive by relevant reinterpretations that are applicable to us, our temperaments, and our lives. One of such redone works is "The Manual of Self-Unfoldment", authored by Swami Chinmayananda. This book provides seekers with the perfect foundation to be building on, for it is written as if Pujya Gurudev committed to paper his own notes on Vedanta. Also, self-unfoldment itself is the spiritual journey, as we unfold to discover who we are in essence and rise in our awareness.
Sep 16, 2020 · 7 min
On the Way - Just A Thought
Our tapas is practiced all day long and the greatest tapas is the remembrance of our divine nature – "I am Sat. I am Chit. I am Ananda." We're not only intellectually understanding this, but also, remembering, experiencing, and radiating divinity as our being while we feel, think and do. To abide in our nature is actually meditation, and everything else we do on the way there is building up to this powerful tapas of Gyaana Yoga.
Sep 9, 2020 · 6 min
On the Way - Oneness in Us
Oneness is when we see that the root cause of all creation goes back to one thing, call it "an explosion in space", "energy", or "God". It is all-pervading, and as this divinity, I am all-pervading. There is no distinction, division, nor any difference. Oneness is also in the interconnectivity of everything around us. We are linked, affected by and dependent on everything in creation. But we often fail to see this logic for our ego, or the "i", asserts differences and individuality. So, surrender the ego.
Sep 1, 2020 · 8 min
On the Way - At His Feet
Enlightenment is not something to be achieved, but to be experienced within. We must give up all that is keeping us away from the core of our personality. Put everything at His feet and offer every limitation to be devoid of ego. In this surrendering, we also come to see that we are self-effulgent, vast and infinite. We are Ishwara, not the limitations we put on ourselves. So why not actively choose to be who you are?
Aug 26, 2020 · 8 min
On the Way - Fairytales
Consciousness is "Chit", the brilliant light of knowledge, enabling us to see and know. Even more beautiful is we are this light that already understands and can infinitely know. Chit is also enlivening, giving sentience to our inert and inanimate tools. Just like Ganesha, our body, mind, and intellect are given life and any movement is the manifestation of Chit. We are that self-effulgent breath of life that does not need to be known. We just need go beyond the small 'i' to see the big "I" that is Chit.
Aug 19, 2020 · 8 min
On the Way - Which Am I?
Our likes, dislikes, beliefs, memories, judgements, and often negative self-descriptions all add up to become who we believe ourselves to be. But there is another 'I' thought free from all these limitations for it belongs to the very core of our personality, divinity itself. Because it exists and shines and is life and is love, I am. But we forget this divine "I" and drastically underperform. What are we holding onto that's stopping us from who we want to be, and why? What could we be if we just let it go?
Aug 12, 2020 · 8 min
On the Way - Thoughts About Me
So often, we look to the world for answers to our questions and it echoes back to us what we already think and feel. This is because our Idam thoughts rest on the substratum of the Aham. The entirety of our thoughts isn't about the world and 'i'. There is only 'me', connecting all conflicting thoughts throughout the ages, letting ourselves feel who we think ourselves to be. Then, as we enquire where the 'i' thought comes from, "Ayi!"! The elusive personality disappears for it has no depth nor substance.
Aug 5, 2020 · 8 min
On the Way - What Am I Thinking?
Our thoughts can be divided into 2 categories – Idam Vritti or Aham Vritti. In Aham Vritti, we have and identify with "i" thoughts, producing "I am" as related to our limited egocentric personality. Idam Vritti refers to thoughts of the world outside, which are all also based on thoughts of ourselves. So it can be concluded that "i" is a constant in our thoughts. Our mind can thus be defined as a flow of "i" thoughts that creates our individuality.
Jul 29, 2020 · 9 min
On the Way - The Path of Knowledge
The focus of all paths is slightly different. Gyaana Yoga is understanding "who we are". We start with understanding what we want to do in life and how to do it. Then more importantly, we understand what the mind actually is and how it works. Pujya Gurudev, Swami Chinmayananda, defines the intricate and complex mind as a term that is easy to understand – a flow of thoughts. Just like the flow of water, the mind is not one, but continuous thoughts that can be gushing and active or peaceful and still.
Jul 22, 2020 · 8 min
On the Way - Who am I?
We all have created for ourselves the 'i" or the personality layer. Made of traits, belief systems and social conditions, it is a barrier separating my individual entity from the world. In oneness, it is not that "i", the limited entity, becomes one, but these man-made defining boundaries are foregone so that the differences dissolve. What is revealed is the essence of life that I am, is everywhere and in all creation. We establish in simply being, and not in the processes of ego. There is just oneness.