Who dohoo! One of my favorite rap call-outs from early 2000s, maybe the 90s? I think early 2000s. God, I hope so, because it feels like it was like five years ago.
But welcome back to the Daily Vadontic. In fact, I shouldn't have said I hope so, because we have an episode on hope. It's a recent one and a very interesting paradoxical take on hope when it comes to Vadontic philosophy. Today's episode is not on that, and it's not on rap call-outs.
Although we should do one because, man, there's some rap lyrics out there that sound like they are straight from the gita. Kendrick Lamar comes to mind, actually. But we're not going to do that. We're not going to get distracted.
And today we're actually talking about the power of reflection. Whenever we come across something new or something fascinating, especially some exotic ideas that can be within something like Vadontic philosophy or any philosophy, it could be an amazing TED talk or a quote on Instagram that hits you. It's so easy to take it in and say, wow, maybe even send it to three or four friends. And then three days later, seven days later, you can't remember a thing that you watched or heard.
And that is because within the Vadontic philosophy, we're told that reflection is a hundred thousand times more powerful than listening. There are daily practices within Vadontic, and that is to question everything, don't take anything for granted and to study and reflect every day. But within that last one, we're actually told that the long-term practices over many years are shravana monana, niddhi diasana, which means listening, reflecting, and then experiencing, or another translation, is meditating, truly knowing what you know. Its wisdom is knowledge in form.
It's written within your within your bones, so to speak. To get there, it's not through listening. It's actually listening and then reflecting the daily practice of studying and reflecting. Reflection is just mentioned over and over and over again because, and I can't believe I never heard this because any brief listening, it just will not become knowledge in form.
It will not seep into our bones. Reflection is a hundred thousand times more powerful than listening. So we're told it is the difference between in one ear and out the other, and nine years later, living out something that stopped you in your tracks, nine years prior. How do you get there?
It's through reflection, not continuously trying to hear more, gather more. The younger me would have just consumed these episodes like chicklets because, well, each new concept was so much fun to chew on. But we're told that if you can understand one verse in the Gita truly understand it, then you're instantly realized. These things might just be directional and educational, it being a hundred thousand times more powerful than listening or if you can understand one verse.
Maybe these are just directional exaggerations to make a point, but the point is this. Listening, reading, watching, hearing is nothing without reflection. And as we've touched on before in a previous episode, how do we reflect? There are three ways to reflect.
One is sitting quietly. That's what we think of in the West. We think of reflecting. We think, oh, reflecting is sitting quietly, isolatedly, and sitting in solitude, just ruminating on something.
And that can be a form of reflection. But a more powerful form is writing for yourself, writing out what you're reflecting on, trying to actually put into words in your own words, something that you've heard or read, but even more powerful than that. And in high contrast to what us in the West ever considers reflection, Vedanta says actually discussion in a group in a community seeking the truth is the highest form of reflection, not only having to articulate out loud what you listen to a red in your own words, even trying to do it in the exact words that you listen to it or heard it. That is hard enough.
But then also being able to receive questions from people. Again, this is community and truth. Community seeking the truth with you is a key aspect here. It's called satsang or sanga.
But if you have that community and truth, and if you're in the LA area, we meet every first Friday here in our backyard, that community and the discussion with that community is the highest form of reflection, because you'll likely get a question from this or that angle you haven't thought of, or you'll get a potentially helpful correction or addition to your own articulation. That last bucket of reflection, it had never occurred to me that discussion could be a form of reflection. And yet we're told it's the most powerful form. So when given the choice of moving on to something new, scrolling past an idea that hit you, clicking next on a video or podcast episode that mentioned something, something worth jotting down, take the time to jot it down, take the time to reflect on it, maybe even take the time to discuss it with others around you that are equally seeking the truth.
Because reflection is 100,000 times more powerful than listening. That has been today's reflection on the daily Vedantic. And though we will be back tomorrow, if you choose to not listen for a little while, as you just reflect for several days on the concepts within this episode, well, God bless you, you're doing it right. Thanks for listening to the daily Vedantic.
This reflection is part of a free repeating two-year course in Advaita Vedanta. Rooted in the timeless wisdom of the uponshads, arguably the oldest philosophical text on earth, you can begin with episode one, which gives the 15 minute overview of the whole philosophy of Adanta, or you can join the journey with any episode at any point. But the critical aspect of this course, of understanding and mastering anything is to study and reflect even for 10 to 15 minutes on the timeless each day, preferably at the start of your day. As is said in this philosophy, reflection is 100,000 times as powerful as listening.
So listen, journal, sit with, discuss these concepts, or ask questions at thedaylyvadantic.com with our AI powered chatbot informed by about 700 episodes here, as regularly as one can if you want to see clarity and peace, almost effortlessly unfold in your daily life. And if it doesn't result in a near immediate increase in clarity and peace, then toss aside and feel free to never listen again. One of the things that you might notice is after seven or eight days in a row, this doesn't feel like a discipline. This feels like a visit with a best friend to dive into the timeless with daily reflection.
Within a few days, it becomes one of your favorite parts of the day. You can also find out more including news about in-person events in Los Angeles and beyond at the Daily Vadantic on Instagram or through our weekly newsletter at thedaylyvadantic.com. Additionally, check out the links in our show notes for more resources like the books that are mentioned most frequently in the episodes, including Vadantic Treatise, perhaps the simplest and most straightforward read on this philosophy I've ever come across. Until next time and from the entire team that works on the Daily Vadantic Project.
Thanks for listening.