- A very important thing
in decision-making process is not to come up with a decision, but to ask the right question. (logo dings) Now, it's very easy to mistake
an impulse that comes to you for some deeper answer that
comes out of the stillness. And so in any decision-making process, you have basically two factors. Well, most people only have... You have the information
that's available to you. And so make sure that
you have the information of all the facts that you need. Sometimes before making a decision, you may have a few number of facts and sometimes these facts
may not be sufficient. So then you go within and see
what questions you can ask in order to elicit more
facts or information from whoever is capable of
giving to you that information. I'm talking very general terms, whether you are in business
or wherever you are, or some personal decision
that you need to arrive at on one level, facts are
need to be looked at. What is the situation? And sometimes the facts
are not clear enough or you are not enough facts, and you become still and see
what questions you can ask. Somebody may be able to
supply more detailed facts, but in order to ask the right question, you already need a moment of stillness. You may not immediately get
an answer through stillness. The first step as you
become alert and still is another question. What a very important thing
in decision-making process is not to come up with a decision, but to ask the right question
that can elicit what you need in order to arrive at a decision. And in order to ask the right question, there needs to be that alert
stillness for a moment. And in that alert stillness,
you kind of listen within. And then a question comes. When somebody, they call me and say, "We've had this or that offer. Somebody wants you to do this. Somebody wants you to do that interview. Somebody wants to do that." And very often, I don't
immediately say yes or no. I usually come up with a few questions in addition to the
information that they gave me, "Well, what about that and that and that," And then say, "Oh, okay,
I'll get back to you. I'll find out." And then they call again,
then I know a bit more. And sometimes on the basis
of the factual information, you already know whether
you want to do it or not. You more easily know that
you don't want to do it, just by looking at the facts. But it may well be that
you have all the facts and you're still not clear what the right cause of action is. So you have exhausted to the
avenue of asking more questions probably unless something
else comes to you. And then it's usually
question of becoming still, and that's the added dimension to the decision-making process. It works together with
looking at the knowledge that you have in the mind, conceptual knowledge, factual knowledge, works in conjunction with
a deeper intuitive knowing, and you bring the two together. It's not just the intuitive and then you completely
disregard the facts. So even with bringing your ex-girlfriend, it's a relatively simple thing. Perhaps there was an impulse that... or some belief that you
should obey your impulses now and just do it, but you didn't. You also have some knowledge in your mind about what kind of a person she is, what your relationship was like, how it ended, how she might react, these are factors that you also consider. Is it a wise thing to do? Just on the level of
thinking, you think about it and then you go within become still. An impulse to do something does not necessarily come
from the deepest level. It could be an emotional impulse, it could be an impulse created by the ego to see itself as very spiritual
that you reconnect with her, and many different levels
it could come from. Also, it's good to deal... Sometimes it's good in this case where immediate
action is not required. If you delay it a little bit, wait a day and see if the next day,
you still feel the same or the day after. Because in this case for example, immediate action is not required. So it's often helpful to know
whether something is real, comes from the deepest
level, give it some time. If it's still there tomorrow or next week, it is more likely to be true
and come from the deepest level than an impulse can dissolve very quickly. An impulse came to me many years ago, as I've told before on various occasions, when I lived in England, in the country. One morning, not an impulse
but a strong knowing was there, that for some reason I had to move to the west coast of North
America, but I didn't know why. But I didn't immediately pick up the phone and make a reservation, and sell everything I have. I waited. And days passed and every
day, that was still there. Several weeks passed
and it was still there. And then I couldn't, I knew this I had to do. It was not a temporary impulse or an idea that came into my mind. It came from a deeper level. If I had not obeyed it,
probably I would've fallen ill or something would've gone very wrong 'cause I would not have
gone with that deeper flow where the universe wanted to move me. So if there is time, give it time, and if something is still
there after a few days or even a few weeks, then it probably comes
from the deeper level. So in many cases, it's a question of
balancing factual knowledge and going beyond factual knowledge. And again, to repeat, sometimes factual
knowledge is all you need, and it's immediately very clear from just looking at the facts that this, for example, is not feasible. At other times, the mind
could create, prematurely, the idea that this cannot be done because nobody has done it
before and might be wrong. So don't be too certain
that when the mind says no, you really have to be very clear. If you're not totally clear, go within. So what's your add on? (crowd laughing) - With regards to choosing
spiritual practice, for about 25 years, I've had
different regular practices and I step back and go, "Gosh, have I really made any progress?" And this is my lack of progress from not sticking with just one, be it Goenka Vipassana
or Tibetan whatever. And I know sometimes in a
practice, we go through darkness and that it's good to push
on through to the other side. And sometimes, there's no other side, you're just going into
more and more darkness, it's the wrong direction. Could you recommend on how to decide what is the right practice? - The right practice? Underlying any practice is presence. No matter the externals of
the practice may be different, but what every practice points to, and eventually, if it
succeeds and you end up with is presence. Remember our definition, I quoted Ramana Maharshi
when he was asked, "How do we know," because
that's your question, "whether we are making any
progress on the spiritual path?" And of course, you may
remember his answer, "The degree of absence of thinking is your criterion for judging progress on the spiritual path." That's all. So to what extent is there space in you, cessation of thinking
when it's not needed, rising moments of spaciousness. As you evolve spiritually, the spaciousness deepens
and there's more of it so that eventually, half of
you is spaciousness. (chuckles) Don't take it too literally. Half of you is spaciousness and half of you is form,
mind, knowledge, and so on. If half of you is spaciousness
and half of you is form, you would lead a very balanced life. And it could be that as in
the case of Ramana Maharshi when he was a young boy and he just had the death experience, he became 90% spaciousness
and he couldn't talk anymore. And he still had a body, that's the 10%. And he sat somewhere and then he came back to very
few humans are actually... It's hard to quantify. Anyway, I'm just... It's more or less almost
speaking metaphorically. Very few humans are totally balanced between moving in the world of form, using their mind and their knowledge, and interacting, and being busy and active in the world of form. And at the same time not losing the deeper
dimension of presence. So not having two separate
compartments in your life, some spiritual practitioners, meditators, develop two compartments. My spiritual practice, which
they do when they meditate, or go on boot camp retreats. And then my daily life. Of course, the two need to come together so that the spiritual dimension shines through all the things that you do. In other words, everything
you do, there's spaciousness, there is a sense of peace that comes even while you're engaged in activities. You don't get frantic and (pants) upset about every little thing. There's a spaciousness in
your human interactions, a sense of presence that pervades even your business dealings. So that is what Ramana Maharshi means when he talks of to be free of thinking, that spaciousness are moments
when you're just alert and present even while
conducting a business. There's an alertness and a presence. And then you become more creative. The person who created the iPhone, well, the man, Steve Jobs, I haven't read his entire biography. And he had certain personal idiosyncrasies which were very much egoic conditioning. But apart from his egoic conditioning, he had areas in... he was a practitioner of, I
believe, Zen and meditation. He had these areas of stillness, out of those came the creativity. So he did not represent a
complete balanced coming together, very few people have that, a complete balanced coming together of spaciousness and form. And you don't have to achieve that. I don't have it. I don't have 50% effectiveness in form and 50% spaciousness, I have... I'm just taking a figure. (crowd laughing) 80% to 85% spaciousness
and 20% to 15% form. In other words, I'm not that
great at dealing with stuff. (crowd laughing) When I do, I'm spacious with it. My preference is not to, so I'm not that balanced. Oprah is much more balanced than I am. She is very effective in doing, has seemingly inexhaustible energy. I can't keep up with her. (crowd laughing) And yet she does always
return to stillness, so she doesn't lose herself in the doing. There are some people but not many, Oprah's a bit more in
the doing than the being, but there's still enough
being to keep her rooted. And to make her work fruitful and contribute lot to the
consciousness on the planet. (water sloshing)
Even if you're not a sacral generator, his books will surely help you find alignment anyway :)
how did you come to this conclusion? thanks!