- Emphasizing Direct Experience over Beliefs: Leo Gura underscores the importance of seeking truth through personal, direct experience rather than through books, videos, beliefs systems, or ideologies. He emphasizes the risk of ideology and how it can limit personal development and the pursuit of existential and psychological truths. He warns that purely theorizing or drawing from external sources, without active contemplation to verify those theories or sources in reality, may lead to delusions and misconceptions.
- Contemplation Using a Journal: Leo introduces a technique of using a journal, ideally an analogue one to minimize digital distractions, to aid in contemplation. Dedicate 30-60 minutes in a quiet space to contemplate one particular question, written on the top of the journal page. This question should be approached with no preconceived notions or external influences, grounding oneself in direct experience and concrete examples.
- Relevance of Contemplation: Comparing the process of deriving truths to comprehending math, Leo asserts people should engage actively with their subjects of contemplation to truly understand them. Laziness and the propensity to take shortcuts or rely on external sources hinder the process of self-actualization and hinder understanding of truth.
- Practicality of the Technique: To demonstrate the process, Leo suggests contemplating the question "What is a thought?" He emphasizes the importance of removing prior teachings or beliefs when contemplating this question and sees the question itself as a thought, an example to work with. He suggests using direct experience and concrete examples as topic anchors rather than vague speculation. His intent is to provide a concrete, grounded method of discovery and exploration for the individual, without relying on any external information or preconceived notions.
- Avoiding the Traps of Contemplation: Leo frames common mistakes to avoid in contemplation, like bringing in external knowledge such as scientific theories or making assumptions. He speaks against incorporating conventional learning, such as neuroscientific explanations for thoughts, because it creates bias and obstructs clear, organic contemplation from a standpoint of not knowing.
- Importance of contemplating from scratch: Leo Gura emphasizes the importance of pushing to think from scratch during contemplation, not using ideas gathered from external sources but rather from direct experience. This process necessitates asking deep questions and observing the phenomena directly.
- Process of Contemplating Thoughts: Gura advises on keeping one's awareness on a thought (like a red apple) and observing the mechanics of its existence. This observation includes understanding how thoughts arise and disappear in the mind. This practice is different from thinking about thoughts, which often leads to speculation.
- Essence of Science: Gura describes that the essence of science echoes the process of contemplation where an actual object is taken in its raw form and observed. This method demands setting aside personal biases, emotions, and projections.
- Distinguishing Different Types of Thoughts: Gura implies that different types of thoughts (such as thoughts of physical objects and thoughts of intangible concepts like love) can be distinguished and questions if there's any fundamental difference between them. He also explores the difference between thoughts and physical objects.
- Questioning Assumptions about Thoughts: Gura urges to question common assumptions about thoughts such as thoughts only occurring in human beings or within the brain emphasizing that these could just be ideas acquired from our culture or schooling.
- Contemplating What an Object Is: Gura discusses the contemplation of what an object is, questioning the common denominator between all objects and pondering whether the concept of objects is just a subjective projection of the human mind. He highlights the complexities and subjectivity associated with defining and distinguishing objects, including intangible instances like air.
- Contemplating Purpose of Separation of Objects: Leo challenges the listener to consider the purpose of categorizing objects as 'separate' from each other, with the concept even extending to intangible instances such as air. He infers that these separations may simply be subjective distinctions created by personal perspectives.
- Nature of Objects: Leo Gura starts the contemplation with the question "What is an object?" He asks whether specific things, such as the air or a thought, can be classified as objects. He emphasizes the importance of grounding this contemplation in actual examples and personal experience, urging viewers to consider examples of tangible and intangible objects.
- Flow of Contemplation: He explains that one simple question can flower into related questions, forming clusters of contemplations that can extend outward. The viewer is urged not to stray too far from the original question and not to rush towards finding an ultimate answer, but rather to take their time exploring the question and its offshoots.
- Example of Contemplating Evil: Leo illustrates how to contemplate a concept, using "evil" as an example. He notes the importance of eschewing preconceptions and societal definitions, focusing instead on personal experiences and direct contemplation. He emphasizes the questioning of one's own answers and challenges viewers to consider various aspects of the concept of evil.
- Exploration of Personal Development: The transcript delves into what it means to develop personally, highlighting the need to understand the distinct qualities of an undeveloped versus developed individual, rather than simply relying on externally provided information. The contemplation encourages exploration of specific examples from personal life and formulating tangible characteristics of personal development.
- Approach to Learning through Contemplation: Leo emphasizes the value of writing down answers during contemplation, even if they may appear nonsensical, as cross-checking these answers with direct experiences contributes to learning and growth. The contemplative process encourages viewers to challenge their own conclusions and deepen their understanding.
- Defining Personal Development: Personal development may involve diverse components such as growing in love, improving educational status, reading books etc. It's open to contemplation whether a person can develop without reading a single book or whether they can be considered developed but not loving. Leo suggests contemplating these facets.
- Getting Deeper Understanding: Active contemplation, preferably with a journal, greatly increases understanding of a topic. It's described as a process where the 'rubber meets the road.' It's more beneficial than passive information intake, as from mere listening.
- Contemplation Starting Assumptions: Leo suggests five assumptions to begin contemplating: You are full of assumptions; you can't trust everything your mind says; all beliefs and teachings are false; only direct experience holds truth; truth is not fragile and can withstand questioning. These assumptions can be questioned as well.
- Contemplation 'Do's and 'Don'ts': Active contemplation should not be used to justify already held beliefs or build new ones and it isn't a constructive process for building theories or narratives. Contemplation must not be utilized for day dreaming, imagining or creating arguments against critics or opining. The aim of contemplation is pure understanding rather than pursuing success or practical advantage.
- Clarifying Contemplation: Contemplation involves observing dynamics, breaking down ideas, learning to become more aware, questioning assumptions and beliefs, and thinking independently. It's a desire to pursue truth at any cost, even if it means discovering uncomfortable truths about oneself.
- Practical Questions to Contemplate: Leo provides conceivable questions to contemplate, excluding the hardest ones like "what am I", "what is reality", and "what is God". The questions include: "what is meaning", "what is science", "what is evil", "what is ego", "what is a concept", "what is a belief", "what is truth", "what is evidence", "what is a symbol", "what is language", "what is fear", "what is happiness", "what is identity", "what is thought", "what is conflict", "what is duality", "what is a boundary", "what is reason", "what is culture", "what is judgement", "what is an object", "what is value".
- Contemplation and Self-Inquiry: Contemplation is a practice that involves thinking about how life or facets of life work. Leo Gura emphasizes that contemplation is both vital for personal development and can be used for purposes other than just enlightenment. Contemplation may start with simple questions and later tackle deeper ones. To truly answer profound questions like "what am I?" or "what is reality?", a profound mystical experience or an expansion of consciousness is needed, which can take years.
- Proper Use of the Mind: Leo disputes the common spiritual belief that the mind is evil and needs to be transcended. Instead, he proposes that there is a lot of development to be gained from using the mind correctly. Transcending the mind is more about learning how to use it properly and then being able to go beyond it when necessary. The mind can still be used after transcendence to navigate and understand many facets of reality.
- Successful Contemplation Requirements: Requirements for successful contemplation include radical open-mindedness, fearlessness, brutal self-honesty, careful observation, impartiality, willingness to question all ideas, radical self-reliance, and genuine curiosity. To truly understand the answers to the profound questions posed during contemplation, a person should be intrinsically curious and eager to discover the answers.
- Common Contemplation Traps: Traps during contemplation practice include regarding things as self-evident, seeking for the "right" answer based on preconceived notions, and relying exclusively on external sources for insights. Personal discovery should be prioritized and inherent curiosity is crucial for successful contemplation. To avoid these traps, it is suggested to explore other cultures, read widely, and travel to expose oneself to diverse perspectives.
- Isolated Contemplation: When contemplating, it is essential to isolate oneself and put all prior knowledge and teachings aside. This includes not referring to external sources such as books, videos, and teachings from other individuals or groups. This practice allows for unbiased contemplation and can lead to unique realizations and profound insights. However, this can be challenging as the mind may try to bring in external information. Leo warns against constructing grand theories based on such contemplation.
- Danger of using contemplation to build theories: Leo Gura advises against using the contemplation technique to build grand theories about everything. Doing this means falling into a trap; it is a dangerous pattern as it allows the mind to construct comprehensive theories and get lost in them, confusing these theories for reality.
- Skepticism as a trap: Leo mentions the trap of false skepticism; being skeptical about everything except one's own beliefs and ideologies is counter-productive. He advises to question your fundamental foundations, ideologies, and even the way you're using skepticism.
- Trap related to science: While science is beneficial, Leo warns that it can mislead by filling us with theories and ideas that we might accept without questioning. He encourages being cautious and not bringing scientific rationalizations and justifications into your contemplation.
- Distraction as a trap: Distraction is another common trap during contemplation. One may give in to distractions, which tend to arise when trying to contemplate challenging questions. Leo suggests fighting distractions and to be aware of self-deception.
- False comfort in contemplation: In proper contemplation, one should feel scared and uneasy, and it's normal to feel alone. However, this discomfort leads to intellectual autonomy, building confidence in oneself and encouraging independent thinking.
- Danger of laziness: The mind's laziness and the tendency to opt for easy options, like watching videos instead of contemplating, is highlighted as a major obstacle to effective contemplation.
- Importance of practice: Leo stresses the importance of practicing personal development techniques, rather than just watching videos or reading books. Comparing it to athletics, he points out that without training, one gets zero results. Implementing the techniques offered in his videos is crucial for substantial growth and understanding.
- Potential rapid changes: Engaging in these practices can result in rapid, significant changes in one's life. This may be uncomfortable initially, but Leo advises individuals to pace themselves to accommodate these transformations.
- Need for theory comprehension for beginners: For those new to the concept of personal development, watching videos for theory comprehension is essential initially, but they should soon start implementing the recommended practices for actual growth.