- Understanding Survival and its Metaphysical Implication: Leo Gura lays a foundation for understanding survival as it relates to personal development and spiritual work. He refers to a quote by Peter Spence Key which states that humans are essentially machines that react blindly to external forces, emphasizing the mechanical nature of human behavior. Questions are posed to set the stage for exploration, such as what is survival, why choose to survive, what is being defended, and what constitutes changes in survival strategies.
- The Beginning of Survival: Leo narrates the hypothetical emergence of the first distinct form or object in the universe, a cloud of particles undergoing change, transformation, and ultimately, 'death'. He explains that initially, this object had no desire to continue its existence due to the absence of self-awareness. Subsequent forms emerged which desired to exist and took steps to manipulate the environment to ensure their survival.
- Key Notes on the Concept of Survival: The key points of the concept of survival include the fact that forms do not necessarily need to persist, there's no inherent logic in existence, and the most critical distinction in forms is the separation of self from the environment. Survival implies a struggle against the environmental forces in order to maintain form and order amidst constant change, with the inability to control the full breadth of one's destiny due to the interaction with other factors in the environment.
- Survival as a Foundation for Personal Development and Spiritual Work: The discussion gives insight into the mechanics of human behavior as related to survival and provides a platform for exploring personal development and spiritual work. Understanding survival will influence how individuals perceive their lives and behavior, making it a crucial aspect in the journey into self-awareness and consciousness.
- The Implication of Unconscious Mechanical Responses in Daily Life: Survival and behavior go hand in hand, and understanding this link is critical to becoming more conscious and less mechanical in your responses to external forces. This awareness of one's 'mechanicalness' forms the basis for effecting meaningful behavioral changes.
- Survival in Relation to Personal Identity and Forms of Living: The survival process involves distinguishing and maintaining the self amidst external forces. This involves controlling and manipulating oneself or the environment to maintain that sense of self. Survival is not just about physical existence but about persisting as a distinct form or identity amidst a constantly changing environment. Survival, therefore, becomes a defining attribute of personal identity.
- Understanding freedom and limitation in the context of survival: Freedom, often seen as a valuable state to achieve, is actually a threat to an organism's survival. Complete freedom, in a biological sense, would result in disintegration and death. Therefore, life is about intelligent limitation, where organisms impose restrictions on themselves to preserve their existence.
- Survival and non-change: Being alive requires a commitment to preventing change to certain aspects of one's existence. Choosing these aspects that remain static is intrinsically tied to self-definition and perception of form.
- Concept of self and other: Survival requires a distinction between self and other. This is not an external or fixed distinction but something defined and perceived by each individual. Humans partition reality into self and other, deciding what form they arethese partitions are virtual, not actual, contributing to one's survival drive.
- Survival as a conceptual boundary: Survival is not just physical maintenance, but also the preservation of a conceptual boundary or sense of self. This is especially relevant for humans due to their complexity. So understanding survival needs a broader conception that includes sustaining a conceptual self.
- Defining self: Humans have the freedom to define themselves. This self-definition isn't merely physical but also includes many other complex aspects. The physical self-definition is merely a construct projected onto reality, and the overall self-definition significantly influences survival.
- Surviving as a distinction: Survival involves maintaining oneself as a distinction from the environment. The imperative to survive as a form simultaneously creates the distinction between self and other, forming a reciprocal relationship.
- Survival's impact on reason and logic: Survival is a largely irrational, subjective activity. Reason and logic are co-opted by the need for survival. Survival is prioritized over anything else due to its importance in maintaining existence.
- Survival's Impact on Rationality and Objectivity: Survival, an inherently irrational process, shapes how humans perceive logic, truth, rationality, and objectivity. The fixation on survival often discourages humans from contemplating philosophical concepts or truths unless their survival is already assured. The fear of death, in particular, is primarily a survival response, causing individuals to avoid questioning the importance or rationality of survival.
- Identity and Threat Perception: Humans' perception of what constitutes a threat heavily depends on how they define their identity and what they see as critical to their survival. Things or concepts irrelevant for one's survival wouldn't be perceived as threats. For instance, a religious scripture might not be considered important or posing a threat for someone not part of that religion, but it could be immensely meaningful for someone who identifies with it.
- Relative Nature of Survival: Survival is relative and highly dependent on the individual definitions of self. What may seem important for survival to one person may not for another. Every individual uniquely defines their survival based on personal beliefs and affiliations, leading to different responses to various situations.
- Survival and Rationality: Self-survival hijacks rationality. Individuals perceive as rational anything that serves their survival while anything that threatens one's survival could easily be labeled irrational or dangerous.
- Trade-offs in Survival: Survival necessitates the exclusion of other possibilities, creating a zero-sum dynamic within the infinite reality. As one form of life survives, others must perish, resulting in a constant cycle of life and death which is inherently interconnected and fundamental to existence.
- Impact of Survival on Human Consciousness and Actions: Survival unconsciously manipulates human actions and behavior, oftentimes with the individual entirely unaware of their real motivations. Both individual and communal actions are often driven by underlying survival instincts. Examples include deeply-seated religious beliefs, identity preservation, and biases due to exclusivity (e.g., the belief concerning the importance of one's own child over others').
- Understanding Survival - Practical Aspects: Leo Gura uses the example of a squirrel engaged in survival to show how human behavior mirrors this in terms of being self-focused and considerably impacting the environment that we survive in. Addressing personal challenges, self-improvement and the desire to change behaviors inherently revolves around survival. However, the contradiction lies in the fact that to evolve, a part of oneself needs to cease, implying metaphorical death, which is what humans instinctively resist. Improving oneself without fundamentally changing the self is futile. Fundamental self-improvement demands facing one's fears and embracing the possibility of death. This is paradoxical given our instinctual fight against death. Survival can be traced in various aspects of life including reading books, watching YouTube videos, going to school or the grocery store, taking vitamins, scratching an itch, shopping for designer clothes or luxury items. Survival is a multi-level activity; it is physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Ones identity, ideals, emotional attachments, hobbies all contribute to the process of survival. It is critical to identify minute, day-to-day activities which are linked to the larger goal of survival. These survival strategies are often uncertain and subconscious, and each individual's survival needs are relative to their reality and circumstances. Lastly, understanding survival, according to Leo, is not merely about enhancing survival, but also about exploring alternate ways of living and being acquainted with the behavioral motives tied to survival.
- Misconceptions about Survival and Wealth: People often mistakenly believe that having enough money guarantees happiness and one's survival. Survival goes beyond the physical and is intertwined with one's self-concept, ego and self-image.
- Rich People's Survival Strategies: Individuals with considerable wealth, such as millionaires, play the survival game differently compared to those who are not well-off. Their survival needs might be more related to maintaining or enhancing their social status, like owning a yacht to keep up with their peers.
- Survival in Basic Needs and Self-Presentation: For less affluent people, survival can mean being able to afford basic needs like buying food or paying electricity bills. Women shopping for attractive lingerie at Victoria's Secret, for example, might see it as part of their survival strategy to attract a potential partner for a supportive relationship.
- Rationalizations and Survival Strategies: People typically use false rationalizations to justify their survival strategies. These rationalizations can be subconscious, and actions seemingly unrelated to survival, like buying lingerie, could actually be part of these strategies.
- Deception, Manipulation, and Survival: Part of human survival involves deceit, manipulation, and ulterior motives. As survival often requires underhanded tactics, people usually convince themselves that such actions are normal or even positive, balancing their need for survival advantages with their self-image as honest individuals.
- Survival Activities: Tasks such as giving gifts, caring about people's opinions, focusing on physical appearance and even seemingly selfless acts like giving to charity or being vegan can serve an individual's survival.
- Activities that Shape Identity: Things like getting a tattoo, listening to music, cracking a joke or logging into an online bank all contribute to shaping and maintaining one's identity, and thus, are survival activities.
- Caring for Family and Chidren as Survival Actvity: Taking care of one's family and children, often seen as a selfless act, is in fact, also a survival activity because it is deeply intertwined with protecting and securing one's own lineage.
- Religious Beliefs and Survival: Adhering to a certain religious identity is another survival strategy. Religious beliefs provide a sense of security and belonging which is key to survival.
- Influence of Ego on Survival Strategies and Judgement: Survivor strategies and our judgements are largely influenced by our ego. These are designed to defend our self-concept and thus any judgement we made is fundamentally a survival activity.
- Observation of Survival Activities for Self-awareness: To become more self-aware, it's crucial to observe all our daily actions, reactions, and behaviours, understanding them as survival activities, without attaching any judgement to them. This will help us understand the motives behind our actions and can lead to personal growth.
- All Meaning as a Survival Activity: According to Leo Gura, every piece of meaning that an individual creates serves as a tool for survival. All activities such as justification, rationalizing, story creation, imagination, philosophy, scientific thinking are all survival activities that the individual mind has constructed to know which aspects to stick with and which to avoid for the sake of survival. Concepts hold meaning based on their utility to an individual's survival, and perceived irrelevance or harm to survival renders things meaningless.
- Emotions as Survival Tools: Emotions like fear, anger, happiness, and frustration serve to manipulate the individual for survival, forming a complex and integral part of survival mechanisms. These emotions help create a relationship with the environment, aiding survival. Discomfort, a feeling predominantly negative, is a survival signal urging a change to maintain or enhance survival, be it physically or psychically.
- Cognitive Aspects and Survival: Minds are corrupted and distorted by the overriding need for survival. Essentially, individuals are survival robots that use emotions, worldviews, and reasons for their survival endeavors. To live as the identity they hold, they have to compromise seeing reality as it truly is, leading to distorted perceptions of reality.
- Intelligent Survival Techniques: Survival mechanisms are not just mechanical processes but instead, they involve intelligent, non-linear processes known for odious trickery and intelligent manipulation. Especially in social environments, humans come up with sophisticated survival strategies to maintain their existence in their environment, without understanding why or what they are doing.
- Survival Strategies Effect: Survival strategies deeply ingrain into the mind from an early age due to upbringing and the environment an individual grows in. These strategies are mostly unconscious and can often be dysfunctional, possibly backfiring and causing misery, suffering, depression, and other negative outcomes.
- The Psyche and Survival: The mind or psyhce is what is being survived in human beings. Most survival activities are geared towards maintaining the psyche. Leo portrays the psyche as a ghost within the body machine, and any action it takes is aimed at self-preservation. This ghost has unique psychic needs, attractions, and aversions, making survival a complex process.
- Maintenance of Positive Self-narrative: The ghost (representing our psyche) needs to maintain a positive self-narrative, along with justifying its actions to feel good and certain about itself. Any negative conception of the self can lead to pain, confusion, and forced behavior change.
- Attachment to Beliefs: The ghost incorporates and clings to specific beliefs and worldviews, which form its body. This makes changing those beliefs difficult as it feels like losing part of its very self.
- Identification with Objects and Ideas: The ghost's identity includes not only the physical body, but also the things it does, the objects and ideas it attaches itself to. These range from abstract identifications such as nationality, to specific tastes in things like food and music.
- Ghost's Survival Techniques at a Micro Level: It's crucial to monitor daily activities, including minute tasks such as sending text messages or fueling a car to realize how every small action ties to survival and maintaining a certain identity.
- Self-awareness and Analysis for Self-growth: By observing and analyzing these survival strategies and individual specific demands, we can grow more self-aware and conscious. This is a slow process that requires patience and consistent effort.
- Avoidance of Discomfort and Guilt: Ghost tends to avoid discomfort and guilt at any cost. For instance, feelings of guilt may arise when certain activities, like meditation, are not performed regularly.
- Guilt and Discomfort as Survival Techniques: Emotions such as guilt and discomfort are used by the ghost to manipulate itself and its environment to meet specific needs and thereby survive.
- Survival Needs Relative to Individual Circumstances: The survival needs of a ghost are specific to its unique circumstances. For example, needing a specific type of car to feel masculine or needing to meditate each morning for self-image. All these requirements link back to survival.
- Development of Personal Identity: The identity of the ghost is embedded in the things it does; if the ghost were to stop doing specific things, its identity would change. This emphasizes the integral connection between actions and self-perception.
- Strategies for Personal Development: Observing daily minutiae, acknowledging personal motives and associations, articulating personal philosophy, and recognizing intellectual positions or beliefs are critical strategies for personal development. It's important to face discomfort or pain associated with changing beliefs or worldviews.
- Understanding Survival - Part 2 - Beyond Survival
- - Maintaining 'Self' through Daily Activities: Leo Gura discusses that each action a person undertakes, such as browsing the internet, playing video games or watching videos on YouTube, contributes to their survival. The actions aren't necessarily about physical survival, but rather sustaining specific aspects of the 'self' or identity, such as being a 'troll' or a 'lazy person.' Ceasing these actions can lead to discomfort as they fundamentally change a person's identity at a metaphysical level.
- - Influence of Emotions and Thoughts on Survival: The transcript shows that our thoughts and emotions are significant components of survival, having been completely hijacked to serve survival. Even thoughts about self-improvement or enlightenment end up serving ego survival. Emotional ups and downs experienced by people are survival mechanisms in action, contributing to personal drama.
- - Efficiency versus Understanding of Survival: Leo emphasizes that the aim should not just be about becoming more efficient at survival but becoming more conscious of survival. People who are efficient at survival may merely be efficient at manipulation for their own ends, which can prove detrimental.
- - Work Environment Tied to Survival: In a corporate job, for example, the thoughts and emotions a person has must align with the work environment for them to stay in that job. For instance, a Wall Street worker would need to convince themselves of the benefit of their job to society to continue working there.
- - Examining Personal Ghosts for Survival: Leo assigns the 'homework' of observing oneself surviving for a week, with particular attention paid to emotions, thoughts, reactions, philosophy, and worldview. The intention is not to change or judge survival but to observe it impartially. He advises viewers to identify intellectual positions and beliefs their 'ghost' is attached to. Users are warned about the trap of improving survival instead of observing it. He concludes by prompting viewers to contemplate what aspects of their life are not solely focused on survival.