I saw there was no summary of this video. How To Contemplate Using A Journal Leo has a previous episode to contemplate in your head. This video is about using a journal. It is better so you can lose yourself in monkey mind. Contemplation and self-inquiry are different Self-inquiry is for enlightenment Contemplation is for truth seeking Contemplation is easier than self-inquiry Nothing Leo says is true unless you can rediscover these truths yourself. Contemplating is key: It is step zero with everything in life, you need to make everything your own by finding out yourself. That is the essence of minor- and major truth seeking. Otherwise you make great mistakes You can't be good in life without truth seeking You get result with contemplation: you get real understanding/clarity, you will make leaps You will need to put in the cost. Without doing the spiritual work it will be like an athlete who does research and never works out You will have to do math to understand it for example. Don't be lazy. Assumptions: question the assumptions You are full of bull Nothing your mind says can be trusted All beliefs and teaching are false Only direct exp is true Truth is not fragile: you can't hurt the truth by questioning, you can only make it clear Contemplation is not there things: Speculation and guess work Justifying what you already know It is not building new beliefs Don't build (grand) theories Day dreaming or imagination It is not building Défense for what you believe: to yourself or to others It is not opinionizing It is not pursuit of practical advantage or success: happiness doesn't come from advantage or success Use contemplation for not what it can do for you, but what something is What is contemplation: Observation: deconstructing/breaking down ideas Awareness and going meta: observe observation, and then observe that Self reflection: what is your role in understanding Think independent: question assumption/teaching/culture(knowing the truth at all cost) What does contemplation require? Open mindedness: be open to be shocked Fearlessness: don't run away from fear. Face it! Self-honesty Careful observation Impartiality: step out your role No idea is sacred Self-reliance: nobody is here to help you Genuine curiosity: how is it that you don't know what an object is? Traps: Self-evidence: is for example science self-evident? It is not Cultivating system for contemplation is a trap: work towards the right answer: don't go through the motions/system of thinking Don't depend on books or videos Go outside your culture Grand theory is a trap: don't construct False skepticism: (go for painful stuff instead, feel loneliness, develop a taste for it) Don't bring science to contemplation Distraction is a trap (watch distraction episode on actualized) Technique for contemplation: Get a separate journal for contemplation: Take 20-30 minutes Take a contemplation question: pick 1 question or object (write it down)Start from ground zero, accept you don't know it is to open up room to contemplate, throw your previous culture/knowledge/memories away, don't use external source. Set aside your emotional baggage and prejudices. Don't philosophize/speculate but instead use direct experiences. If you can't figure it out with direct experience, you will never figure it out. Ground yourself: use direct examples, don't use what you learned from books or heard from other people Question the topic: raise a question, begin very basic, bring up a concrete example, Examples for questions: Existential questions: what is meaning, science, ego, concept, belief, truth, evidence, symbol, language, fear, identify, thought, conflict, duality, boundary, reason, culture, judgement, value, object, evil, self-help, apple, happiness Personal psychological questions: How am I full of shit? How am I lying? Which truth do I refuse? How am I corrupt/evil? What do I fear? What do I whine about? How do I play victim? How do I play victim? What conflict of interest do I have? How am I  self bias? How do I cling to culture? What is sacred? How hypocrite/weak human being? let your mind observe the question/thought, notice how the thought is arising, Bring up examples (from your life). Ask what is the common denominator? let the question flower into 10 other questions key is not to get to the bottom question: find possible answers instead Purpose of this work is to grow Create traction with reality keep bringing up the original question and go back to it, question prejudices (start with: accept that you don't know) Determine how deep you want to go, keep on the topic though