Contemplation Journal

[Vision]

This is a journal of my contemplations. 

This will:

• Help me gain my own insights
• Prevent me from clinging to ideas and theories - "the map is not the territory"
• Verify ideas and theories through my own direct experience
• Derive my own truths
• Give a bird's eye perspective on my thinking process
• Perform psychotherapy on myself in a way 
• Improve my quality of life
• Help me be more intellectually self-autonomous 
• Many more things that I can't currently think of, but will present themselves when I realize them

Things to remember:

Derivation and Contemplation are NOT optional when it comes to progressing in this work. It is absolutely necessary to make any progress. 

Most of my time should mostly consist of contemplation, meditation, working on stages of the Spiral, and working on my Life Purpose. Not doing the work is like being an athlete who does research all day on his craft yet never works out. 

Theory is 10% of the equation. Too much theory is counterproductive, I will consume more information then I can retain or take action on. 

If I care about theory, then I care about taking action on theory 10x as much. 

Direct experience is the only way to know what's true. Ideas and theories are merely suggestions on potential courses of action, until it is matched up with my own experience. 

 

Some notes from contemplation video: 

In every domain of life, at every level, you can keep asking what all of it is. You can contemplate questions about your life purpose and career, your particular medium, the wordings of your life purpose, your area of mastery, etc. If you want to be successful in any domain, you need to understand the essence of what you are doing, and the tools and distinctions you are using.

Ignorance is the source of every problem.

Your quality of your life is directly proportional to how clear you are in what the truth is in a particular situation and how aligned you are with it.

You are not going to contemplate effectively if you are overstimulated with addictions, you eat garbage food and work 60 hours a week. You need to create a contemplative life. Lifestyle minimalism.

• When contemplating, become isolated, intellectually self-autonomous, and begin from "ground-zero" in determining answers. This means during contemplation, throw away all preconceived ideas, beliefs, cultural teachings that you acquired, anything you learned in school or university, any books you've read, videos (including
• The essence of contemplation is to sit down all by yourself and to think about a topic or a question completely from scratch, not relying on anything from any external source. So you're really going inside, working through the problem.
• Contemplation ≠ speculation. Ground your inquiry in direct experience and in concrete examples.
• Contemplation ≠ regurgitation of what you've previously learned or heard.
• Imagine yourself as the first person ever in the history of mankind to have ever thought about the question you are contemplating. This position will cut all external sources. 
• The essence of science is taking an object in reality as it is occurring, without any opinions or ideas about it, and you're just observing what it is, how it arises, and what it's doing. Observe an object just as it is, without any emotions, projections, agendas, etc 
• You'll be surprised that you've never before in your life seriously contemplated what everyday things are, e.g. objects, thoughts, personal development, etc.
• Contemplation of one question can flower into clusters of other ancillary questions, and those ancillary questions can flower into other clusters of ancillary questions, and so on. This is normal. Stay focused on the original question, yet don't ignore these ancillary questions to help you answer the original question.
• Don't expect to have answer your question in a single 30-60 minute session of contemplation. A single question can take 1 year (or more) to be resolved. The point is, through the process of contemplation, you will still have extracted value from the process in that your mind becomes more mature through the contemplation.
• You won't be filling pages upon pages with answers. Contemplate. It can be a slow process, especially in the beginning in building momentum with this habit. 
• Don't be afraid to write down the wrong answer, because contemplation is an imperfect process. Even if the answer is nonsense, the very act of writing it down and recognizing that it is nonsense is a part of the learning and maturing process of the mind.
• Contemplation with a journal provides immense levels of understanding of reality in comparison to simply watching educational videos on YouTube (although that can be important as well)

What Contemplation is NOT:

• Contemplation ≠ speculation & guess work
• Contemplation ≠ justifying your existing beliefs (very tempting to do, so be aware of this trap)
• Contemplation ≠ building new beliefs
• Contemplation ≠ daydreaming, fantasy, or imagining stuff
• Contemplation ≠ proof or coming up with arguments or debates against critics 
• Contemplation ≠ opinionizing, or justifying existing opinions
• Contemplation ≠ pursuit of success or practical advantage

What Contemplation IS:

• Contemplation = pure understanding of what a thing is (and not what it can do for you)
• Contemplation = observation, seeing how things work
• Contemplation = deconstruction, breaking down ideas and beliefs
• Contemplation = awareness
• Contemplation = going meta, or observing the contemplation process itself in yourself
• Contemplation = self-reflection, and observing your role in understanding these questions, or how you are intimately involved in the process
• Contemplation = questioning beliefs, teachings, and culture
• Contemplation = thinking completely independently for yourself
• Contemplation = desire to know the truth at any cost, even if what we discover are truths which are ugly and uncomfortable about ourselves

Qualities Required for Successful Contemplation:

• Radical Openmindedness
• Fearlessness - don't run away from fear. Face it! Slay your demons/threshold guardians. 
• Brutal Self-Honesty
• Careful Observation
• Impartiality (the ability to step outside of your agenda)
• Holding No Ideas Sacred
• Not Knowing
• Radical Self-Reliance - no one can give you the answer, no one is here to help you
• Genuine Curiosity - you have to really desire to know what the answer is 

Common Traps to Contemplation:

• Taking things as self-evident - for example, is reason and science self-evident? Well how do you know that? It's indeed not self-evident. 
• Trying to "work to the right answer" (discover your own right answer) -  the right answer that you get from Leo or other external sources might not framed in a way that will work for your mind. The right answer for Leo might not be the right answer for you because the right answer for Leo fits in Leo's entire mental scheme of understanding reality, and you may have a different mental scheme of understanding reality. So while they may be similar, it will still be unique to you. This is why you can't just steal answers from external sources. 
• Relying on external sources - videos, books, teachers, etc. 
• Thinking inside of your culture
• Trying to build grand theories of everything (contemplation ≠ theory building; contemplation ≠ constructing)
• False skepticism, rationalism, and science
• Distraction

When contemplating properly, you may potentially feel:

• Scared
• Uneasy
• All alone (this is good because you are developing intellectual autonomy)
• Like you're cutting through a lot of bullshit (especially your own)

This is all normal. Eventually you'll develop a taste and you'll enjoy this process.

Starting Assumptions for Contemplation:

• I am full of shit
• Nothing my mind says can be trusted
• All beliefs and teachings are false
• Only direct experience is true 
• The truth is not fragile (questioning will only clarify the truth further -- the truth cannot be "harmed" by questioning)

Use these assumptions to get started in your contemplation. Eventually, question these assumptions as well.