Comprehension Has Many Degrees

"A good idea must be chewed to get its juice."

• Comprehension Has Many Degrees : Leo highlights that understanding can vary greatly, and while many may hear or read truths, insights, or teachings, the level of genuine comprehension can be vastly different.
• The Importance of Contemplation : Leo underscores that true understanding comes from deep contemplation—digesting and exploring the layers, facets, and implications of an insight or principle to allow for transformative impact.
• Example of People's Opinions : The common advice that other people's opinions are irrelevant is often not fully internalized, as evidenced by the continued impact of these opinions on one's life despite intellectual agreement with the concept.
• Language Creates Reality : Leo challenges listeners to contemplate the profound statement that language creates reality, encouraging them to investigate its truth and implications rather than accepting it at face value.
• The Map is Not the Territory : Understanding the difference between maps (concepts) and territories (reality) is critical, as failing to recognize this can lead to a fundamental misunderstanding of the human experience.
• Buddha's Teaching on Suffering : The Buddha's teaching that all suffering comes from clinging to impermanent objects is deceptively simple but requires significant contemplation to grasp its depth and apply it to one's life.
• All Fear Is a Concept About the Future : Contemplating the idea that fear is tied to future projections can lead to profound insights into the nature of fear and possibly its elimination through deeper understanding.
• Significance of Meditation : Leo argues that to establish a strong meditation practice, one must first comprehend its profound importance through personal contemplation, beyond simply following instructions.
• Concept of No-self and Non-duality : To even grasp the concept of no-self and non-duality requires serious contemplation, as the implications are vast, affecting all areas of philosophy, science, and daily life.
• Conceptual Understanding Versus Direct Experience : Leo points out the progression from conceptual understanding of profound insights, such as non-duality, to direct experience and realization of their truth.
• Transformation Through Contemplation : Leo asserts that contemplating deeply on significant concepts, such as success not being equivalent to growth, can transform one's life. Merely hearing this idea is not enough; one must actively draw connections and implications to truly comprehend and thus change their life.
• Intellectual Acceptance vs. True Belief : Many people intellectually accept the idea that other people's opinions don't matter, but still experience anxiety and fear, showing they haven't truly internalized the concept. Contemplation can help bridge the gap between knowing an idea and being affected by it in daily life.
• The Illusion of Good and Bad : Leo challenges the notion of good and bad by exploring how deeply-held yet unexamined beliefs about good and bad influence reactions and suffering in everyday life. Without deep contemplation, when faced with negative experiences, people quickly resort to their default belief in good and bad, revealing their lack of understanding.
• The Danger of Superficial Beliefs : Leo points out that simply agreeing with profound statements, like the absence of free will, can be deceptive. Without deep understanding and direct experience of such ideas, one might behave contrary to those beliefs, proving a superficial acceptance.
• Manipulation in Relationships : Leo addresses how manipulation harms relationships, illustrating the importance of contemplating how one's own manipulative behavior could be the root of relational issues. Thorough understanding and behavior change require serious contemplation.
• Accessing Infinite Intelligence : Leo emphasizes that the human mind has the capacity to access infinite intelligence and creativity. However, making use of this requires months of contemplation to understand its significance and to apply it practically to one's life.
• Contemplation as Inquiry : Contemplation is described as a process of asking questions about a concept, like 'What does non-duality mean?'. Pondering deeply on various aspects and consequences of an idea allows for a profound understanding and personal insights.
• Deep Work vs. Accumulation of Ideas : Leo underscores that personal growth work is more about going deep into fundamental truths rather than accumulating many complex, new, or fancy ideas. It's about profound understanding and application, not merely collecting more knowledge.
• Levels of Understanding : Leo describes a six-stage linear progression of understanding, from merely hearing an idea to properly comprehending it, seeing its significance, experiencing initial glimpses of its truth, and ultimately living in accordance with that deep insight.
• Conceptual Misunderstandings : Many people falter at the second stage of understanding by misinterpreting concepts, which can impede progress toward profound realizations and experiences, like the nature of non-duality or the illusion of free will.
• Glimpses of Insight : Gradually, individuals begin to intermittently see glimpses of truth in insights, such as recognizing their own manipulative behaviors and connecting these to the resulting consequences and suffering they cause in relationships.
• Constant Consciousness of Insights : Eventually, one reaches a stage where awareness of insights becomes constant, making it difficult not to notice these truths. This stage involves understanding the full practical ramifications of an insight and seeing how it intertwinely impacts all facets of life.
• Awareness of Traps : At the final stage, individuals become acutely aware of the mechanisms and traps that cause them to become unconscious again. They learn to recognize and avoid these traps, or even stop themselves midway when they fall into them.
• Understanding Inevitability of Mechanisms : Deep understanding culminates in realizing why certain mechanisms and behaviors are inevitable and why reality could not be otherwise, leading to a sense of peace even with the existence of what is typically considered evil.
• Stages of Understanding : Leo describes various stages of understanding insights, from initial judgment and superficial comprehension to deep acceptance. However, he stresses these stages are not definitive but a framework to aid conceptualization of the growth process.
• Obstacles to Understanding : Progress through the stages of understanding is hindered by obstacles such as closed-mindedness, judgments, arrogance, complacency, laziness, and a tendency to believe without understanding or experiencing insights.
• From Belief to Direct Experience : Leo underscores the significant gap between simply believing in principles like morality and directly experiencing the truths behind them. Beliefs can mask underlying contrary behaviors, creating internal conflict and inhibiting growth.
• Derived Truths for Personal Transformation : Ultimately, personal transformation requires individuals to derive truths for themselves, moving beyond agreement or dissent to direct experience and understanding as an independent verification of teachings.
• Ownership of Deriving Truths : Leo stresses the importance of actively working towards directly experiencing the truths pointed at by teachings, using one's own cognitive capacities to trace the truth, rather than just accepting it as given.
• Active Process of Understanding : He explains that understanding is an active process, comparing it to how one must understand mathematics by working through proofs and logic personally, rather than just shuffling symbols or relying on rote learning.
• Self-Derivation Over External Answers : Emphasizing the pitfalls of looking up answers or accepting ones that he provides, Leo argues that such an approach can be detrimental to personal transformation, which is achieved through self-derived comprehension.
• Problems in Consciousness Work: He points out the unique challenges in consciousness work, where being given the answers can actually be the greatest disservice, as it leads to an illusion of understanding and potential regression.
• Laziness as a Barrier : Leo comments on the laziness of human nature when it comes to deriving truths, noting it as a reason for the prevalence of religion and standard morality, as they offer ready-made answers that don't require personal contemplation.
• Importance of Contemplation for Human Potential : He discusses the critical role of contemplation in realizing human potential, comparing a contemplative person to a lion that hunts, asserting that our hunt is for understanding and is done with the mind.
• Depth of Comprehension : Leo advises taking ideas seriously, seeking true understanding over immediate results, and contemplating regularly to differentiate between trivial and cosmically significant points, highlighting the importance of interconnecting insights.
• Derivation and Contemplation as Mandatory : He concludes by reiterating that in the process of personal growth, contemplation and personal derivation of insights are not just optional activities but mandatory ones.
• Correct Use of Teachings : Finally, Leo portrays his videos as 'dessert', meant to supplement personal work such as meditating and reading books, cautioning against using them as a substitute for personal effort, which can lead to a superficial understanding akin to a 'veneer of righteousness'.