This essay, Access, is the second in the twelfth trilogy Questions For A Friend: in that order. | The first trilogy Questions For A Friend is: in that order. |
The second trilogy Questions For A Friend is: in that order. | The third trilogy Questions For A Friend is: in that order. |
The fourth trilogy Questions For A Friend is: in that order. | The fifth trilogy Questions For A Friend is: in that order. |
The sixth trilogy Questions For A Friend is: in that order. | The seventh trilogy Questions For A Friend is: in that order. |
The eighth trilogy Questions For A Friend is: in that order. | The ninth trilogy Questions For A Friend is: in that order. |
The tenth trilogy Questions For A Friend is: in that order. | The eleventh trilogy Questions For A Friend is: in that order. |
The thirteenth trilogy Questions For A Friend is: in that order. | The fourteenth trilogy Questions For A Friend is: in that order. |
1) |
My
intention
is to continue doing this for as long as you and I are able to
continue doing it. It's what makes life
extraordinarily
livable. I don't know who'll go first: me or you. If I go first,
I'll go with an enormous vault of
questions
unasked, and with years of
conversations
unspoken. But if you go first, I don't know what I'll do. I can't
bear the thought.
First question: "What will I do when you die?" |
2) |
The way
you occur for me
(the way
all people occur for each other, actually) could be said to be in
one of three
ways:
first, the
guy
/ the "dude" you are (my generic
guy
/ "dude" includes gal / "dudess"); second, the space
you are; third, the space I
create
for you (the latter is arguably
who people
really are
for each other). But when I say
"I love you",
I'm
simply
speaking
to the
guy,
the dude. And that's when I'm most likely to be met with a
cautionary response from very
well-intentioned
people who seem to be trying to tell me there's something I don't
understand.
Second question: "People say 'You don't love him: you love the space he is' when I say I love you. I do love you. Are they amiss?" |
3) |
You're a perpetual motion
machine.
Even when you're relaxed, it seems to me it's
intentional,
purposeful. When I
observe
you, I notice your perpetual motion is surprisingly (and
extraordinarily)
effortless. The adage "no pain, no gain" doesn't apply to you. With
you, it's "all gain, no pain" - and you've been living
this way
24 / 7 / 365
for nearly forty seven years
straight
uninterrupted?! It's
truly
amazing. There's no one else I know who comes even
close to
being
so effortless, so restful, so relaxed, and yet so ongoingly
powerful
all at the same
time.
Look:
at eighty two years old, you run people a quarter of
your age ragged!
Third question: "Everyone who knows you, knows you're always in action. How do you do that? Where does that start for you? What gets you out of bed in the morning? What drives you?" |
4) |
You can
speak
transformation
like an explanation, just as you can
speak
leadership
like an explanation. And we may or may not
get
it when you explain it to us ie when you
talk
about it (and as we've seen, there's ample evidence we won't). But
if you deliver a
context
in which we can
experience
it directly
for ourselves, we're likely to
get
it (and as we've seen, there's ample evidence we will).
Fourth question: "As the breakthrough of the est Training was unleashed in confronting 'You are a machine!', what creates the space for the breakthrough of the Leadership Course?" |
5) |
I'm tempted to
talk about
the
Mastery
Course
as the "sequel" to the
Leadership Course.
While this may be
true
linearly (inasmuch as it's
true
that it's the
next
course
you're offering after the
Leadership Course),
I do
wonder
whether or not you actually
intend
it to also be the abstract sequel ie the
experiential
sequel, the
contextual
sequel if you will - or if the two
courses
are merely discontiguous offerings in the plethora of
courses
you've
created.
Fifth question: "Am I accurate in describing the upcoming Mastery Course ("Being a Master of Life: What It Takes" - New York, April 2018) as the next iteration of your work after (ie as the sequel to) the Leadership Course? If not, how should I introduce it?" |
6) |
You
created
and produced the
wonderfully
grand theatre that was the
est
Training
in which its
participants
(ie in which the
actors in
the play)
got
transformation.
You also
created
and produce the
extraordinarily
brilliant,
detailed process (if I may call it that?) which is the
Leadership Course,
in which
participants
get
being a leader and
exercising leadership effectively,
as their natural
Self-expression.
So I'm now contemplating what your method may be for imparting
mastery
in the upcoming
Mastery
Course.
Sixth question: "As the breakthrough of the est Training was unleashed in confronting 'You are a machine!', what creates the space for the breakthrough of the Mastery Course?" |
7) |
Standing
in
transformation,
each of us has the ability to
create
a future worth living
into.
Failing that, there are a variety of
futures we live into
regardless: the probable almost certain
future
is one, the
future
we fear is another etc etc. It seems to me that we
human beings
are thrown to
create
a future we deem to be
worth living into,
because we've already determined the probable almost
certain
future
won't be satisfying. And the thing is in the absence of
transformation,
nothing
will ever be satisfying - and with
transformation,
it's all satisfying.
Seventh question: "An acorn, not doing much, is likely to become a mighty oak tree. Is it good Zen for us to bet on that model apropos us becoming great? Or is that naïve?" |
8) |
As I age
(God!
I'm pushing sixty eight ...) I notice gradual changes in the
efficiencies of my faculties - some of them mental, many of them
physical. Yet at this
time,
nothing
that I
experience
or know, suggests there is or ever will be any
age-related
changes to the
essential
being
I really am
ie
nothing
that I
experience
or know, suggests that there'll ever be any
age-related
changes to
who we really
are
ie to what Lord Siddhārtha Gautama Shakyamuni of
India
ie to what
the
Buddha
calls our
true
nature, which you on various occasions, have distinguished as
the space
you and I really are
ie as the
context
you and I really are.
Eighth question: "You say your memory isn't what it once was, yet how do you account for your voice being more powerful than it's ever been?" |
9) |
One of the many things I respect about you is
the way
you
look
to your ...
Self
... as the foundation for all your
ideas.
Generously, you credit anyone and everyone from whom you've
gotten
value ie anyone who has inspired you. Yet although you could
underline many of the
ideas
you
speak
by relying on
the way
others have justified them, you never do that.
Nothing
in
your work
passes the sniff test unless you yourself can
stand
for it
personally,
coming from
who you really are.
For me, that's the epitome of what it is to be a Zen
master.
Ninth question: "You once said 'It's entirely appropriate for persons interested in est to be interested also in Zen', and you acknowledge Zen master Yamada Mumon Roshi as your friend. What is Zen? Are you a Zen master? Is the common interest still applicable in your work today?" |
10) |
What are you
working
on now? In which direction are you going
next?
What does your
hat
look
like that you're currently throwing
over the wall?
Indeed, more to the
point:
what does your
wall
look
like that you're currently
throwing your hat
over?
What are you seeing in the space made available in front of the
enormous
power
unleashed by the
Leadership Course?
(I suspect the direction in which you're going
next
will also be the direction in which we'll all be going
next
and is also be the direction in which
the planet
will eventually be going
next).
Tenth question: "What's on your 'Doing Now' list? What are you currently generating that no one knows about that we can look forward to?" |
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