Conversations For Transformation: Essays Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

Conversations For Transformation

Essays By Laurence Platt

Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

And More




Accounting For Grace

The Plaza, Sonoma, California, USA

March 18, 2018

Early on: "Transformation is the space in which the event  'transformation' occurs." ... 
Later on: "Transformation is the genesis  of a new realm of possibility." ... 
"Transformation: some people get it quickly, some people get it gradually, and some people don't get it at all. There's no accounting for grace." ... Laurence Platt
"If the original intention of religion were realized, then this work of transformation would be redundant, if not unnecessary." ... Laurence Platt acknowledging  
"A miracle is something that validates who you are rather than diminishes who you are." ... 
"Many are called but few are chosen." ... Jesus Christ



Cartoon by Sydney Harris


Contrary to its colloquial use, the term "transformation" really calls forth a very precise distinction. It could be said that because we human beings have an unexamined propensity to use language loosely  (by which I'm saying that because we regard language as an ability we have  ie as something we do, rather than as that which we are), our efforts to transform our lives are impeded, hampered, and certainly unnecessarily delayed and overly complicated. We unwittingly make it hard for ourselves.

But if for a moment (and I do mean if for only  a moment) I were to use the term "transformation" loosely ie in the way it's used colloquially outside of the context of Werner's work, then the conversation for transformation  would incorporate a veritable swathe  of well-known and widely patronized human pursuits and endeavors, chief among which would be religion (religions plural, actually) both western and eastern, practices, disciplines, therapies, the yogas  (both the physical and the meditational) etc etc - you know, all those pursuits we human beings passionately undertake to actualize, realize, Self-realize, and even save  our own lives. Arguably all these endeavors should lead to "transformation" - but that would be the rigorous, precise use of the term, and not the colloquial one which has devolved to imply little more than "change". And "change" when the truth is told, is the best these endeavors can ever provide. And of course plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose!

<aside>

Here's the trap  that the colloquial use of the term "transformation" sets up: it's that "transformation" becomes collapsed  with actualization, realization, Self-realization, salvation, enlightenment etc etc.

It's none of the above. Transformation is the naturally occurring, hiding in plain sight context-to-be-discovered  which is who we really are.

Watch: who we really are, is the space  of transformation. Becoming  who we really are, is the event  "transformation".

Ergo:  "Transformation is the space in which the event  'transformation' occurs.".

That's vintage Erhard. And it's also a subject for another conversation on another occasion.

<un-aside>

It's clear that the results available from all of our undertakings, even those which we've collapsed with the work of transformation, are sublime and have value. That said, why is it (I've often asked myself) that some folks realize their results easily, fast, and indisputably, whereas others seem to find the same practices arduous, difficult, and even impractical to the point where although their benefits are clearly what's wanted and needed in their lives, they have no connection (ie like an affinity)  with them at all? Wait! It's even more than that: it's why is it that some people are called to embark on these endeavors in the first place, yet for others they don't even show up on their dashboard GPS map at all?

I don't know the answer. So I speculate. And the closest I get to an answer for my speculation, is the possibility of being graced:  some people are graced, so they discover the results sooner than others, indeed more profoundly than others ... and others aren't. But as to why  some people are graced in this way and others aren't? I just don't know. There's no accounting for grace!  It may just be true that "many are called but few are chosen" which is a fitting observation that's aptly biblical. But again, I just don't know. And even within the context of Werner's work, while it's well documented that the vast  majority of its participants (I'm talking about the upper 90th percentiles here) realize results which they often describe as the most valuable experience of their lives bar none, it's also true that there are people who don't get it, or who don't get it as fully  and / or as completely  as the others (yes there are - tell the truth: the documented statistics are equally clear about this).

This is my personal observation (and I'm speaking here as an erstwhile hardened smart aleck  skeptic): Werner's work provides a meticulously tried and tested, rigorously implemented workspace ie a laboratory  if you will, that lays transformation bare, and makes it eye-poppingly accessible. And this work has been offered for nearly fifty years now, so it's not merely that the jury's simply out  on whether or not it works. No, by now it's fait accompli. Here's a news flash  just in: Planet Earth isn't flat: it's spherical!  And Werner's work works. Anyone who commits to its result, sets themselves up for a completely authentic, direct access to transformation.

In the end, the really sublime, glorious, miraculous mystery which calls for an accounting for grace perhaps globally  or even planetarily  (if indeed there even is such a word) is: why did this work suddenly, discontiguously, decisively come into our world, vividly present itself, and become available to all us humans, in the first place?



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