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

Being A Being Coach

San Francisco, California, USA

March 26, 2019

"When you're coming from transformation, that is to say when you're being transformed, you really don't need any special materials to train people. You could simply stand up and read them the dictionary or the telephone directory, and they'd get it."


... Laurence Platt recreating

This essay, Being A Being Coach, is the companion piece to The Muse.

It is also the second in the seventh trilogy Breakfast With The Master:

We're Here
Being A Being Coach
You Already Got It

in that order.

The first trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:

in that order.

The second trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:

in that order.

The third trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:

in that order.

The fourth trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:

in that order.

The fifth trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:

in that order.

The sixth trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:

in that order.

The eighth trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:

in that order.

The ninth trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:

in that order.

The tenth trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:

in that order.

This essay, Being A Being Coach, is the third in the hexalogy Coaching:

It is also the prequel to Being A Being Coach II.

I am indebted to Peter "Pete" Russell who inspired this conversation.

Now that he's granted me this access to him, there are lots of questions I'd like to ask, both when we're breakfasting together annually like today, as well as during the rest of the year. The thing is I'm now mature enough and unflinchingly honest enough with myself, to admit that even when my questions are answered fully, an element of residual dissatisfaction reminds me that questioning isn't a path to being. Gee! I hope you get that. It's taken me long enough to get it - too long, in fact.

Asking questions in pursuit of being ie trying to figure it all out, is a throwback from an earlier modus operandi of mine, a way which had it that answers will provide the solution, the satisfaction. They never do. I've finally realized I can't question my way to being. No amount of knowing how, no amount of explanation, no amount of understanding has ever gotten me to being. However there is a way to being, and that's to be. That's it. That's all. And there's a way he be's with me that calls me to be with him. His is being-to-being coaching. He's my being coach. With this kind of coaching, no answers are needed, and all the questions get in the way. Just be. Like this. That's his coaching. And isn't that all Life requires of us? We're sitting opposite each other, face to face, and I realize that anything I ask him, no matter how erudite, no matter how intelligent, no matter how pertinent, simply wastes this opportunity and his and my time, if I'm not being coachable and just being with him.

That's when I notice something interesting that's crept into our dynamic. The truth is it may have been there all along. What's also true is I noticed it for the first time just now. It's no matter what I share, no matter how great, no matter how grand, no matter how heroic, he only keys off being. He looks at me, he listens me, he gets me, he even smiles at me, yet no matter what I share, he only keys off being. And it gradually dawns on me that being great, being grand, even being heroic can all be impostors for just being. I start to let it in. It hits me like a ton of bricks: I avoid simply being, by being great! Now if that isn't poignant, I don't know what is.

I share a time I surfed Rincon. It's a great share. For those not in the know, Rincon is arguably one of the world's greatest surf spots. And the day I'm sharing about, I had the place all to myself - kind of like being the only skier at Aspen. The water was warm. And though I didn't bring a surfboard with me, I wished I had ... and then I found one under a pile of kelp (true story). I surfed beautiful, perfect four foot rights by ... my ... Self. When I was done, I replaced that surfboard under the kelp. It's a miraculous share. He looks at me, he listens me, he smiles at me, and wordlessly says "Come back to being. Just be. That's all that's required of you.".

I share about my children. I'm proud of them. They're doing really well. I mean really well. This job of being a Dad doesn't come with an instruction manual (as Richard Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller may have said). Yet we all worked out. It's a great share. And he looks at me, he listens me, he smiles at me, and wordlessly says "That's great. Now come back to being. Just be. That's all that's required of you.".

I share about "getting off it" with people with whom it's impossible to get off it. I share about the time I lived and worked with the Yawa tribe in the Tamshiyaku delta of the Amazon jungle. I've got a vast array of really great shares. And he looks at me, he listens me, he smiles at me, and wordlessly says "Great. Now come back to being. Just be. That's all that's required of you. All you have to do is be.".

Of all the legions of them, this is his greatest (wordless) coaching for me, the one, the keeper: "Just be. It's all that's required of you. All you have to do is be.".

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