I am indebted to Anna Taglieri who inspired this conversation.
While it seems new, I notice that transformation has been the context
for my life since I was born. I notice, too, that I will live from that
context for the rest of my life. And around about now, I seem to be
somewhere in the middle of it.
At some point I noticed that I was called to take responsibility for my
own transformation, and I took that on, not because taking
responsibility for my own transformation is another choice or another
option I have amongst the plethora of choices and options we all have
in life, but rather because when I am not being responsible for my own
transformation ie when I am not assuming ownership of my
transformation, it appears to be impossible to live a transformed life.
Part of that responsibility dictates that I master the delivery to the
world of who I really am rather than settling with the world to deliver
to it what it expects of me. Who I really am and what the world expects
of me are not always seperate. When they are seperate (and given how we
are thrown to be as human beings, they most often are), that is when I
notice I may find it attractive to settle for the ease and the
unchallenged comfort of giving the world what it expects of me rather
than giving it who I really am.
As far as I can tell, life is left wholly or in part unlived when I
settle for that. If I relegate who I really am to waiting for the world
to expect that of me before bringing it forth, that is (by any stretch
of the definition) what it is to waste a life.
It makes the world interimly happier if I give it what it expects of
me rather than giving it who I really am.
But living that way sustains a conspiracy of being human which grinds
into all of us that it is (as
Alan Watts
may have said) taboo to give who we really are.
Big Enrollment is giving to the world who I really am in the face of
the world expecting of me what it expects of me, and having that call
forth a breakthrough in what is possible for being for human beings.
Ultimately when examined, our core commitment is that we be who we
really are. By core commitment I am not referring to what we stand for,
and I am not referring to what we believe, nor to what we opine about,
nor even to the things we hold as dear and self-evident. Rather, I am
referring to the state of affairs which allows you and I to be alive
and to relate in the first place.
Recognizing my core commitment (rather than what the world expects of
me) as my drive seems to be a requirement when contemplating the nature
of transformation and what it takes to live life transformed.
It's not easy. But we all know that. If transformation were easy, the
world would be transformed by now. And there is no shortage of voices
on the planet reminding us that we have a long way to go in that
department.
In spite of all the ways we are urged (like an ill-fitting set of
clothes) to be, in spite of all that we are taught to achieve, in spite
of all that we are taught to win at to get somewhere, to "make it", to
"be someone", ultimately being who we really are is all that is
required. When I start to confront that, I notice that living from who
I really am (in other words, totally fulfilled just by being alive)
creates the possibility of anything I do producing fulfillment, both
for myself as well as for the people in my life. That's Big Enrollment
right there.
Out of noticing who I really am, and out of taking responsibility for
it and not settling for anything less comes a breakthrough in what is
possible for being for human beings: not out of survival, not out of
winning, not out of success, not out of being right, not even out of
knowing ... and yet it may include some or all of the above.
Taking responsibility for who I really am and not settling for anything
less causes this breakthrough: Being is enough. Simply being. That's
sufficient. On that foundation, invent a life worth living. Invent ways
to play worth playing in a life worth living.
There is one final point to be clear about. The Self, being what it is,
is enrolled by who we really are rather than by the expedient delivery
of what is expected. So you don't give who you really are in order to
meet expectations. You give who you really are in order to give who you
really are. Settling for giving what is expected is a viable strategy
for getting along in life. Giving who you really are is not merely a
strategy for getting along in life: rather, it is living.
The Self of human beings seeks itSelf out in human beings. Who we
really are seeks out who we really are. That is the Self's true nature.
In other words, Big Enrollment occurs all by itSelf automatically
simply out of giving who we really are.