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

Breakfast With The Master VI II:

Cherish These Days

San Francisco, California, USA

April 17, 2018


"Where, O death, is thy victory? Where, O death, is thy sting?"
... St Paul the apostle

"Death changes everything in a flash. That's the reality of the situation. If all these things can be changed in an instant, then maybe they aren't so real after all."
... Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself
This essay, Breakfast With The Master VI II: Cherish These Days, is the second in the sixth trilogy Breakfast With The Master:
  1. Breakfast With The Master VI: Doo-Wop, Coffee, And Intention
  2. Breakfast With The Master VI II: Cherish These Days
  3. Breakfast With The Master VI III: Forwarding The Fulfillment
in that order. 		The first trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:
  1. Conversation With A Laser
  2. Shut Up And Do What You're Doing
  3. Secret Agent
in that order.
The second trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:
  1. Breakfast With The Master II: Future Health
  2. Breakfast With The Master II: Future Finances
  3. Breakfast With The Master II: Future Open
in that order. 		The third trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:
  1. Raw Power
  2. It Works Better As A Possibility
  3. Magic At Heart
in that order.
The fourth trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:
  1. Breakfast With The Master IV: Parental Care
  2. Breakfast With The Master IV: Taking The Guilt Out Of It
  3. Breakfast With The Master IV: Language As Music
in that order. 		The fifth trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:
  1. Whatever Works
  2. Yesterday's Transformation
  3. Billions And Billions Of Stars
in that order.
The seventh trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:
  1. We're Here
  2. Being A Being Coach
  3. You Already Got It
in that order. 		The eighth trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:
  1. Breakfast With The Master VIII: What People Crave
  2. Breakfast With The Master VIII II: Keep Talking
  3. Breakfast With The Master VIII III: Fearless In The Face Of Life
in that order.
The ninth trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:
  1. A Fountainhead Of Clarity And Power
  2. Conversation With A Laser II
  3. Being A Being Coach II
in that order. 		The tenth trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:
  1. Breakfast With The Master X: Living In A Story
  2. Breakfast With The Master X II: Don't Believe In The Buddha
  3. Breakfast With The Master X III: Broadening Horizons
in that order.
The sixth trilogy Breakfast With The Master is the prequel to When New Ideas Get Old.


Considering that being transformed is (quite literally) a way of being, Conversations For Transformation rely less on the dissemination of knowledge and information for them to work, than almost any other conversation does. It's the way of being which is the vehicle for communicating transformation, more than the subject matter. In this regard it's now embedded deep in the annals of folk lore, that as long as you come from transformation, you could read the dictionary or the telephone directory to people, and they'd get transformation. Unexpectedly, I'm about to get one of the most extraordinary demonstrations of this tenet that I've ever received.

He takes out a well-thumbed paperback "The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself" by Michael Singer. Moving his plate aside, he opens it on the table in front of him, and reads from it. Michael's points are incisive, clear. Consider this: only the temporary can be taken away. So what's permanent? This question is another valid access to who you and I really are. And if death doesn't take away what's permanent, then it has no victory and has lost its sting  (well said, St Paul!).

Sitting opposite him, I can see notes written in the margins. Sometimes entire paragraphs are highlighted with vertical stripes. A few sentences are underlined. I read along with him, silently. He stops. "Are you reading upside down  along with me?" he asks, peering over the top of his reading glasses. "Well ... yes I am"  I admit, "Wow!"-ing to myself at his "upside down" comment's astuteness. "Don't"  he says flatly, "just listen", staring unblinking at me.

So I sit back and just listen. He reads a few more sentences. They impact. They really  impact. The essence of Michael Singer's conversation in this chapter is advising us to become comfortable with our own imminent demise ie to be able to talk / speculate about death in a non-significant way, and in so doing, develop an unavoided awareness of the certainty of our own inevitable passing. It can then become a great teacher. There's nothing to fear, nothing to resist. "That's powerful!" I muse. He looks up at me, and continues reading. "This is very  cool" I think to myself, "he's actually reading a few sentences to me.". But he doesn't stop after a few sentences. He reads the entire paragraph. Then he continues. Now he's read the entire page. But he doesn't stop there. He reads a few more pages. But he doesn't stop there!  Soon he's read the entire chapter, reading in a listenable voice, a patient voice, the voice of a reader who clearly enjoys reading  and derives great value from it.

At the end of the chapter, he closes the book. God! It's such a gift to be read to by him. "Thank You  for reading to me" is all I can say. Now, I would  have said he grins  at me. But powerful people don't grin: they beam. So: he beams at me, then out of his mouth comes this astonishing admission: "I wasn't reading to you. I was reading to me. You just happened to be there.". That's  transformation!

Given this Michael Singer context we're now speaking in, I speculate on what it'll be like when we die at the end of living a transformed life. Sipping his coffee, he says "There'll either be something, or there'll be nothing" (which is clearly, undeniably  the truth), "and if there's nothing, I won't know, and if there's something, I'll know. I can't wait to find out what happens.". I'm silent for a moment. Then I say "I'll bet what you just said, will drive the fundamentalists crazy", aligning with him, and wondering to myself "Is it just possible that the cloudiness in our thinking about death and the significance  we put on it, is the basis of all the world's religions?".

In contemplating this could all be gone in a flash, I get how much I cherish these days I have left, courtesy the miracle of Life. Betty our waitress brings more coffee.


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