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 VIII III:

Fearless In The Face Of Life

Cowboy Cottage, East Napa, California, USA

March 21, 2020


This essay, Breakfast With The Master VIII III: Fearless In The Face Of Life, is the third in the eighth trilogy Breakfast With The Master:
  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 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 sixth trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:
  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 seventh trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:
  1. We're Here
  2. Being A Being Coach
  3. You Already Got It
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.
This essay, Breakfast With The Master VIII III: Fearless In The Face Of Life, is the sequel to The Leadership Course III: Pillar Of The Community.

It also the prequel to When The Analyzing Stops.
The eighth trilogy Breakfast With The Master is the sequel to When The Whole World Speaks With One Voice.


The Self being the Self  is a wondrous sight to behold. And yes, it can be seen - that is, if you have the eyes to see, and if you know what it is you're looking at. And yes, it can also be heard - that is, if you have the ears to hear, and if you know what it is you're hearing. Being around it, being present to it ie witnessing the Self when it be's (not a typo) the Self, is nothing less than a privilege. To be  the Self being the Self sounds easy. Look: how can a thing not  be itself? No, for something to be itself, it's simple  ... but it's not always easy  especially for us human beings. For us it requires a certain boldness, a brashness, a bravado, a verve ie to be the Self being the Self, you have to be fearless in the face of life. That's exactly  who he is: fearless in the face of life. Completely. Totally. Even on a WhatsApp video call.

Be careful: that's not "self" with a small "s": "self" with a small "s" is just little, plain ol' ego - of which every Tom, Dick and Jane, and Harry's got one. And look, let's be clear about this: there's nothing wrong  with ego so there's no need to try to destroy it (as some misguided mis-interpretations of all that mystical stuff suggest). No, it's much simpler than that: the way you handle (your) ego is by taking responsibility for it. That's it. And that's all. Really. I'm a psychology graduate. Nearly forty years ago he altered my worldview in this area, coagulated as it was by three years of intense study, by quoting Werner outrageously asserting

<quote>

EGO IS THE FUNCTIONING OF ONE'S POINT OF VIEW IN THE ATTEMPT TO CAUSE THAT POINT OF VIEW TO SURVIVE. THE VERB "TO EGO" MEANS "TO PERPETUATE ONE'S OWN POINT OF VIEW".

<unquote>


To me it's "outrageous" because after all is said and done, and after all the volumes and volumes of books that have been written about it, isn't that all ego really  is?

No, the "Self being the Self" to which I'm referring (ie "Self" with a capital "S") ... is who we all really are - that is, who we all really are as humanity at large. The "Self" with a capital "S" is, in a word, the Being  of "Human Being". It's that which is a wondrous sight to behold. And it's being around him ie it's being around one regular guy just like you / just like me, as he be's Self being Self, which is nothing less than a privilege. And that's what being on this WhatsApp video call is: it's a privilege.

In addition to being a privilege, this call is also a rare, safe space for me - that is to say the way he be's with me as my being  coach, creates a space for me to share anything. Being vulnerable isn't the goal around him: it's the token to get through the turnstile. I share my fear with him. In challenging, disruptive, and uncertain times like these when I'm afraid of that which Life itself is wreaking upon us, I notice my fear is mitigated as soon as I realize one of three things:

1)  many people have more cause for fear and waaay  more cause for concern than I'll ever have, and my compassion for them mitigates my own fear, or

2)  it's not wrought on me ie moi  ie on my little petty ego personally, but rather it's on all of us  ie we're all in this together. Again, it's compassion for my fellow human beings which gets me out of my little ego, thereby mitigating fear. And there's more: something else becomes possible as we speak, which is: I start to get the sense that fear is something I can surf  (get that?), or

3)  this is reality, this is what's happening, this is what's so - and when I deal with reality, when I deal directly, head-on, point blank  with what's happening, when I deal with what's so, then there's no fear, then there's nothing personal about it, then there's just what is  and the way I act powerfully to manage what is.

Or combinations of the above.

He shows me a list titled "Leaders I Am Empowering". Inscribed in it are big  players, titans of the business world, heroes of academia, people already making a huge impact in getting a handle on climate change, leaders in the work of transformation, masters of life, and more. And then there's one new item on it, saying simply


• Laurence Platt
Essayist
Empowering people with the work and wisdom of Werner Erhard


I'm touched - blown away actually, is more like it. And I do like "Essayist" more than "Writer".

His leadership is fearless, relentlesss, ferocious, way more than merely "powerful": I call it scary  powerful. Was he born this way? or did he create being this way? I ask him. Here's his reply - verbatim: "I did this thing called the est  Training ...". It figures. I request coaching about what I characterize as a "fixed way of being" of mine. The actual fixed way of being I ask about, isn't relevant. What's worth recounting is his response: "Stop analyzing. It's boring.". I get it. I get off it. Gladly so.

I tell him I've come to the end of my meticulously prepared notes and points (these conversations are simply too valuable to come into unprepared), and I thank him for the call. He says "You're Welcome, thank You, stay healthy, see you a year from now" and then he's gone, leaving me with a beep and an unmoving avatar on my WhatsApp screen, my very being inexorably open to new possibilities.


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