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

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Ecstasy As A Context For Agony

Top of the Mark, Mark Hopkins Hotel, San Francisco, California, USA

November 7, 2022
"As stupid as it sounds, it's true there's a sense of joy with simply being with what's there." ... 

From the Cambridge International Dictionary:

<quote>
Definition
agony

noun
extreme physical or mental pain or suffering
<unquote>

Also from the Cambridge International Dictionary:

<quote>
Definition
ecstasy

noun
a state of extreme happiness, especially when feeling pleasure
<unquote>

Agony, and ecstasy. At first glance they seem to be mutually exclusive, polar extremes, flip sides. From what we already surmise, being in agony precludes being in ecstasy and vice versa. You can be in one or you can be in the other but you can't be in both, and you surely can't be in both at the same time.

In the vernacular of Transformation 101, the experience of being in agony and the experience of being in ecstasy, like all experiences life brings to bear, occurs  ie "shows up" up for us. I prefer to say "Agony shows up for me" rather than "I am in agony.". I prefer to say "Ecstasy shows up for me" rather than "I am in ecstasy.". That's a powerful way of being present to agony and of being present to ecstasy, as well as of being present to the myriad of experiences we have in life. If I intend to be powerful in the face of an experience ie any  experience, I have to be present to it. That much is certain. So I get myself present to it ... and now  what? When I'm fully present to it, what else  becomes available? More than that, what else becomes available as a breakthrough?

What I'm fleshing out here is where both agony and ecstasy show up for us. That's right: where  they show up - and more than that, where all experiences show up for us. Again out of Transformation 101, all experiences we have show up in the context of who we really are. Be careful. You won't find that in the textbooks. And understanding is the booby prize. But if you stand dispassionately ie flat-footed  and just look at what's so, you can't miss it. It's self-evident.

I get two noteworthy take-aways from this. The first is: all experiences show up in the context of who we really are. Said another way, who we really are (or what  we really are, if you prefer) is the space  aka the context in which everything we experience, occurs. This tells me that where both agony and ecstasy show up is in the context of who we really are ie the experience of agony shows up in this context, and the experience of ecstasy shows up in this context.

My second take-away is this: the context of who we really are, is  ecstasy (also Transformation 101). As stoopid  as it sounds, the nature of the context of who we really are, is ecstasy. That means ecstasy, to be sure, shows up in a context of ecstasy ... but look: agony also  shows up in a context of ecstasy.

<aside>

Simply being with what's there goeswith  (as Alan Watts may have said) a sense of wholeness and completion and satisfaction (and joy), sometimes called "ecstasy" or "bliss".

The ancient Hindu mystics and Vedic  pundits had a name for this. They called it "satchitananda"  which roughly translates from the Sanskrit to "the bliss (ananda)  of being conscious of (chit)  the absolute (sat)"  - in other words "absolute bliss consciousness" (it's the absolute component of what's so).

Whereas the ancient Hindu mystics and Vedic pundits invested their time and energy trying to realize absolute bliss consciousness, in noticing the absolute is just what's so, Werner distinguishes there's a sense of joy (ecstasy) which goeswith simply being with it ie which goeswith simply being with what's there.

There's nothing significant about it, and he's careful not to fall into the trap of making it significant by pre-qualifying his sharing (the source quote at the start of this essay) with "As stupid  as it sounds ...".

<un-aside>

Stop for a moment. Let this sink in: ecstasy is the context for agony. Wow! This "ecstasy as a context for agony" idea? It's remarkable, Transformation 101, vintage Erhard. Once we get ecstasy as the context for agony, we're a hop-skip  away from getting ecstasy as the context for all  experiences. And getting ecstasy as the context for all experiences, is a breakthrough, a discontiguous realization of who we could really be in the face of anything life brings to bear.

This discontiguous realization brings with it power and mastery The power it brings comes from dispassionately observing and being willing to differentiate between the experience we're having, and the context in which it occurs ie shows up. The mastery it brings comes from taking responsibility  for the context in which the experience we're having, occurs ie shows up - which leads directly to (in no uncertain terms) the breakthrough of being able to generate any context including a context of ecstasy from the get go, for any and all experiences we're having, at any and all times, under any and all circumstances.


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