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




Every Shred Of What Shows Up For You

Exertec Health and Fitness Center, Napa, California, USA

July 25, 2018



"What is out there for you is not what is out there - that is, what is 'out there for you' is not the so-called 'objective reality'. While we can confidently assume that there is an objective reality out there, that is not the reality that shows up for you. What shows up for you is a 'reality' generated by your brain. Put in another way, while we assume that what we perceive is the reality that is actually out there, in fact every shred of what shows up for you as reality is being wholly generated by your brain."
... 
This essay, Every Shred Of What Shows Up For You, is the companion piece to Owning Up: The Freedom Of Taking Responsibility.




It's an endemic rot that runs deep. But there's a simple fix. It is however, not an easy  fix. And in case "simple, but not easy" sounds like a dichotomy, no it isn't: it's really "simplebutnoteasy". If you entertain and / or engage with Werner's ideas, you already know that which is simple, isn't always easy - such is the nature of almost all of the smartest, most masterful mid-course corrections we can make in our lives which enable us to transition from mere existing / getting by, to living masterfully.

The trouble began (or so it would seem) a long, long time ago, long before we were born, in fact. Back then (ie waaay  back then) there was arguably only our own subjective experience. By "only" I mean there was no objective, separate world  anywhere to be found. To be sure, that's how I discovered it to be, when once (in exploring an interest I had at the time) I regressed my memory until I re-experienced my birth, then whatever there was prior to it. All there was, was my experience.

As children (I'm talking about shortly after newborn age) we begin learning to objectivity the world, prior to which there was no objectivity, only subjective experience. We learn (which is to say survival dictates we have  to learn) that the world is separate from who we are. Listen carefully: that doesn't mean it's true  that the world is separate from who we are. It just means survival dictates we have to assume it ie it means we have to learn to act as if  the world is separate from who we are ... and then  ... we forget that it's not true that the world is separate from who we are ie we forget we just had to assume it in order to survive. Gee! I hope you get that.

In hindsight (and hindsight is always 20/20 vision), that all seems like a pretty natural evolution. And it is. But wait: it's also the genesis of the grave error (the onset of the rot) all human beings make, which brings on all kinds of unforeseen and undesirable possibly tragic consequences if the error remains uncorrected. And the truth about humanity (not the bad  truth, and not the good  truth, but the truth nonetheless) is that with almost all of the eight billion of us, it's mostly  uncorrected.

That there is an objective reality out there ie that there is a world distinct from who we are  out there, is more than an argument beyond reproach: it's a "Duh!" - which means it's so obvious as to be self-evidentiary; it's patently inarguable. It's when we take a closer look at the nature of that world out there, and how it shows up for us, that something mostly undistinguished (cue to the error that's mostly uncorrected) and totally counter-intuitive, becomes newly known. When it becomes newly known in three progressive steps, it brings with it the transformation of everything we've ever known about our lives and about Life itself in a flash. No kidding.

The first step in knowing the objective reality newly, is realizing that all opinions, the bads and the goods, the politically incorrects and the politically corrects, the unfairs and the fairs, aren't intrinsic to the objective reality itself: they're yours, and they're imposed on the objective reality by you. Most if not all of us, will get that, if we confront it. Some of us won't. The second step is realizing that all distinctions  of the objective reality, what things are (and what they aren't), where things start (and where they end), which objects are solid and will impact you if you walk into them (like brick walls), and which are soft and don't impact (like beaches), aren't intrinsic to the objective reality itself: they're yours, and they're imposed on the objective reality by you. Some of us will get that, if we confront it. Most of us won't.

The third step transforms the average Joe  / Josephine  into a master. It's realizing that every shred of what shows up for you  as the objective reality, is being wholly generated by your brain. That's playing in a whole new ballgame. It's beyond the ubiquitous "you interpret  what's out there". It's "you generate  what's out there".



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