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




Hard Line

Schellville, California, USA

January 7, 2011



This essay, Hard Line, was written at the same time as

Being a stand for transformation isn't difficult. If you tell me you experience difficulty being a stand for transformation, I'd say you're not being a stand for transformation. I'd say you're being inauthentic. If you're being a stand for something, it's an expression of who you really are. An expression of who you really are is joyful, easy - even sublime. Being a stand for transformation is an expression of joy. And what often goeswith  being a stand for transformation (as Alan Watts may have said) is being met with resistance.

This is nothing new. I don't mean it's nothing new today. I mean it's nothing new throughout history. It's even to be expected. Ask Dion about Abraham, Martin, and John - not to mention the other  John, Mohandas, and Jesus. It's natural for survival to resist that which completes it. It's more than that, actually. It's built into  the nature of survival ie it's built into the machinery of survival to resist transformation. If it weren't, the whole world would be transformed by now, yes?

Seen from a point of view coming from transformation, behavior coming from survival is to be completed. But seen from a point of view coming from survival, behavior coming from transformation is a threat. It's to be resisted. It's to be fought off. Don't pretend it isn't. Even if you lay claim to being a stand for transformation today, you not only resisted transformation at some time in the past - you still resist transformation today occasionally.

Being a stand for transformation in the face of being perceived as a threat, in the face of being resisted, in the face of being fought off, calls for the highest form of tenacious spiritual diplomacy  - if you will. This tenacious spiritual diplomacy, this unwavering compassion, this ruthless  compassion is really a hard line.

Ordinarily, taking a hard line shuts off  the possibility of open communication. Ordinarily, taking a hard line shuts off the possibility of genuine exchange. Ordinarily, taking a hard line doesn't serve anyone  - period.

Here's the exception:

Taking a hard line in this  sense, taking a diplomatic  hard line, taking a compassionate  hard line, taking a tactful  hard line while being a stand for transformation in the face of being perceived as a threat, in the face of being resisted, in the face of being fought off, is integral to forwarding transformation. It's pivotal  to what it takes to serve. Its powerful foundation is required  if you're going to make a difference.

Even though the hard line I'm speaking about is unflinchingly firm, it isn't rough, brusque, forceful, arrogant, or righteous. In its most effective  form, the hard line I'm speaking about is actually a dance. It's a dance with survival in the face of being perceived as a threat, in the face of being resisted, in the face of being fought off. It's not a dance as in the meek "May I please have the next dance?"  which is open to an outright "No!" or even to "Go away!". It's a dance as in the assertive "Let's play!".

Notice the dance in the assertive "Let's play!" results in transformation like a game, not in crucifixion.



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