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
Interpretation As Interpretation
The Tides, Bodega Bay, California, USA
July 14, 2008
It's a parallel universe in which we live daily. Sometimes
we're aware we're living in it. Mostly we aren't. It's the universe in
which what we think, what we opine, what we interpret is the way it
is for us. In this parallel universe it's not simply what we
think, what we opine, what we interpret is the way it is for us. It's
that what we think, what we opine, what we interpret is the way it is
for us ... AND ... we don't have it that what we think,
what we opine, what we interpret isn'treal.
In other words, on those occasions when we're living in this parallel
universe, we live as if our interpretations are real. When
we're living in this parallel universe, we don't live as if our
interpretations are interpretations.
One way to correct this state of affairs (that is if, indeed, it
requires any correction at all) is to catch ourselves out, to
distinguish it's our interpretation when we're interpreting.
From time to time, the
machinery
we are is thrown to interpret without distinguishing reality from
interpretation. That's simply the nature of the
machine.
It's not
powerful to make interpreting wrong, nor is it powerful to make
yourself wrong for interpreting. Being built in to the
automaticity of the
machinery,
interpreting is an essential component of being human.
Distinguishing reality from interpretation is to draw the line between
what's real and what's true. If a grizzly bear with
a hungry look on its face chases you through the woods, that's
real. If you imagine or think about a
grizzly bear with a hungry look on its face chasing you through the
woods, that may be true for you but it's not real. In the same
way, our interpretations may be true for us but they're
not real.
Interpreting by itself diminishes power. Distinguishing interpretation
as interpretation then leaving it alone is the source of
great power.
The way we human beings process input, leaving interpretation alone
isn't easy for us. It's more than that actually: leaving
anything alone isn't easy. We're prone to fixing.
We're prone to want to fix everything. We're prone to want to
fix our thinking. We're addicted to therapy and to getting
better. We're convinced
something's wrong.
To have it be that there's
nothing
wrong
requires incessantly giving up sticking our fingers in the
machinery.
We can't give it up! We've been fixing ourselves for so long now we
believe there's gotta be some kind of payoff. "With all this
manure, there must be a pony in here somewhere!". But there
isn't. And there never was to begin with. In spite of this, we can't
leave our interpretations alone. It's hard for us to just let it
be. Even though it drives us crazy (literally), we continuously
live as if our interpretations are real.
But interpretations aren't real. They're just interpretations. It's not
that we interpret which has us at odds with reality from
time to time ie that we interpret at all. Neither is it
what we interpret ie the inference of our interpretations
which keeps us from simply allowing
what's so
to be.
Rather, it's that we make no distinction interpretation
within the broader context of
what's so.
When I collapse my interpretation of reality with reality, and I
don't distinguish I'm doing it, that's a train wreck just waiting to
happen.
Distinguishing interpretation as interpretation, as a parallel universe
we live in from time to time, creates the possibility of being
powerfully grounded here and now.