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

It's Complete (Nothing's Missing)

Auberge du Soleil, Rutherford, California, USA

December 24, 2016


It's often mused "It's not a perfect world", just as it's often professed "I'm not a perfect person.". In the context of transformation, it's useful noticing it's not a perfect world if you say  it's not a perfect world, and you're not a perfect person if you say  you're not a perfect person. And when you say it, what's almost always completely unexamined is the way we construe what perfect means.

<aside>

Also when you say it, what's almost always completely unexamined is the extent to which anything and everything  is the way it is only  because we say so.

But that's a subject for another conversation on another occasion.

<un-aside>

In "It's not a perfect world" and "I'm not a perfect person", we construe "not  perfect" to mean "it could be better"  at worst, and "it doesn't match a fantasy standard" at best.

That relegates perfect to be always unrealized, out of reach, even impossible (I want you to get that). That's the context in which we set up the world and ourselves by construing perfect this way: it could be better. But listen: even if it were  better, it could be better than that  ... on and on and on with no end in sight. In this way, we've set up perfect as an ever-shifting (and clearly unreachable) ideal. This traps us. Even more than that, it dooms  the way it is, to perpetual, dogged imperfection.

If we shift to a new way of construing perfect, a way which calls for an entirely new conversation, what goeswith this new conversation ie what goeswith with any  new conversation (as Alan Watts may have said) are entirely new possibilities. Then from within this new conversation with its entirely new possibilities, you may begin noticing the trouble with misconstruing perfect lay only secondarily  in misconstruing it. Primarily the trouble with misconstruing perfect lay in restricting conversations for transformation. That's the telling yet unavoidable byproduct of deploying perfect with its misconstrued meaning: all conversations for transformation are restricted.

Here's something to try on for size: what a perfect world is (and all  a perfect world is) is a world which is the way it is and  the way it isn't. Clearly the world is the way it is, and the way it isn't. Clearly the world is a perfect world. What a perfect person is (and all  a perfect person is) is a person who is the way they are and  the way they aren't. Clearly you are the way you are, and the way you aren't. Clearly you're a perfect person. Isn't it time you ie isn't it time we  stopped lying about it?

Now if you're concerned this way of construing perfect only serves to spawn abject apathy (as in "If the world's already  perfect, then why bother?")  or even worse, outright egomania  (as in "I know I'm perfect, but what about you?"), you'll notice in spite of all that, the quality of the new possibilities which become available when we construe the world and ourselves as perfect, deploying this vintage Erhard  frame of reference. For starters: there's enough to go around for everyone (we just need to figure out how to distribute it and share it all). Also for starters: if the world's already perfect, then co-operation works better than competition (Man!  I really  want you to get that one too). That's what perfect really means: the thing is the way it is, and the way it isn't. It means it's complete (nothing's missing).

Business as usual  aside, this is an entirely new platform on which to stand, yes? Possibilities abound which were notably absent from "It's not a perfect world" and "I'm not a perfect person.". When you re-construe (if you will) what perfect is, you allow new conversations to occur. Engaged in these new conversations, new possibilities for being call you powerfully into being, and new openings for action call you powerfully into action (as Landmark Forum Leader may have said) (now be careful: if you think I should have said "as a  Landmark Forum Leader may have said"? ... no, that's not it).

Such is the power of consideration alone: merely shifting our consideration of what perfect is (it's complete, nothing's missing), we alter the context in which Life itself shows up, we alter the context in which we live, we alter the way the world is, and we alter who we consider ourselves to be. That's transformation. But it doesn't end there, because transformation isn't the end: it's just a beginning. When Werner got transformation, it wasn't the end. If it was the end, he would have simply sold his businesses and gone sailing. Instead there's all this, with no sign of any of it stopping or ever slowing down.

In terse précis: it's complete, nothing's missing, and everything's moving in the direction of Life itself (clearly that's the easiest direction in which to ride). It's perfect.


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