I am indebted to
Alan Watts
who inspired this conversation.
Because of the international exposure the over
one thousand essays
in this
Conversations For
Transformationinternet
series of
essays
and the almost
one million page views
they've received so far grants me, I've
touched
a lot of people around
the world.
It's an intense experience, a
straightening
experience (if you will), a humbling experience actually,
and it's one which goeswith (as
Alan Watts
may have said) a certain responsibility. This
body of work
however isn't directly the outcome of taking on a responsibility, or
even of sharing information or something I know. In fact in this genre,
what I keep discovering over and over and over again, is the more I
know and think I know, the more it only gets in the way of what the
opportunity at hand is. No, knowing a lot isn't where this comes from -
to the contrary, actually.
Where this comes from (which is to say where this comes from if I
tell the truth about it) is
standing
and
observing
life occurring - with as little of me in the way as possible.
Generating this experience is really quite easy. It's getting myself
out of the way ie it's keeping my fingers out of the
machinery
that's a harder undertaking.
My purpose in doing this, which is to say what's
led
me to do this, and what goes with the territory of putting myself
out-here
on the
internet
in this particular genre, is to be clear about the experience, and to
be a
stand
for it. That's it. It isn't to help (I
happen
to think you don't need any help). It isn't to explain (I
happen
to think explanation is often a palliative - many times
it's merely an avoidance). It isn't to make things better (I
happen to think things are just fine the way they are). And neither am
I
driven
to inspire (if inspiration
happens
as a result, that's fine with me - it's just not the purpose with which
I set out). No, my purpose is to put myself
out-here,
standing
and
observing
life occurring, and to share this experience. That's all. These
essays
are the result of it
working.
They're its expression, its evidence.
It's in what could be said to be the simplest of all
acts
it's possible for a human being to perform, the
act
of
standing
and
observing
life occurring, which is where
who we areshows up.
All the hundreds of books
written
about ourselves discarded, all the various fields which study our
essential nature aside, all the hours and hours and hours of therapy
notwithstanding, all the years and years and years of disciplinary
practices finished and done with, after all the amens at
the ends of all the
prayers,
what it all points to is where
who we areshows up
(which is to say where
who we really
areshows up)
is in the simplest of all possible
acts:
standing
and
observing
life occurring. And I'm less
interested
in
how
things occur than I am in the fact that things magically
do occur in the first place (given the way I am about life, for me the
fact that anything occurs at all, is magic ...). Getting
stuck in the paralysis of analysis of
how
things occur, clouds fully and completely experiencing the magic.
It's
who we really aredirectly experienced
which is inspiring, empowering. I assert that's universal for each and
every human being. Once
who we really are
is
directly experienced
and becomes accessible and totally familiar, it's recognized as the
source
of the great
power
in our lives. When that's realized, any of our other attempts to
empower ourselves becomes at best distractions, and at worst
impediments. One of our most cherished beliefs, indeed one of our most
tenacious beliefs, is the belief that we need to do
something else other than exactly what we're doing
currently in order to be fully
who we really are.
We believe it so strongly that we're threatened whenever it looks like
it may disappear, even if it never did us any good in the first place.
It's essentially human that we'd rather cling to it than
standfree
without it.
How each of us resolves and un-does this
paradox
and everything we do to defend it and hold it in place, is as varied
and colorful as there are people on
the planet.
What's not so varied, what's not different from person to person, is
our individual
authenticity
experienced when it all
plays
out, leaving everybody with more
power.