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

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Living In A What's So World

Napa, California, USA

March 1, 2023



"We didn't inherit this Earth from our parents. We're borrowing it from our children." ... Laurence Platt, Christmas 1994

This essay, Living In A What's So World, is the companion piece to
  1. Surrender To Self Not To A Diagnosis: Surrender III
  2. The Condition I Wake Up Into
  3. On Full Automatic
in that order.

It is also the sequel to Once More, Without Significance.




She said she was going through a phase in which she was uninspired, undriven, a phase in which she was delaying getting out of bed in the morning - that's aka being in a "funk". "Oh? What's it like?" I asked. She was taken aback. It wasn't the kind of response she was expecting. "I don't know why I'm like this" she continued. "Really? Do you think that if you did know why, it would make a big difference?" I asked, "Tell me this: would you also want to know why, if you woke up happy and bounding into the day with alacrity, aliveness, and energy? Would you ask why if that was how you got out of bed in the morning?".

She was really taken aback with that last question, more so than before. "That's a really  ... great  ... question"  she mused slowly, contemplatively. Now the truth is when people respond to your questions with "That's a really great question", we all know that they are not complimenting you on your interrogation skills. What they're really saying is "You got me. I never thought of / looked at it that way before", a not-so-direct way of confirming it's bang on the money.

Somehow, we've got it that waking up happy and bounding into the day with alacrity, aliveness, and energy is the way we are s'posed  to be in the morning, whereas being uninspired, undriven, and delaying getting out of bed in the morning, isn't. Look: when we're being the former, we never ask why, and when we're being the latter, we almost always ask why. That's how we hold them in a rationalized, addicted-to-being-explained  world. Whys are purely selective.

Now consider that in a what's so  world, the answer to "Why am I uninspired, undriven, delaying getting out of bed in the morning?" is just "I'm uninspired, undriven, delaying getting out of bed in the morning because  I'm uninspired, undriven, delaying getting out of bed in the morning.". It is patently getable.

What's not so getable is the answer to the question "Why am I waking up happy and bounding into the day with alacrity, aliveness, and energy?" is similarly "I'm waking up happy and bounding into the day with alacrity, aliveness, and energy because  I'm waking up happy and bounding into the day with alacrity, aliveness, and energy.". That's how we hold them in a what's so world. A what's so world is always  available when it's not obfuscated by our selectiveness.

"Notice" I said "how we're thrown to fretfully ask why the world is the way it is. We live in the rationalized, explained world. See if you can live in the world exactly as it is  ie see if you can try on living in a what's so world, a world in which things are the way they are because  they're the way they are, a world in which rationalizations and explanations are optional. It's just a suggestion that you try this on. You can always reclaim your rationalizations and explanations later. The thing is you already know what it's like living in a rationalized, explained world. Now would be a great time to try on living in a what's so world.".

There's an inquiry to access what it's like living in a what's so world. It's this: who am I being, living in a rationalized, explained world? and: who am I being, living in a what's so world?". Engage with it. It's an utterly transformative inquiry to be in. But to get the most value from it, you might have to be willing to give up who (or what) you're already very comfortable being - at least temporarily. "Just bracket it off / set it aside" I said, "You can always reclaim it later.".



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