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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On Finding A Black Cat In A Dark Room

Napa, California, USA

March 14, 2025

"The hardest thing of all is to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if there is no cat." ... Confucius

"The three great mysteries are: sky to a bird, water to a fish, Self to a human." ... Hindu proverb

"Trying to define yourSelf is like trying to bite your own teeth." ... Alan W ("Wilson") Watts

This essay, On Finding A Black Cat In A Dark Room, is the seventh in a septology titled Koans And So On:

Not Writing: Koans In The Key Of B-Major
The Last Place You Look: Koans Of Conduct
I've Got Nothing To Say: Twenty Boxes Of Nearly Haiku
Haiku
State Of Play
I've Got Nothing More To Say: Twenty Boxes Of Nearly Haiku II
On Finding A Black Cat In A Dark Room

in that order.

"A Black Cat In A Dark Room"

Concept by Confucius
Photography by Laurence Platt

Confucius' koan "The hardest thing of all is to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if there is no cat" which inspires this essay, magnifies the access inherent in the Hindu proverb "The three great mysteries are: sky to a bird, water to a fish, Self to a human" in a simply extraordinarily powerful escalation.

In the case of the Hindu proverb, sky is the bird's milieu. And a bird's life is so integrated with sky that the bird doesn't notice sky. Water is the fish's milieu. And a fish's life is so integrated with water that the fish doesn't notice water. And so it is with a human. Self is the human's milieu. And a human's life is so integrated with Self that the human, like the bird and sky and the fish and water, doesn't notice Self. Without them, they'd die. Yet they don't notice them.

In the case of Confucius' koan, if you recreate its exact verbiage accurately, it generates an experience. Something shifts when you recreate it to the point where you experience directly what Confucius is generating. In the case of the Hindu proverb, if you sit with it in your lap like a hot brick, it will generate a distinction which you can get just by being with it. Confucius' koan, by generating an experience, is an access to being who you really are. And the Hindu proverb, by generating a distinction, is an access to articulating who you really are. Both Confucius' koan and the Hindu proverb achieve results powerfully.

Confucius' koan carries with it more than just an image. It carries with it an image that builds upon itself in a way that doesn't require your intervention. A black cat in a dark room. Hmmm ... I love that! And you don't have to ask what a black cat in a dark room, looks like. It looks like it's all dark. That's not "dark" as in "negative". Rather if both the black cat and the dark room are dark, they're the same color. So you won't see the black cat in a dark room and neither will you see the dark room. The dark room obfuscates the black cat from your view, and vice-versa. And because of its koan-esque nature, you're briefly caught off-guard as the mind frantically recalibrates to fully grasp what Confucius is saying. But he's not done yet. Your mind is about to be blown.

Confucius is holding the meisterstück which he now reveals: the hardest thing of all is to find a black cat in a dark room, "... especially if there is no cat.". First, there's a black cat in a dark room (hard to see when they're both the same color), then there's "especially if there is no cat" taking this extraordinarily powerful koan to an entirely new level, launching the koan up out of the realm of the ordinarily extraordinary into the realm of the extraordinarily ordinary.

Confucius' koan presences Self by generating an experience in which it can be directly gotten. The Hindu proverb presences Self by generating a distinction of Self in which Self can be articulated. And Alan Watts' delightfully exasperated observation "Trying to define yourSelf is like trying to bite your own teeth" (which is a very Alan Watts-esque thing to say) adds a light-hearted tone to the proceedings in a very welcome, long overdue infusion of Self-deprecation.

In the end, you may not discover who you really are by finding a black cat in a dark room, nor by understanding why Self to a human is a mystery, nor by trying to bite your own teeth. What's more likely is you will discover it and experience it for yourself directly by engaging in the inquiry like a powerful koan.

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