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

Our Living Room II

Exertec Health and Fitness Center, Napa, California, USA

July 30, 2014


"This is our home, our living room. We invite you in, welcome you to use it and make it your own for as long as you like. There is no effort necessary to get you in. Our survival is in no way dependent on your being in. There is only the intention to communicate the invitation clearly and to display the welcome mat clearly. If you pass by or choose to leave, do so with our blessings, good wishes and support."
... 
This essay, Our Living Room II, is the sequel to Our Living Room.


This (that which is our home, our living room) is transformation - not merely another concept, not just another tired old belief, not something you use to try to save your life or improve your life or (worse) fix  your life, but rather a context, a space  in which to live, a space to live from. Please come in. You're most welcome here. Stay as long as you like. Whatever you want in here, take it. In particular, whatever you hear  in here, take it. If it works for you, great: keep it. Make it your own. It's all yours. And if it doesn't work for you, then it doesn't work for you. In that case, simply discard it - just leave it where it is, no questions asked.

My intention in creating this Conversation For Transformation internet series of essays is to provide an access to our living room for you, a front door  (if you will), an opening through which you can freely enter and leave as you please. The idea here actually isn't to provide a treasure trove of information - and if indeed I've done that (as some say I have), it's simply a by-product  of this process of providing an access to our living room. The idea is certainly not to make available a collection of bon mots  and so-called self help  tips - so if it does read that way (especially like the latter) then I would have ruined this access entirely. And even though many of the rich body of distinctions which is transformation, are laid bare in these essays, that's not their raison d'etre  either.

Neither are these essays instructions  for being transformed. What then are they? They're cookware  (if you will) for serving up a taste  of being transformed. For them to work, all you're asked to do is allow their words to ripple through the oceans of your listening, have whatever experience you have, and take what you get.

All that said, even given what I create as their author, I myself am the world's number one skeptic that transformation can be communicated in writing. Yes, we can speak about  transformation in writing. But to speak  transformation, requires the spoken  word rather than the written word. I don't know why  it's that way. It just is that way.

<aside>

Be careful: speaking about  transformation, and speaking  transformation, are worlds apart.

Speaking about  transformation occurs in the stands. It's the bailiwick of observers, reporters, critics, talking heads, Monday morning quarterbacks, armchair psychologists, anyone with an opinion.

Speaking  transformation, on the other hand, occurs on the court. It's the bailiwick of players, participants, trainers, coaches, actors, dancers, anyone taking a stand.

<un-aside>

So the closest these essays will come to communicating transformation is to give you a taste of it. And that's their intention: to give you a taste of transformation, to give you a taste of our living room. They make no attempt to describe it directly. And for you to have an experience of our living room, all that's required of you is to come in.

You're welcome here. Walk around. Sit down. Put your feet up. Make yourself comfortable. Read a book. Watch TV. Hang out with us a while and get to know what we're about. If you like, introduce yourself to and converse with our other guests. Discover what value they get from being here. Share what value you get from being here (if any) with them. It's an unqualified, unconditional invitation. And it's not necessary for you to first study and understand the processes and the techniques with which our living room was constructed before you start to appreciate what's available here. Simply being here will give you a taste.

Postscript:
The presentation, delivery, and style of Our Living Room II are all my own work.
The ideas recreated in Our Living Room II were first originated, distinguished, and articulated by  .

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