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

Out-Here IV:

Clearing For Life

Napa, California, USA

September 14, 2015

"With practice you will find yourself actually starting to live out-here where life actually happens. When you are practicing being out-here, what is going on with you internally will stop being who you are for yourself. As a result you will have much less attention on, and be much less bothered by, what is going on with you internally. And, you (the you that you refer to when you say 'I' or 'me') will simply be one of the things that shows up for you in the clearing for life that you actually are."


...

This essay, Out-Here IV: Clearing For Life, is the companion piece to

It is also the seventh in a group of fourteen written Out-Here:

in that order.

It is also the prequel to Machinery Embedded In Hamburger.

I am indebted to Jiddu Krishnamurti who inspired this conversation.

It's one of the first questions people ask when the conversation newly turns to being "out-here" - which is to say, it's one of the first questions people ask when I turn the conversation to being out-here. Being "out-here" is a powerful distinction from the rich body of distinctions which is Werner's work. "Wait!" they ask, "Don't you mean being 'out there' and not being 'out here'?".

It's a good question. And the answer is I don't mean either of them. I mean being "out-here". I don't mean being the more colloquial "out there", and neither do I mean being "out here" without the hyphen (I got the importance of the hyphen long after I got the distinction itself for the first time). I do mean being "out-here".

<aside>

If you argue that the difference between being "out-here" and being "out there" is only semantics, then I request you consider it's not only semantics: it's all semantics - all of it.

Consider there are only two things in the world: nothing, and semantics.

<un-aside>

Here's the difference between being "out-here", and being "out there":

When I refer to myself as being out-here in the world, here I am being fully present in the world, and being with Life itself. On the other hand, when I refer to myself as being out there in the world, I'm pointing to the world out there - which means I myself (ie I myself the pointer) am actually located in here ie I myself am "inside", if you will. "Out there", in other words, stands in contradistinction to yet presupposes "in here". But more than "out there" standing in contradistinction to yet presupposing "in here", the former reinforces the latter. When I conceptualize the world as "out there", it reinforces locating myself "in here" ie when I conceptualize the world as "out there", it reinforces trapping myself "in here", yes?

To further get the distinction "out-here", you may want to try it on for size as a linguistic act like this: "What's my experience when I'm being out-here?" (just say it). Now try on ie just say "What's my experience when I'm being out there?". For starters, asking it / speaking it like this, is an access to the experiential distinction of it, rather than to the intellectual distinction of it. I suggest you don't look for the distinction "out-here" intellectually. There's nothing powerful to be gotten there. You can, however, get it experientially ie you can experience it, and that's powerful. The truth is even though you may not understand it intellectually, you can get being out-here through direct experience. Being out-here comes alive as direct experience, not as an explanation (it's actually diminished as an explanation).

It takes a certain boldness, a certain guts, and a certain verve to venture and be out-here ie to swing out-here, given the way we're thrown to be in here ie given the way we're thrown to be "inside". The world grinds us into being (and agrees with us being, and rewards us for being) in here ie "inside". The world grinds us into (and agrees with us for, and rewards us for) relating to who we really are and to each other, as our internal activity ie as our internal states. It takes a certain boldness, a certain guts, and a certain verve to instead swing out and be out-here with Life itself (which is to say to instead swing out and be out-here with reality itself).

Being out-here (not being in here, and not being out there), which is to say being fully present in the world and being with Life itself, allows the world to show up the way it is and the way it isn't. There's nothing wrong with the world when you be with it so that it shows up the way it is and the way it isn't. That's the net result of being out-here with the world (ie that's the net result of letting the world be) rather than struggling with the world, from "in here".

That much may sound almost obvious to many of you oldtimers, given the genesis of Werner's work so far. But what may not be so obvious is being out-here, you (which is to say the you that you refer to when you say "I" or "me") are also one of the things that shows up for you in the world. What may also not be so obvious is being out-here, you (which is to say the you that you refer to when you say "I" or "me") are also one of the things that shows up for you as the world. This means being out-here, you'll have much less attention on, and be much less bothered by, what's going on with you internally ie you'll have much less attention on, and be much less bothered by, your internal activity ie by your internal states ie by what's going on "inside".

Consider this: until this juncture, we've assumed our internal activity ie our internal states ie what's going on "inside", is who we really are ("I am my feelings", "I feel ...", "I am my thoughts", "I think ...", "I am my emotions", "I'm sad", "I'm happy", whatever, etc). Actually our internal activity ie our internal states ie what's going on "inside", is really little more than machinery embedded in hamburger. What's more, notice Life itself ie reality itself, doesn't happen in here. Life itself doesn't happen "inside". Life itself happens out-here in the world.

As you get practiced at living out-here where Life itself actually happens ie where reality itself occurs, you start noticing who you really are is the clearing for life - that is to say who you really are is the clearing in which Life itself shows up.

Mastery is living out-here where Life itself actually happens ie mastery is living out-here where reality itself occurs. Living out-here being a clearing for life, is what a master does ie living out-here being a clearing for life, is all a master does (mastery is really very simple).

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