I am indebted to Palmer Kelly who contributed material for this
conversation.
Some things and events I call "quantifiable" fantastic. They're
fantastic, and I can quantify why they're fantastic. Or at
least I can share my opinion as to why I think they're
fantastic.
Like Avatar, for example. Avatar is fantastic. It's
movie making at it's most fantastic. It's I-Max. It's 3D.
It's James Cameron. Even if cinematography is set aside, James Cameron
movies are financially fantastic. Think about it: the last
three James Cameron movies each made more
money
than the gross national product of the poorest ten nations
combined. Or is it the poorest twenty nations combined?
For some, that may not be moral. But it's fantastic.
Like a black president of the United States and a woman secretary of
state (the third woman secretary of state, to boot), for
example. That's fantastic. It's more than fantastic, actually. As
little as forty years ago, a black president and a woman secretary of
state were barely blips on the radar of possibility. Go back before
Rosa Parks refused to surrender her seat on the bus. Go back before the
women's liberation movement. Stand in those bygone eras
and consider a future black president of the United States and a future
woman secretary of state. They were never gonna happen! No
way, José! Not ever.
And now, not one but both have happened. That's fantastic.
I'd like to be specific about how I'm using the word "fantastic". I'm
using it quite literally. I'm using it like a "fantasy", like something
which once was only possible in a fantasy, in a legend, in a
story, like something which once could only have existed in the
most fertile of imaginations ... and is now day to day actuality,
reality. That's fantastic. That's how I'm using the word "fantastic".
Here's the thing for me, however: I may or I may not be
moved by "quantifiable" fantastic things and events. Even though I can
quantify why I think they're fantastic, even though I can
justify why I say they're fantastic, even though I'm
willing to offer my opinion, my two cents worth about why
they're fantastic, quantifiably fantastic things or events don't
necessary move me.
Yet I'm
moved to tears,
I'm blown away by those blindingly simple
things or events I call "stoopid" fantastic.
Yes it is misspelled. Intentionally. Here's why:
What I'm distinguishing here are things and events which are so
blindingly simple in hindsight (and hindsight is
always20/20 vision ...), which are so glaringly
obvious in retrospect that when I realize exactly what they are, I feel
self-deprecatingly sheepishly stupid for taking so long to
realize what they are, for not seeing them sooner. I want an expression
which implies my sense of self-deprecatingly sheepish stupidity and
then some ... for taking so long to realize what they are,
for not seeing them sooner. I want the implied "Duh!".
Hence ... stoopid fantastic (with it's implied "Duh!")
rather than merely "stupid" fantastic.
These are some stoopid fantastic examples:
Naïvely we assume our "realized" masters have
something we don't have: a kind of secret we don't yet
know, the knowing of which would enlighten us enough to see the
such‑ness, the thus‑ness of it all, the
knowing of which would be enough to jog us loose from the deadening
stupor to live, instead, coming from "This IS it!" But
there's no secret! None. What can possibly be secretive
about the such‑ness, the thus‑ness of it
all? It's such! It's thus! It's
obvious. It's stoopid fantastic.
When I get the such‑ness, the thus‑ness of
it all, it's a breakthrough in striving to grasp the meaning of it
all. Once I get the
what's so
of it, any stuckness liquifies. Any closed space starts
to break open. Where there once was only perplexity, it's now
clear. The meek, whimpering, sudden end of the long term struggle for
clarity and meaning is stoopid fantastic.
Transformation doesn't show up in the realm of doubt / no
doubt. Transformation doesn't show up in the realm of worry /
no worry. Transformation shows up as who I really am.
Obviously I really am
who I really am.
Neither doubt nor no doubt nor worry nor no worry impacts that at
all. Although this changes nothing in my circumstances, when I get
this, doubt and worry disappear like snowflakes in a furnace. It's
stoopid fantastic.
I'm alive right now. I'm experiencing right now. I'm alive
experiencing right here, right now. Experience is simply, as
Werner Erhard points out, the evidence that I am here.
You're alive right now. You're experiencing right now.
You're alive experiencing right here, right now. And you
haven'tgotaclue ... not ...
one ... iota ... how all this came
about. It's stoopid fantastic.
I notice contrary to a worldwide widespread belief, I don't have a
face. You, from where you're standing, may find it far fetched when I
say I don't have a face. But from where I'm standing, it's very clear,
it's suddenly stoopid fantastic blindingly obvious I
don't have a face.
What shows up for me in the space of transformation is simply
Laurence beingLaurence. That's
stoopid fantastic. So this is
enlightenment: simply me being my Self. That's so completely
obvious it's profundity is overlooked. Laurence being
Laurence is the space of Self. That's profound. All
the
mystics
and all the saints, the Torah, the Koran, the Bible and all the books
have simply added commentary.
It works better when you do what you do when you're doing
it rather than doing something else when
you're doing what you're doing. This idea of Werner's is one of those
stoopid fantastic blindingly simple ideas which make me
say "Why didn't I think of that?".
But I didn't think of it. He did. That's why people say Werner's a
Zen
master. It's also why I say Werner's Werner.