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The very first thing to get about
transformation
is if you want it, you have to give it away. You have to share it
to keep it for yourself. That's completely
counterintuitive to everything we know about
ownership.
Transformation
simply doesn't work when it's "mine". And it isn't mine -
any more than the
moon
is mine or the Pacific Ocean is mine or sunlight is mine.
Transformation
is shared ie co-owned by every one of the six billion
and counting of us human beings who've ever walked the face of this
Earth.
That's its nature. If you get
transformation
and you don't share it, you will lose it. Guaranteed.
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2
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For most people, myself included, the introduction to
transformation
is hearing people speak about it. The word of mouth
approach is entirely appropriate given the nature of
transformation.
No books, audiotapes, or videos completely and successfully impart
lasting
transformation.
Even though at first we
eschew
ie shy from speaking in large groups, large group
conversations turn out to be the best Petri dishes in
which to culture real thrilling
transformation.
Transformation
doesn't start better or
show up
better in any other medium.
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3
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Transformation
is a distinction. It's not a state of mind nor is it a state of
consciousness. When you're not being
transformation,
it disappears and never was. When you're being
transformation,
it is, was, and always will be. So real
transformation
is being
transformation.
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4
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If there's an art to sharing
transformation,
it's to be it without touting you got something others don't. Once
you've distinguished your meaning making
machinery,
it's a trap making being
transformation
mean something.
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5
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When
transformation
occurs, a bankable dramatic shift happens for people
who
resist
being acknowledged: they accept acknowledgement.
Transformation
brings the onset of graciousness. When I'm acknowledged for
creating these
Conversations For
Transformation
I take responsibility for flapping my fingers at the keyboard
rendering wiggly marks on your computer screen. That's what I
do. But it's the generous listening
YOU
bring to the party where the value of what I do lives. Any
value in
transformation
I speak
shows up
wholly, completely, and totally in your listening.
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6
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Like fresh air and clean drinking water,
transformation
shows up
missing ie as a requirement when access
to it is cut off, making it imminently clear life without
transformation
is unacceptable. We live in survival when access to
fresh air and clean drinking water is cut off. We also live in
survival when, whether known or not known, access to
transformation
is cut off. In such moments I'm pressed to inquire into
what's not
working.
Without
transformation,
life is a perpetual struggle for survival.
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7
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Interimly, a
transformation,
can occur as a result of any of legions of processes. Ultimately,
transformation,
is being whole, complete, and satisfied. It's a platform on which
to stand and, playing from win, inquire
"What's next?".
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8
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Coming from
transformation
when communicating, completely alters what's possible for
communication. Without
transformation
as a
context
for communication, the best that's available for communication is
reaction. For the most part, communication as reaction
without any other possibility accounts for
the shape the world is
in
today.
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9
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If we're incomplete, it's a primal response ie it's the "herd
mentality" to fill our lives with people to distract us
and to comfort us. Once we're distracted enough and comforted
enough, the basis on which we formed those relationships
disappears, so they fail. That's
business as
usual.
Transformation
is being complete. In a
transformed
life, relationships start on a platform of being complete.
In
transformed
relationships,
the start of, the completion of, and indeed the very
distinction of "relationship" itself are no longer
business as
usual.
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10
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What
shows up
for me in the space of
transformation
is simply Laurence being Laurence. At first,
that's so
blindingly simple,
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.
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11
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Transformation
doesn't mean changing your ways and being a better person.
Indeed, you may change your ways and be a better
person, but that's not what
transformation
is. It's actually not even a
big
commitment
to say you'll change your ways and be a better person, as all your
failed new year's resolutions eloquently testify.
Rather,
transformation
is you being authentically
who you really are.
Now that's a
big commitment.
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12
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My life is a farce and I'm an
impostor.
I once had a reputation but I mislaid it somewhere
along the way. So I put the farce of my life in which I star as an
impostor
to use by bringing forth
Conversations For
Transformation.
Transformation
doesn't save my life from being a farce. It
recontextualizes
it.
Transformation
doesn't negate that I'm an
impostor.
It offers an opportunity for the impostor to go to work making a
difference.
Transformation
allows me to live richly and fully without a reputation. In a
transformed
life, a reputation isn't required for validation. Life validates
itself.
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13
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Much of what I've gotten about
transformation
I got from my own experience, and from my own inquiries into the
nature of
who I am
(I mean, from my own inquires into the nature of who I
really am ...) and from my own inquiries into
what's possible for my life and for Life itself. However I'd be a
complete and total liar and a fraud if I didn't say that
most of what I've gotten about
transformation
I got observing Werner.
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14
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The story of your
transformation
isn't the story of The Little Red Hen. In the story of The
Little Red Hen, she asks for support baking bread. No one offers
support. After she's baked her bread alone, everyone, especially
those who didn't support her baking it, want a taste of it. But The
Little Red Hen righteously eats her bread all by herself. In the
story of your
transformation,
you'll ask for support which will be abundantly forthcoming. After
you're
transformed,
everyone, especially those who supported you, will
celebrate with you. By definition, you're never
transformed
alone.
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15
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Simply put (when all is said and done), transforming your
life means having your Self expression be
senior to your circumstances, and living from a future
of your own invention. Yes I do mean "living from a
future" not "living into a future".
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16
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Like learning balance riding a bicycle,
transformation
isn't undo-able. It's indelible and irreversible. You
can get off the bike once in a while, but when you get back on
again, there's no renewed learning curve. You never need to
re-learn balance.
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Transformation
doesn't add anything to your lifestyle. It won't take anything away
from or change your lifestyle either. So how ie on what
basis do you evaluate
transformation
like you ordinarily assess the benefits you might get
from something you're considering taking on?
Transformation
doesn't fit into a paradigm of comparison
shopping. Perhaps the best way to appraise
transformation
is the best way to "try before you buy" is to inquire
into what, not now possible, would be possible for you in life if
the totality of
who you really
are
were freely available to you. That's the possibility
of
transformation.
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Love. If I say "I love You" not coming from
transformation,
it's probably true in the moment but it may not be true forever. If I
say "I love You" coming from
transformation,
it'll always be true because it's
who I am.
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19
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Werner
Erhard
isn't just a guy in a diner talking about
transformation.
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20
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It takes two
transformed
human beings to change a light bulb: one to change the light bulb,
and one not to.
Transformation
stands on the shoulders of and owes a great debt of gratitude to
Zen.
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21
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In a
transformed
life, what "the truth" is is no longer a
debate. It's no longer your truth as opposed to
my truth. It's no longer what's "true for
you" as opposed to what's "true for me". The
truth that's powerful, the truth with leverage is the
only truth you're uniquely qualified to speak, and that's you
speaking the truth about your own experience of yourSelf. If you
speak the truth about your own experience of yourSelf, the space
for people to get to the truth for themselves becomes available.
If you speak the truth about your own experience of what's
possible for yourSelf, the space for people to get to the
truth of what's possible for themselves becomes available.
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22
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All expectations and opinions to the contrary, I've never written
transformation
and you've never read
transformation.
Writing and reading are one degree removed from speaking and
listening. "Speaking and listening", not "writing and reading", is
the domain of
transformation.
The way you get
transformation
is by speaking and listening
transformation
face to
face
in real live
Conversations For
Transformation.
That's
Werner's work.
Why is it this way? Why does it have to be "speaking
and listening" and not "writing and reading" or watching videos? I
don't know, and I can't answer "Why?". I really can't. It's just
the way it is.
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23
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Completing your relationships with your
parents
by telling them
the whole truth
and
nothing but
the truth
is the completion without which
transformation
is about as easy as running the mile wearing a ball and chain on
one ankle. The best investment you'll ever make with the least
capital outlay yet with stratospheric returns is to drop a dime to
call your
parents
to let them know you're OK, to thank them for the great job they
did raising you, to let them know your life turned out OK, and to
tell them you love them. If your
parents
aren't around, find someone else to acknowledge in their stead.
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Transformation
shows no sexual favoritism. Human beings, irregardless of
their sex, are imbued with equal possibility for
transformation.
When I, a man, confront this, I'm humbled and
embarrassed by my macho-ism in my past. If I were a woman,
I'd be equally humbled and embarrassed by whatever the female
equivalent of macho-ism is. True Self,
Buddha
nature, while manifesting sexuality, is asexual.
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25
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Transformation
isn't religion. It's not philosophy. It's not ethics. It's not a
belief system. It isn't faith. It's not a method nor a discipline
nor a way of life. Yet
transformation
anchors all of the above arenas because all these arenas are those
in which human beings speak and listen. But we
human beings also speak and listen mathematics, physics, fine arts,
language arts, tech, music, sports, agriculture, finance,
international diplomacy, relationships ... Indeed, somewhere
between birth and death, all human beings are active in
multifarious arenas in which we speak and listen. That's why we
call
transformation
transformation:
because speaking and listening has the
possibility of
transforming
all of life.
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The degree of taking responsibility for your own experience
goeswith your degree of
transformation
(as
Alan Watts
may have said). Total
transformation
is a function of taking total
responsibility for your own experience, including taking total
responsibility for your own experience of what others have "done
to" you. Taking total responsibility for your own
experience of what others have done to you doesn't refer to or
require taking the blame for what others have done to
you.
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After thirty years, it's neverendingly awesome to me, not to
mention an absolute
privilege,
observing you being profoundly touched, being
moved to tears
in fact, being inspired by
transformation.
You're not simply experiencing relief. It's way beyond mere
peace of mind for you. It's the joyous experience of
ecstasy, the magnanimity which comes with the
quantum cellular atomic level recognition that the
totality of all the goodness of Life expressing itself
is really
YOU.
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In the form of a question: even though
transformation
is timeless and impersonal ie it doesn't belong to you or to me or
to anyone in particular, would there be
transformation
without Werner Erhard? I mean, really! Would
there?
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Transformation
ends - or so it may seem - not once but many times. As soon as I'm
willing to accept ie to hold every
god-damned
thing in my life as OK the way it
is and the way it
isn't, as soon as I'm willing to let it all be perfect
requiring no fixing or changing whatsoever,
transformation
is back instantaneously like it never ended. Accepting the way it
is and the way it isn't, is the fastest, surest track back to
transformation
I know. I've proved it over and over and
over and over again.
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30
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The bad news about
transformation
is it's a bit like being stood up by your date for
your high school prom, the date you're waiting for, the date you're
looking forward to, the one you know will make
your life better, the one you're certain will make it all
worthwhile. Well, guess what? She ain't coming!
... That's the bad news. The good news is:
THIS IS IT!
This is all there is. And
it's all
yours now.
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