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




The Effortless Breakthrough

Coombsville Appellation, Napa Valley, California, USA

December 19, 2014



This essay, The Effortless Breakthrough, is the fifteenth in an open group on Language:
  1. Last Word
  2. Speaking Of Freedom
  3. The Transformation Of The World
  4. Constituted In Language
  5. Zen Bland
  6. Source Of Zen Bland: Hand Grasps Itself?
  7. Linguistic Acts
  8. Language: The Scalpel Of Experience
  9. Wordsmith
  10. Source Quote
  11. Being And Acting Out-Here: Presence Of Self Revisited
  12. My Word In The Matter
  13. You Are What You Speak
  14. Residue Of Meaning
  15. The Effortless Breakthrough
  16. The World's Conversation
  17. Read To Us
  18. Everything You Say
  19. Breakfast With The Master IV: Language As Music
  20. Leading With My Word
  21. Language And Results
  22. No, It's What You Say  About It
  23. Located Inside Language
  24. Be A Good Day
  25. Words Are Like Numbers
in that order.

It is also the seventh in an undectet of Breakthroughs: It is also, with One Thousand Essays And A Million Views, a prequel to Direct Experience.

I am indebted to Lisa Gherardini and to Leonardo da Vinci who inspired this conversation, and to my daughter Alexandra Lindsey Platt who contributed material.




Photography by Alexandra Lindsey Platt

taken from 50 feet away behind a throng of 2,500

Musée du Louvre, Paris, France

August 6, 2009
(blurred) The Mona Lisa (blurred)
by
Leonardo da Vinci
If I were a painter, I'd render something for you in oils. As a painter, oils would be my medium. If I were a sculptor, I'd render something for you in marble. As a sculptor, marble would be my medium. If I were a photographer, I'd render something for you in giclée. As a photographer, giclée would be my medium.

The thing about rendering something for you in this ongoing Conversations For Transformation internet series of essays is that I'm not rendering it as a Leonardo da Vinci or as a Michelangelo or as an Ansel Adams. No, in this particular form of creative artistic Self-expression, I'm rendering something for you as a regular guy, as a regular Joe, as an ordinary human being. And as a regular guy, as a regular Joe, as an ordinary human being, my word is my medium ie language  is my medium.

That's part of this, the first half. Here's the rest, the other half:

If I were a painter and I rendered something for you in oils, you could easily tell the difference between me and the oils. If I were a sculptor and I rendered something for you in marble, you could easily tell the difference between me and the marble. If I were a photographer and I rendered something for you in giclée, you could easily tell the difference between me and the giclée, yes? Be careful! Don't get ahead of me. This is not a trivial distinction: it's obvious  who I am is neither oils nor marble nor giclée.

But as a regular guy, as a regular Joe, as an ordinary human being, I'm rendering something for you in this ongoing Conversations For Transformation internet series of essays in the medium of my word  ie in the medium of language. So if I do this right, you won't  be able to tell the difference between me and my word ie you won't be able to tell the difference between me and language, given who I am is my word  ie given who I am is language, yes?

The thing is: in this particular context (that is, in this particular context of writing and reading, rather than in the context of speaking and listening), can this ever  be done right? Or will you always be able to tell the difference between me and my word ie will you always be able to tell the difference between me and language (in other words, will me and my word ie will me and language always remain dichotomous)  no matter how adept ie no matter how facile  I become with this particular form of creative artistic Self-expression?

Now, you didn't ask for one, but if you do want one, that's a pointer to what this ongoing Conversations For Transformation internet series of essays really is: they're the possibility  of me and my word ie they're the possibility of me and language (in both the context of writing and reading, as well as in the context of speaking and listening) being one and the same, being congruent, being indistinguishable one from the other. And ergo, they're the possibility of you and your  word ie they're the possibility of you and language (in both the context of writing and reading, as well as in than the context of speaking and listening) being one and the same, being congruent, being indistinguishable one from the other.

Question: is this a real possibility? Is it a real possibility that you and I and our word ie that you and I and language could be one and the same, could be congruent, could be indistinguishable one from the other? If indeed this is a real possibility, then that's why (and I don't require a why, really I don't - so simply for conjecture: that's why) as I close in on my stated first goal for this ongoing Conversations For Transformation internet series of essays which is to write at least one thousand of them (of which this essay is the nine hundred and ninety eighth), it's been a completely effortless process.

Why? Because if who I am goes on and on and on effortlessly as I observe it does, requiring little or no intervention on my part, then doesn't my word also have the possibility of going on and on and on effortlessly ie doesn't language also have the possibility of going on and on and on effortlessly, requiring little or no intervention on my part, given who I am is my word ie given who I am is language? If who I am is effortless then my word has the possibility of being effortless ie then language has the possibility of being effortless, then writing this ongoing Conversations For Transformation internet series of essays has the possibility of being effortless.

And here's the thing: if all that's true, then so also is any endeavor grounded in who you are, imbued with the possibility of being effortless ie so also is any endeavor grounded in your word, imbued with the possibility of being effortless ie so also is any endeavor grounded in language, imbued with the possibility of being effortless.

Wait! Wouldn't that be life without struggle and effort like a possibility?  By anyone's estimates, that would be a breakthrough.



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