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
There's Nothing To It
Connolly Ranch, Browns Valley, California, USA
August 22, 2019
"As stupid as it sounds, it's true there's a sense of joy with
simply being with what's there."
...
This essay,
There's Nothing To It,
is the companion piece to
Showing Up.
There's a way we are about who we are, which has become so
burned into our
epistemology
that we now hold it as "The Truth" (to which we've given
away power) rather than simply as a
way of being
(over which we have a lot of power). And here, I'm saying "burned" in
the way a CD (Compact Disk) is burned (a
process which catalogs information) not in the way we're burned by fire
(a process which could permanently disfigure us). We barely notice that
the way we express what we hold to be the truth about it, is
unexamined. When we express what we hold to be true unexamined, we
pretty much unwittingly cement the way it'll be for us from then on.
Here are three examples of that to which I'm referring: I often hear
things like "I'm looking for a
fulfilling
project to take on.". I seldom if ever hear "I'm
fulfilled
and looking for a project to take on.". I often hear things like "I
want a worthwhile cause to contribute to.". I seldom if ever hear "I'm
worthwhile and want a cause to contribute to.". I often hear things
like "I'm involved in a relationship that
completes
me.". I seldom if ever hear "I'm
complete
and involved in a relationship.".
What I'm pointing to here is more than the unseeming possibility of
actually putting the cart before the horse (really). I'm pointing to
that ordinarily we don't even consider putting the cart before the
horse to be the pragmatic option. Ordinarily we don't consider being
fulfilledfirst, then doing (we have it that the doing will be
fulfilling).
Ordinarily we don't consider being worthwhile first, then doing (we
have it that the doing will be worthwhile). Ordinarily we don't
consider being
complete
first, then being in a relationship (we have it that being in a
relationship will
complete
us). In other words, what's true for us
epistemologically
is that without doing, there's no real possibility of being
fulfilled,
worthwhile, and
complete.
It's pernicious. It's rampant in our culture and society.
And it's a very expensive, costly error.
Now I'm not about to suggest being already
fulfilled,
worthwhile, and
complete
equates to it's OK to migrate over to the couch, take up permanent
residency there, open a bag of Cheetos and flip through
channels, and never leave. What I'm suggesting is we examine the
ground of being for utterances like "Being unfulfilled
(not worthwhile, incomplete etc) is what drives me / motivates me", and
its first cousin "How boring would life be if we were
alreadyfulfilled,
worthwhile, and
complete.".
The truth behind such misconceptions may just be that a) we have no
reality on the possibility of being
fulfilled,
worthwhile, and
complete
first, or b) we're bankrupt over the way it doesn't always feel nice to
be in our own skins. That's a damning place to be if ever there
was one. It suggests we're driven to do what we do to make up for
how bad it sometimes feels to be human ie we're serving time
to pay our debt to society for our own internal states - life
sentences in fact. It's truly bizarre.
Enter
Werner
stage left, and a
portal
to an entirely new realm of possibility opens (genesis):
the possibility of coming from being
fulfilled,
worthwhile, and
complete
first, with no esoteric trickery or manipulation required to be this
way because it's who we really are so it's easy to be
(there's nothing to it, really). So now, apropos "Being unfulfilled is
what drives me", I request you look and see if you can let that go.
Coming from being
fulfilled,
worthwhile, and
complete
first, doesn't mean I'll get less done (there's actually a very good
chance I'll get more done). But what it does mean is whatever I do,
comes from authenticity, creativity, being
cause in the matter, and
freedom, and not from doing what I do to make up for / distract from /
cover up / compensate for how bad it sometimes feels to be
human.
Epistemologically,
none of that is readily apparent. And the world's blind, headlong rush
obfuscates it even further. The way you get it is by discovering it for
yourself.
