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

Under All Circumstances

Panoramic Highway, Marin County, California, USA

Fourth of July, 2011
"You and I possess within ourselves, at every moment of our lives, under all circumstances, the power to transform  the quality of our lives." ... 
This essay, Under All Circumstances, is the companion piece to It is also the second in an open group sourced by Werner Erhard's seminal quote above, on the Power To Transform:
  1. Whack!
  2. Under All Circumstances
  3. Source Of Aliveness
  4. Damned Choice
  5. For People Who Don't Love Themselves
  6. Still Standing: Musings On The Permanent Impermanence Of Transformation
  7. Living Without Distortion
  8. No, It's What You Say  About It
  9. Transforming The Untransformable
  10. The Odds Are Even For Everyone
in that order.

It is also the second in a sextology on Circumstances: It is also the sixth in a group of sixteen written on the Fourth Of July:
  1. Anticipation: Accounting For An American Love Affair
  2. Independence Day
  3. I'd Rather Be With Me
  4. Do It For Nothing
  5. The Only Way Out Is Through
  6. Under All Circumstances
  7. Word Power
  8. When There's Nothing To Say
  9. The Possibility Of Being Independent And Free
  10. Intimacy In A Crowded Place
  11. What Goes On Internally
  12. Imprints Of Love
  13. Bookends: A Reflection On Mortality
  14. Come Back To Being
  15. Nobody Is Responsible Except You
  16. Like A Monk In A Cave
in that order.


Here's the thing about living a life you'd rather not be living - or at least here's the thing about living aspects  (now and then) of a life you'd rather not be living: without access to transformation, it's the natural condition of Life for just about everyone. It's the condition of Life just about everyone wakes up into every morning. We don't want to be the first to say it, but here it is: the world we wake up into every morning, the world presented to us on the daily news isn't all that alluring, isn't all that exciting, isn't all that attractive, isn't even worth living. Not really.

Having a life which naturally occurs  as worth living isn't a matter of luck nor is it a matter of finding the right vocation nor is it a matter of discovering there really is a silver lining after all. The "worth living" component of Life is an entirely created way of being. It doesn't come as a right. Nor does it come as a gift. It doesn't just happen. It's literally made up, called up on demand.

"Life is worth living" is a condition which is made up, which is created at any time under all circumstances for no reason  - in many cases, with no evidence. It's alright not  to create it. You don't have to. Life has been going on for millennia for billions and billions of people who haven't created it. In spite of "Life is worth living" not being created for millennia by billions and billions of people, Life keeps on turning out anyway. What I've noticed is if I don't create "Life is worth living", Life provides its own evidence that it's really  not worth living. The world, left to its own devices, never provides any evidence "Life isn't worth living" isn't "the truth".

Creating Life as worth living for no reason, any time, under all circumstances, is an art form. It's an art form for which we're all evenly gifted and evenly qualified. The power to transform the quality of Life under all circumstances isn't only available to some people and not to others - like height to a basketball player or weight to a sumo  wrestler.

I'm tempted as I write this to speculate about what's possible for a life which is newly worth living which wasn't worth living before. As useful as this may be, it would detract from this particular conversation which is a (if not the)  critical conversation in the Conversations For Transformation series. This particular conversation doesn't underscore what's possible for a life which is newly worth living which wasn't worth living before. This particular conversation underscores the power to transform Life, is always present  for every human being evenly at every moment under all circumstances like a possibility.

That's a great place to start any conversation for transformation: realized or not, you have the power to transform the quality of your life. It's the coin of the realm. If we come at it from what's possible  for a life transformed, we're on shaky ground unless we're standing on the bedrock foundation, which is: you and I have the power to transform the quality of our lives under all circumstances. I assert if this isn't in place first, then the best  I can offer with regard to what's possible for a life transformed is motivation  and encouragement, neither of which are of much use as Conversations For Transformation anyway. And if we're not standing on the bedrock foundation, which is you and I have the power to transform the quality of our lives under all circumstances, then the validity of transformation itself is called into question.

Once I'm clear about the power I have to transform the quality of my life, then the  critical choice in the matter shows up: will I exercise  this power ... or not? And what's fascinating to notice is this: once I'm aware of my power to transform the quality of my life, then even if I choose not  to exercise it, there's a certain ownership  in choosing not to exercise it. There's a certain responsibility  in knowing I have this power, yet choosing not to exercise it. There's certainly more ownership and responsibility in knowing I have this power yet choosing not to exercise it, than in not knowing I have it at all.

That's  interesting. If choosing transformation can be described as the genesis  of taking ownership and responsibility, then what can be said about not  choosing transformation, the very act of which also  includes taking ownership and responsibility?

It seems to me this is evident in Werner's observation that the power to transform the quality of Life is available under all  circumstances. It's available whenever it's chosen. If it's not chosen it's available anyway. It's never the circumstances which are devoid of the possibility of transformation. All circumstances are ever devoid of is someone choosing transformation. Transformation is always  available like a possibility. All there is to do is choose it.


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