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


Unwavering

Cowboy Cottage, East Napa, California, USA

January 9, 2017



"Consider that 'who you wound up being' is shaped by your listening - by your listening as, for example, an Australian, a German, a Kuwaiti, or a north American, by your listening as either a male or a female, by the listening of your religion, by the listening developed as part of your family as contrasted with other families, by the idiosyncratic listening you developed as an individual, and so on."
 ... 
This essay, Unwavering, is the thirty second in the complete group of Experiences Of A Friend (click here for the open group Experiences Of A Friend II):
  1. Stepping Back
  2. At Home As Self
  3. Empty Windows
  4. Futile Like A Freedom
  5. Shut Up And Do What You're Doing
  6. Werner As Intention
  7. Who He Is For Himself
  8. Source Quote
  9. Puzzle Solved, Mind Unraveled
  10. Eye To Eye
  11. Mystical Connection II
  12. Relentless
  13. Being Around Werner
  14. Being Always In Action
  15. Shaken Up And Teary
  16. On Being Sad
  17. The Complete Presentation
  18. Force Of Nature
  19. Everyone's In Love With Everyone
  20. I'm Old School
  21. Werner At The Speed Of Choice
  22. I Get Who You Are From What They Do
  23. The Significance - Not What Happened
  24. You Know I Love You - And I Know You Love Me
  25. Speaking To People's Relationship With Werner
  26. A Master At Being (And Having People Be)
  27. Werner As Source
  28. A Man Who's All There
  29. My Heart And You
  30. Mind Control
  31. Again And Again And Again And Again And Again And Again
  32. Unwavering
  33. The Leadership Course III: Pillar Of The Community
  34. American Genius
  35. Legacy II
so far, in that order.





Preparing for Texas A&M University Leadership Course

College Station, Texas, USA

2:47am Thursday June 3, 2010

Click to expand
Werner Erhard

It's often been said (and I've often found myself saying) in reference to something he's done "That's  what makes Werner Werner.". Now, anyone can get that, even though its duplicated syntax may sound redundant, yes? It's not. But be careful: what's worse is it can also come off sounding so simplistic  that there's a very real danger its profundity will be completely obfuscated, along with the extraordinary way of being it points to.

A quick scan through history confirms our world has never really been short of sources of transformation. The possibility  of transformation, is not new. Neither has it ie neither have we  ever really been short of inquiries into / senses of / speculations about transformation - to wit, what it could make possible for us (both personally and globally), how it could be reliably accessed, and (arguably most pragmatically) how will we know we got it?  ie what would it look like? Along with all of that, it's also been observed that if religion delivered what it purports to deliver, the work of transformation would be rendered obsolete. But it doesn't. So it isn't.

Especially with regard to the latter, it's often assumed that the best access to transformation, is to do like its teacher  - you know, watch what he does, then try to do the same ... that  sort of thing. "What would  (whomever) do?"  is a question that's deeply embedded in all the tutorials at all those meetings which study all those bibles. To be sure, it comes from a good place. But watch: interestingly enough it's a question that's notably and strikingly absent from Werner's work. No emphasis is placed on being like Werner as an access to transformation. An access to transformation is something you have to discover for yourself. More than that, the question "What would Werner do?" is actually disempowering  if not outright distracting as an access to transformation (in a prudent inquiry, it's really not too hard to figure that out, and then drop it). After all, why follow when you can lead? The global emergence to prominence of Werner's Leadership Course isn't co-incidental: it's synchronous.

That's why for me, the people who are like Werner, are not people who are like Werner. Say whut?  Yes I'm quite aware that sounds contradictory. But it's actually a lot closer to the truth than it sounds. Well? What does  it mean Laurence? OK, what it means for me, is the people who are like Werner, are people who are like themselves. And it's even more than that actually. It's people who aspire to be like their teacher ie people who seek transformation by trying to be like their teacher, who watch what he does, and then try to do the same as he does ie to emulate him, are left hopelessly mired in being inauthentic.

<aside>

In distinguishing "people who are like themselves", I'm pointing to people who are like who they really are  - in other words, people who are like themselves, are people who are being who they really are. Transformation, in at least one very important sense, is being who you really are.

Stated more rigorously, the way for you to be like Werner (ie if indeed that's what you aspire to be) is not for you to be like Werner. No, the way for you to be like Werner is for you to be like you.

Man!  It took me a long time to get that (arguably too  long). And when I finally did get it, the such-ness of it, the thus-ness of it, the beautifully exquisite simple obviousness  of it, knocked me on my ass. It blew me away. It was all over for Laurence Platt. I'm now no longer the same person I was being before I got that. In fact I'm now no longer even the same kind of creature  I was being before I got that (which is even more to the point).

<un-aside>

It's in simply being like himself that Werner authentically delivers his magnum opus  which is the work of transformation. There's no mystery to its success and there's no secret to its longevity. His unflinching authenticity is why it thrives and inspires others. Here's the long and the short of it: you being like yourself ie you being who you really are, is what makes you a source of transformation. It's what makes you you. By the same token it's what makes Werner Werner. And in this regard, like a stand, like a demonstration, Werner is (and has been 24 / 7 / 365 over the last forty six years straight, and will be ongoingly) disconcertingly unwavering.

From the Cambridge International Dictionary:

<quote>
Definition
unwavering


adjective
never moving or looking away from something
<unquote>

One way to be unwavering ie one way to not waver from something, is by being  it ie by becoming  it. Consider this: can you ever waver from being that which you already are?  That's the way this works: inspired you, being like you, unwavering, makes transformation available like a possibility;  like that, inspired me, being like me, unwavering, makes transformation available like a possibility; and inspired Werner, being like Werner, unwavering, makes transformation available like a possibility.



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