Infinite Possibility

Steering Into The Skid: Choosing What IS

2010-01-11T07:43:00.001-08:00

Steering Into The Skid

An Essay on Being In The World, Choosing What IS

A Possibility for Freedom, Vitality and Peace of Mind

Even when there is a diagnosis of maybe having Cancer!

"Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.

After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water."

I graduated from The Landmark Forum in 1997. The difference this has made in my life is, well, immeasurable.

In my early adult life I was a professional racing driver with the reputation of being "world class". Then, being forced to retire in 1968 due to injurues sustained in a high speed crash, I became deeply resigned and depressed. It seemed my life was over.

Then in 1978 I took 'est', the predecessor program to The Landmark Forum. It startled me! Later that year I had the good fortune to meet est founder Werner Erhard, and ended up working with him on his staff for several months, as one of his "coaches" in the project "Breakthrough racing".

This essay is a sharing inspired by these relationships and the transformation that I live into as a direct result of these awesome seminars:

Consider the possibility that who you are, who human beings are, who ALL human beings are, is the Space IN which life happens. The ever changing life of humans, BEING, is an arising-occurring. Very like the movie on the blank screen. What we don't notice, for the most part, is the screen, the white space in which the movie called life appears, filled with sound and fury etc. In this analogy the screen represents your being, your humanness. Being, just that, clear and vacant, space, like the screen is just the white empty screen. No screen, no movie! The screen is the absolutely necessary condition for any movie. Turn on a movie projector into a night sky. No movie! Cannot have the movie with no screen. Cannot have life happening without the backdrop of your true nature of clear empty being.

So I propose that who you and I are is akin to the movie screen, who you are, who I am, who humans, being, are, is the SPACE in which the roller-coaster of life happening happens. Being enraptured, "caught up", in the "picture show" (which is what movies were called back when they first appeared) seems to obscure or hide the screen. But seeing that the screen is self-evident and the necessary condition or context for the show might startle us into seeing that there is only the screen in essence. No screen no movie. No being no life.

All that said, let's look at how life occurs for us like a mesmerization when we ignore the screen and focus on the character appearing on the screen ("me").

As a racing driver, I learned that the way to keep the car under control if the tires broke loose and the car started to slide or skid was to steer INTO the skid, not try to resist it or stop it by putting on the brakes which exacerbates the skid. Putting on the brakes in a skid, i.e. resisting the skid, while "intuitive", will nearly always lead to disaster. In this analogy, steering into the skid means allowing what is happening, accepting it, steering into it not trying to fix it by putting on the brakes. Counter-intuitively, when life's happening is somehow contrary to preferences, to our notions of the way it "should be", to accept actively i.e. CHOOSE it exactly as it is and as it is not allows for a "controlled slide" and any race car driver will tell you that this is the way to go fast ... in a controlled slide, with power full on, steering with the gas pedal.

My friend Werner Erhard once said, "Life is a ripoff when you expect to get what you want. Life works when you choose what you got. Actually what you got is what you chose. To move on, choose it."

The possibility on electing to be with, to accept, to choose what is, is uniquely a human possibility, being a functioning with true freedom and natural power. The power of being. Werner Erhard also said, "Happiness is a function of choosing what is". So maybe, just maybe, the possibility of being happy, free and at peace consists in noticing that we are the screen, not the movie, AND steering into life i.e. choosing what appears on the screen. For example: In the "movie of 'me", recently finding out this body might have cancer, and choosing "Okay, might be cancer". Being with the symptoms, which may or may not be from cancer or some other condition like serious Esophageal Reflux Disease. The body has meds for that. And we'll see what happens, how the move plays out.

Meanwhile, who I am being is the screen. Free, clear and at peace...

If the movie plays out as "this body DOES have cancer" than the possibility of steering into to skid ... choosing what is is, I have cancer", leaves "me" free and happy, at peace with what is as it is. And knowing full well, I am not the cancer or the body that has cancer. I am the screen!

We cannot "choose" to have things be any different than the way they are, can we? Have a look! So perhaps the real possibility of freedom in being, likes humans being, lives in choosing what is, as it is and as it is not.

Works for me! That means, no suffering; rather, being at peace with what is as it is.

And before some wiseass says, "who would choose" and "how does 'one' choose if there really is no one" let me add, choosing is an action of being, a tautological act of declaring. In short, as long as there is a human essence, a sense of being in the world, that being can choose by choosing that it is possible to choose. Nothing complex about this. You don't know how to walk yet walking happens. You don't need to "know how" like be able to "explain" ... you just walk. Like that, you don't have to know how to choose. You just choose ... because you can.

Never Lift!

Cheers,

Charlie

11 January 2010

2010-01-04T06:19:00.001-08:00

very strongly recommened for everyone, 'spiritual' or not

2010-01-04T06:14:00.001-08:00

"Seeker" or not, "realized" or not, this program is VERY strongly recommended, for anyone and everyone. It made a huge difference for me; I attended this event (with a different leader) shortly after meeting John Wheeler and 'Sailor' Bob Adamson, and I found it absolutely consistent with their message, and with the essence of the pure message of such traditions as Advaita Vedanta, Kashmir Shaivism, the Tao Te Ching, and Dzogchen.

Go here to get "Causing The Miraculous" Now.

Description: "Making 'the miraculous' possible exists outside of what we can explain. With this breakthrough program on a two-part CD set you can gain tools, insights, and understanding into what it takes to create an environment in which you can have unexpected and extraordinary results occur - and occur reliably."

The Program facilitator, Laurel Scheaf has been a leader in personal and professional development for 30 years and senior Landmark Forum leader. She is a personal friend of mine, since April of 1978, and remains one of my most profoundly effective teachers and some I love deeply.

Please know that I do NOT make such recommendations lightly. I invite you to consider getting this inexpensive and very effective program, just for the pure possibility of absolute freedom and true, natural joy, for YOU in your daily life. Thank you.

Get it here: "Causing The Miraculous"

With Love,

Charlie

January 4th 2010

Now Available ... Potent "Life Coaching"

2010-01-02T13:06:00.000-08:00

Now on offer, "Life Coaching" ... once the assumed self is seen to be nonexistent, the appearance of life, bodymind and being continues on for as long or a short a time as it does. What we are pointing to once the spiritual seeking is done is the authentic possibility of living freely and being in the world as a being capable of calling forth new ways of being that are "life-supporting". Inside the clear and empty context of Being whole and complete, ANYTHING is possible. This Work is about accessing THAT domain for living a life that lights you up and brings forth innate satisfaction, natural vitality and ever-present joy, the joy of being-in-the-world. Here is a sample of our newest expression. ... a life-coaching consultation with a generous guy who gave permission for the conversation to be shared with you. Click the link below and listen to the Audio (MP3 format), or right click and choose 'save' to download:

Freedom, Possibility and Joy in Daily Living

Justin says, "I know, first hand, what you can do towards helping in this life experience of being human in the world on both a 'spiritual' and 'human' level".

With my Love,

Charlie Hayes

02 January 2010

If you are interested in a Life Coaching" session please contact: charliehayes36@yahoo.com Skype charliehayes36 Phone 1.580.701.4793 The fee is presently $95 for a one to one and half hour session with follow-up by e-mail at no additional cost.

You may use THIS LINK to pay with a Debit or Credit card, Check, or PayPal.

Charlie Hayes is a graduate of The Landmark Communication Access To Power course, Fernando Flores' "Action Workshop," as well as "Excellent in Listening, Excellence in Action", plus Flores' "Competitive Edge" workshop, Landmark Education's "Curriculum For Living", and much more. Has 24 years experience in coaching for living fully with high performance in Life. Author of seven books and numerous audio coaching programs; lists available on request. Former staff member of Werner Erhard and Associates, working directly with Mr. Erhard.

on living a future that lights you up today

2009-11-13T08:53:00.000-08:00

It has been pointed out by ancient and living “sages” alike: Who you are is No Thing”. “Who You Are is Empty, and Meaningless”. Who You Are is ‘space-like awareness’.” “Who you are is ‘cognizing emptiness’.”

All are true in the absolute sense, whereas the “absolute sense’ means, these words point to the facts, just the facts, ma’am.

But as Werner Erhard said, “The truth believed is a lie”.

So I propose that the “absolute truth” and the “truth of daily life” AKA “the relative” arise in entirely different “domains of Isness”. In other words the Absolute IS the absolute and the relative is (or more accurately perhaps, APPEARS as) the relative. And it’s said in many ways by many a “sage”, that Absolute and Relative cannot meet. Ever. That’s stated (declared as) a fact. “No thing” cannot meet “thingness”.

Or can it?

Maybe No thing IS ALSO “thingness”? That’s what “Nonduality” declares … that no thing and things are “not two”. “Advaita”, which translates as “Not Two from the Sanskrit.

Okay, so what has that got to do with the price of eggs at Walmart?

Just this: In the empty domain of No Thing, AKA Who You Are, anything is possible. Anything. The relative is apparently constituted by past (story about a time behind me), present (story about me now) and future than cannot be known period yet is speculated about (story told in the present). That constitutional paradigm of “being-human” is a bringing “what we know” into the future we “live into” i.e. “believe will probably happen.”

The point is, absolute and relative are BOTH what’s so. And dealing with what’s so in the domain of the relative is how we manage the “Life for I, or We, or Us” ... whether we believe that or not. In this domain of the relative, what has things work is “coming from nothing”. That is not “true”. It is just something I say

And, the relative I AND the Absolute No-Thing-I meet and share a hug here.

Which brings me to the point of this: in the relative, what are we? Starting g from the fact that our Being IS the Unchanging IS AKA No Thing At All, how does the relative Isness of “being-human” get articulated? In other words Who Am I as a relative related-to-humanity (apparent) entity-with-language?

I suggest this: who we are is who we say we are. Literally who we are as “persons” is the declared beingness (I AM that I AM, for starters…) so now: what if we say, “who I am is Pure Possibility, AND inside that context, that space, I SAY that who I AM is “a relative future like a possibility called ‘anything is possible’ and out of THAT ‘who I am is’ … being whatever I declare?

Here is what I say (NOT a truth, but what I committedly SAY: Who I Am is the possibility of the transformation of humanity. ALL humanity. Self AS Humanity; Absolute AS Relative. I stand in the space I call “all people being whole, complete, and fulfilled, living lives they love with joy and peace of mind”.

Notice I didn’t say HOW that might arise. Nor “when”. This “future is NOW and NOW and NOW.

How and when (relatively speaking here)? On that score, the TRUTH is I do not know. And, I say with conviction, NOT knowing is an “access” to the future of "anything’s possible and that means anything.”

Don’t follow? No sweat. No need to follow like “comprehend”. It is not a conceptual “truth to believe”. It is just a saying I find empowers me and others in the relative world of being-related-with-you as Who We Are. But I am not “Just sayin’’ like in “talk is cheap.” As Martin Luther might have said, "Here I stand. I can do no other.” My love for humanity, for you and me and everyone, has a grip that I welcome with all my heart, mind, body and soul (sole).

I AM the word. I honor that. So I assert that The Absolute Self I AM/YOU ARE am is No Thing. AND: The relative self I AM/YOU ARE is The Word. As in, “In the beginning IS The Word”. Beginning a Future beyond what is predictable, even assured, lives in Word, declared possibilities, and being committed to that Word (as in Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” or Ghandi’s (British Leave India Non-Violently). Not knowing how yet giving “word and sacred honor” to the possibility we declare out of nowhere nowhen AKA HERE, NOW with 100% commitment and 0% attachment to outcome or means.

And giving up that we know what is really gonna happen, because THAT would be necessity be a product of our past, our history. In an invented future there is like NO knowing, NO story, NO “how”. And this is not "something said in order to gain something for me, or manipulate the situation of the world, or just to get approval or be liked. None of that is worth an ounce of spit!

And if that isn’t a fair definition of Freedom, I don’t know what is!

I am indebted to Werner Erhard, Laurel Scheaf, Landmark Education, and Laurence Platt, who inspired this essay.

let your Light shine

2009-11-13T04:50:00.000-08:00

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

~ Marianne Williamson ~

choose!

2009-11-12T05:16:00.000-08:00

A long time ago a good friend, a Landmark Forum Leader named Randy Mcnamara, said (and I paraphrase), "If you are telling the story 'my life sucks', remember, 'you forgot to choose'."

What does THAT mean? What it measn to me is, when I am free in Being, in other words when there is no "identity" running the show, when I know Who I Am like a possibility, there is a distinct freedom to choose for aliveness, rather than be used by some programmed knee-jerk reaction." Example, someone says to me, "Go 'bleep' yourself, you jerk". In that moment, jsyt before reaction reacts, there is alays a space, the authentic space of Being which is ALWAYS HERE right now before the next thought appears, an Being That, free choice is available. To choose freely to resist or accept is a function of Being present that that which IS, that unchanging ware Presence which is the ever present backgorund for all the appearance to appear in (like a movie screen). Being THAT there is the possibilty of choosing for aliveness, affinity, acceptance. It's a split second occurrence. And the way you know that choosing has NOT been exercised is, you suffer some loss of aliveness, loss of love, hapiness, vitality or spontaneouus self-expression.

Consider the post below, a quote from Laurence Platt. See what can be seen about choice. Rather than adopt a stance like "there is no choice and no chooser", which may be an ultimate truth but which doesn't live for most of us as a reality in the great movie lf life, rather than take that saing on as some "fixed truth", have a look at what actyually lives in our expereice of being here, neing human.

That's the invitation. Accept, or decline. you are free to choose!

choosing freely to be with what shows up

2009-11-12T04:58:00.000-08:00

Conversations For Transformation
Essays By Laurence Platt
Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard
And More

Moment Of Choice
Warren, New Jersey, USA
September 6, 2008

There's a particular moment I've experienced from time to time, a moment I'm familiar with, a moment in which it's poignantly obvious how my choices powerfully alter the quality of my life, a moment in which it's patently evident that in the matter of my own experience, in the matter of my own well being, I can choose its quality - at all times under all circumstances.

I'm healthy. I take care of myself. I watch my diet. I exercise. Yet every once in a while, maybe twice every five years, I'll catch a cold. The moment I'm talking about is that moment ie the very moment just before the cold sets in. I'm feeling fine. In good shape. Then out of the blue I'll notice it. A dry tickle in my throat. The thickening in my forehead. The first sign I'm catching a cold.

If I'm conscious, if I'm clear, if I stay awake to the experience, I see in that exact moment, in that nick of time there's an opportunity to make a choice which will alter the otherwise inevitable outcome ie which will alter my future. The choice is this: I can choose the cold ie I can choose to let it in OR ... I can choose not to. If I choose not to, it'll pass by, like a freight train rumbling down the tracks but not stopping in my station. If I ignore the opportunity, avoid it, or if I simply take too long to capitalize on this moment of choice then it's too late. Then it's got me - replete with stuffy sniffly nose, Kleenex, and hot chicken soup for a week or more.

That's one example of an opportunity to powerfully exercise leverage in the moment of choice. Here are two more:

There's the exact moment when I wake up in the morning when I can choose the day ahead to be extraordinary or whether I'll simply settle for sleepwalking through a funk. The funk never shows up as something I'd gladly choose. Rather, the funk shows up as a result of not choosing the day ahead to be extraordinary. The world I wake up into, which is to say the quality of the world I wake up into, is mostly not good. Waiting beyond the veils of sleep are all those incomplete responsibilities, onuses, burdens which sleep conveniently hides from me - at least temporarily. Now that I'm awake again, they're inexorably back. And we all know you can't switch on the morning news if what you want is some cheerful reason to look forward to the day. There's a moment just after waking in which there's an opportunity to choose the quality of the day - without any support, reason, or evidence that its circumstances will be enjoyable. Simply choose ... and the future is altered, the day is great. Don't choose ... and funk is the best I can hope for.

There's the moment just before I get angry with someone who's being rude, inconsiderate, or simply difficult. The way they're being is no reflection on who I am ... really! The way they're being is the way they're being. I already know that. Yet in spite of myself, I take it personally as if their way of being somehow diminishes who I am. I start to retaliate. In that moment, in that exact first moment of retaliation, I lose all power. But in the moment of choice before I'm given over to the automatic reaction to retaliate, I can choose to come from my own experience. I can choose to simply get the communication instead of retaliating against it. There's an entirely new future available starting with this choice, of which peace and power are only two of its many possible outcomes.

There's a moment of choice many times, hundreds of times throughout every day of our lives, a moment in which we can give over to the inevitable outcome of a situation without making any choice, when we can live out our automatic response in which choice isn't exercised OR ... when we can choose an entirely unpredictable outcome or even choose no outcome at all, that is to say no inevitable outcome at all. It's not simply choosing ie the presence of choice which makes for discontiguous possible outcomes. It's more than that, actually. It's choosing ie the presence of choice which calls for who you are to step in. The bringing to bear of who you are brings magic, miraculous new outcomes to any inevitable, erstwhile predictable future.

As for saying what it is exactly which empowers you to sometimes choose in the moment of choice and other times not to choose, as for saying exactly what it is which has you sometimes see the opportunity in the moment of choice and other times not to see the opportunity, indeed as for saying what it is exactly which has you sometimes see the moment of choice and other times not to see it at all, I assert you'll get no greater satisfactory explanation or experience for yourself other than to simply stand up.

http://laurenceplatt.home.att.net/wernererhard/momento1.html

Who I Am

2009-11-09T11:51:00.001-08:00

Context: I AM No Thing.

To clarify: I Am That wherein Anything IS Possible (like a possibility).
AS That... Who I Am is the Possibility of The Transformation Of Humanity.

That I AM... So I say.
In that context, I NOW Say,

Who I Am is the Possibility of Authenticity, Abundance and Joy.
The Act I am giving up is "I Don't Matter".
THAT is Who I Am....

Because I Say So.
Your turn!

Presence Of Love

2009-11-08T06:57:00.001-08:00

Conversations For Transformation

Essays By Laurence Platt

Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

And More

Presence Of Love

I stood in the presence of love, a radiating power of love, and I looked to see how I could be sure it was the presence of love and not merely my own artistic whimsy.

For starters I noticed that in its presence I could indeed look. There was space which showed up as absolute unswerving trust for me to open myself into. There was no need for walls of defenses which, when I looked for them, I noticed had already melted by themselves so fast it took a moment for me to realize they were gone and I was standing naked and unafraid.

The superficial layers of polite conversation burned off fast. The "How are you? Fine thank you!" was instantly eclipsed by the brightness and sheer joy of being there. And in that moment everything suddenly fell into place, everything was right, everything was OK, everything was perfect.

God is in his heaven and everything is right with the world.

The thing with authenticity is that if you have to look for it to put words on it, that's not it. It's much more immediate than that. It won't help you to describe water when you thirst. But drink a glass of cool water and you know. No words are required.

That kind of knowing, that kind of direct experience is what's there next to that authenticity, that flame, that luminosity, that bright being of playfulness, might, valor, and laser pointed rigor. It's not that not being able to describe it in depth and in detail invalidates it. It's that being able to experience it directly even beyond being able to describe it in depth and in detail is proof of it.

It's the instant recognition of kindred spirit, not because there's anything personal in it or that an encounter like this is special or that we are special because we witness moments like these. It's because in a world of games, graft, coverups, and no regard for the legacy our footprints bequeath to the planet, it's the simple awareness of real human being, real naked presence, what I really am, who I really am, what we all really are, who we all really are. Sharing this is a legacy worth leaving, a game worth playing, a love worth giving, a life worth living.

And when it comes to your house and knocks on your door and you, curious and suspicious, look out at it from behind the protection of gates and chains, when you catch sight of it for the first time, there is no doubt. The last thing on your mind for you to do is to ask for ID. The recognition is instantaneous. You throw open the door as fast as you possibly can. Your flying fingers fumble to open all deadbolts and locks and you cry out elated overjoyed "come in come in please come in please come in oh please please come in ... and don't ever leave ... ever ...".

It's like that. There's no dress rehearsal. There might not have even been an earlier occasion for you to compare with. This is like the very first time. This is the original. There is no test. No dry run. And yet you know. Because you know. And that's how you know.

I looked from that space at what else I wanted to say and it seemed as if there was nothing to say or, more correctly, it seemed as if there was nothing left to say. It seemed as if it had all been said. If that was it, if there were indeed no more words, it would have been complete.

That's when I saw there was one last thing left to say which I had not yet said.

That's when I said "I Love You.".

From http://laurenceplatt.home.att.net/wernererhard/presenc1.html

MORE: http://laurenceplatt.home.att.net/wernererhard/

Master Of Life

2009-11-07T07:06:00.000-08:00

Conversations For Transformation
Essays By Laurence Platt
Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard
And More

Master Of Life

In order to be who I am, I create a distinction. I distinguish something. I don't distinguish something so I'll have something to show you about who I am. I don't distinguish something so I'll have something to say to you about who I am. I don't distinguish something so I'll have something to prove to you about who I am. In order to be who I am, I create a distinction because during the process of distinguishing something, that's when I'm being who I am.

A distinction can distinguish what something is. A distinction can also distinguish what something is not. So let's distinguish something:

For me, I is not who I am.

Wait! Say whut? Isn't that a typo? No, isn't that a typo and an absurdity? Shouldn't that be "for me, I am who I am" rather than "for me, I is not who I am"? In any case, even if it were "for me, I am not who I am" rather than "for me, I is not who I am", surely that's not right?

Hold that thought! Now try this one on for size:

For I, me is not who I am.

More typos? Another absurdity? No. This form and the previous one are both exactly what I intend to say. Both forms are exactly the way I intend to say them.

Perhaps adding some punctuation will makes this clearer. Here are both statements again, re-punctuated:

1)     For me, "I" is not who I am.
2)     For "I", "me" is not who I am.

Say whut?

OK. I assert they make perfect sense when you bring an open Zen listening to them ie when you listen them from your experience, not from your analytical mind. Your analytical mind will most likely say ie has been taught to say I'm not using the English language correctly ie I'm not speaking the "King's English", to wit:

•     I use the first person pronoun subject "I" as the subject of the third person verb "is" ("I is not who I am")
    King's English rule: use the first person pronoun subject "I" as the subject of the first person verb "am" ("I am not who I am") - correct grammar yet absurd

•     I use the first person pronoun subject "I" as the object of the preposition "for" ("for I")
    King's English rule: use the first person pronoun object "me" as the object of the preposition "for" ("for me") - correct grammar yet not what I intend to communicate

•     I use the first person pronoun object "me" as the subject of the third person verb "is" ("me is not who I am)
    King's English rule: use the first person pronoun subject "I" as the subject of the first person verb "am" ("I am not who I am") - correct grammar yet absurd

I can imagine my school marms rolling their eyes if they heard me use grammar this way. However, I'm not speaking this way in a cavalier fashion. I'm not speaking this way because I'm a rebellious stand for "rules are intended to be broken". Rather, I'm asserting this: language communicating direct experience plain doesn't work with the same grammar decreed by ordinary everyday King's English.

If I correct those phrases in my speaking, if I speak them the way the King's English decrees, then their grammar would be deemed correct ... BUT ... they wouldn't communicate what I intend to communicate.

So ...

For me, I is not who I am. "I" is something that shows up for me, now and then. And "I" is not who I am.

For I, me is not who I am. "Me" is something that shows up now and then when "I" refers to itself. And "me" is not who I am either.

When you bring an open Zen listening to what I'm saying, you'll hear me say I'm not "I" and I'm not "me". You'll hear me say who I am is a clearing, a context, an opening, a possibility, a space, a kind of naked presence, a naked presence not given by words, not given by language, a naked presence prior to words, prior to language. And yet this naked presence gives words, gives language, in fact this naked presence gives who I am.

What I'm saying won't make sense to the analytical mind, well studied and grounded as it is, honorably, in the rules of grammar of the King's English. But it can be gotten. It can be grokked (as Robert Heinlein may have said). And it may not be understood. "Understanding", as Werner Erhard poignantly notes, "is the booby prize".

what if ....

2009-11-03T19:54:00.000-08:00

What if YOU really WERE the Source of who you are, what you do and what you have?

What would You create ... just because you could?

What possibilities would YOUR life be about, if You had a say in the matter of what is authentically possible for you, your family, your colleagues, your communities, your country, your world?

What say You?

the possibility of possibility

2009-11-03T16:48:00.000-08:00

A NEW Book is in the works ...

"Beyond Spirituality"

Creating Authentic Possibilities For A Magnificent Life

This book will be dedicated to my friend and early teacher, Werner Erhard.

Intention of this book: Leave the reader open, moved, and inspired to create possibilities "out of nowhere" ... for themselves, their families, and their world.

Intended Publication: Spring 2010

From The Infinite Possibility for Freedom, Power, and Love ... Being THAT "In-The-World"

Previews and excepts to follow as they arrive "Out Of Nowhere".

2009-11-03T05:26:00.000-08:00

Conversations For Transformation

Essays By Laurence Platt

Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

And More

Running From Empty

Werner Erhard asserts we're convinced if we peel back the layers of our lives like an onion, if we peel back one layer, then we peel back another layer, and then we keep on peeling back layers and layers all the way down to the last layer, we're convinced we'll get to a core, we're sure there's a kernel in there, and we're totally convinced that core, that kernel is what gives meaning to our lives. We're totally convinced that core, that kernel is in fact the substance of our lives.

But there isn't a core. There isn't a kernel. When you peel back the last layer of the onion, there's nothing. Nothing at all. Nothing. And that's who we really are. If you can stop making that mean something, it's an opportunity for enormous freedom.

My first reaction to this maverick assertion of Werner's, this idea of his which undermines my years of majoring in psychology at a reputable university with many of its traditional studies in this arena predicated and founded on Sigmund Freud's psychic apparatus comprising the id, the ego, and the super-ego, was intense curiosity. No, it was more than that, actually. Much more.

A light bulb went on when I first listened him say it. While I, in my own modest inquiries, had come up with something similar (I could write intelligent papers on Freud's hypotheses at college even while his basic premises never quite rang true, never quite jived with my own experience of how we're constituted), my own ideas were still, to be frank, half baked in comparison. Werner I recognized, in contrast, was on to something. I was immediately interested in listening further.

His assertion that there's no core, no kernel beyond the last layer of the onion, rather there's nothing, nothing at all at the source, also challenges and pierces into the Dharmic traditions like Yoga, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism with their notion of an atman, a soul at the core of the human machinery. Indeed, all religious fundamentalists, all well intentioned religious fundamentalists, will have a field day with Werner's exposition, running as it seems to do completely counter to their belief in an individual flawed, sinful entity at the heart of what makes human beings tick.

Werner's nothing, nothing at all at the source, isn't up for rationalizing, intellectualizing, discussing, debating, or cross referencing against other works and texts purporting to reveal what's at the innermost core of how human beings are constituted. That's not because it can't be rationalized, intellectualized, discussed, debated, or cross referenced against other works and texts. Rather it's because what Werner is speaking about can only be gotten by telling the truth about it unflinchingly when it's being experienced directly, personally, intimately.

This isn't the kind of experience which can be reached by majority vote in a democratic election. Nor is it validated as an award, as the spoils to the victor of a spirited debate about it's existence. In fact, if you tell the truth about it, rationality, intellectuality, and clever, intelligent discussion and debate are often nothing more than implements of avoiding the truth. And the thing about Werner's nothing, nothing at all at the source, is it may just be the experience we human beings do our darndest to avoid.

We say things like "It makes me feel empty inside", and when we say that, we're not speaking about an experience we relish. In our harshest moments, if we say to someone "You're nothing!", it's intended derogatorily ie as an insult. Culturally it shows up in our language how we disdain, in other words how we misconstrue the nothing, the nothing at all at the source. We have it that nothing, nothing at all at the source, is something to be avoided at all costs. We've learned that. We've learned that lesson well. It's been passed down from generation to generation. We've been taught to avoid the nothing, the nothing at all at the source. We've been taught to stay away from it. It's worse than that, actually. We've been taught to run from it.

This approach, this erroneous cultural learning born of righteousness and survival, has two inherent problems, two problems which in and of themselves, are sufficient to derail the workability of any life even before it's really gotten under way.

The nothing, the nothing at all at the source, is who you really are. A life lived running from ie a life lived avoiding who you really are is destined for difficulty and hardship from the get go, just like an automobile, thinking it's a boat, would experience difficulty and hardship crossing a lake.

Without a foundation of nothing, without the nothing at all at the source, it's not possible to truly create. The very act of creation implies bringing something forth out of nothing. If you're not coming from nothing, all that's possible is to change something, or to append to something, or maybe even to swap something or to rearrange something. But without coming from nothing, authentic creating is elusive, if not outright impossible.

It takes a certain boldness to stand in nothing, the nothing at all at the source. Given how much we've invested in our acts, our attitudes, our opinions, our positions, our posturing, and in our rampant being right in order to survive, standing in nothing, the nothing at all at the source, isn't for the fainthearted. It takes a certain integrity to give way to who you really are, especially if it requires discarding acts, attitudes, opinions, positions, postures, and righteousness which have taken literally years to put together. It's outright scary in fact - at first.

It's an odd feature of us human beings how much of our lives we live running from who we really are. But the automobile who thinks it's a boat doesn't get very far on a lake. It may indeed be one of the oddest features of us human beings how much of our lives we live running from who we really are. But by the same token, it may be our greatest inherent grace as human beings that with choice, integrity, and intention, we possess within ourselves, at every moment, under all circumstances, the power to transform the quality of our lives. We have the ability to stop running from who we really are. At every moment, under all circumstances, we possess within ourselves, under all circumstances, the power to turn around, and face ourselves - fully.

Much MORE at: http://laurenceplatt.home.att.net/wernererhard/

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2009-11-01T05:01:00.000-08:00

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