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
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Being A Being Coach II

Cowboy Cottage, East Napa, California, USA

April 18, 2021


This essay, Being A Being Coach II, is the third in the ninth trilogy Breakfast With The Master:
  1. A Fountainhead Of Clarity And Power
  2. Conversation With A Laser II
  3. Being A Being Coach II
in that order. 		The first trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:
  1. Conversation With A Laser
  2. Shut Up And Do What You're Doing
  3. Secret Agent
in that order.
The second trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:
  1. Breakfast With The Master II: Future Health
  2. Breakfast With The Master II: Future Finances
  3. Breakfast With The Master II: Future Open
in that order. 		The third trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:
  1. Raw Power
  2. It Works Better As A Possibility
  3. Magic At Heart
in that order.
The fourth trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:
  1. Breakfast With The Master IV: Parental Care
  2. Breakfast With The Master IV: Taking The Guilt Out Of It
  3. Breakfast With The Master IV: Language As Music
in that order. 		The fifth trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:
  1. Whatever Works
  2. Yesterday's Transformation
  3. Billions And Billions Of Stars
in that order.
The sixth trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:
  1. Breakfast With The Master VI: Doo-Wop, Coffee, And Intention
  2. Breakfast With The Master VI II: Cherish These Days
  3. Breakfast With The Master VI III: Forwarding The Fulfillment
in that order. 		The seventh trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:
  1. We're Here
  2. Being A Being Coach
  3. You Already Got It
in that order.
The eighth trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:
  1. Breakfast With The Master VIII: What People Crave
  2. Breakfast With The Master VIII II: Keep Talking
  3. Breakfast With The Master VIII III: Fearless In The Face Of Life
in that order. 		The tenth trilogy Breakfast With The Master is:
  1. Breakfast With The Master X: Living In A Story
  2. Breakfast With The Master X II: Don't Believe In The Buddha
  3. Breakfast With The Master X III: Broadening Horizons
in that order.
The ninth trilogy Breakfast With The Master is the sequel to Carefully Chosen words.
This essay, Being A Being Coach II, is the sequel to Being A Being Coach.
It is also the prequel to Imagination.

I used to be a "Leave me alone, I'll figure it out for myself" kind of guy ie an "I do it my way" kind of person - until one day a friend of mine held out a potter's thrown coffee mug and asked me to describe everything I see. "I see" I said ... and then I dutifully described the shape of the mug, the shine on its kiln-fired ceramic surface, the pattern the potter had dabbed into its glaze, everything. I even estimated its weight, capacity, and size in inches. "That's what I see" I said, "that's all, and that's everything" I concluded. "Everything?" he repeated. "Yes, everything.". And then slowly, very slowly, he turned the mug around, and said "You forgot about the handle Laurence, you didn't see the mug's handle" (he'd been holding the mug out toward me with its handle on the side facing him).

In that moment I realized everything there is for me to know about the arrogance of my own blindspots  ie the things I don't know that I don't know  that I don't see, and what protecting them costs me. In that moment I realized that without being coachable ie without being open to people I trust enough to listen what they see about how I could otherwise run my life in a way that's more workable, I would never get to live beyond my own limited worldview ie I would never be able to live bigger than the small slice of the pie I currently have access to. That's what cued me to request a breakfast with the master in the first place, a breakfast which, to my awe and delight, turned into these ongoing, annual breakfasts with the master. And that's how he became my coach - specifically, of all the areas of our lives in which a human being can be coached, he became my being  coach.

What do I mean by the distinction "being  coach"? One of my coaches, coaches me in matters of integrity. Another coaches me in transforming upsets into breakthroughs. And yet another coaches me in financial matters. What the master coaches me in, is being  - plain, simple, good ol' being. Look: what he says / tells me about ways of being (and about my ways of being in particular), while profound, is but a tiny aspect of his coaching. The magnum opus  of his coaching, is simply the way he be's. And I get it - like a sponge ie by osmosis  (if you will). And I take on and try out being the ways he be's. That's his coaching. Sometimes it's an ordeal by fire. Sometimes it's sublime. Always it's the bedrock of what it is to be fully, completely, powerfully alive - no matter what, under all circumstances.

I wonder aloud with him what I'll do if or when all my coaches are gone. One idea I've toyed with is if or when that happens, I'll simply stop doing what I do. I'm nearly 71. At this age, it's becoming more and more acutely obvious that people in my perimeter are nearing the end of their lives. I share about the particular focus of my writing inspired by a friend, to whom I'm so present  as I write, that it's as if he's (quote unquote) "... sitting on my table  as I write.". And he says "But that's not true Laurence. He's not  sitting on your table.". Wow! I get it: it's not true - and yet  I speak as if it is, blurring the line between my feelings and reality. "No" he continues, "you're imagining  him sitting on your table as you write. But listen: that's your access to recreating him when he's not there: imagine him, then write.".

At first I'm stopped. When someone tells me I'm imagining  something, it often lands as disparaging - like I'm making it up  ie not telling the truth about it. Then I get that I am  imagining him sitting on my table. But instead of being disparaging, it's both a terser integrity than mine, as well as an access to powerfully recreating him.

My agreement is to end when our time is up or when my agenda list is completed - whichever comes first. "That's my list, completed" I say, ten minutes early. "Good" he says, "see you next year.".


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