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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Flagship Program, Source Experience

TrueNorth, Santa Rosa, California, USA

November 9, 2023

"It needs to be seen that Zen is not a religion in the Western sense. Neither for the most part is Buddhism. A Zen person practicing any religion would practice it with a Zen quality. So there are undoubtedly Zen Christians and Zen Jews and Zen Muhammadans as well as Zen Buddhists."


...

sharing his experience of Zen with Professor William Warren "Bill" Bartley III, Werner's official biographer, in intersection 4 "Zen", in chapter seven called "Quest" in part II, "Education", of "Werner Erhard: The Transformation of a Man - The Founding of est"

"When you've got nothing going on, you can hear everything."


... Sanford "Sandy" Robbins recreating

This essay, Flagship Program, Source Experience, is the companion piece to High Class Zen.

It is also the second in a trilogy written at TrueNorth:

Many well-fleshed-out bodies of knowledge purport to have made sense of life, to have solved life, to have figured it out, to have made it more livable, to have made it bearable, to have made it palatable. Many purport theirs is the handle on life. Some may purport theirs is "The Truth". We run to them to get their "A-Ha!" insights. We collect them like merit badges, one then the next. We're serial disciplinarians, ever hopeful that they'll provide the "answers". So I ask: with what's now available, why try on one more, the work of transformation, when there's already a smorgasbord of religions, disciplines, paths, and schools-of-thought out there to be interested in? If you can start your own religion, why sign up for another program thang? Why bother with one more?

Werner Erhard's work of transformation isn't merely one more of those journeys to embark on, to try on, to take on in order to make life more livable, to make it bearable, to make it palatable before moving on to the next one. It's not an undertaking to take on in addition to all the other undertakings you've taken on in your life. Remarkably, it doesn't promise to make anything in your life easier to understand. It's not the same kettle of fish as browsing items on a menu, and then trying them all on until you find one or more which makes your life more enjoyable. This is a different order of things entirely. It really is.

Participating in Werner's magnum opus ie the work of transformation, is distinct from participating in any other program. In essence, what it does is tease out a new paradigm for being, a new paradigm that shifts what's possible for all endeavors we undertake to make life more worthwhile. Even more than that, it's this new paradigm that renders astonishingly crystal-clear who we're being (ie the context we live from) in the matter of our participation in all endeavors we undertake to make life more worthwhile. Indeed we could say Werner's work of transformation teases out a contextual shift in the way we relate to everything we do in life, including our efforts to make sense of life, to make it more livable, to make it bearable, to make it palatable - in a word, it recontextualizes (I love that word) the way we aspire to make it all better (the way a Daddy kisses his baby's owie, saying "There! All better now ...").

Werner's work of transformation doesn't supplant religion. Members of many clergies worldwide are enthusiastic graduates of Werner's work. Christians, Jews, Muhammadans et al participating in the work of transformation, become transformed Christians, transformed Jews, transformed Muhammadans. Werner's work doesn't supplant isms. Adherents of Buddhism participating in the work of transformation become transformed adherents of Buddhism ie they become transformed Buddhists. Werner's work doesn't supplant atheism. Atheists participating in the work of transformation, become transformed atheists. Werner's work doesn't supplant therapy. Psychotherapists participating in the work of transformation, become transformed psychotherapists. And Werner's work for sure doesn't supplant any disciplines. Adherents of Yin yoga participating in the work of transformation, become transformed Yin yogis.

If there was one thing you did which would give you hands-on access to who you're unknowingly being (ie the context you're unknowingly living from) no matter what else you do or intend to do, it would shift everything, yes? And that would be a flagship program worth participating in, a source experience worth having. That would be an experience which, transforming everything you are, will consequently transform everything you do. It will rock your world.

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