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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Ordinary People Star, Extraordinary People Recreate Themselves

Cowboy Cottage, East Napa, California, USA

January 25, 2021


"The beginning of mastery is that what you are mastering at least comes up for you immediately when you have failed with what you are mastering, that is to say, you consistently immediately catch yourself."
...   leading the Mastery Course 
"If I don't manage to fly, someone else will. The spirit wants only that there be flying. As for who happens to do it, in that he has only a passing interest."
... Rainer Maria Rilke transcribed by  
This essay, Ordinary People Star, Extraordinary People Recreate Themselves, is the companion piece to Emeriti.

It is also is the eighteenth in the open second group of Experiences Of A Friend (click here for the complete first group of thirty five Experiences Of A Friend):
  1. Friend, Partner, And Ally
  2. Go To The Beach
  3. Proof Of Life
  4. Going Out Like A Supernova
  5. Relationships: They Start, They End
  6. Evidence Of Source
  7. On Knowing When To Be Ordinary
  8. Letting Be
  9. Transforming The Untransformable
  10. There's Always The Next Piece
  11. Plastic Chandelier II
  12. Yes You Really Are That Big
  13. A Way With Words
  14. The Quietest Mind
  15. Approaching Integrity
  16. Dancing With Life II
  17. Staying In Integrity
  18. Ordinary People Star, Extraordinary People Recreate Themselves
  19. Committed Existence
  20. When You're Being Like Werner, You're Not Being Like Werner
  21. "There's Life Happening Where You Are"
  22. At The Level Of Self-Expression
  23. Intergalactic Dude
  24. Wonderful With People
  25. The Piercing Essay
in that order.


During the brief time we each get to live on the planet, we all get to know many people. It's among them that I've gotten to be near a few truly great  people - great women, great men. And occasionally I've had the pleasure (no, the profound privilege  actually) of meeting some of them mano y mano  ie in-person, face-to-face.

What's always been there, unmistakably, in every such meeting, is the je ne sais quoi  that comes over me when I'm in the presence of true greatness - that is to say, when I'm in the presence of truly great human beings. I get it about them. What I get about them, is "You  ... are a truly great  human being" which I mull over to myself quietly. The sense of the immediate, direct, subliminal, non-analytical recognition of their greatness ie of what it is to be a truly great human being, is clear. In the moment, it's instantly obvious, coming as it does with no reference to any prior conceptualization of greatness. Great is great. It's present. It's now. It's real.

I met one of the world's great film directors. The sense of his enormous  ability to create and command, was palpable. Given it's that ability which he brings to bear on the world, the world doesn't (no, it can't)  stand a chance of staying static and unresponsive to him for too long. What he sees and says, literally calls forth and powerfully crafts entirely new  worlds. That's cinema. And what I got about him, was "You ... are truly great human being" which I mulled over to myself quietly.

I met one of the world's great yoga  masters, if not the  greatest yoga master of all time. The good light coming out of his face was almost blinding, even as it was heart-melting. He could effortlessly bend and flex his body like a pretzel - ample evidence of decades of commitment to the practice of yoga. The flexibility of his body shone through the flexibility of his being and demeanor. And what I got about him, was "You ... are a truly great human being" which I mulled over to myself quietly.

I met one of the world's great Zen masters, a folksy, imminently and roguishly  likeable guy, a most unlikely man to have aspired to and realized satori, given his straight-laced professional origins and background. And what I got about him, was "You ... are a truly great human being" which I mulled over to myself quietly.

Then I met Werner. And what I got being around him which I mulled over to myself quietly, was "I ... am a truly great human being.".

Recreation As A Distinction

Werner has exceeded setting himself up to be the star of his own show. To the contrary, what he exhorts those who would cast him as the star, is noteworthy:


<quote>

IF YOU'RE GOING TO PUT ME ON A PEDESTAL, CLIMB UP HERE WITH ME.

<unquote>


That's extraordinary. Why? There are now many people leading (and who've led) Werner's programs in whom he, eschewing the role of star has instead recreated  himself. So it damn-near doesn't really matter who's leading. Participants discover the same distinctions and the same experience around whomever's leading, as they would around him. That's extremely rare. It's extraordinary really. It shows the selflessness (and the willingness and the intention and the generosity and the brilliance) to recreate oneself ie to grant others  greatness. It's how you make a profound, lasting difference in life while deftly avoiding getting stuck in the ego-trap of stardom.


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