"The Truth, believed, is a lie." -Werner Erhard ________________________________________________________________________________ "All it takes to make a difference is the courage to stop proving I was right in being unable to make a difference ... to stop assigning cause for my inability to the circumstances outside of myself and to be willing to have been that way, and to see that the fear of being a failure is a lot less important than the unique opportunity I have to make a difference." -Werner Erhard, 1980 ________________________________________________________________________________ "It's really a context I'm talking about, a context of freedom and opportunity, a context of human joy, a context of-Really go- for-it. Integrity: "You and I go through life, and you would be surprised how much of the time in life the question, 'How can I live and have integrity at the same time?' is present. It's very difficult for people to live with integrity. Usually, there seems to be a conflict between integrity and living. The fact is that you give up your life when you compromise integrity." Standards: Is it possible to be committed to a set of standards that have nothing to do with being fully alive? You've got standards rather than possibilities, and the standards are more important than life itself." Participation: What I intend to create is the opportunity for people to participate in the transformation of people. For me it is the highest expression of humanity to contribute, to facilitate, to participate in the transformation of humanity." -Werner Erhard, 1974 ________________________________________________________________________________ DEFINITION OF RESPONSIBILITY ________________________________________________________________________________ Please take responsibility for reading this and understanding it and making it your own. Responsibility starts with the willingness to acknowledge that you are cause in the matter. It starts with the willingness to deal with a situation from and with the point of view, WHETHER AT THE MOMENT REALIZED OR NOT, that you are the source of what you are, what you do and what you have. This point of view extends to include even what is done to you and ultimately what another does to another. Responsibility is not fault, praise, blame, shame or guilt. All these include judgments and evaluations of good and bad, right and wrong, or better and worse. They are not responsibility as they are all beyond a simple acknowledgement that you are cause in your own experience. est Erhard Seminars Training Copyright 1973 Werner Erhard DEFINITION OF RESPONSIBILITY ________________________________________________________________________________ Responsibility starts with the willingness to experience yourSelf as cause. It starts with the WILLINGNESS to have the experience of yourSelf as cause in the matter. Responsibility is not burden, fault, praise, blame, credit, shame or guilt. All these include judgments and evaluations of good and bad, right and wrong, or better and worse. They are not responsibility. There are derived from a ground of being in which Self is considered to be a thing or an object rather than a context. Responsibility starts with the willingness to deal with a situation from and with the point of view, whether in the moment realized or not, that you are the source of what you are, what you do, and what you have. This point of view extends to include even what is done to you and ultimately what another does to another. Ultimately, responsibility is a context---a context of Self as source---for the content, i.e., for what is. Copyright 1979 Werner Erhard ________________________________________________________________________________ ACCOUNTABILITY -------------- Accountability is the opportunity to live at choice rather than accidentally. Accountability is the opportunity to carve out the future rather that to sit back and have it happen to you. Accountability held from as stand as one's word is the ground from which one's own transformation is created ongoingly. Transformation lives in accountability. Without accounta- bility, without committed speaking, without promises and declarations, there is no transformation; there is, at best, peak feelings. A promise has real power. A promise made from the stand that who you are is your word, engages you as participant. You cease to be a spectator, and your words become actions that actually impact the world. With a promise you create a condition that supports your commitment rather than your moods. When motivational dialog comes up about your preference versus your commitments, and you disregard the dialog in favor of doing what you said you would do solely because you said so, you distinguish yourself from your psychology. In that moment you are your word as an action, rather than only as an idea you have. In that moment the promise becomes who you are rather than something you said; and your relationship to the world shifts. You find yourself producing results that seem discontinuous and unpredictable from the point of view of the spectator. The experience is one of joy, fearlessness, irrepressible energy and satisfaction. Transformation exists not only when we speak about it but when we empower others to speak it. The success of our work will be measured by our ability to penetrate the prevailing conceptual reality with the possibility that transformation is. That environment is carved out and strengthened in participation and in engagement by the people who have taken part in the forum. Joining together to speak for the possibility that transformation is the generates a momentum that empowers all of us and all of the work. -Werner Erhard ________________________________________________________________________________ SERVICE ------- "My notion about service is that service is actually that kind of relationship in which you have a commitment to the person. What I mean, in fact, is that for me what service is about is being committed to the other being. To who the other person is. To the degree that you are, in fact, committed to the other person, you are only as valuable as you can deal with the other person's stuff, their evidence, their manifesta- tion, and that's what's service is about. Service is about knowing who the other person is and being able to tolerate giving space to their garbage. What most people do is is to give space to people's quality and deal with their garbage. Actually, you should do it the other way around. Deal with who they are and give space to their garbage. Keep interacting with them as if they were God. And every time you get garbage from them, give space to garbage and go back and interact with them as if they were God." -Werner Erhard "The nature of a breakthrough is for you to stand on what you've gotten, what you've loved, what's been important to you, what's touched you, what's inspired you, what's turned your life on; to stand on the value you've already created for yourself and look out at the possibility for being alive that opens up, like a freedom, in front of you." -Werner Erhard ________________________________________________________________________________ H A V I N G THE ONLY THING THERE IS TO DO TODAY IS WHAT YOU DO TODAY. The only thing you are going to do today is what you do today. Therefore, the only thing there IS to do today is what you do today. That's all there was to do when you started no matter what you thought or think. The "Oh my God" Syndrome ------------------------ Most people go around thinking that what there is to do today is all that stuff that there is to do. That is to say, everything that isn't done. This is a lie. this lie leads to stupidity. This stupidity leads to ineffectiveness. This ineffectiveness leads to fewer results being produced. Leaving, apparently, more to be done. And there you have the downward spiral which is unworkability. THE ONLY THING THERE IS TO DO TODAY IS WHAT YOU ACTUALLY DO TODAY! There is nothing else to do today! You get it? There isn't anything to do today except what you actually do. That's all there is to do today. Do you get it? If you do actually get it, you should feel the muscles in your body begin to relax. A sense of freedom and power begins to well up within you. Now, you want to go to work, get to it, get at it, get it done. And here you have the upward spiral which is workability. But what are you going to do about all the things you aren't going to get to today, the things you aren't going to do today? What about all the things that haven't gotten done, the things that aren't getting done, the new things that will come up to be done, the things that need to be done, the things that must be done. What about all that? The only thing there is to do today is what you actually do today! There is nothing else to do today! Everything else that you think you have to do today is actually something to have. What the hell does that mean? ---------------------------- Having is actually a function of being able to be in the presence of. Specifically, the context of having is the ability to BE in THE PRESENCE OF. To have starts with the willingness for something to exist, to recognize it, to accept it. It goes through a scale of greater and greater responsibility up to owning or creating or sourcing. So having starts with the willingness to know about, to be aware of, to acknowledge the existence of, to recognize, to allow to be. If something comes along that you don't have the time or the wherewithal to do, the natural inclination is to reject it, to resist it. (For instance, one form of resistance is constructing an explanation or justification for not doing it.) Resisting it, rejecting it makes you smaller than it, and puts you in a mode of unworkability. Now you can't even ably accomplish what you did have the time and the wherewithal to do. 1 The secret to maintaining a condition of workability is to recognize that what comes along, what comes up, what you're given is, at first, only something to HAVE. Having it starts out with accepting it, recognizing its existence. It's simple and straightforward -- you allow it to be, it allows you to be. Actually, it expands your being; who you are is expanded by encompassing -- giving being to -- something new, something more. The context of workability is expanded because who you are is expanded. Whence nattering ---------------- When there is a lot of grumbling and mumbling, criticism, nattering and pettiness amongst a staff, when that is the underlying basis for interaction among a staff, it's a sure sign that people's ability to have is lacking. People complain and gossip when they have not developed the ability to have. -- the ability to BE IN THE PRESENCE OF. What we are not able to be in the presence of, we handle by reducing. We have to reduce it, belittle it, be critical of it, make it small. Although we usually fail to notice it, the action we take to make it smaller makes us smaller. Another alternative is that we become unconscious about it. We drive it out of awareness so that it is no longer there for us. The action of becoming unconscious about it also reduces us. The result of not being able to have is withdrawal and/or unconsciousness. When we cannot have something, we must either drive it out of awareness or criticize it so as to reduce, or natter so as to invalidate. The whole business of invalidation, suppression, criticism, nattering, complaining and the like is a function of not being able to have. And not being able to have is often a function of misidentifying what there is to do. What there is to do today is what you will have gotten done when the day is over, and nothing more. The rest is something to have. If you can allow the rest to be, i.e. be conscious of it, accept it, it will allow you to be. Otherwise, it threatens you and you either have to resist it, or see yourself as smaller than it by comparison. For Example ... --------------- What happens when something new, for example, an opportunity to create something that's never existed before is presented to you? Sometimes, initially, the opportunity is easy to accept and even support. It is, until you realize that YOU have to make it happen. Then you notice that you view shifts. You immediately go into resistance; "I've already got to much to do, I can't take on more." You start to belittle and to make it a problem or an unwanted annoyance; "I hate to participate. Things never work. People are too disorganized and besides, the whole thing is all screwed up." 2 If, however, you see the opportunity as something TO HAVE you will notice that the quality of your relationship to it shifts INSTANTLY. You can say to yourself, "I can have this, I can allow it to be and be in its presence," then you can see its value. If you can relate to it as something that you are willing to have exist, something with which you are willing to exist, then you can support it. You can then HAVE something and see it for what it is, be with it as it is, and allow it to succeed out of your support. How to Turn This Insight Into Garbage ------------------------------------- All of this insight about where there is to do and what there is to have can be made invalid by using the information to survive, i.e., to justify, explain, avoid responsibility for. A jargonistic response "I can have that" is almost a sure signal that someone is attempting to avoid responsibility for the accomplishment of something, for producing a result. On the other hand, if you can confront something new to do, first as something to have, then the expansion of self that has occurred should result, where appropriate, in your being able to say "you can count on me for that result." When there is something to be done, people don't care that you can have it. Having it is only the first step. Having is a way of empowering yourself so that you can produce the result without overwhelm or struggle. You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet -------------------------- The truth of the matter is that the job around here is to make the world work, not just to get one particular job done; not to do the training, or produce the event, or operate the console, or type the transcript, or manage the center, or handle the enrollments. The job is to make the world work for everyone. That's what there is for all of us in the organization to do. In order to do that job, the kind of people we need are people who possess an enormous tolerance for having, people who are able to expand and have it all. This Can Actually Make a Difference in Life ------------------------------------------- There is a potential for an unbelievable breakthrough here. Miracles will occur by your being willing to have. The areas in which you have been withdrawing will now begin to open up and you will begin to open up. The things about which you have been unconscious will now become apparent and your consciousness will expand. You will find that the ability to have will increase your productivity miraculously. There will still be the same number of hours in the day and you won't be putting in any more time, yet you'll be getting more done. A part of my routine each day, for example, is to go over all the things I'm not going to do -- to know about them, experience them, be with them -- have them. You actually need to discipline yourself to look at what you're not doing. You have it. It's and active, willful intentional thing. To have something is very intentional. In Short -------- Decide what it is you are going to do today, write it down, then do it. If you don't get it all done by the end of the day, complete it by writing what is undone on your list to do tomorrow. THE ONLY THING YOU ARE GOING TO DO TODAY IS WHAT YOU DO TODAY. Relax. Go for it. Do it all, have it all, with joy. -Werner Erhard January 1, 1981 3 ________________________________________________________________________________ The "little brown book" presented to est participants upon their graduation: +------------------------------------------+ | | | Congratulations on having graduated | | from the training. | | | | Thank you for allowing me | | to share in your life. | | | | Please accept this as a gesture of | | my appreciation for the space | | you create in my life | | by participating in est. | | | | I love you. | | | | W E R N E R | | | +------------------------------------------+ ======================================= ======================================= About the Orchid leaves on the cover: In Chinese art the Orchid symbolizes Love, Beauty, Elegance, Refinement, many descendants, and the perfect human being. ======================================= ======================================= If God Had Meant Man to Fly, He Would Have Given Him Wings. ======================================= ======================================= or: Up to Your Ass in Aphorisms 1st Printing December 1973 40,000 copies 2nd Printing November 1974 100,000 copies Copyright (C) 1973 by Werner Erhard ======================================= ======================================= The truth doesn't mean anything. If you keep saying it It just is. the way it really is, eventually your word is law in the universe. ======================================= ======================================= Man keeps looking for Obviously the truth is a truth that fits his reality. what's so Given our reality, Not so obviously, it's also the truth doesn't fit. so what. If you experience it, it's the truth. The same thing believed is a lie. In life, understanding is the booby prize. ======================================= ======================================= You don't get to vote on the way it is. When you've said all of the You already did. bad things and all of the good things you haven't been saying, you will find that what you've really been withholding is, "I love you." You don't have to go looking for love when it is where you come from. ======================================= ======================================= I know that you know Happiness that I love you, is a function of accepting what is. What I want you to know is that I know Love you love me. is a function of communication. Health is a function of participation. Self-Expression is a function of responsibility. ======================================= ======================================= It's much easier to ride the horse Life is a ripoff in the direction he's going. 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. ======================================= ======================================= Perfection is a state in which things are the way they are If you're not all right the way you are and not the way they are not. it takes a lot of effort to get better. As you can see, this universe is perfect. Realize you're all right the way you are, and you'll get better naturally. Don't lie about it. You're god in your universe. You caused it. Don't change beliefs. You pretended not to cause it. Transform the believer. so that you could play in it, and you can remember you caused it any time you want to. ======================================= ======================================= One creates from nothing. Life is a game. If you try to create from something you're just changing something. In order to have a game something has to be more important So in order to create something you than something else. first have to be able to create nothing. If what already is, is more important than what isn't, To make sure a person doesn't find out the game is over. who he is, convince him that he can't really make anything disappear. So life is a game in which what isn't All that's left then is to resist, Let the good times roll. solve, fix, help or change things. That's trying to make something out of something. ======================================= ======================================= This is it. There are no hidden meanings. The essence of communication is intention. All that mystical stuff is just what's so. A master is someone who found out. ======================================= ======================================= If you could really accept that you weren't ok you could stop proving you were ok This is the end, If you could stop proving that you were ok you could get that is was ok not to be ok. If you could get that it was ok not to be ok The end justifies the means. you could get that you were ok the way you are. or it doesn't. You're ok, get it? ======================================= ======================================= If God told you exactly what it was you were to do, you would be happy doing it no matter what it was. What you're doing is what God wants you to do. Be happy. ======================================= ======================================= ________________________________________________________________________________ Werner Erhard, The Transformation of a Man, The Founding of est Author: William W. Bartley III Publisher: Clarkson and Potter, 1978 ISBN: 0-517-53502-5 60 Minutes and The Assassination of Werner Erhard Author: Jane Self Publisher: Breakthru Publishing, 1992 $19.95 + shipping and handling. (713) 522-7660, (800) 277-1152 ISBN: 0-0942540-23-9 p 134: C Awareness Network, 64 photocopied pages, for $10.00 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------