Many paradigmatic breakthroughs involve a change of metaphor.

Someone suggests a new metaphor and it leads to breakthroughs in understanding.

It may not be that one person becomes exposed to a new metaphor and the paradigmatic breakthrough happens immediately. I had one that occurred thirty-five years after hearing the new metaphor.

I had that breakthrough thanks to one brilliant thinker, Werner Erhard. Before I met him, I was deeply cynical. The world did not work and, as long as it left me alone, I was OK knowing that.

Nothing worked. There was nothing we could do about it so don’t get excited. Just go about your work and keep your nose clean.

Then this man, Werner, sitting in a director’s chair, spoke the words “a world that works for everyone.”

Outrageous. C’mon, Werner, this world cannot – no world can – be made to work for everyone.

Ten minutes later I’d be arguing with myself again. No, that cannot be. Silly idea. Forget about it.

But look at the man. He’s so radiant and wise.

The new metaphor – a working world – never left me.  I trusted Werner and so I continued to keep it centermost in my mind, for all these years, hoping that one day I’d solve the mystery – how can the world be made to work for everyone?

***

I wrestled with it and wrestled with it and then, on Sept. 27, 2015 (I think it was), I entered into a state of bliss.  I remained there for around three months and then it melted away. (1)

It took no more than half a day in a state of bliss for everything to be crystal clear to me. Werner must have known this state. He must have had a glimpse of the promised land, what we’d call a glimpse of a higher dimension.

He knew that, while he was in this state, he lived in the context of a world that worked for everyone. It was his realization of this state of bliss that made him certain the world could be made to work for everyone.

No one else probably knew that or had had that exact experience. But he definitely knew it. Werner passed all my tests.

He was able to hold that space of universal workability and communicate from it to the whole world, rather than be beaten down by that world, as most of the rest of us are. That was one of his greatest contributions: That he held the space and modelled it.

***

But here I was in bliss and would it have been possible for me to harm another? Absolutely not. You’d have to be in bliss to see how ridiculous a question that would be to a person in bliss.

If they could pass you a bowl of ambrosia and you’d be in bliss, they would and then you’d instantly see that there’s nothing more desirable than bliss (ok, ecstacy and exaltation) but for the most part nothing more desirable and so why would anyone risk losing their bliss in pursuit of some non-noble end or means?

One minute in bliss and you’d see that. Ask for it. Draw it up from your own heart.

As Ramakrishna said, jump into the lake of bliss, dive in, get pushed in. It doesn’t matter. Just get into the lake. Then you’ll know.

(Concluded in Part 2, tomorrow.)

Footnotes

(1) I’ve been told that I can visit higher states but I cannot (yet) stay there. And that makes sense. If I stayed there, I’d cease being a communicator. And my mission is to write.