Seeing Who We Are
When Bucky and Werner first met, they recognized the beginning of a spacious, synergistic relationship. Their relationship expanded during subsequent meetings until several months later, in 1976, the Werner Erhard Foundation sponsored a series of events which brought Werner and Bucky together on stage in four cities for day-long conversations that were attended by 7300 people.
“I didn’t know what the est training was,” Bucky relates, “but we hit it off right away. What was really beautiful about Werner was the fact that he dared to be naïve – which is the only way you can really learn. In our events he became like a child. This endeared him to me very greatly.”
Bucky’s global vision and Werner’s intention are complementary, creating a dynamic whole through the constant interplay of energies.
Bucky’s vision of transformation on the planet comes from his experience that people change when they are provided with physical alternatives, i.e. artifacts, which create an environment harmonious with the principles of the universe.
Werner talks about transforming the “beingsphere,” and the est training is designed to create a space for transformation within the individual being. Individuals, then, serve to transform society and humanity by expanding their personal transformation to levels of relationship, organization, and society.
The point at which Bucky and Werner’s philosophies converge is the issue of individual responsibility. Neither of them is interested in creating movements or followings. Neither is interested in people who want to be told what to do, but rather in people who experience their wholeness and have the courage to ask “What needs to be done?” and “What can I do?”
Bucky is an example of what one committed individual can do. His monumental accomplishments as one individual are a challenge to what we can create as an alignment of thousands of committed individuals. He is the prototype for who we are. Bucky’s 50-year experiment has been a success because we are here now to carry on the work. Our work has just begun.
- Mary Earle, 1979
