Quote by Werner Erhard

In the April, 1977 Graduate Review, Werner discusses the concept of enlightenment via est and how it relates to the self: "In the experience of enlightenment, the self ceases to be a thing stuck in a particular location or position. You are no longer that thing over there and I this thing over here. Instead, I experience myself as the space which that thing I call 'you' and that thing I call 'me' exists. As that unfolds, you have less and less attachment to that position, that thing which you have called yourself. Finally, there's no real distinction, in terms of what's important, between the thing you call yourself and the thing you call somebody else. That dichotomy begins to break down. When I discover MY self and when you discover YOUR self, you and I will discover the same self. So then, compassion becomes very NATURAL. Not something you do. In other words, one doesn't now ACT compassionate ‑‑ one IS compassionate in that the self recognizes ALL as itself.