The Sense of “I”

 How do I relate these two quotes to explain that they both have the same metaphysical position? LaShan is abstract, Peters is concrete examples.  I am not sure that my point comes across.

(I can write my notes fast and best in email before I share them, by blogging or writing in a comment block on Facebook.  My memories for current stuff is difficult but older stuff, like typing, engineering and department head of Navigation or Weapons in the Navy or juggling are just as strong as always.)

What I want to write about is the relationship between reading about the sense of “I” in chapter 8, page 98 of How to Meditate A Guide to Self Discovery by Lawrence LeShan and Tom Peters essay “Quality can be had in an instant: keeping it every day is the real achievement” from Washington Times November 1993.

Lawrence LaShan writes The Meditation of “Who Am I?” Section of chapter 8, page 99.  He says “I am the person who feels tired,” the reply is “No, that is a sensation I feel. Who is the I who has that sensation?”

Tom Peters writes ON EXCELENCE in the Employment Guide. 

He writes for a restaurant waiter  “… you can become excellent in a nanosecond, starting with your first guest tonight.  Simply picture yourself, even if it’s a very fuzzy picture, as the greatest  waiter ever — and start acting accordingly.

“For the first 99.9 percent of getting from here to there is the determination to do it, and not to compromise, no matter what sort of roadblocks those around you (including peers) erect.

“… (1)  keep your morale up amid inevitable storms, 

(2) learn something new every day, and 

(3) practice that something, awkward or not, every day, no matter what.

“How long does it take you, as boss, to achieve world-class quality?  Less than a nanosecond to attain it, a lifetime of passionate pursuit to maintain it.

“… the deeper point is that you’ll either change in a nanosecond — or never. It’s true with booze, smokes, fat and world-class quality.  The determined shift of mindset is an all-or-nothing deal.

“… It takes forever to maintain change … ; it takes but a flash to achieve change of even the most dramatic sort.

Peters is providing instructions for the sensations and action, but knows the “I” cannot be changed.  The I has the ownership of all of it?  {Actually the I cannot even be spoken about.}

LeShan, Lawrence. How to Meditate (p. 98). Little, Brown and Company. Kindle Edition. 

Tom Peters in an essay I tore from the Washington Times in 1993.