rom the perspective that I call evolutionary nonduality, we don't want to separate our self from the world process because when we do we fall into a false or dualistic way of thinking. We are not separate from the world process. In our own small way, we're all contributing to where we're going. The choices we make, the actions we take, what we say, what we don't say, are all adding to the momentum of the vast cosmic unfolding.
When we really embrace the TRUTH - that we are not separate from the process that created us, then we need to become very clear about all the ways in which we are actually affecting the process, so that we can begin to more consciously impact its momentum in positive and evolutionary ways.
~ Andrew Cohen…
a paradox. Let go of everything and have the courage and faith and conviction to keep letting go, fearlessly, no matter what arises. But don't let go of consciousness, don't let go of attention, don't let go of awareness. Meditation is the paradox between those two positions.
—Andrew Cohen
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eginning and no end. It is what the Buddha called the Unborn. It is an Absolute dimension of reality that is both birthless and deathless. The material universe, on the other hand, is considered to be finite. Even though it is vast in its expanse, it is ultimately relative, because it has a beginning and an end. It was created. However, cosmologists are now making the extraordinary discovery that the material universe is in fact not finite but infinite. And if what these cosmologists are discovering is true, we need to rethink this traditional mystical assumption. If the evolutionary process and everything contained within it are part of an infinite unfolding as they are finding—if it's not merely inconceivably vast but it's literally infinite—then we don't have to close our eyes or even transcend the mind, time, body, and universe in order to discover that which is infinite. All we have to do is behold the universe that we are already an inherent part of. And that opens the doors for a whole new definition of mysticism.
—Andrew Cohen…
this orientation is from the ways we have traditionally and culturally been conditioned to relate to the human experience. With the exception of very rare individuals, throughout history our orientation has generally been toward creating security, towards carving out a safe place in which to experience comfort and pleasure. Even revolutionaries who challenge the status quo in order to gain more rights and freedoms usually do so only until those rights and freedoms are achieved, after which they tend to settle in to a new status quo. Of course, there have always been rare individuals and inspired geniuses who, animated by the pulsation of the evolutionary impulse, are ever-reaching for that which is new, who have felt compelled to make significant progress and create new pathways in their particular fields. But what I'm speaking about here is not a particular kind of genius or talent—it's a certain attitude and aspiration in relationship to the whole process of being alive.
This shift in values that creates the conditions for perpetual emergence is a fundamental shift in orientation that is just beginning to dawn on us as we awaken to the fact that we are part of a process that is going somewhere. And it's not merely a personal shift; it is a very deep cultural change in the human psyche as a whole.
~ Andrew Cohen…
Added by Michael Grove at 12:56 on February 15, 2011
om any form of conceptual engagement with the mind. Allow your attention to become vast, wide, open, and clear. In that wide-open space, all kinds of things may come and go—thoughts, emotions, physical sensations—but don't focus your attention on any of them. Let your awareness expand in all directions, until it becomes so vast that you're paying attention to everything at the same time while not focusing on anything in particular. Keep letting your attention expand until awareness itself becomes the object of your attention. Keep letting your attention expand to infinity, until all the structures of the created universe begin to crumble and you start seeing through everything. Finally, when everything falls away, you will awaken, in your own experience, to the unborn, unmanifest Ground of Being, the empty void out of which the whole manifest world sprang into existence. In this place, nothing has ever happened. The universe has not yet emerged; you have not been born; even time itself has not yet begun. When you find this limitless no-place, then your deepest sense of yourself and of life itself will change from one of imprisonment and limitation to one of unqualified freedom.
~ Andrew Cohen…
led by the evolutionary impulse must be willing to embrace the dramatic scale at which the life-process is operating. When we awaken to the fact that we are part of a fourteen-billion-year process that is going somewhere, we begin to see our own day-to-day, moment-to-moment choices in a literally cosmic context. We see our own presence here on earth in relationship to the evolution of the cosmos itself.
THIS cosmic orientation is essential - if we are to succeed in taking the next evolutionary step.
If our orientation is not that big, we are always going to fall short. Our habitual ways of thinking are just too small-minded, petty, and personal. In order for authentic, profound, and meaningful transformation to occur, we have to make the effort to see all of our choices in this cosmic context. And that, in itself, is evolution. That's what our next step is: awakening to a cosmic orientation to being a human being, here on earth, right now.
—Andrew Cohen…
om a completely different vantage point. I no longer saw the world from within the prison of my small self. Now I saw my small self from outside it. And this outside position included the whole universe. To say I was amazed is an understatement. I was in a state of awe and wonder at the spectacular turn of events, shift in perspective, and profound self-transformation. Now my sense of self was literally enormous. And this enormity was inclusive. The once-tiresome and mundane melodrama of my personal identity had broken wide open and suddenly felt like it was the thrilling journey of the entire cosmos. My own life now felt like it was one with all of life and my sense of self had transformed in such a way that now I wanted to embrace or include as many others in this newfound consciousness as I could.
—Andrew Cohen
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Added by Michael Grove at 17:35 on September 14, 2012
opting, on behalf of the whole of our species, a collective behavioural mind-set focused on A SINGULAR MATRIX itself focussed on qualitative evolutionary advancement - having become aware of the underlying purpose of THE MATRIX itself.
- and as Andrew Cohen has recently proposed ..."The overwhelming and profound nature of the spiritual metamorphosis that occurs as one begins to move beyond individual and collective egoic self structures is difficult to convey without knowing about it directly from personal experience. If one had only known the darkness and had never seen the light of the sun, how could it be described in such a way that it would truly be understood? The "light of consciousness" illuminates all things but if we haven't discovered it directly for ourselves, no matter how bright that light may be, we won't be able to see it. And why is that? Because our attention is simply on other things. An enlightened person is illuminated by that same luminous essence that makes it possible for the world to exist."IS IT NOT a multidimensional scientific fact that consciousness drives the universe ?…
f ever-greater complexification and that we are part of that evolving process. We're aware of the Darwinian notion of biological evolution and accept the scientific evidence about how life has evolved. And some of us are even aware of the notion of cultural evolution, the recognition that culture has been developing over time through a series of stages.
BUT very few of us are really awake to the notion of spiritual evolution.
Seeing evolution as a spiritual unfolding that has an exterior and an interior, and understanding that our own experience of subjectivity is the leading edge of the interior of that creative process, is a very recently emerging idea.
Traditionally, spiritual teachings pointed to a static attainment. The aspiration for enlightenment was the aspiration to come to rest in a steady state—in nirvana, in heaven. But when spirituality is reinterpreted from an evolutionary perspective, it is the aspiration for infinite becoming. The evolutionary impulse is an infinite reaching towards the future that affects the way we think about everything. Now we are no longer looking for spiritual liberation and release beyond the world, or after we die. We realize that the spiritual release is found in unconditionally, radically, and totally embracing the creative process of infinite becoming, as ourselves. It's a very different orientation to spiritual liberation.
~ Andrew Cohen…
In an evolutionary context, we could choose to describe that absolute principle as "the energy and intelligence that initially created and is continuing to create the universe." In the way that I understand it, that driving force is more an impulse than it is a divine being. In that impulse, there is no predetermined plan at work. It is a directionality, a momentum, a reaching towards. This definition of God does not depend on any kind of metaphysical belief or faith. All we need to do is look into the truth of our own experience and what science has revealed to us. 13.7 billion years of cosmic evolution has given rise to 3.8 billion years of biological evolution, which has given rise to tens of thousands of years of cultural evolution. We're on a moving train.
We're all part of a process that's going somewhere.
We don't have to believe in a metaphysical deity to feel the drive of an evolutionary impulse as a tangible energetic presence in our own experience at different levels. At the lowest level, the sexual drive can be recognized as an evolutionary impulse. At a much higher level, the uniquely human compulsion towards innovation can be recognized as an evolutionary impulse. And finally, at the highest level, the spiritual impulse, which is a compulsion towards higher consciousness, can be recognized as an evolutionary impulse.
Something miraculous is going on here and it's trying to happen in and through all of us in every moment.
—Andrew Cohen…