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September 04, 2007
It’s All Too Much!Pushing the edge of soul development on retreat in Tuscany
Life is strange, and reality as it truly is seems to be inherently complex and confusing. And yet it can be relatively simple—if we want it to be. The self that sincerely resolves to come out of hiding and become one with the life process makes life simple through his or her own choices and actions. The self that is not yet ready to do this hides out in a shadow world of self-created confusion and ambiguity. I’ve been a spiritual teacher for 21 years. My greatest source of confidence is a simple fact: as a teacher and as a human being, I’m still evolving. I’m still developing. And I feel that my years of hard teaching experience have forged a weight of strength, clarity, and conviction that can only be won through standing one’s ground amidst the myriad and daunting challenges facing those who find themselves compelled to push the edge for the sake of creating something new.  Two weeks ago, I came back from leading an eight-day retreat in Tuscany. Everything was absolutely perfect, and it simply could not have gone better than it did. The golden light and rustic terrain of the Italian countryside is breathtaking in its rugged beauty. Two hundred fifty earnest and sincere people, many having traveled from the farthest corners of our small planet—from Mali to Hong Kong to Sydney to Madras—came to spend that spiritually supercharged week with me. From the very instant I arrived, I was overtaken by a torrent of overwhelming depth, passionate intensity, and ecstatic conviction. At times I realized I sounded more like a preacher than a teacher of enlightenment. I think it was because something was coming through me loud and clear that was more relevant, challenging, and fundamental for the evolving self at the beginning of the twenty-first century than any experience of higher states of consciousness. This message was: the evolution of consciousness and culture at the leading edge depends upon moral development. Enlightenment, or evolution beyond ego, if it is going to count for anything in our time, means moral development. Spiritual evolution, for those of us who are the wealthiest, most highly educated, privileged souls to have ever entered into manifestation this side of the Milky Way, means moral development.  For the highly developed self whose capacity for individuation has reached its evolutionary apex, enlightenment—or the experience of consciousness beyond ego—without a dramatic leap in moral development, inevitably results in spiritually empowered narcissism. And a spiritually empowered narcissist will never be in a position to be a genuine enabler of the kind of profound individual and collective transformation that we all desperately need right now. What does it mean to finally come out of our “personal story”? What does it mean to be overwhelmed by a truth, a depth, and a sense of purpose and meaning that is so absolutely captivating and life-affirming that one is literally brought to one’s knees in utter submission? Here’s how I explained it in Tuscany:
As the week unfolded, it became more and more tangible to everyone present that our own development is the evolution of the process and the evolution of the process is our individual and collective salvation. It became clearer and clearer that in this context, moral development is the emergence of our own capacity to feel, beyond our ego’s perceived needs, what is urgently needed by the very process that produced us. The individual who awakens to the self beyond ego in an evolutionary context discovers a life-transforming moral obligation to evolve not only for his or her own sake but for the sake of the process itself. I’ve often described this as a twenty-first century expression of the Bodhisattva vow, or Jesus’ eternal declaration, “Not my will but Thy will be done.”  I don’t think I’ve ever affected a group of people more powerfully, more seamlessly, and at so many levels as I did that week in Tuscany. Everybody knew it was not about any of us as individuals but about the evolution of the process, and for those few days, it was unavoidably apparent that that alone is what makes this life truly worth living. It’s also what makes it the ultimate challenge for the evolving soul. During the intensity of this descent of grace, a close student of mine, who I’ve known for over 15 years, suddenly left, saying, “It’s all too much!” And he’s right. It is. We’ve just posted the full-length mp3 from a talk on soul development, which I think pushed everyone on the retreat over the edge. Click here to download. You can also watch a short video clip on Andrew Cohen Interactive. Post a CommentBefore commenting, please note that this is a moderated forum and all comments are reviewed before posting. In the interest of furthering the topic of discussion, comments that do not comply with the comments policy will not be posted. Please take a moment to read the guidelines. Due to the time needed for review, comments will not be posted immediately, but please do not double-post just because your comment did not appear right away. |
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Yes, yes, yes!!! To all of it. YES.
Yes, Andrew, I was there. And the power and simplicity of your words were stunning. Something you did not mention in your blog is the emphasis you placed on CULTURE as essential for our moral development. I came away realizing that in our families, our communities, our gatherings with other evolutionaries, we need to be speaking about this, creating culture as only humans can do—with both words and actions.
In so many ways, including your discussion of Clarity of Intention as the manifestation of the evolutionary impulse streaming through us, the retreat left me with a greater understanding and commitment to help create a culture of moral development that will help to raise us all up.
This focus on moral development reminds me of the traditional Buddhist Theravadan 3 step path to liberation: Sila or the cultivation of morality (taking the precepts) followed by the development of the powers of concentration and mindfulness (Samadhi and Vipassana) that lead to the development of wisdom or Prajna/panna. Sila is the base and without it being wide and strong, the higher levels are unstable. By following the craving for awakening and the fireworks that come from developing the powers of the mind, students can be a danger to themselves and others without a strong moral foundation.
As a minister serving a Unitarian Universalist congregation, my focus is on moral development of my members. My members are primarily interested in how to live rightly in this world and how to apply influence through social and political action to move it toward the good, to help it evolve in a life affirming direction.
Many of them are inexperienced in developing the higher states of awareness that would magnify their capacity for world transformation.
I fervently wish for my ministry to be a vehicle to help them discover their greater potential for transformation.
What an incredible retreat it was! What you said in your blog about the fact that “everybody knew it was not about any of us as individuals but about the evolution of the process, and for those few days, it was unavoidably apparent that that alone is what makes this life truly worth living” is so completely true. For so many people to be so united in their own autonomously-felt sense of purpose for something beyond themselves, was nothing short of miraculous...heaven on earth. The question that’s been with me since then is, “Where do we go from here?” Thanks for a great retreat!
Joel
Morality, embedded in and interpreted by culture, will always be relative, always be dicey. Ethics ("right relation to life") is a straighter arrow, and integrity ("wholeness") is not only absolute, but a measurable condition we can get our hands around. I orient my life and surrender to these, Love. Alexis
Tuscany is heaven and the teaching of moral development is down to earth.
And yet in Tuscany as earth you led us up to heaven.
Love and trust.
Ariella
It really is too much! As a result of the retreat, I see now that it’s one thing to discuss a perspective, or even to take continuous action that makes a positive difference in the world, but to actually develop our souls--that takes work most of us “me gen"-ers don’t even want to consider.
And yet, you made it so abundantly clear, as did our profoundly meaningful interactions with one other throughout the week and still today, that the only way humanity can evolve is if we at the leading-edge take responsibility for the uniquely human dimension of evolution: moral development.
It’s certainly a herculean task, given the truly hollow nature of the postmodern soul, but it really is the only choice that makes sense. Otherwise, we literally deny our humanness; and if we do that, how can we possibly create a sane, emotionally rational, and evolutionarily enlightened culture?
Italy raised the bar, in the most positive and ultimately meaningful way. The process really does need us to let go of our personal stories right now and become morally awakened vehicles for evolution!
Sam
�Life is strange, and reality as it truly is seems to be inherently complex and confusing.�
As you write: I�ve been a spiritual teacher for 21 years. My greatest source of confidence is a simple fact: as a teacher and as a human being, I�m still evolving. I�m still developing.
I would like to ask you: Do you helping others to evolving and developing? Do you think one day you will understand what is enlightenment or evolution beyond ego?
I am not against your work but I am surprisingly asking you, is it the right way to inquire? Did anyone down the ages ever understood? Reality as it truly is seems to be inherently complex and confusing: are you sure it can be relatively simple-if we want it to be?
Don�t you think Sri Aurobindo wasted his whole life for that the ego is transcended in any kind of real and meaningful way- like super-man, super-mind and immortality?
I saw a video of Ken Wilbur that saw he is stopping his mind wave. � Is stopping mind wave is enlightenment?
After 3 century scientists has come to know that the gravitation force laws and Einstein�s relativity laws has become out of date, just you look a beautiful movie �Thunderbolts of the God�
Is Spirituality is that much easy that this thousand of spiritual teachers having some strange idea will make it easy to realize the truth?
Fantastic! That definitely kicks ass deep!
It�s really, really powerful. I think you communicate the depth of the retreat and the intensity of yours and our feeling for this kind of development to a degree I think is new, or at least it seemed that way. It transmits an unusual passion, a powerful authority, a sense of weight and depth without it being heavy, and a sense of complete urgency without any constriction at all. And the ending sends a serious message. I love it all!
And this line is incredible!
“For the highly developed self whose capacity for individuation has reached its evolutionary apex, enlightenment�or the experience of consciousness beyond ego�without a dramatic leap in moral development, inevitably results in spiritually empowered narcissism.”
With love,
Carter
WHAT MARVELOUS, PROFOUND WORDS THESE ARE! AS I READ THEM, I FEEL A STRONG IMPULSE TO SHOUT THEM TO THE WHOLE WORLD. MAY ANDREW KEEP RESONATING HIS CONVICTION AND STRENGTH AND WISDOM THROUGH HIS WORDS AND ACTION TO AFFECT CHANGE, REAL CHANGE IN THE MORAL CLIMATE OF OUR CONFUSED AND RUDERLESS WORLD.
LOVE, JOE GIFFORD
Andrew,
The moral obligation to really care for the process, as the process, deep down in every bit of action is something that really touched me in the retreat. Touched is a under statement as some thing deep within - like my basic orientation to life has shifted; more and more it is dawning on me, like a urgency, that my personal life has no meaning by itself as a stand alone; what really seems to matter is how much i can align to the process and become a vehicle for development.
If I remember right, you said, it is then, moral depravation to come from anything that is �ego� based (not sure of exact words). This statement is shattering my entire life so to say. Where I am implicating myself that if I so clearly understand this, then it is my responsibility to take action in absolute sync to the highest understanding and revelation that is occurring. I commitment myself to moral development of the soul, as a process for the evolution of the process.
The other statement that hit me, was to come out of the hiding; prior to the retreat i was an ‘expert’ in hiding; I was interested only in myself predominantly. All that I understood I was keeping within myself as I was �scared� people would look upon me strangely. Now I am talking bold stands with people I know closely. I am boldly saying that I will get enlightened this life time. I am taking an absolute stand that it is my responsibility to evolve the culture � the entire process. To start with I am deeply passionate about transformation of India, but from a perspective of the whole process. I am very clear of the price that this would take. And I am willing to pay it.- whatever it is. The statement made in the retreat to me to be clear about my priorities has helped me.
Deep thanks and gratitude for the intensity and passion that was apparent in the way you are and in the way you teach. Rare in today�s world. A goal I take that I would like to bring the same in myself, an absolute living example of the teaching
Arul Dev
TOO MUCH IS RIGHT!!! Your retreat was SO PROFOUND. One night in the middle of the retreat I was so shaken up by what you were revealing to us about our condition that I woke up throughout the night,with the words “moral depravity” in my head. On another occaision when you were speaking about“‘DEEP TIME” I was propelled in to such a deep KNOWING of the CONTEXT within which to see my/our life, in a way I cannot even fathom or express in words. As the retreat came to an end and you were playing drums with your band “UNFULFILLEDDESIRES” at a beautiful lunch outside. I felt the joy of being with everybody, knowing I was in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing...and SO LUCKY...It is SO UNBELIEVABLY WHOLESOME what you brought us too (and continue to), the most wholesome, bare hearted ... uncontrollable REALITY! Ripped away from our self importance I sensed the truth of our REAL humanity’s potential. THANK YOU SO VERY VERY MUCH !!!!
Your Thundering heart and soul is breaking our post modern narcisstic states open. As you said"it is “UNREASONABLE”...!!!!LET IT BE UNREASONABLE THEN!!!!!as they say in England FANBL**DYTASTIC!!!!
Ereni (-;
SUPER SUPER SUPER SUPER SUPER SUPER SUPER SUPER SUPER SUPER SUPER SUPER
CHARGED CHARGED CHARGED CHARGED CHARGED CHARGED CHARGED CHARGED CHARGED CHARGED
KICK-ASS KICK-ASS KICK-ASS KICK-ASS KICK-ASS KICK-ASS KICK-ASS KICK-ASS
Morality Morality Morality Morality Morality Morality Morality Morality Morality Morality Morality
Dear Andrew
Soulfully, deep gratitude for a powerful, committed and breathtaking retreat. Thank you for remembering us of our Godlike’s nature and mission.Thank you for teaching us Soul strengh to live a dignified life as a true human being serving the world for the sake of Evolution.
With care
Qhoa
Once again your words are deeply clear and meaningful. There is something about this teaching that makes so much sense. Without the moral development what do we have. Meditation, observation and moral development have to be. In order for us to really change. You have always reminded me of what the big picture really is. It is a scary one. It is also the only way out of this big mess. At times I wonder whether I will be strong enough to conquer my own battles with the divided self. Sometimes I wonder who this I really is. It is so small. So full of habits and mental noise. Then there is this vast space when things are quite inside. This is no little project. Conquering the divided self is unbelievably hard. The divided self has so much momentum. It is so mechanical and does not appear to be truly living. You give me hope that something is posssible. You always have. You make things crystal clear. Without having someone to remind of the big picture it is very hard for me to understand all of this at times. What is behind all of this teaching appears to be very clear and unwavering. I thank you for that.
Tara in Toronto
How this yearning can never be of the personal domain. It’s the shout of the Absolute, ringing, verberating the truth inside each of us. Once I say yes to this Only way I’m ushered into a jet stream of love, dictating its own terms. Too much? For sure! Wonderfully too much!
Many mystic teachers and religions have come to the place where words and ideas need to “be flesh and dwell among us.”
Social, cultural concerns are the root of the tree. Transcendence is only developed by our deepening to the universe around us. god within and god without.
Its necessary to eat from the tree of knowledge in order to reach our spiritual narcissistic heights in order to fall and recognize other. a spiritual death of sorts when one can utter..."holy, holy , holy” meaning “other, other, other.”
again after more than one month since I dove into the Tuscany retreat with all of you who were there and now with all of you who are being affected by this tremendous potentiality, I do wish to express my gratitude for the divine power that has revealed itself in Tuscany. We were at some point all in a place of absolute positivity (and I have been forever dreaming and longing about a world that would be like that.) Guess what, it is possible. This experience of this being possible with so many people is a knowing that is so exciting and so energetic, to really see and experience in reality the potency where we can evolve to as a whole, that is a vision entering into reality. For me the 8 days were like a puzzle that was finished finally. No more searching, no more pieces missing. Finally after 26 years, you Andrew explained about the ground of being AND becoming at the same time, the missing piece of the puzzle for my inquiry for truth that next to your stairways to heaven( the context for evolutionairy enlightment) have answered my questions.
Before going to Tuscany I was organising mens groups in Holland and at some point I said to myself, Okay I need a context for this work. Some time earlier I went to a bookstore and found a little book in Dutch (Between heaven and earth) at a great discount of � 6,00. As a true Dutchman I could not resist at such low price!!! I read it in may and liked it right away. I went on the internet and started listening to some interviews on your website. I saw the Tuscany retreat and I booked it....... The rest is history.
Thanx thanx thanx thanx
everybody is benefitting at home from my visit to Tuscany. There is a conscience that handles problems from an unpersonal perspective a lot of the time which enables old crap to disolve finally. If spirituality shows no positive change in reality in relationships it is not real. This is enough proof for me.
That’s a moral issue!! My opinion is: Don’t trust any spiritual change until it creates a real change in your day to day life....
good day to you all.
Hans