September 24, 2007

Revolution Retreat

Real development, in real time

Last weekend, I spent an intensely focused forty-eight-hour period with my most committed students from around the world on what we have come to call a “revolution retreat.” These are unique events where our sole reason to be together is to move forward in our collective mission to bring into manifestation the extraordinary potential of Evolutionary Enlightenment.

What does that mean? Well, enlightenment is the experience of consciousness beyond ego and evolution is development over time. So Evolutionary Enlightenment means the evolution or development of the expression or experience of consciousness beyond ego.

Even though most people don’t tend to see it this way, the fact is that enlightenment and spiritual evolution are not necessarily synonymous. More often than not, when people have powerful spiritual experiences—the kind of experiences that answer the most profound existential questions—after the fireworks are over and all the dust settles, they usually do not continue to aspire to grow and develop in the deepest and highest ways. In fact, self-satisfaction all too easily creeps in.

Being a spiritual teacher who is committed to the ongoing evolution of consciousness, this phenomenon is something I have been passionately and actively endeavoring to do battle with almost since the day I began teaching 21 years ago. It’s much, much easier to be a finder who has discovered the ultimate answer than it is to be a finder who aspires to endlessly evolve. In other words, it’s not difficult to experience ecstasy when one finally finds God, but it is infinitely more challenging to dare to actually develop as God. In the teaching of Evolutionary Enlightenment, God is defined as the creative principle, the evolutionary impulse, the energy and intelligence that initiated the creative process, and the same energy and intelligence that is driving that process right now as you are reading these words.

A Strange Predicament
This strange predicament of spiritual upliftment leading to evolutionary stagnation all too often occurs around powerful spiritual teachers and spiritual groups of all kinds, shapes, and sizes. If what the teacher or the group or the tradition is sharing is vital and alive, those who join will inevitably awaken to the vitality and brightness of that revelation. That direct experiential awakening inspires conviction and relieves existential tension, but it does not necessarily catalyze perpetual evolution.

Over the last six years, my main method for ensuring that my own students continue to evolve and develop has been through these Revolution Retreats, where we all come together for a weekend and endeavor to push forward together. Many dramatic leaps forward (and also lots of backsliding) have occurred as a result of this relentless and deeply inspired pushing for new structures to emerge.

The first of these retreats was held in 2001 in London. I was on a stopover on my way back from India, where I used to lead annual two-week international public retreats.

At that time, many of my core students, both men and women, were quite stuck in the individual and collective inertia called “self-satisfaction” or just plain laziness. I knew I had to force the issue. So when I arrived in England, instead of boarding my flight home to America, I surprised all my students around the world by unexpectedly calling as many of them as I could to come and meet me there for the weekend.

Those two days initiated an entire new phase in the development of my teaching. I gave many inspired talks that weekend about enlightenment and its relationship to the evolution of consciousness. This was the first time I began to explicitly articulate the evolutionary context that had been increasingly implicit in my teaching over many years. I was imploring everyone who was there to understand that the evolution of consciousness is never only about “I”—it’s about “we.” It was a powerful weekend for sure and many were deeply touched . . . but few changed significantly as a result.

I pushed like hell after that weekend and didn’t stop pushing until something big happened. And it finally did. That was the monumental eruption of consciousness as intersubjective enlightenment that occurred on July 30, 2001, which was the first big validation of what I’d been speaking about and pointing everybody towards for several years leading up to that moment.

Ever since then I’ve continued to do my job, which is to speak about what’s possible, demonstrate what’s possible, prove what’s possible through sharing the direct revelation of that possibility, and finally, and most important of all, insist that others join me in making that possibility a manifest reality.

Which brings me back to last weekend. Over the past year, we’ve been holding Revolution Retreats more regularly than ever—every 3 or 4 months—and our most thrilling and successful adventure together occurred on this last one. For both men and women, some very significant leaps forward occurred, giving me a surge in confidence about my work and its promise to play a small but not insignificant part in creating a brighter future for us all.

When I speak about the evolution of consciousness, it’s never separate from the evolution of culture, and by the evolution of culture I mean the evolution of the fundamental structures of our relationships. So with my students, I work with different groupings in order to facilitate this kind of development. Like many others, I’ve discovered that for men and women, this can mean different things at different times.

Men’s Evolution
For men, I have been stressing for several years now the importance of creating dynamic, committed relationships of trans-egoic brotherhood. I’ve had a vision that through creating small groups dedicated to the evolution of culture, the evolution of each individual would occur in a way that was never disconnected from the evolution of the larger whole. I call these groups “holons”—which means a whole that is an integral part of a larger whole. The most conducive structure for these holons would be a group of between 4 and 8 individuals who are peers—who have more or less reached the same level of development, morally, intellectually, and spiritually—and who are equally committed to conscious evolution.

What I’ve discovered over many years of working on this project is that unless all the participants are truly peers, the natural human tendency to defer to the individual with the greatest experience and self-confidence tends to override the necessity for each one to autonomously and creatively play their own essential part in this delicate process. For the process to work, each and every individual has to be fearlessly, passionately, unselfconsciously, and egolessly engaging with it.

Another essential factor for a holonic structure like this to become a powerful engine through which consciousness can evolve, is that each individual must have reached that point in their own development where the majority of their being has become unquestionably aligned with the Authentic Self. That means that he has crossed what I call the 51% threshold, where the self’s center of gravity has shifted from the ego to the evolutionary impulse or the authentic self.

Only when all these factors come together, as they finally did this weekend, can a truly delicate and sacred ground emerge, upon which individual and intersubjective evolution occurs in real time simply through the focused and very conscious intention of the individuals involved. In such a highly charged context, the holon becomes the vehicle in and through which consciousness and culture evolves, not only as a state, but as a stable and also elastic structure.

And a New Women’s Liberation
With women, my main project for over 14 years now has been the bold reaching toward a new and unheard of manifestation of women’s liberation—a liberation based not only upon the revelation of enlightenment or consciousness beyond ego but also upon the leap beyond the postmodern feminine self-structure to an as yet uncreated post-postmodern female self.

I have discussed this at length in a recent issue of What Is Enlightenment? in my “Guru and Pandit” dialogue with Ken Wilber. This particular dimension of what I call the Universe Project has been the most challenging for me personally, because in my passion and intuition about what is possible for women, I have often felt like I’m going out on a limb without a lot of support!

Any notion of a truly enlightened post-postmodern culture is first and foremost dependent on men and women finally becoming true partners in the evolutionary process. For men and women to be able to become partners, they must first heroically liberate themselves in an essential and fundamental way from the unconscious adherence to premodern, modern, and also postmodern ideas, beliefs, and instincts about their predefined roles in the collective structure of culture itself.

It’s one thing to experience higher states of consciousness beyond these conditioned structures, but the mere experience of these higher states and the glimpses into unqualified unity that they reveal to us do not automatically liberate the self from not-so-conscious convictions about our own identity and what our role is in the larger trajectory of life.

The greatest gift of modernity for women has been the gradual emergence of greater and greater personal freedom and autonomy. Freed from having to fit into traditional roles, the postmodern feminine self is in a position to choose to become a truly liberated human being whose defining characteristics have yet to become clear. There’s never been a more exciting time to be a woman. And yet, what I’ve found, working with women in the context of evolutionary enlightenment, is that most women are not as free as they think they are. In order to create the future as herself, the postmodern woman has to be ready and willing at the deepest level of her being to emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, and biologically relinquish her often unconscious attachment to traditional reference points in order to truly see who she could be when she no longer compulsively looks back to familiar and secure roles to locate herself.

After years of struggling to catalyze this “new women’s liberation,” I finally have a group of women who have gained the degree of maturity, self-confidence, and independence necessary to embark together on the ultimate adventure for the feminine self. Last weekend on the Revolution Retreat, these women were embarking on the challenging and liberating ordeal of bringing the light of conscious awareness to the multidimensional effects of premodern, modern, and postmodern feminine self structures in their own individual and collective experience. Only when we have made ourselves deeply aware of who we have been, and why we are the way we are, will the thrilling and miraculous potential of who we could be enter into the light of consciousness.

I’m so excited . . .

Comments

Bjorn — September 24, 2007

Your clarity speaks volumes. How wonderful to hear spiritual evolution laid bare. How it actually can work. What needs to be done. How it is to be done.
True communion points to an unpresidented, shared, conscious, self-aware, self-propelling, living context, where Life becomes a thrilling engagement with all things.

2	Igal — September 24, 2007 What an awe-inspiring and significant weekend this was indeed, and what a fantastic summary of it this entry is--giving such a big context to this inspired life. Igal

shelley — September 24, 2007

Everything that’s happening is thrilling and so different from the ideas I had about being your student when I met you 13 years ago. I can’t wait to speak with some of the women who were on the retreat about the inquiry that is full flow and begin to explore the issues you raise, about our biological and cultural history, with my women’s holon in New York.
Shelley

Hans van Dalsum — September 24, 2007

Readig this I realise that the emergence of a new way of relating is definately emerging. I share the exitement and am very aware that we are are witnessing a truely great shift in male female relationships. Becoming aware of our traditional rolebehaviour and truely understandig the egoic and selfish structures that have been driving us as men and woman for I don’t know how long, that was merely focussing on getting what we wanted on a sexual, emotional and spritual level prevented us to have relationships that are based on equality and seeing the men and woman for who the really are, embracing the sexual tension and the difference on a biological level between the genders. This playing our cards out on the table and not holding back on the reality of how things are, here and now, opens up a possibility to transform these structures into a free, and wholesome way to be together. So it means that both men and women need to be autonomous beings, aware of their sexuality, their primordial impulses on a biological level and emotional level as well as on a spiritual level. I therefore agree that a 51 % level of autonomy and authentic self is nescesaary to create an open space in which relationship occurs. If not, there will be a flow of needyness, dishonesty and selfcenteredness blocking the equality between men and woman and will we stay trapped in the sexual tension which will be the primairy drive to relate. Obviously that is only a very limited and small part of our being.
I also agree that to get to a point bridging this tension it is a good thing to meet in Holons. as men and women have their polarities and as you now + and - attract eachother and ++ and—are repellant. This simple way of looking at it shows that it is easier to practise in Holons because the attraction is left out. I see it as creating a safe ground to get recognition and brotherhood and sistership and share specific male and female obstructions. It is like learning to ride a bycicle, you dont start riding on the busiest street of the city. Well, I Guess I could go on for much longer and my intention is very clear. The old structures are no longer working and I love the emerging of new possibilities for relationship.
Hans

kathy bayer — September 24, 2007

It was very powerful to read your blog, to hear from your point of view what occured on the revolution retreat, and what is continuing to unfold. What strikes me most is how the groups of men and women were on completely different trajectories and yet the experience of that weekend was of being more together than ever. In my own experience this proves your teaching that men need to consciously develop with men and the same for women and then there is the potential to be partners in creating the future. I could never have dreamed that deeply understanding and experiencing my history as a woman could create the foundation for this new dimension in consciousness to begin to emerge within me and between us. But that is in fact my experience of the weekend and it continues to grow as we meet and discuss these different structures in our consciousness. I am seeing where we are as women and where we are not yet in a completely new way. And in that, the potential for us to find what a new women’s liberation is, is calling. What you said is true, it couldn’t be a more exciting time to be a woman—and it is up to use to take this knowledge, our freedom, and the fact of our ability to choose on the deepest level—and run with it.
Kathy

Connie Delaney — September 24, 2007

What a wonderful post. Thank you for sharing this. It’s beautiful how clearly you define the typical spiritual quest that is actually seeking for an end-point of development. In fact, that is the product that is being sold to the seeker! It’s like being offered an end to responsibility. Nothing like Evolutionary Enlightenment where we realize our true responsibility to the whole of the evolving cosmos! Quite an extreme.

As a woman I really appreciate the extra effort you are making to enlist our help in the project. When I stop to think about it, I realize that every spiritual group I have been a part of is composed mostly of women, and yet we, as a group, don’t seem to have stepped up to the plate to take on the responsibilities that a masterful spiritual attainment would require. We seem to have lots of energy for blaming men for the predicament we find ourselves in, however!

I remember one time, Swami Yogino said to me, “Women can’t become enlightened because they are too busy.” That really made me stop and look at myself in a whole new way to see the multidimensional methods that I was able to manifest to keep from really looking at myself. It wasn’t a business of the body, but a business of the mind and attention that I was able to constantly manufacture around myself. Amazing, isn’t it?

I’m coming to the Women’s retreat in October and am very excited to see what happens. You can count on me to participate as fully as possible!

Connie Delaney

7	Jeff Feldman — September 24, 2007 It is so inspiring to know that a brighter future is possible - and will happen - as a result of what you are continually pointing to. That is the best news for humanity! Thank you!

Simon Henderson — September 25, 2007

I’ve been following your teachings for over a year now and have learned so much about myself, humanity and the kosmos since then. I often feel self-congratulatory about being such a clever, evolved individual… But before too long I am challenged on a deep level with an issue I didn’t think was even there! and am humbled again… the road is endless, actually endless! This is the exciting part as well as the daunting part! But the way I see it is that if we as the most conscious life form in our known universe are really serious about developing culturally, spiritually and morally, to deal with the multitude of challenges that are facing us and our planet… We must move forward endlessly to greater freedom, responsibility and conscious engagement.

In my experience it is the hardest road to travel and yet the most worthwhile…

Many thanks for vision, determination and patience

Simon

Mags — September 25, 2007

"creating a brighter future for us all”.... is true - this work is of crucial importance and a beacon of mysterious possibility for the whole cosmos. I love the definition of God as the creative principle or the energy and intelligence that created the universe - and that we are all this when we choose to align ourselves with it. with love Mags

Patrick Dirks — September 25, 2007

What struck me in your post was the degree of honesty. Honesty about the backsliding and that people didn’t really, permenantly change. And I quess it struck my because it really feels like there’s an honest person here giving me the whole story and not making something sound easier or better than it really is.

Steffen Karneth — September 25, 2007

Your blog beautifully describes men’s and women’s liberation as prerequisites for a much bigger cause that you call the universe project (link: www.enlightennext.org/universe-project/what-is.asp). When our holon met over the phone on Sunday I understood why for so long the powerful experience of unity between us had always been an end in itself. It’s only now having crossed the 51% threshold to the Authentic Self that we can develop in and as the new culture we want to create. It’s so exciting indeed!

Bradan Beech — September 27, 2007

I offer one comment on the very promising and hard-won developments reported in this blog and that is that the emergence of freedom and autonomy is not modernity’s gift to women but quite the other way around - it is women’s contribution, promising and hard-won, to modernity! Is it not true that the prevalent use of such language which casts women as passive recipients of freedom, echoes the deep structures of identity which the “revolution retreats,” as I understand them, are intended to identify and transcend!?

Steven Haase — September 29, 2007

Thank you for the ground-breaking work you’re doing. Your thinking and writing is so clear and concise, it illuminates my experience just reading it. And I can feel your excitement. I’m excited too for what is possible as the leaps in consciousness you described start to take deeper hold and spread. That’s the most exciting possibility I can think of, and we’re all responsible for that.

Christos Sophia — September 30, 2007

I view evolutionary enlightenment as the evolution of culture and consciousness from a religious contemplation of mystery in a spiritual realization of mastery through a fine balance that would cultivate soul (sacred encounter with quality through acceptance of what is) and celebrate spirit (divine experience with vitality through assurance of what can be) beyond ego.

By this definition, there are no mysterious depths we cannot plumb, no masterly heights we cannot climb. If we can find, and evolve with, this fine balance between soul and spirit, a balance that would have us impress and express, cultivate and celebrate, then all is well with us and the world.

In these words, have I found my ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything? I trust not.

Inward, onward, upward ... forward.

Tara — September 30, 2007

Yes, what you say is true women are in a position to move out of traditional roles and that is a great thing. If we have the strength to do this spiritual work and go far with it. Enough to make a change within ourselves and withing the world. On this path I do not find any of this easy. At times the whole self observation part almost makes me want to throw up. And other times everything feels beautiful in the world. My own self is a hard thing to look at. Hopfully I will have the strength to contiues this work even if it makes me sick at times. And allows me to see the possibilitys that evolution with a human being and within a culture can bring.

May all humans benefit from this work

Tara in Toronto

Graham days — October 07, 2007

My own evolutionary development has certainly sometimes become self-satifaction which I now fight with fervour so we may all bring about this evolution in consciosuness. the post modern malaise is increasing and with such an inspired teacher it certainly becomes easier but never easy. Gone are the days when I used to think God was full and perfect now I see that God too is evolving and growing in love.

Kevin Parker — October 09, 2007

Like the lion tears the flesh off of a man
So can a woman who passes herself off as a male
They sang “Danny Boy” at his funeral and the Lord’s Prayer
Preacher talking ‘bout Christ betrayed
It’s like the earth just opened and swallowed him up
He reached too high, was thrown back to the ground
You know what they say about bein’ nice to the right people on the way up
Sooner or later you gonna meet them comin’ down