Notes from the Revolution

Friday, January 5, 2007

Andrew Cohen welcomed in the New Year with a twenty-first-century take on a timeless subject:

“What does it mean for a man and a woman to come together in a romantic and sexual relationship in the context of evolutionary enlightenment? Enlightenment means consciousness beyond ego, and evolution means development in time. So what would it mean for human beings to embrace the romantic and sexual dimension of life in an egoless context, in a relationship that is ongoingly creative and developmental?”

The last weeks and months of 2006—a milestone year in so many ways for Andrew’s living experiment in conscious evolution—had seen a number of his students entering into new relationships. At the suggestion of one of these couples, Andrew had decided to mark their commitments with a celebration, and took the opportunity to speak to all of his students as well as many friends and visitors about his inspiring, demanding, and often-misunderstood teaching on the topic of romantic and sexual relationship in the context of evolutionary enlightenment.

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By complete coincidence (Andrew half-joked that he is starting to believe in the New Age notion of “synchrodestiny” ) the date chosen for the celebration turned out to be his own twentieth wedding anniversary. Andrew spoke with disarming candor about his commitment to holding a higher context and standard in this arena of life, both for himself and his students. And he shared his own joy that after twenty years, his marriage to his wife Alka is stronger than ever, and expressed his hope that because of the growing commitment and maturity in his student body, it will be possible for many more couples to pioneer a new approach to this perennially challenging terrain.

Traditionally, Andrew explained, when people have wanted to evolve spiritually, they have either renounced the romantic and sexual dimension of life, as in the monastic traditions, or they have made it the central focus of practice and development, as in tantric approaches. Some Western traditions have made it an integral part of their culture, but that usually involves very traditional roles for men and women that most of us in the West have outgrown. In the teaching of Evolutionary Enlightenment, the idea is not to go to either extreme, but to find a way to embrace this dimension of life that makes sense in our time and culture and yet never underestimates the enormous power of the forces at play: “Often people find this teaching easy to understand intellectually, but to actually put it into practice in real life, especially when we’re dealing with dramatic and explosive emotions like romantic and sexual intoxication, is very demanding,” he said. “I have realized over and over again that what I have been trying to share with people regarding this subject has been ahead of its time, but I hope that is no longer the case.”

After an illuminating teaching on the spiritual, emotional, and psychological challenges presented to men and women by these powerful forces, Andrew urged the many students already in long-time committed relationships and those just embarking on new ones to take seriously the importance of proving that it is possible to be victorious in this endeavor, over a significant period of time: “In a culture like the one we’re all living in, where there is so much cynicism about human potential and where we imbue the romantic and sexual bond with so much significance, to be able to evidence an extraordinary victory in this particular area of life speaks a thousand words.”

Following the talk, the new couples threw a party for everyone, infused with the joy of a shared commitment to creating a new enlightened culture. Later that night everyone decamped to the famous Van Dyck Inn in Schenectady, NY, to hear Andrew’s band Unfulfilled Desires give a jazz-funk serenade to the New Year.