Notes from the Revolution

“On the Wings of the Authentic Self”

There are three components to engaging with the teaching of Evolutionary Enlightenment, which is about the evolution of consciousness beyond ego. First, simply understanding how it actually works is an essential prerequisite for being able to do it. You need to understand the theory, the philosophical perspective of the teaching. Secondly, there is the direct experiential recognition and discovery of what the theory is pointing to. And thirdly, and most importantly, there is the practical application of that which has been understood and experienced.

Now, it’s important to recognize that you can simply sit in place and receive the conceptual overview of the teaching and appreciate its philosophical integration and intellectual rigor. And you can sit in place and experience directly what the concepts are pointing to—you can glimpse the profound nature of Being, become overwhelmingly inspired, fall into very deep states of consciousness, and stumble upon very explosive insights, moments of profound revelation into the nature of existence. But the practical application of the teaching requires active, intentional engagement with the concepts, and that’s a whole different ballgame. To be honest, it is the part people have the greatest trouble with. And all the theory and experience only means something when you enter into the practical application. It is only to the degree to which any individual applies it, in real life, to his or her own self, that the theory and experience amounts to anything. Otherwise it is merely the exploration of potential.

So the active dimension of this teaching is really the most important part. One has to go from the passive role of receiver of information and experience to the active role of one who literally begins to generate and actualize the potentials that one was glimpsing as unmanifest. Through intention, one tries to make them manifest. When you realize that evolutionary enlightenment is actually about the literal creation of the interior dimension of the cosmos at the leading edge, and you appreciate what an enormous task this is, it becomes obvious that in order to do that, the individual has to actually want to do it. And because each of us has an ego that has no interest whatsoever in taking in this ultimate challenge, the question is: What is the part of your self and my self that actually wants to evolve at the level of consciousness? That part, of course, is what I call the Authentic Self.

The authentic self is the spiritual impulse awakening in the human heart and mind as the ecstatic compulsion to evolve. So when we become interested in the practical application of the teaching, the key is the identification and location of the authentic self or evolutionary impulse in yourself. This teaching only works when it’s applied to and from the authentic self, which is the part of you that already wants to evolve. That’s the only way it works. The ego and the authentic self are completely different parts of the self. They are parallel lines that never meet. And the ego is not the part of you that is inclined to evolve and transcend itself.

The ego has no interest in creating the future at the leading edge. The ego always wants to cling to the past, and its relationship to the present and the future is based upon history. The authentic self has no attachment to history; it’s only interested in creating the future. It’s a creative impulse, an ecstatic compulsion to evolve. So while this teaching goes from the theoretical and experiential to the practical, it can only be applied when it rides on that ecstatic compulsion. It will not work any other way because that’s the only part of you that wants to do this anyway. Your ego, which is not an individual, but a whole matrix of intersubjective structures and personal and cultural conditioning, may be interested in understanding the theory or having powerful experiences, but it has no interest whatsoever in actually evolving. So the only way to go from the theoretical and experiential to the practical is by riding on the wings of the authentic self. The energy to do this is already fully present in the authentic self. It doesn’t need to be cultivated. That ecstatic compulsion is its nature. If you try to find the energy to evolve in the ego, you will never find it. The ego just wants to go back to the way things have been. And as long as you identify with the ego, that is what you will express. But if you put your attention on the authentic self, instantaneously you will experience a source of unlimited inspiration and strength. So the fruition of this teaching depends on the choice of the individual to shift the locus of identification from ego to authentic self.

Your ultimate success and victory is completely dependent upon the manual application of some of these very simple principles. We are all creatures of habit, so left to our own devices, we will all automatically do what comes easiest to us. If you have a lifelong habit of identifying with the most unenlightened part of yourself and you’re very emotionally invested in that identification, it’s not an easy habit to break. To make that shift in the locus of identification, especially when you don’t feel like it, is the ultimate challenge for the self. But in the most simplistic form, that is what the whole teaching is all about, and I guarantee will be the hardest thing you’ll ever try to do in your life. Why? Because it’s the ultimate threat to the ego.

The authentic self is a wild, impersonal, creative force of energy itself. And so the degree to which you or I are identified with the ego is the degree to which that wild and passionate intensity, which only is interested in creating the future, will be seen as too much to bear. But the evolving self, which is what you are, can find utter and absolute and perfect liberation to the degree that it can identify with the authentic self. That’s why the compulsive ego identification has to be transcended to a significant degree in order for the authentic self to really take you over. If you want liberation from mind and time and memory, you will find it in and through the identification with that impulse, but you have to be willing to let go of the ego to do that. Otherwise it will always be too much—too fast, too stark, and too absolute. You won’t be prepared to do it if you’re too attached to memory to take that leap.

You can imagine the ego as a slow heavy train moving in one direction. And there’s a fast moving train going in another direction, which is the authentic self. When you are identified with the ego you can have an experience of the authentic self, a taste of that ecstatic compulsion. But that is just a glimpse of your potential for transformation. The actual transformation occurs when you make a radical leap from the slow-moving train to the fast-moving train. The practical, deliberate, and intentional application of what you’ve theoretically understood and directly experienced in this teaching is only achieved through making the choice to ride your own highest discrimination on the wings of the boundless inspiration and fearless passion of the authentic self. Without that, you can have all the understanding and experience in the world, but you’ll be stuck in the station, or even worse, sitting on the train going in the wrong direction. So you have to be willing to make that leap of identification. Then you become the living manifestation and expression of the authentic self yourself. You’ll be that fast-moving train. It cannot work any other way.