The Evolutionary Enlightenment teachings of Andrew Cohen

Can We Take this Next Step?

Reflections on the Purpose of Enlightenment

Enlightenment Is Not a Personal Matter

When you think about Enlightenment, it is important that you include other people in that idea.

Transcendence will be yours when you begin to accept responsibility for the condition of the whole human race. When you give yourself up in unconditional surrender, automatically you rise up beyond the very limited perspective that most of the human race remains forever lost in. You come upon an infinitely greater perspective in which all questions disappear.

The by-product of Enlightenment is that you cease to suffer the way you suffered in the past. But the most important benefit is for the whole race. Why? Because someone actually will have stopped. When this happens, there is an explosive reaction that is magnetic.

If you feel disturbed by all the conflict and suffering that you see in the world but are unwilling to come to the end of conflict within yourself, then you can be sure that you are not serious.

Recognition of the Truth Is the Discovery of True Conscience

Q: What creates the kind of stability that allows a sublime realization to remain uncorrupted?

A: Clarity of intention creates stability. That means clearly knowing that you want to be free more than anything else.

Q: Even the best of intentions often become corrupted. It seems so difficult.

A: Yes, that's true. Often when people have sublime experiences, because their intention to be free is not absolutely clear, the experiences soon become only inspiring memories. The basic structure of the ego usually remains intact and fundamentally unchanged. But after such an experience, they will always know that there is another possibility. They will know this from their own experience because they will have realized it themselves and the memory of that experience will haunt them.

Q: Why will they be haunted?

A: Because a recognition of the truth is the discovery of true conscience. Being haunted by the truth is being haunted by your own true conscience. The point of these experiences is for you to realize what your part in the big drama of life is. Most people are so concerned only with themselves that they do not feel any responsibility for anyone else. The more deeply a person has realized, the deeper will be the birth of the kind of conscience I am speaking about. In profound realization, it is possible to come upon a perspective that is so vast that you will suddenly feel overwhelmed by the tremendous responsibility that you have simply being a human being. You will recognize how important your own life truly is.

The Reason for All Spiritual Experience
Is Evolution

The mess of the human condition is that fundamental trust has not yet been realized. The true value of profound spiritual experience lies in the discovery of that fundamental trust.

The full realization of Enlightenment is the evolutionary leap to which all spiritual experiences ultimately lead. In deep spiritual experience a human being realizes that which is impersonal. In that realization a profound trust is found. In the discovery of that trust it is possible for a human being to liberate him or herself from tendencies toward aggression and permanently destroy the illusion of separation that those tendencies arise from. The result of this discovery is a level of integrity that is deep and profound and which manifests consistently at all levels of human expression. If the evolutionary leap is to take place then the final outcome of true spiritual experience must result in this kind of purity.

Spiritual experiences and their results are not meant for the individual. They are for the evolution of the whole race.

Can We Take This Next Step?

Can human beings trust each other and in that trust abide together harmoniously? History would tell us that mankind has not done that well. The point of all spiritual experience is to bring a human being to the point where he or she can be a social creature who is able to live with other human beings in a non-aggressive manner.

Looking very objectively the spiritual journey is more practical than esoteric.

The death of the individual is the birth of this evolutionary leap. Can we take this next step? It's up to each and every individual as long as they understand that they have nothing to gain from it.