Evolutionary Enlightenment: 'The Path Is Quite Simple'

Andrew Cohen
Editor-in-Chief, EnlightenNext magazine

"The path, in the context of evolutionary enlightenment, is, at least in theory, quite simple," writes spiritual teacher, Andrew Cohen in The Huffington Post. "It is a journey from identification with ego to identification with the evolutionary impulse. It is a radical transformation of our relationship to the human experience, from one that is fundamentally negative, narcissistic, compulsive, and rigid to one that is inherently positive, liberated, consciously creative, and perpetually evolving."

"In an evolutionary context," Cohen observes, "the expression of the enlightened or liberated self is perpetual development in time. So if the individual is not developing in a measurable and discernible way, that means that he or she is stagnating in the emotional and psychological prison of unenlightenment that is the individual and collective ego."

It is because of our unquestioned identification with the negative orientation of the ego that most of us find ourselves unable to consistently express the freedom, lightness of being, and ecstatic positivity that is the quality of the evolutionary impulse," he notes, "(a)nd it is because of identification with ego that so few of us are able to spiritually evolve in a truly significant way."

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In the attached video, an introduction to his teachings on "Evolutionary Enlightenment," Cohen observes:

"In evolutionary enlightenment, the goal is not to get out of the universe, the goal is not to escape from the universe, the goal is to get into the process."

"The problem for most of us," he notes, "is that we are not in the (evolutionary) process. We are lost in this small-minded, self-centered, hell-life experience, in which our experience of what it means to be alive is so partial, and so small and so minimal, it's almost impossible to imagine how small it is until you wake up."

"So the goal here," Cohen points out, "is to get out of this small-minded, self-centered hell, (this) partial almost non-existent dream, so that we can begin to wholeheartedly, unself-consciously (and) passionately participate - or you could say co-participate - in the creation of the conscious universe with, and as, the very force that created it. Then your own deepest aspiration - your own deepest heartfelt aspiration and desire - becomes one with the creative principle, with the first cause itself."

"It is," Cohen notes, "a big thing. It's a big moment. It's a profound awakening. You awaken literally, to the cosmic and universal significance of your own emergence at this particular time, and to your inherent potential to participate in the process for the development of consciousness itself."