Andrew Cohen - N° 21 - LAST TEACHINGS - Dec. 24 _ Feb. 25

In the traditional enlightenment, when the seeker becomes a finder, when he or she awakens to the self, the Ramana Maharshi called the self, what Eckhart Tolle calls the ground of being. So, when you were awakened to the self of the ground of being, that experience is very profound, very powerful, very transformative. So, you discover who you truly are. And if it's deep enough, you you you stop identifying as strongly with the the ego and you identify more strongly with the with the true self. If you become established in that revelation, then you're stabilized on the other side in all your imperfection. But from an evolutionary point of view, all the possibilities of development are infinite. Your developmental potential, my developmental potential is infinite. So, awakening to the ground of being is the end of seeking, but it's not the end of spiritual development. That's that's an infinite process. So, what I call the old enlightenment, if you awaken to the ground of being, it's all finished. And the way that I teach, that's that's the first step. Becoming grounded in the ground of being. Awakening to the true self, that's the foundation of the new enlightenment. From that foundation, we can we get to work on our own cultivating our own potentials, our evolutionary potentials for eternity. So, it's very exciting cuz then you see you get to become who you The first step is becoming a finder. And when you become a finder, then you bring you bring evolutionary enlightenment, you begin the path of infinite conscious development. It becomes a full-time occupation forever. So, in the way that I approach this, becoming a a finder is the first step. It's a big step, but it's the first step. Cuz this I don't think this higher development can really happen if we're preoccupied with being seekers still. The hunger for liberation has to be satisfied. Then we can focus on higher possibilities. And also, if we're going to focus on higher possibilities, we have to become very trustworthy as a human being. And someone is only going to be trustworthy, in my opinion, if they are truly a finder. Which means they've mastered their egos as they master their ego. They're reliable and they're not going to get too too lost anymore because they know what the truth is. Someone like that you can trust. Other people aren't trustworthy. They get frightened or angry or overwhelmed by lust or greed. They can they can change. Trustworthy, non-trustworthy. Knowing what the truth is, right? And being true to the truth. So, you see, people who are true finders, I believe, are more trustworthy for that reason. So, they awaken to the ground of being is because it means to a higher end, and the way I look at it. The main thing is mastering the ego, the fears and desires of the frontal self. Understanding what it is and what it isn't, so we can't get fooled by and make mistakes. Because enlightenment is a living thing, to live it's a living vibration. It's passed from master to disciple, and has been for thousands of years. It's a living it's a living conscious, like a burning fire. So, if you as long as a true a truly realized master, they are burning up all the time. And in the traditional metaphor is that the seeker is like a little piece of wood. If you if the wood is not too soggy, if it's sitting next to the fire, it dries out pretty quickly, and then it catches fire itself. That's the transmission of grace, of enlightened awareness. It's a living vibration of consciousness itself. And someone's nervous system starts catches fire with the light of enlightened awareness itself. Your being becomes illuminated by the same state of consciousness as the guru himself, herself. But it's literally transmitted like a like a passing of fire from master to disciple. It's always how it's worked, and it still works that way. But once once you once you accept the the gift of liberation, can you hold on to it? That's the but that's how it's transmitted. And I think when you realize that enlightenment is a living vibration, it's like a living manifestation of consciousness, it's very inspiring. Cuz you realize it exists as an objective fact of reality. So, I always tell people you have to believe in enlightenment itself, and you have to believe in your own worthiness to embrace it. So, when I had this original experience, I said I went to the feeling was of burning up, of being burnt, consumed by the fire of consciousness itself. It was consuming my whole being. It felt like and it was very scary. Cuz I realized everything that I've been looking for was actually happening to me. I was scared. Cuz I realized this was not a joke anymore. This was this was everything. But then once once this happened, you have to honor the grace every day. It has to be honored. Can't be taken for granted. My guru said to me, "Andrew, I'm so glad you found a friend you'll never be able to see." I'm so glad you found a friend you'll never be able to see. You know what that means? It means you can't see your own self. But your own self is always there, right? Your own self doesn't go anywhere. Putting it in another context, what if your best friend you can't see? So, that puts you in a position, do you trust unconditionally, radically, and absolutely, completely that your best friend is always there? Or has your best friend fallen asleep and forgotten all about you? Has God forsaken you? Or are you still saved? The ego will come up with all of these the ways to torment you. So, if you're strong in the way I've been saying, you're the one who will never doubt it. And you'll never doubt it, it'll always be available. Not when you want it, but when it needs to be there. This whole teaching is based upon me putting enlightenment as number one. Do you want to get married? Do you want to have kids? Do you want to make a lot of money? Do you want to be famous? Do you want to be liberated more than anything else? Most people Well, I never thought but really enlightenment Well, that's a nice idea. It'd be a nice addition to my uh I said, "No, do you want to be free more than anything else?" It means letting go of everything else. Having nothing, knowing nothing, being no one. Unconditional leap into the unknown, letting go of everything for God, so to speak. And people say, "Whoa, I never thought about that. It seems to be like asking for a little bit much." I said, "I thought you wanted to be enlightened." "I do, but not that much." "It would be nice." So, then you're not serious. So, the reason they fall back asleep is because they forgot what happened. They forgot how enormous it is. And you know what you want to know what drives me crazy? Thinking about the friend you can never see, is invisible. So, most people, even if they have a powerful taste of it, powerful recognition of it, the enlightened awareness cannot be held in in the the mind cannot recognize what happened in linear time. So, when you have experiences that transcend linear time, the ego mind can't really can't remember that, has no grasp of it, cuz it exists in a different dimension of reality. So, you have to have access to that different dimension of reality to have access to enlightened awareness. When we lose access to that different dimension, we lose access to all the memories of all the depth that we experienced and we knew we won't remember. You will not remember. You will not remember the most blissful moments of your existence. You won't remember any of it. It's gone. It's like a door comes out and shh. And the minute we lose access, we fall back into the ego. And the ego gets very defensive, very defensive. The ego either wants to be in control or wants to be the dominant monad Follow. Ego doesn't like it when you renounce your ego. The ego doesn't like it. Ego wants to be supremely in control. Who's in control of your body, mind, and personality? If the body, mind, and personality is the vehicle for your consciousness, who's in who's in the driver's seat? Is it the true self or the ego? So, with the enlightenment, the true self kicks the ego out of the front seat. Then we have to do spiritual practice. Most people have to do spiritual practice to maintain that situation. Because the the minute you fall asleep or take a nap, the ego will jump into the front seat, push the true self out. The secret is letting go, baby. Letting go is the secret. Of all the problems and all the thoughts about the problems. All the problems and all the thoughts about the problems. You just let go of all of that. And then worrying what's going to happen. And then when you experience a little space, you go up and have space inside you. Oh, that feels good. I didn't solve any problems, but in the space is so liberating. And you realize the space is liberation. The space is liberation. Right now, the space is liberation. You don't have to solve anything. The liberation is not doesn't need to be cultivated because it's already there it's already fully there. You just have to realize it. It's a big yes that we're looking for. And you want to find the big yes. And the big yes is pure positivity. And it destroys all the questions. You have good questions. They're reasonable questions. They're rational questions. But there's a positivity that can transcend all those questions. And that's what I'm pointing to. So, don't look for guarantees. Look for hopeful possibilities. reasonable There's no guarantees. How life unfolds, we don't know what's going to happen. So, we're taking a risk. That's more That's more reasonable. There's no guarantees. Anybody can guarantee to try to try to try to give you guarantees, I wouldn't trust them. Because the the spiritual transformation is as you well know is too delicate, is too complex. It's too much of a mysterious process. And the human personality is very complex. So, we don't know what's going to happen in the long run. Can't predict it. But if it's going to work, you have to we have to be willing to cooperate unconditionally. Yes. So, what the source is waiting to see that this is a lot of Old Testament stories are all about "Do you love me unconditionally? Will you do anything for me?" The source seems to be asking us, waiting for us to give a to surrender unconditionally, calling for greater submission, greater surrender, greater trust. That's how it works.