The Edge of Evolution

hello everybody nice to see you welcome tonight at least where i am it's evening i want to speak about what it means to live on the edge of evolution on the very edge of the creative impulse and very specifically i want to try and articulate explicate define give all of you a sense an idea of feeling what a truly liberated inherently creative evolutionary inspired relationship to the human experience actually is this is what i want to try and do but at the very beginning of the presentation i wanted to make clear as i often do that with the context in which i teach and all the points i'm trying to make about life and about reality and about the human experience are all from the perspective of awakened consciousness or enlightened awareness as i experienced it and as i understand it so it's a it's a unique vantage point it's a very particular way of seeing reality understanding reality and really relating to reality but i want to make clear it is not the only way to see reality it's not the only way to understand reality and it's not the only way to make sense out of reality but it's a it's an important one and what makes the and what makes what i'm defining is the enlightened perspective of the enlightened vantage point uniquely profound and uniquely significant as we try and come to terms with what it means to be human what it means to be conscious what it means to be conscious is this uh it's because when we when we awaken to enlightened awareness when our consciousness expands in the enlightenment context there's a shift in our experience of consciousness and cognition from what could be called a relative perspective relative understanding relative consciousness and relative cognition to absolute consciousness and absolute cognition so it's hard to understand what the difference between relative and absolute actually means outside of having the actual experience of what it means otherwise it tends to be tends to become way too intellectually intellectually abstract a distinction but we've got to work with where we are so everybody do the best they can but i just i want to say that um when we consciously choose to embrace the the unique perspective that becomes available to us when we awaken to enlightened awareness we are choosing to embrace a non-relative or absolute position in relationship to being human and if we choose to take an absolute position in relationship to the challenge of being human it's important that we clearly understand that we're doing that and we clearly understand that this absolute vantage point this absolute perspective this absolute position is realizable it's it's realizable and it's it's possible to have an experience of what that means but as as as as a human being it's impossible to reach it or to equal it this is the the absolute position the absolute vantage point which comes which becomes which enters into our awareness and our understanding and higher states of consciousness and we transcend the ego in the small self reveals and reveals to us a non-relative or absolute dimension of reality which is definitely higher and and and inherently free and liberated in ways that relative reality relative consciousness relative cognition relative experience never is and never will be so as i as i described this non-relative or absolute vantage point from the perspective of the evolutionary impulse i want you all to understand that i'm describing a possibility and a potential that is ultimately unattainable and a big part of the teaching of evolutionary enlightenment which is what i teach is a big a big theme in this teaching is to reach beyond ordinary boundaries as we strive to evolve and strive to become more conscious and strive to actualize and realize and liberate all the inherent creative potentials that exist within us but it becomes apparent pretty soon that unless we all are willing to make the heroic spiritual effort to liberate these extraordinary potentials within us the word that we were never going to do it and so i found that while we reach for what i'm defining as being absolute in this creative context we're reaching for we're reaching for a possibility we're never going to be able to fully attain as long as we're in this human body and mind in this human frame it's in it's really reaching that new and extraordinary potentials and powers and possibilities begin to reveal themselves and manifest themselves and they manifest themselves only because we were reaching beyond ordinary boundaries which most people don't like to do or not in the habit of doing the evolutionary relationship to enlightenment is very goal-oriented actually about liberating capacities of consciousness cognition and ways of seeing reality that we need to reach for that they won't just reveal themselves to us of their own accord this is we have to be interested in cracking the atom so to speak of our own ignorance in the context of an evolutionary inspired enlightenment it was in the reaching when we stretch beyond the normal boundaries when we break up break the boundaries of our own multi-dimensional levels of inertia refusal resistance ignorance arrogant stupidity selfishness and narcissism and extraordinary things begin to reveal themselves and become apparent to us that we just know had no idea existed so so this so this non-relative or absolute dimension of reality reveals to us miraculous potentials that's what i want to talk about now now i to continue along these lines the paradox of enlightenment has to do with the fact that we're all mortal human beings so we're we are physically mortal and frail and vulnerable we are emotionally psychologically mortally frail and vulnerable we're all imperfect and we're never going to be able to get anywhere new being perfect expressions and manifestations of the human potential because it's never happened before perfection always perfection exists as an ideal that exists somewhere in the distant future and as i've been saying if we if we continue to reach for perfection we can realize moments of grace and give rise to possibilities that are truly miraculous but are not yet truly perfect so there's a in in this in this enlightenment process we are trying to straddle two boats one of those boats exists in the non-relative or absolute dimension of reality the other boat exists and the relative dimension of reality and we want to what we want to do through spiritual practice and acquiring an investigation commitment we want to learn how to throughout these relative and absolute dimensions of reality and learn how to learn how to balance them exquisitely elegantly beautifully some people go too far in either direction and make a terrible mistake as they leave on one side of the picture so some realizers some some realizers in the enlightenment traditions when they awaken they they will claim that only the absolute is real and everything everything relative gross and subtle is all part of that which is unreal and so in in those kinds in those traditions using that kind of contextual framework a significant part of the experience of being human which exists in relative reality is is somehow being avoided and denied and not honestly and truthfully being fully embraced and responded to i believe and i don't think i'm the only one who sees it that way and that's a one point one side of the spectrum on the other side of the perspective spectrum is people who deny that any kind of absolute or non-relative dimension of reality or consciousness actually exists and people speaking from such advantage one would say that that which is purely relative is all there is tragically so to use mythic language they would proclaim that god doesn't really exist or there's no such thing as an absolute principle that exists the discovery which changes everything and becomes the source of our liberation they would deny it they say it's all aroma fantasy and imagination religious and spiritual fantasy and imagination so what i what i try and do is i try and do the best i can to make clear to everybody is my teacher make clear to me that the relative and absolute are two sides of one coin the two parts of two parts of a whole picture of reality and have a whole experience of reality relative and absolute of one and not two and the more we understand this the more we make it possible for our experience of relative reality to inform our experience and understanding of absolute reality in the same way we want to learn how to have our experience of enlightened awareness absolute reality inform our experience of relative reality challenging the challenge of being fully human in a difficult and challenging world so that's kind of the big picture now in in in my in my teaching of evolutionary enlightenment for many years i've made this distinction between what i have chosen to call the old enlightenment and the new enlightenment in the old enlightenment to what i'm choosing to call the old enlightenment is being enlightened it's what the greater eckhart tolle teaches so beautifully it's what the buddha was was pointing to it's the awakening to the to that which has changed this timeless form that's beginningless and endless and eternal it's about the awakening to what the buddha called the deathless the uncreated and the unborn but ramana maharshi called itself what mahayana buddha referred to as the deepest dimension of reality which is voidness emptiness or nothingness so in the traditional you know what i call the old enlightenment as we aspire to awaken to the enlightenment of the the buddha and ramana maharshi the goal in that context is usually the goal of freedom inner freedom of a radical uncompromised profound almost inconceivable experience of liberation and the experience of timeless formless beginnings and endless eternal liberation is definitely not nothing it's definitely something we don't want to underestimate the significance and the profundity of the experience of inner liberation so the experience of inner liberation of samadhi satori nirvana if you're lucky enough to glimpse it you'll know that it that you'll suddenly understand what the buddha was talking about you'll suddenly understand what rama maharishi was talking about will suddenly all make sense to you and it'll never make sense to you unless you actually have the experience but the experience is of a primordial it's the discovery of a primordial state of being where liberation is all there is there's always freedom and in the miraculous state of consciousness you find that fruit that that that that miraculous inner freedom not only is your birthright but has been a has been available and present to you from the very beginning you just didn't see it you weren't aware of it because your attention was on other things but in this in this miraculous state of inner freedom the essence of it is the the essence of it reveals itself to us when we let go of everything else so the metaphor that i often use for letting go of everything and letting go of everything else is having nothing knowing nothing and being no one zero emptiness so in buddhism they tell us that the experience of profound liberation is freedom from attachment and freedom from desire having nothing knowing nothing and being no one is liberation having nothing knowing nothing but no one is unconditional radically profound liberation from attachment and longing having nothing knowing nothing being no one so the goal and this what i call what i call the old enlightenment is to at the level of our souls the level of the soul to have let go so deeply that there is an inner access to a state of infinite freedom where there is a nothing that is synonymous with eternity and in that nothing that is synonymous with eternity there's there seems to be no such thing as birth no sushi is death no such thing as here no such thing as there but the idea is in this in this kind of primordial traditional enlightenment the fundamental position of that kind of experience is being free from free from free from the mind i'm free from identification with the body i'm free from identification with time i'm free from identification with the world so if you're free from conscious and unconscious attachment and if you're free from longing or anything else then freedom you're going to be pretty enlightened which is another kind of enlightenment that i want to speak about that relates to the subject of this gathering today which is living on the edge of evolution so in the context of the inherent creativity it is the manifest expression of the evolutionary impulse when we look at enlightenment in the context of conscious evolution we begin to see a very different kind of picture because the question in the evolutionary context is how free am i to respond how free are you to be how free are you to respond to the recognition of the revelation of evolutionary potential as it appears within your heart and mind are we attached distracted busy with other things hopelessly dug in consciously and unconsciously and attached to first principles and first values that have nothing to do with the inherent creativity of the universe are we living are we knowing we're unknowingly living in the past living in old ideas about the meaning and purpose of life that have nothing to do with spiritual freedom and that have nothing to do with liberating our evolutionary potential because because the most beautiful thing about the discovery of evolution is that because it's the recognition that the the universe or the creative process as a whole is moving it's not static the energy and intelligence that created the universe and is creating the universe right now is moving it is always becoming more what it can be intimate complexification on a journey of self-discovery and self-realization as are all of all of us so does the picture of reality that we that we use to frame our experience as the picture of reality that we used to frame our experience is it a moving picture do we see the do we see the reality of the present moment emerging out of an evolutionary continuum or or do we see ourselves as living in a more or less a static frame based upon old ideas whether these ideas are personal and psychological related to our own unique souls experience or do or do we see ourselves in our values the values that we're consciously unconsciously attached to are identified with as coming from an outdated past in which those values no longer are actually relevant anymore what world are we knowingly and unknowingly choosing to live in to be acting from and within so as you awaken to an evolutionary first values and first principles the fact that the whole process all universe is moving and it's becoming and complexifying constantly and there's no such thing as anything static in this process when you really let that truth into your soul when you feel you need to feel within your own consciousness the presence of the vibration the pulsation of the evolutionary impulse of this sense this feeling of movement and reaching towards the future you see that all of reality is moving nothing is fixed and static and and then you realize in that context you begin to realize to become aware of the fact that as i've been saying so many of your and our ideas beliefs attachments fixations fears and desires are all emerging in a very static context it's not ultimately real and not only is that ultimately real it's not even in alignment with the evolutionary becoming of the universe as integral philosophy tells us it makes clear to us the universe has an inside and an outside the outside of the universe is matter and energy in the universe in the inside of the universe the subjectivity and consciousness so as the exterior is part of a developmental process it's been in progress for about 14 billion years it makes perfect sense that as at the inside of the universe within a thing within of all things has also been on a long journey so is our experience of consciousness and cognition and is our unique soul living in alignment with the evolutionary becoming of the cosmos usually it's not the case how do we see ourselves as unique human beings how do we see ourselves in this picture do we see ourselves experiencing at the level of consciousness and cognition and level of our souls do we feel that that inner momentum of the evolving cosmos reaching ever forward into the future trying to give rise to its own creativity leading at your insurance potentials do we feel that movement in ourselves do we feel ourselves looking towards the future feeling towards the future do you feel within yourself of feeling towards the future and in that feeling towards the future of great yearning great ecstatic yearning for what could be and in the context that i wish i'm sharing this the yearning for what could be is always that which has never existed before it's always a higher and deeper possibility it's always a step forward and a step up a step beyond there's always a reaching and ecstatic reaching for the possible and do you feel this reaching for the possible in your in your body in your mind and in your soul because in an evolutionarily inspired and informed enlightenment the expression of that enlightenment in time and space is the liberated liberated willingness and ability to respond without hesitation fearlessly to evolutionary opportunity it means that you're available it means that it means that one is one is if one is available most people aren't really very available because we're stuck in old paradigms old beliefs old ways of thinking feeling desiring old forms of attachment it might have been at the very leading edge of cutting edge 500 years ago 400 years ago 300 years ago 200 years ago 100 years ago 50 years ago maybe even 20 years ago so to live on the very edge of evolution means that um means that we've aligned ourselves we've consciously and deliberately chosen to align ourselves so profoundly with this evolutionary principle that we are spiritually and energetically and morally available to respond it's evolutionary potential that reveals itself if we're going to be living on the edge of if we're going to be living on the very edge of evolution it means we have to be ready to respond and you we can only respond if we're committed to being ready to respond and if we're going to be ready to respond at all it means that our philosophy our life philosophy our personal religious impulses would have to be aligned a profound and significant way with the evolutionary impulse itself and the evolutionary impulse is an experience of ecstatic urgency and a spiritually palpable feeling of uh evolutionary potential that's something we have to we have to we have to we have to make ourselves free we have to become free so that we will be available to respond to the call of evolution so there's a distinction i often like to make in the teaching of evolutionary enlightenment which i want to briefly bring up here because it's because it's a good time to do it and that is in the practice of what i what i was explaining is my definition of the traditional enlightenment the being enlightenment the enlightenment of the buddha enlightenment that i cartelli talks about so beautifully is the way to realize the being enlightenment is usually what happens is when you have a realization when you experience a spiritual insight moment of death experience a higher state of consciousness consciousness and being timeless formless beginning with an endless eternal being eternal freedom the response to those kinds of experiences always is to let go and the more you let go into having nothing knowing nothing would be no one zero the more freedom you will experience as being so into being enlightenment it's realize and let go and we find for most of us there's always more to let go of even if you're good at letting go and even if you let go of a lot one finds and in most cases there's always more to go so realize and let go is the practice of being enlightenment to put it in a nutshell realize and let go realize and let go realize and let go but in the evolutionarily inspired enlightenment the kind of enlightenment that reveals itself to us when we awaken to the evolutionary impulse in evolutionary enlightenment and evolutionarily inspired enlightenment it's very different than it's realize and respond realize and respond now realize and respond so if you in other words it means if you realize if you're a moment of spiritual realization spiritual insight you realize a great potential that wants to actualize itself within you or in the world around you the world that you occupy you realize a great potential that wants to actualize itself then what you would do if you were free if you were liberated would be to without hesitation respond to what you realized you wouldn't wait you wouldn't hesitate you wouldn't have a cigarette and think about it you you take the leap of faith because you've seen what's possible and you because you see yourself in that context as an instrument of evolution in human form you would act immediately without hesitation and with total faith what you'd seen the more you could do that then what you what you see as mere potential eventually becomes actualized materially in the world that you help to give rise to and co-create through your presence here in the world so an evolutionarily inspired enlightenment it's not realized and let go which realize and respond so therefore to live on the very edge of evolution to live on the edge of evolution also implies that we would become agents of the actualization of the evolutionary potential would mean that you were spiritually prepared to spiritually prepared spiritually equipped to realize and respond when sometime around now ish remember enlightenment whether it's being enlightenment or evolutionary enlightenment is always about transcending ego enlightenment whether it's being enlightened revolutionary enlightenment is always about transcending ego always just to repeat in case of anybody watch wasn't listening enlightened it's always about transcending ego so in evolutionary enlightenment if you realize and respond without hesitating in an act of total faith your ego has no time to interfere with the no but i the ego is very good at interfering in the arising of evolutionary potential and the actualization of evolutionary potential the ego always has good excuses good reasons especially if smart people come up with very good reasons and very good excuses and the ego will always phrase the excuse for the good reason no but i so the way it works is if you respond immediately without hesitation that reservation the ego has no chance to interfere and the more the more you and i and we can learn how to respond to life without allowing our unenlightened egos to mess the whole thing up which the ego is very much likes to do you can make some real progress progress in terms of the evolution of conscious consciousness progress in terms of the actualization of evolutionary potential i progress in relationship to the liberation of evolutionary potential when you gain when you get really good when you get really good at this the becoming of the cosmos the becoming of the interior of the cosmos becomes palpable palpably discernible within and between human actors that's when the show gets very exciting when you go wow we're really on a journey of becoming aren't we and we're going somewhere baby it's happening in us and through us and between us what's happening means the energy and intelligence that created the universe in its creating universe which means god she's the only one who could create a universe he's becoming more conscious more probably present as the only actor that that truly is through us and when you when you when you see this when you feel this and you know it's true but it starts happening through you that's when your spiritual self-confidence goes through the roof did you realize the energy intelligence that created the universe evolutionary impulse is the spiritual principle that makes all things possible is actually at work through us that would that you realize that when they were not victims of a material process that we're not victims of a painfully material process trying to do the best we can but failing again and again but but at the deepest level we begin to recognize what a profound role we actually are here to play in the unfolding of this inner intelligence that's that's so present in the process which is normally so invisible to us so living on the edge of evolution means we are available to actualize what becomes apparent to us in our deepest moments of self-realization our states of consciousness because when magwood creates evolutionary momentum creates the inner momentum this is i can learn to respond unself-consciously without fear and doubt to interfere every time i have an insight it's coming from the deepest part of me my awakened soul the momentum of the possible begins to be at work in and through my body and mind you become engines of evolution of evolutionary potential and lord knows the world needs as much of that as possible now more than ever so the edge of evolution the way i'm describing doesn't live outside you so a big part of how i would define the new the new enlightenment is that we need to find for first we need to do the spiritual work to awaken to and discover the evolutionary impulse within our own selves because it exists within you the evolutionary impulse exists within you as a palpable vibration pulsation it's it's already there you've just got to discover it and when you do you're going to get very excited because it feels so powerful so potent so pregnant with creativity and so on live and some full of pure positivity the evolutionary impulse as a felt experience feels like pure unabashed uncorrupted unobstructed overwhelming positivity and what it feels like inside you inside me it feels like suddenly all things are possible not naively so so many human beings these days for so many reasonable good reasons are consciously and unconsciously seem to be convinced that life is not such a good thing to be alive is not such a good thing the human birth is not a great gift and then life and death itself is full of so many problems and that so little is possible people feel this per on a personal level because they personally had bad experiences in the past you can feel very discouraged and depressed about human potential in general because of what a mess in so many areas we're making so this can lead to willingly or unwieldingly conscious and unconsciously a tendency towards nihilism cynicism and doubt and have no and have no doubt that nihilism cynicism and doubt are suicidal tendencies if you're if you're actually interested in spiritual awakening and enlightenment most of all we're all vulnerable we have to be very careful where we spend our time with our minds we've got to think about life philosophically ethically emotionally psychologically and spiritually and we're in ways that are very positive and in ways that will help us to nurture our own potential for liberation so when you awaken to the evolutionary potential you will feel all things are possible as a as a state as the experience of a state of consciousness it's not that it's going to be easy it's not it's the experience the experience of the revelation that all things are possible doesn't mean all things becoming possible is going to be part of an easy ride it might be a very hard ride but you know fundamentally you can do it it can be done it's the opposite of cynicism and nihilism and down there is a kind of conviction a conviction of the inherent goodness of life and that we have the will to exist which is inherent in the universe inheriting the evolutionary impulsive we get to become conscious of that will to exist that is the creative and positive evolutionary impulse and you feel the pure positivity that is driving it you start to recognize that that pure positivity that's thriving the evolutionary impulse is not separate from the very best part of who you are and who i am who you all are then you go wow really see this so then you discover that this inherent positivity is what's driving this whole process in the first place and a materialist will never believe you but if you have the experience you realize that's actually true it doesn't mean that life isn't hard and tough you call it paradoxes and contradictions and pain and suffering i'm not saying that but i'm saying that the energy and intelligence that's driving this process that's from at the very core of everything inherent in it is the kind of positivity that we can't even begin to imagine with our minds so the idea is if we live on the very edge of evolution we want to be in touch with that positivity that's not mind created it's it's revealed to us in spiritual revelation and it's being in contact with that kind of positivity that gives us the courage to live the spiritual life in earnest in a frightened and confused and understandably frightening confused world the spiritual life must be lived in earnest which means we really mean it means we're not afraid to live our spiritual values and our convictions in public because we realize that for spirit to be able to the true nature of spirit to be able to reveal herself into this believing world some of us have to be willing to bear witness it's not a new idea but it's actually true it takes courage right so i'm moving i can hear myself starting to begin to sound like a christian that's why i'm laughing at myself but uh but um we human beings emotionally psychologically philosophically metaphysically tend to be very weak very very few of us have the courage of the conviction of the strength of character and strength at the level of the soul to truly stand on our own two feet independently it takes courage in a disbelieving modern and post-modern world that is so skewed by materialism and narcissism to have the courage to bear witness to to real depth just because of so much narcissism and materialism and small-mindedness and selfishness and ignorance doesn't mean that depth beauty and perfection doesn't exist in a deeper level it does just because many people haven't found it yet or just stumbled upon it doesn't mean it's not there but those of us who have had the good fortune and the good karma and the grace have stumbled upon that perennial truth sooner or later we have to have the courage to bear witness in our own ways whatever that means being different things to different people so living on the edge of living on the edge of evolution means all these things more than anything else it means i because i have awakened to the evolutionary impulse because i know that the absolute principle behind the creative process the energy intelligence that created the university evolutionary impulse is who and what god actually is and that creative impulse in order to create the future at the highest level needs me needs you to be available and ready to respond because when we wake up when you wake up to all of this you realize what's called evolutionary non-duality and you begin to see how your hands and feet your heart your eyes and your ears and your mind are not your own but they are the eyes feet heart eyes feet hands heart and mind of the energy and intelligence that created the universe they're not yours the ego is a very small part of a much bigger picture the ego just uh the ego is useful because it helps your it makes it possible for you to have a frontal self and frontal personality through which that energy intelligence that creative energy and intelligence can express itself through a frontal self in front of personality so in that sense the ego's not a problem but the ego becomes a problem and it thinks that it's the center of the universe and the organizing principle behind all this and it's not but when you awaken to evolution you awaken to the process perspective in the sense that you realize that your body mind and soul are here for a reason and they're here to participate in the evolutionary process as consciously as is possible for you for your unique soul the universe becomes conscious through you and the universe becomes conscious through me becomes conscious through us the universe is not inherently conscious out there the universe is not inherently conscious out there to repeat the universe is not inherently conscious out there the universe is conscious in here within us and between us and the universe can become more conscious within us and between us the universe out here can become more conscious within within us and between us if we're willing to live the spiritual life in earnest the religious life in earnest so the universe out there becomes more conscious through us it's a very important principle something very important to understand an evolutionary enlightenment in evolutionary metaphysics as i understand it this changes everything it's changed everything for me it's evolutionary non-duality it's when you it's when you come to recognize that that interiority exists as an as an inherent fact in in the cosmos and in nature but as the universe evolves through life and the complexification of life the capacity for the interior the interior of the cosmos grows and deepens and complexifies and when you experience the spiritual impulse which is the urge to become conscious vibrating and pulsating within your own self that's when you realize the universe is trying to become more conscious through you so let that hit you the universe is really trying to become more conscious through you and at that level of evolutionary development when you when you understand that you know why you're here and it's not about your personal life this is not a personal journey by the way thank god this is a personal journey if it was it really would be only a nightmare wouldn't it when you realize all these things you wake up from the from the nightmare of the personal life and you realize the cosmos is in fact alive and awake to itself and then you and me and i and all of us individually collected we all have a role to play if we make ourselves available and the profundity of the experience of of consciousness and of being alive is realized to the degree that it is realized that we do which we understand that this is that life is a great adventure full of so much unmanifest potential and actualizing that potential and consciously actualizing that potential is what this life is all about now if you choose if you choose to live a spiritual life in earnest and if that and if that would mean to you living on the edge of evolution uh you'll have a big effect on the life you're living because if that's something you choose to do you'll find you can't live your life in the old way anymore because the edge the edge of evolution is a real edge and the more courage you have the more courage one has to walk a little farther out on that ledge the more thrilling it is the ride you