Andrew Cohen - N° 26 - LAST TEACHINGS - Dec. 24 _ Feb. 25

So if you were God, how would you feel about your creation? Especially if your creation was a work in progress. We're unfinished. There's so much more possible. There's so much more possible. So much more possible. So much farther to go. So beautiful. It's infinally compelling. I'm so excited. I don't have time to eat to sleep. That's how creative people feel, right? Mozart was composing his symphonies. Very creative person doesn't when they get excited about their project, they don't need to sleep because they have to complete the project because it's just calling them finish me because they can see the sparkling of this possibility of giving rise to something inherently beautiful and perfect. They get very excited. They feel like ecstatically urgent about it and turned on. That's what it's like to be turned on by the evolutionary impulse. How are you doing? I'm great. I'm excited to be alive. I'm on an amazing journey and I feel that this is a very urgent matter. The universe is calling me to kind of give myself unconditionally absolutely and completely to this liberating this incredible potential inherent in me and in all of us. And I have no choice. And I have to do it. I can't even sleep anymore. I'm up all night creating the future. So it feels like ecstatic urgency, right? The potential is infinite. How far can you in terms of the creative process that we call the evolving universe? How far is it possible to go in terms of the liberating the creative potential inherent in the evolving cosmos? Infinite potential. So therefore that potential seems to be awakening to the the conscious awareness of the nature of an infinite potential seems to be awakened to its own vibration inherent in you and that feels like a calling because it's a call to participate in a deeper level. It's ecstatic compulsion. I was doing this it was pretty good but it made make me unhappy. I was doing that it was pretty good but it didn't make me happy. If I do this, I'll always be happy because I'll always be ecstatically compelled to reach higher and deeper and go farther eternally for eternity. That's how the creative god feels. The uncreated god is always resting in being with the god of the Buddha and ra maharshi resting in being. Nowhere to go, nothing to do, nowhere to become. Everything's always cool because nothing ever happened, right? So, chill, dude. But I'm just trying to say there's two sides of the coin here. One half of the coin is the being dimension, but there's nowhere to go, nothing to do, no to become just eternal peace with free from desire, free from any ambition. Let go of everything from time and space, body, mind, world, and ambition. Even enlightenment is all gone. Just resting in being eternally for eternity. That's what I call the traditional maka, the traditional enlightenment, which is the foundation for the new enlightenment, which is waking up to the other half of the picture, which is half of the god principle is this creative process that he or she gave rise to fond of repeating it here. Would the universe exist if God didn't want the universe to exist? God the absolute principle of the God principle, right? wants wants to be here wants his wants this greater process to be happening and to evolve and to unfold. So God is both freedom from becoming resting in being and overwhelming overwhelming compulsion to evolve eternally for eternity. It's it's an absolute paradox. Being and becoming are one and not two. The nature of the absolute God principle is being and becoming are one and not two. It's an absolute paradox. being feels like peace. That peace that passes all understanding. And the other side is what we're calling the creative impulse which is striving eternally for eternity to create the future. It's not two truths, but it's an absolute paradox. They're both absolutely true. The form is emptiness and emptiness is form. Like from the heart susha, form is emptiness and emptiness is form. And the world of form is evolving. Form is emptiness and emptiness is form. And the world of form is evolving. So I try and share this dharma in a way with that will inspire people to want to master the being enlightenment the traditional enlightenment of enlightenment which which is all about the awakening to the ground of being and to awaken to the evolutionary dimension of the god principle which is this eternal creative aspiration holding as the evolving cosmos and hold both if they're both what The absolute truth is both at the same time. For a few, nobody was talking about this in the east. Interesting, huh? So the being feels like peace, freedom from desire, freedom from birth and death, any interest in existing in time. Whereas the becoming enlightenment feels like this overwhelming excitement about what's possible. It's the awareness of infinite potential feels very unique. Infinite potential feels like all things are possible. It's one big cosmic yes. Screaming yes. And what does the cosmic yes tell our ego? [ __ ] off. So those moments when any of us feel feel this excitement about what's possible and it doesn't feel like a personal excitement. It feels like an impersonal absolute >> intoxicating metaphysical feeling that all things are possible. Even though to the rational mind all things are not possible which may literally be true but to the transational metaphysical self it's the feeling that all things are possible. It's the feeling of a super it still feels like a superpower because if we feel that kind of conviction we could we could do things we'd never be able to do otherwise. It's very spiritually empowering. But it feels like all things are possible when the ego feels undefeated. I've tried everything. Nothing's worked. feels terrible. All things are possible is a feeling of it's a superpower and it's very spiritually empowering. So, so with the new enlightenment to hold this paradox where where nothing ever happened on one hand nothing ever happened and all things are possible at the same time. The par this paradox hold the paradox two absolute positions. It's total contradiction. So sometimes we can be overcome by by the beings being consciousness and then we just want to be still and be left alone so we can sink deeper deeper deeper and deeper to the ocean of being. The deeper we sink the less care we have about the world. But then we don't care about the world anymore. We don't care about anything that happens in the world. Just want to be free from all manifesting existence eternally for eternity. free from any kind of relationship to time, space or manifest existence. You just want to let go more, not come out. Then when you go to the other side, it's the it's the opposite. So it's this realization that the God principle is always both and never only one is what's so it's so provocative and uh thoughtprovoking. So the evolutionary impulse is off at three different levels of our conscious experience. The first is the sexual impulse or the biological command to procreate. But that's everybody experiences the evolutionary impulse. There's a biological command to procreate. What does it feel like? Ecstatic urgency to produce new biological life. Create new life. I feel ecstatically compelled to create the conditions that will make it possible for bi new biological lives to emerge through me. But it's a compulsion that's coming from the deepest part of you. I have to do this. I must do this. Not I want to do it, but I have to. I'm ecstatically compelled. Create new light. It's always about that which is new. The creative impulse or the urge towards innovation and creativity is very unique to the human species. Human beings are the only only essential life forms on this planet that are driven driven driven to innovate and give rise to that which is new. It's a drive towards innovation. It's a compulsion towards innovation which at certain points can even become dangerous. But there's this compulsion to innovate and create that which is new. It's at a much higher level. And when you ever meet a very creative person, you're usually ecstatically compelled to do whatever it is they're doing, whether it's art, music, science, literature, or whatever it is. And I see the spiritual impulse as the highest expression of the evolutionary impulse because that's the impulse towards consciousness that I'd like to become more conscious, but I have to become more conscious. I must become more conscious. It's a drive towards enlightened awareness. It's the highest expression of evolutionary impulse. Some people feel it, a lot of people don't. And those people who feel it, some people feel at different levels of of themselves. Some feel it a little bit, some people a little bit more, some people are overwhelmed by it, become fanatics. But it's ecstatic. It's the nature of the ecstatic compulsion of the evolutionary impulse is so interesting. And I encourage everybody to kind of consider what I'm saying as you contemplate the nature of your own experience. You'll see whether these things I'm saying are objectively true about all of us. We all experience a sexual impulse as he has as an experience of ecstatic urgency. We're all at our best when we're when creativity is flowing through us. Whether we're a poet or an artist or a potter or a scientist or a writer or a musician when our creative gifts are being given at the highest level that's when we experience our the greatest happiness and being our unique self and we all experience this not everybody but most people experience some measure of this pull towards consciousness I must to become more conscious I have to become more conscious that's the evolutionary impulse they felt it's a spiritual impulse which is the earth shows higher consciousness. It's one impulse experience through these different levels of complexity that the universe has programmed us to see in this way. So if we recognize these things, it can help us a lot to make sense out of our own experience. If you were God, if you were God, you'd have no self-doubt and no fear. If you were God and you decided to create the universe, how would you feel about your project? If you had no fear and no doubt and you decided to create this evolving multiverse or whatever it is, how would you feel about it? You probably feel excited urgent about it. You wouldn't be I don't really care. [laughter] Said that's my baby because I'm God. I care absolutely about what I've created. It's mine. It's all me anyway. But I care very much about what I've given rise to. I care desperately, urgently, radically, absolutely, completely. That's the love of God, right? Overwhelming. So the reason why understanding what the evolutionary impulse is is important for all of us here because if medant doesn't answer the question when you when you're finished with your meditation if you've been sitting still for 3 hours and you're coming back to earth back to your body back to your mind back to your personality back to your karma unresolved karmmas what are you to do and how are you to do it when you realize that the part of you that gets up and starts moving, walking and talking and acting and reacting. It's driven by the evolutionary impulse and you'll know how to do it. Otherwise, you won't know who you are. If the universe wants God wants the universe to exist, that means he wants me to exist and you to exist. I am the energy and intelligence that created the universe awakening to itself and realizing it's ourselves with the body, mind personality of Gabrielle or Andrew, right? Then it makes sense to be Gabrielle and Andrew, doesn't it? You're not limited to your body, mind, and personality. Then you discover who you truly are. So then you realize this body and mind and personality has a purpose. It's the creative force of the universe. Don't you think the fact that emptiness has produced this creative explosion quite fascinating? Why would something come from nothing? These are important questions because they relate to us personally. Why do I exist in the form of Andrew Cohen? Why do you exist in form of Gabriella? Why God created the universe has to do with my personal identity and my karmic predicament here for it's true for all of us. So the question has great personal liberations. So when the universe was created, was the explosion a big yes, a big no, or a big neutral? What what does western science say? It says it was a random accident. That that's the materialist perspective. It's a random accident. So how does it feel to be if that if the universe is a random accidentalism? Now unfortunately most of the great religious traditions, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism would point to Because because the idea if if you're if you're Christian, the goal is to die and go to heaven. He heaven's where you want to be. You don't want to be here on earth. So you want to do you want to live your faith to such a degree that you're going to be able to get directly to heaven. If you're Buddhist, you want to get the hell out of here. It's just true for the Dant also. The idea is to get enlightened so you never have to come back to this miserable world. [laughter] So you could conclude that it would seem like uh the creative process was not so great. We created this mess that we want to escape from a certain point of view. But if the creative process was a big yes, then we no longer have to be ambivalent about existing in this cosmos. We don't have to be ambivalent anymore about our own existence. We can wholeheartedly embrace it, accept it, take responsibility for it, and make life beautiful as a result of our own higher development. We can wholeheartedly accept our existence here in this world. Everybody's so ambivalent about being here. But if it's a big yes, then we have to become an expression of that truth. Life is good. Life wants to exist. The universe wants to exist. So do we express that big yes in our as our human nature as the way we express our human nature. Are we an expression of the ultimate truth that the the coming of the universe is a big yes? Are we positive turned on? Are we negative and full of doubt? If we feel that the the coming of the universe was a big yes, then we'll feel inspired to do our best, then we're going to want to be here.