Andrew Cohen - N° 3 - LAST TEACHINGS - Dec. 24 | Feb. 2025

The universe is evolving. Universe is becoming more complex. Integral philosophy tells us the universe has an outside and an inside. The universe has an exterior and an interior. The outside is matter and energy. The inside is subjectivity, consciousness, interiority. The inside of the universe is the within us, the withiner things. The outside of the universe is the exterior of reality. It's important to understand this. So people who educated by western science appreciate that the material universe is evolving. the material universe, the level of matter and energy and life is part of an evolutionary process. So it makes sense that if the exterior of the universe is evolving, if the outside of the universe is evolving, so is also the inside of the universe evolving. The inside is more subtle. It's less apparent, but it's interiority, consciousness, subjectivity is also part of the evolutionary process. But we've been trained to think of only about the exterior of reality, the outside, matter and energy, what we can see objectively. So when we begin to meditate, for example, we begin to look at the interior of reality starting with our own consciousness. Right? If you discover your own consciousness, you realize all of reality has an inside. And the whole of re the whole of the inside of reality, the whole of the inside of reality is connected as one thing. The interiority of a tree is not separate from the interiority of the consciousness of a human being. The interiority exists everywhere. And so when you connect with your own interiority, you connect with the interiority of the universe. So as I was saying the point of all this is to realize that as the exterior of the universe is evolving becoming more complex so also as the interior of the universe evolving and becoming more complex consciousness is part of the evolutionary process that's the point. So if we agree with that, you said you say, "Well, is my consciousness evolving? Is my consciousness evolving? Am I more enlightened than I was 10 years ago? Am I smarter than I was 10 years ago? Am I more kind and compassionate than I was 10 years ago? Am I more awake than I was 10 years ago? Am I evolving? Is my own consciousness part of this process or do I feel it? Can I feel that changing happening? I feel I'm evolving. Evolution feels good. To become more conscious always feels very positive. When you have an experience of becoming more conscious, you feel more alive, feel more depth, you see more complexity, becoming bigger and deeper. It feels very positive spiritually. It feels very empowering. Some people feel they're not evolving. Some people aren't evolving. Some people stay the same for 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years, and they don't change. I know people like that. Do you know people like that? They might be very nice, but they're not going anywhere. They're not becoming more conscious. They're not becoming more awake. So what what's very fascinating and this has always been very fascinating to me is that if the universe is evolving then our understanding of the truth with a capital T our understanding of the truth which is absolute is also evolving which is a very revolutionary way to think about truth truth is usually considered to be like a rock it's very static and unchanging just it is what it is you Say yes, the truth is static like a rock. It is what it is, but it's also evolving as we evolve. As we evolve, our appreciation for what the truth is becomes more complex, more subtle, more integrated, more deep, more depth. Don't tell a traditionalist this. They won't like it. This traditional Judaism, traditional Christianity, traditional vanta. So the traditionalists are very attached to the form particular form. The truth is evolving as is our capacity to understand it and to cognize it make sense of it. Reality doesn't exist outside us as a separate object. It's our relationship with the with with reality which is where understanding lies. So the capacity for understanding evolves on an understanding of the the the truth evolves also. So what does that mean for final liberation? It means it means there's no final attainment from an evolutionary point of view. There is no final attainment. If you if you understand that reality is evolving, reality itself is evolving, then ultimate truth is a moving target. Now I get it. Maybe not. Maybe it's changed. That was 3 minutes ago. It's changed. I believe that the truth is a direct cognition, a direct perception of the ultimate nature of reality. There's a difference between that what's called relative relatively real and absolutely real. So when you have when you have a direct cognition, a direct seeing of that which is ultimately real, it stops you. So this is very different. This is ultimate. Most of the time I'm only seeing that which is relatively real. Now I'm seeing that which is ab ultimately real. It's absolutely real. That's what the truth is. So what's more important? Our felt experience of the truth or our capacity to interpret it? What's more important? Our direct experience of the truth or our capacity to interpret it? No. Because listen, you can have two people have the same the same experience, but they interpret it very differently. I say what's more important is the interpretation of the experience, not the experience itself. But why this is important is some I've seen the truth. Then you listen to them speak about it. You're hearing about their interpretation of their experience. All experience is interpreted through the mind. There's no such thing as pure experience. You follow? There's no such thing as pure experience. All experience is interpreted. Some people have a more sophisticated capacity for interpretation than others. So what we need to work on is what's the interpretive framework through which we understand reality. The power of experience is is only as powerful as our capacity to interpret it. You can tell the depth of understanding and depth of transformation by the capacity for interpretation. About 30 years ago, I understood this point that it wasn't the experience of reality, but the interpretation meant everything. So, I've had experiences where my intuition was very strong, very clear. Then reality didn't work out how it felt. I felt that it was going to. But I feel that what what develops is humil for me it's humility as I get older I get wiser I I've always had absolute conf absolute self-confidence since I met my teacher now I have more humility I used to have a lot of self-confidence but I didn't have the humility and the humility comes from living longer seeing loosen seeing life from a bit from a bigger distance is as you're asking the question, if you think you're seeing something very clearly, then you realize over time, a long time, that you weren't seeing it as clearly as you thought you were, it creates humility. For me, that's more that has more of an effect than suffering. I haven't learned a lot about suffering from suffering to be honest. But I don't like it. But I feel very lucky. Feel like I feel very lucky. I haven't suffered so much in my life compared to other people. I also know I don't think a lot of people learn from suffering either. Even though we should, we don't often not have enough.