Beyond the Eternal Now: Waking Up to Evolutionary Enlightenment

Nice to see you all. So, I was asked to give a talk about the essence of what I teach because it was becoming clear to some of my students that um a lot of people didn't understand some of the basic distinctions that evolutionary enlightenment or what I call the new enlightenment is actually based upon. And so, what I'm going to try and do now is go over the basics and so, so for those of you who know me very well, please bear with me because you'll be very familiar with the distinctions I'm making for and for those of of you that are new, I hope it makes sense. So, I'm not going to be speaking about any anything new tonight. I don't think. I don't know what's going to happen. But um what catalyzed this was my um closest friend closest student and uh Dharma partner, Daniella Palmater, who's here speaking. Recently returned from an integral conference in Denver, Colorado. And she gave a couple of talks there. And um in one of her talks, she was speaking about the new enlightenment evolutionary enlightenment or what I call evolutionary enlightenment. Which emphasizes the which I'll explain. The significance of awakening to liberated consciousness in the context of evolution. It's awakening to evolution. It's not not just the intellectual discovery of the fact that the universe is evolving, is moving, and is is in a state of creative becoming, but it's it's the conscious cognizance at the level of spiritual transcendental knowing. It's to of of evolution. It's knowing evolution as a felt experience as a feeling. As if as if as a feeling at the level of being. In other words, the becoming of the universe feels like something. The becoming of the universe feels like something and the the in in what I call the new enlightenment or an evolutionary enlightenment, it is the conscious cognizance of the conscious recognition of the feeling of becoming. That is experienced as a new form of enlightened awareness, as a new expression of enlightened awareness. That's what I want to define simply and clearly tonight because it seems that even though many people listen to me speak about these things, sometimes the information doesn't go deep enough and I hope I hope tonight I can help to restate some of these basic distinctions in a way that can help everybody. But what happened was that um in her talk where she was making these distinctions, when she was talking about the becoming of the universe, the the apparently liberating nature of the experience of the becoming of the universe, there was a highly respected Buddhist meditation teacher in the audience. And he vulnerably confided that he said that I wasn't there so I didn't hear the exact words. I'm paraphrasing what I was told secondhand. He said something like um he stopped meditating. He he was a meditation teacher. That's his okay occasion in life. He said that when he he said he stopped meditating because when he when he meditates, he felt he he he became very inward. He felt like leaving the world or escaping from the world. Didn't want to be involved. Wanted to merge in the subjective nature of the empty core of reality. Wanted to disappear into nothingness or to the void, the Buddhist void. And he said that he he he feels very strongly that the the the world is in trouble and that he wants to respond to the world. He wants to participate in the world. He wants to be engaged with the world right now, now more than ever, and for that reason he stopped meditating. Because he felt his practice of meditation was taking him away from the world. And I found that um revealing. Slightly tragic and a little bit of a little bit hard a little bit of heartbreak also because if we understand the the full picture of the totality of the significance of awakening to enlightenment in the context of the totality of reality of being and becoming, we can see all these things fit together in a perfect perfectly and we don't need to we don't need to resist the we don't we don't need to resist some of these fundamental urges that we feel. So, so what's called the new enlightenment, what I like to call the new enlightenment, what some people call the new enlightenment, emphasizes the awakening to the becoming nature of reality itself. It says reality, manifest reality, the world of time and space is on a journey of becoming of infinite complexity. It's going somewhere. The universe, the material universe, is on a journey of becoming and it's going somewhere, and to repeat what I was just saying. In the new enlightenment, we awaken to we we awaken to the feeling of that movement in ourselves at at a level of our consciousness. Our consciousness transforms when we awaken to that to the to the feeling of the becoming of the universe. And it feels like liberation. And it has nothing to do with any form of escapism or leaving this world behind. It has to do with feeling what it's like to experience the creative process at its metaphysical core, metaphysical essence. What is the uni- What does the feeling of the becoming of the universe actually feel like? We feel it at the level of our own consciousness. So, what it feels like is it feels like freedom. In a very direct, very simple, and very easy way to understand, what this experience feels like is is if you if you are a creative person, if you're involved with creative endeavors in life, truly creative people, musicians, artists, potters, writers, philosophers, musicians, engineers, public servants, people who are deeply creative people, inspired people, people who have given themselves to the creative process in whatever field of whatever particular field, people who have become geniuses in their own field, experience this kind of sense of awakened consciousness when they feel concentrated and focused on their particular vocation. Whether if it's a scientist trying to figure out an equation or a musician who's all lost in the ecstasy of free improvisation, an inner world opens up of creative potential, of infinite creative potential, and to feel that infinite creative potential open up within us. And we when that infinite creative potential opens up within us we we lose small self-conscious awareness. We lose the the constant focus on the fears and desires and experiences of self-concern of the small self. But the small self which is the ego is always thinking about itself and very concerned about its fears and its desires and it's a very painful experience as all of you already know. So when a creative person focuses on their vocation and develops some concentration they begin to lose awareness of the fluctuations of the ego and the concerns of the ego. And their attention becomes focused on this creative process that's unfolding within them. And and the more the creative process quickens the more the creative process quickens the more is the experience of concentrated focused attention and energy and a feeling of lightness and being in joy and it's the joy of transcendental awareness and transcendental awareness emerges only when we lose this fixation on the small world of the ego and the small world of the small self compulsively we get defined by its fears and concerns. So as we awaken to this creative dimension and the quickening of the creative dimension within us we lose awareness of the small self. We lose self-conscious awareness. We lose self-consciousness. Small self has consciousness. And our consciousness begins to expand become pulled by the potential we are becoming aware of in the creative process that is vibrating revealing itself inside our focused attention. And that's an experience of joy and ecstasy and it depends how deep the creative focus becomes. If it's very deep the deeper the creative focus becomes the more ecstatic is our inner experience. The reason why jazz musicians love to play so much is because when they in jazz the the goal is to is to improvisation is to is to is to improvise. When you improvise it's like jumping jumping on jumping off a moving horse and flying. And it's when the when when the improvisation begins to take off the the ecstasy is experienced when the when the music seems to start playing itself. The music comes it's the experience of the music starts to come through us through one. It's not a feeling of doing anything. But the music seems to be playing itself through our bodies and minds and our body minds have become a vehicle through which the creative process can unfold and can happen in the world. It's like our the music our our body mind personality become an instrument which is playing this music that seems to be coming from the center of the cosmos. And this kind of experience is is one in which we experience ecstasy and freedom from the small self. And the reason why this is a state of enlightenment is because the nature of enlightenment whatever no matter what form we experience it is always the conscious cognizant of that which is boundaryless that which is infinite. That which is infinite that which is infinite. So when you when you consciously become cognizant of the infinite creative potential that that is within you when I create a potential that when that when that infinite creative potential starts vibrating and bubbling and moving and soaring and flying you start swimming in the infinite potential that exists that's inherent in the creative process itself. And it feels like freedom. Feels like inner freedom. Feels like unimaginable joy. And one becomes hypnotically intoxicated on this on the on the new on the awareness of the infinite nature of the potential of the creative potential one is becoming cognizant of. There is a sense in this in this heightened state of enlightened awareness, evolutionarily enlightened awareness that all things are possible. That's what it feels like. It feels so good because it feels like all things are possible. The ego feels all things are not possible, it's not possible, and I can't do it. And tends to be focused on what's not possible. The words ego is very focused on limitation of all shapes and forms, all shapes and sizes, and limitation and fear and and doubt. But in this awakened world of the vibration of the evolutionary impulse when it's soaring the feeling and the cognitive sense is that all things are possible and and we can go all the way to to the other side without limit. It's a feeling of no limitation whatsoever. All things are possible. There's no limitation whatsoever. And the experience that all things are possible and there's no limitation whatsoever as a vibration of pulsation of the creative potential inherent in the universe is an experience of inner freedom. But it's an But it's it's a particular experience of inner freedom that is about creating being being part and parcel of the creative process. It's about going somewhere. And it's always about going somewhere new. It's always about going somewhere new. It's never about staying in the same place. It's about becoming. And the becoming of the universe, the becoming of the manifest process the becoming of the universe seems to be an infinite process that's in progress. Seems to be feels like that's what it feels like. So the the new enlightenment has nothing to do with any form of of escapism. It has nothing to do with resisting to fully engage in life or to escape from the burden of existence. It's about fully embracing the burden of existence with uh an unconditional commitment to total success in liberating and liberating the forces of the creative potential that exists within us. Fully, absolutely, totally, and completely. And an expression of liberation in the context of the in the context of the within the interpretive framework of the new enlightenment is is total self-actualization in the context of fully becoming every everything we can be in the context of this incarnation of of our humanity. What would you be like if you'd fully if you if you if you became fully self-actualized your if your creative potential, whatever whatever that means for you became fully liberated and fully self-actualized without any limitation. You would be free as a creative participant in the universe. You'd be participating fully, absolutely, totally, and completely. You'd be utterly committed to going all the way and liberating your creative potential and proving it again and again and then doing it. This is this is the in the new enlightenment is about doing not about being. It's about fully engaging with the the creative potential inherent in manifest existence. It's like jumping into the middle of the of the of the ring and driving in the center of the road. It's going right into the center of existence and and and taking responsibility for all the potential that exists there and becoming an becoming a fully expanding ever expanding expression of that potential as your own human self. So, this new enlightenment is this new evolutionary expression of enlightenment or this new experience of the pulsation and vibration of the evolutionary impulse as it realizes itself within the context of a human being is a very particular kind of experience. And it's all good. It's all good. It's only good. It's beautiful. I believe it's the only way to be truly happy. I believe that for most of us that are here on this call together the only way for any one of us to be truly happy is is to truly liberate our creative potential ongoingly and unendingly. Which means we don't stand back and and we we don't stand back and just simply bear witness to the human the experience of human incarnation. Standing back and bearing witness and uh do the best we can to not be too victimized by our karmic predicament. Which a lot of people don't succeed at very well. But, it's like jumping into the center of the ring and wanting to take this experience the gift of this incarnation all the way to its ultimate conclusion. whatever that ultimate conclusion would mean for you. We all have different karmic baggage. So, for what it means for me is not what it means for you, and what it means for you is not what it means for me, but it gets a particular attitude. It's an attitude expression of the kind of awaken inspired intentionality that's a that that that that that's a full expression of a of what self-actualization and the kind of takes a the awaken to enlightened awareness is actually all about. It's kind of like what I'm talking about is what is when you come to the to when you come to that point in your own development as an evolving human being that you realize you no longer have anything to lose. And you're going to give it everything you've got because the universe is depending upon you to do that. And the ego, as we know, is always full of excuses. The ego's not ready. The ego needs more time to work out its problems. But when the evolutionary impulse awakens to itself within you and me, it's experienced as a as a vibration of a of an unconditional yes to life, yes to existence, yes to incarnation. It's embracing the present and future totally, absolutely, unconditionally for all that it's worth. It's wanting to live absolutely and to to to embrace the implications of what it means to live absolutely as I could and would express itself through our own unique forms, through our own unique identities, through our own unique karmas. And from the point of view looking looking at this through the lens of uh our potential for enlightenment, in the new enlightenment as in the old enlightenment, but I'll speak more about the old enlightenment in a minute. We will find for those of you who engage in the process of the new enlightenment, have the courage to kind of seek for your own liberation in earnest. One of the things we all discovered is discovered that the true self wants to be free, but the ego doesn't want it. The ego is afraid of freedom. Ego is always negotiating. Ego is full of fear. Ego is full of cuz one doesn't want to give up control. Ego is afraid of freedom, doesn't want to give up control, and is always resisting, resisting, resisting saying yes absolutely. So, from an evolutionary point of view, a true teacher or a true true guru, a true liberating mentor, all they want us to do is to say yes without conditions and without any form of resistance. And to submit to liberating our own potential unconditionally, radically, absolutely, and completely. It's It's It's give It's It's It's It's It's the coming to the end of resisting gift of life, the gift of this incarnation. Stop Not only do you stop resisting, but we embrace the unimaginable potential inherent in this gift if we have the courage to say yes without conditions. And as you can see, to live fully, to live to live to live life fully and completely, radically, and absolutely, we need to be able to say yes absolutely, radically, and completely every day. Some days it'll be easier than others, but that has to be our practice. That's the way it's done. That's the That's how it's done. It's It's It's It's It's a refusal to say no. And the willingness to say yes absolutely, radically, totally, and unconditionally, completely every day. And mean it. So, the old enlightenment, which is about awakening to being the old enlightenment is about awakening to being, timeless, formless being is awaken is is about awakening to the ground of being to that dimension of reality that exists before time and space where nothing ever happened. It's a different kind of enlightenment. It's the old enlightenment. It's the enlightenment of the Buddha. The enlightenment of Ramana Maharshi. That's an enlightenment that that requires us to let go of the mind the body time personality and it calls us to let go of our desire to be engaged with the world. We want to take it all the way home. So, in the old enlightenment, the the the enlightenment of Ramana Maharshi and the Buddha if you want to take it as seriously as they did we relinquish our attachment to the body, our attachment to the mind, our attachment to this life. Our even our attachment to existence itself is to be relinquished. Not my will, but thy will be done. It's just letting it all go, baby. Letting it all go. Letting it all go. Letting it all go. We all know that that's also scary, frightening. But, it's a different kind of freedom. It's not the kind of freedom I've been speaking about tonight. It's the freedom of the awakening to being, letting go into being. In being, there's no birth and there's no death. There's no coming. There's no going. There's no here. There's no there. There's no right. There's no wrong. There's no direction to go in. It's just letting go of all directions, of all desires, of all shoulds, and settling into the the infinite fullness of nothingness. And the reason there's so much freedom in that state of consciousness is because there's nothing to do there. All the karma's been burnt in that state of consciousness. There's nowhere to go. There's nothing to do. There's nothing to make up for. There's nothing to attain. Nothing to realize. Just let it all go. If you let it all go, you're always already free. If you're able to let it all go, you'll always be free. And there'll be no accumulation anymore of karma, which comes from desire. So, then So, in the in the in what I'm describing is the old enlightenment, what I'm calling old enlightenment. The secret of the old enlightenment is you simply by letting is is attained through letting go. Letting go. Letting go. Letting go. Letting go of the mind. Letting go of shoulds. Letting go of ideas of of uh desire. Letting it all go. And the more you let it go, you start to feel joy and lightness of being. And your karmas start disappearing, or at least they seem to start disappearing. It feels wonderful. It's like being reborn. It is like being reborn. So, the more you let go of your karmas, so just any sense of urgency that anything needs to be done about anything falls away from your mind. And now you awaken to this perennial state of consciousness where there's nowhere to go, nothing to do, nothing to be done, nothing to change, nothing to make up for, nothing to adjust, nothing to reach for. Ambition is gone. Now you're free just to be. And the more you can let go of the mind, and the more you more you can let go of your everyone else's mind, you learn the art of resting in being, which is what meditation is all about. But resting in being is resting in the in the vibration of being itself. And the vibration of being itself is the vibration of the of the inside of reality, of the inside of the universe. It's the ground of the It's the ground of reality itself is vibrating with being, with nothingness. And that vibration feels like peace. Being feels like peace. And then there's degrees of this peace. The more you can let go into the vibration of being, more intense will the experience of peace become inside your own subjective feeling world. And the more peace more peaceful you feel, less inclination you have to want to do anything, to become anyone, to change anything, to create anything. You just want to be left alone, still, so you can continue to let go of the mind and then continue to let go of any idea that anything needs to be done about anything. And that's the old enlightenment, and it's beautiful. And the foundation of evolutionary enlightenment, or the new enlightenment that I teach, is the old enlightenment. I teach all of my students how to meditate and I constantly remind them every week every day if I need to that the foundation of the new enlightenment is the old enlightenment and the old enlightenment we need to become experts, masters of letting go of the mind and of time if we want to be free. But the problem with the old enlightenment is that it doesn't tell us how to navigate the world of time and space. It doesn't tell us what we're doing here. It doesn't explain to us why we're here. Who am I? It answers the question of who am I? But it doesn't answer the question why am I here? The new enlightenment explains to us the answer why am I here. So I I I have felt for a long time now that um especially as we're living in this particular time in history we need to find more spiritually empowered and spiritually liberated liberated ways to be in this world, to be in this body, to be in this personality to fully occupy the world the world space of our human selves powerfully spiritually liberated perspective of spiritual empowerment. I want to be spiritually empowered. I want to be my self I want to be fully be myself with a capital S. To fully spiritually empowered. I want to be a powerful force for good. I don't want to be a powerful force for greater potential in this world. I want to I want to in my own small but not insignificant way to make a difference. I want my life to mean something. I want my life to mean something. I want my life to mean something. And unfortunately for a lot of us our life is barely rarely gets just being an ego trip. A narcissistic ego trip is on any self-concern. So, when we spiritually begin to awaken a little bit, we begin to feel that I'm tired of being a narcissist. I'm tired of thinking about my small self all the time. I want my life to mean something. I want my life to be important. I want my life to matter. I want my life to make a difference. I want to leave my mark. I want to my presence in this world have an effect. So, when we hear begin to have feelings like that, that's when this the uh the the ideas behind this new enlightenment begin to appear. Because Because the evolutionary impulse is the energy and intelligence that created the universe, that creates the universe in every moment. And when you awaken to that energy, the energy and intelligence that created the universe, when you awaken to the energy that's creating the universe, you begin to feel excited about what's possible. And because this is in in an enlightenment context, the excitement that you feel and the vibration that excitement that you feel is related to an infinite context, so you experience the vibration of infinity in in in a context that has neither an end. You feel that the future is calling you. The future is a vibration. The future is a vibration. The future is a is a vibration that's calling you towards itself. And all you can feel is yes, oh yes. Oh yes, I'm I'm yours. I'm yours and I'm here and I'm giving you going to give you everything I've got to give. That's all that's that's why I'm here. That's why I'm here to do. That's your liberation. All you have to do then is you have to just do it. Every day with all of your heart. Everything you've got. But my point is that it feels free. So in in in evolution and enlightenment we make a distinction between what Ramana Maharshi called the true self. Called the the true self which is the self that we that exists at the deepest level of our being. We awaken to ourself as the as the ground of reality, as the ground of being. We awaken to this to the to the self that's one without a second. There is only we realize there's only one self in the cosmos staring at itself through all these different forms of life, searching forms. But then you realize there's one self in the universe and that self is not going anywhere. That's the It's a it's a witness of everything and nothing. But this witness is not going anywhere. This witness is ground is is grounded in being infinitely and eternally. Grounded in its own being. And then more grounded it becomes in its own being, the more experiences the bliss of its own nature. The bliss of its own fully realized fully self-actualized nature. So in this in the totality of pure being there is unconditional, absolute, unimaginable liberation. So, in the old enlightenment, that's the kind of freedom we want to devote our attention to. Becoming good at giving rise to inner selves. But, the new enlightenment is getting busy with is getting busy on the on the creative side of the of the project. Let's create the future. I always ask people, I say, "If you were God and you created the universe, and sometimes it's fun to imagine, you know, anthropomorphically imagine that you're God. Sometimes it's the only way to feel into new territory. It's just to imagine, use your imagination. Realizing that you're imagining something that probably doesn't really exist anyway. Especially not in the way you're imagining, but it's it's it's a vehicle to as you can think beyond your minds. So, I ask people to think, "Well, if you were God, and you created the universe, if you were God and you created the universe, would you be more interested in what you had already created, or would you be more interested in what you had not created yet?" And most people say, "Well, if I was God and I created the universe, I would always be more interested in what I have not created yet." I would always be more interested in what I had not created yet. I would not be attached to what I have already created. And why this is interesting is for those from an evolutionary point of view, what you have already created, after it's been created, has become old. So, the evolutionary impulse, experienced as the awakening of what I call the authentic self, is always very excited about what hasn't happened yet. The true self is focused on what is. The true self is focused on what is what what is. The authentic self is focused on what could be. So, I'll repeat that. The true self is focused on what is. The infinite present. But, the authentic self is focused always on what could be on the on what what's possible. So, the creative God is the creator of the universe. God is the energy and intelligence that creates the universe. It's always focused on what could be, never on what is. The God of being is only focused on what is, never on what could be. The creator God is always focused on what could be, eternally. Eternally focused on what could be. Imagine a state of consciousness where you're where you're magnetically magnetically infinitely compelled by what could be. Without any relief because once again the minute what could be become emerges, it's become old. So, you no longer you lose interest in it once it emerges cuz now it's already happened. So, the creator God is always only interested in the in what that which is new. It's the newness of the evolutionary impulse that's trying to liberate the next step and the next step and the next step and the next step towards the possible and the next step towards the possible and the next step towards the possible and the next step towards the possible and the next step towards the possible. And it feels like you're getting closer and closer and closer and closer. You'll never get there. But, the journey towards the possible is is the experience of liberation as a vibration of the infinite infinite creative potential that is exists as the God force. And you're experiencing a little bit a kind of an infinite state of ecstasy as this creative drive in which there is no point of arrival. You never get to the You'll never get it. You'll never arrive there. But it's the But it's being on that journey that is the experience of unconditional liberation. And that's there's And I what I want what I want to try and emphasize in this talk is that there there is a particular is there's there's a kind of energy that that that you begin to experience when you're in the state of consciousness I'm describing that is so profoundly liberating. Imagine if when you woke up in the morning you became aware of this pull of the possible. The pull of the possible. Not the awareness of what was or what is, but the pull of the possible. As as both a metaphysical as as an as an unmanifest metaphysical potential and also as as a real manifest potential. It's always about what could be, what could be, what could be. Because as we know, creative from a creative point of view everything could always be better. In terms of the world becoming, things could always be better. Always be a little better, always be a lot better. All depends how far you want to I think that always be a little better, things could always be a lot better. And the creator God is knows that and is drunk on the possibility of infinite improvement. Not as it should. This is there's no moral or or ethical dimension to this in this context. It's a pure drive. The pull of the possible. And the idea with the with the new enlightenment is that you want to un- cover this this energy this this this energy this intelligence that's right within your own self. I want to learn how to ride it. How to live your life on its wings on the on the wings of this momentum. The great evolutionary realizer Sri Aurobindo called this called this the psychic being. And the psychic being as I understand is like a moving train. It's a train that's moving towards the future. At the level of the soul. And you will when you awaken to what I call the authentic self or what Sri Aurobindo calls the psychic being it's like you wake up on a moving train. Imagine that you were sleeping and then you suddenly woke up and you looked around and you're on a moving train the train was going so going to the future. Very quickly. You weren't alone in that train you were with a lot of other evolutionary astronauts. And you all could feel you could feel that you could feel the newness of where you were going. Everybody could literally feel the newness as a tangible felt inner experience. And what I'm describing doesn't have an end to it. Doesn't have an end to it it's it's a state of consciousness that has no end to it. But um in the new enlightenment what we want what we want is we want to awaken to this this energy and this intelligence in such a way that it becomes a fuel that drives the actions we take and the choices that we make in our lives. We feel compelled by a vision of the possible. So, please what I want you to appreciate is the magnificent nature of the the um paradoxical nature of the difference of the old enlightenment and the new enlightenment. The old enlightenment is about being. It's about It's about waking up to the fact that nobody's going anywhere and nothing ever happened. It's my guru friend friend GG famously declared nothing ever happened. It's all an illusion. Nobody's going anywhere. There's no birth, there's no death, there's no coming, there's no going. There's no good, there's no bad, there's no right, there's no wrong. There's nothing whatsoever. Anything and everything that appears to be something is all part of the illusion of existence. So, in the old enlightenment we want to go nowhere as quickly as possible. Cuz the quicker you get to nowhere the happier you're going to be. Having nothing, knowing nothing, and being no one is liberation in the old enlightenment. Having nothing, knowing nothing, and being no one. Returning back to before the beginning and after the end of everything, which is zero. Is the old enlightenment. Utter emancipation. It's dislodging all of your baggage. And experiencing utter and total freedom and total liberation from karma. And from any desire to exist, any need to exist. That's the old enlightenment. New enlightenment is is is it utterly paradoxically very opposite of that. In the new enlightenment we're on a we're on a journey of infinite becoming. It's an infinite journey of infinite infinite becoming. That is utterly liberating, utterly thrilling always to renew. And so I'm in the talk I'm giving tonight, the way it's coming out is a little bit backward, but that's okay. It's okay with me. I can't do things in the same way all the time, or else I just start feeling like a robot. So, one of the main points what I'd like everybody to try and understand, I know I repeat this very often when I teach, but I know it's hard to remember. Is that the experience of enlightenment itself, the the the conscious experience of enlightened and the waking to enlightened awareness, the felt experience of the presence of enlightened awareness, is the cognizance of the sum totality of all of reality as a felt experience. What does the sum totality of all of reality feel like? What does the sum totality of all of reality feel like as a felt experience? Feels like enlightenment. What the hell does that feel like? Well, you say, "Well, doesn't feel bad." Because the point is when you make that flip from when you make that flip from relative reality to absolute reality, and you start using relative descriptors like peace, joy, it doesn't describe it because non-duality and the absolute nature of everything that exists and everything that doesn't exist, is something that is not that it it's it's in it's a non-relative dimension of reality, it's an absolute dimension of reality. So, you start experiencing, feeling, knowing, cognizing in a way in in a different dimension of human experience and human potential. You start knowing, feeling, thinking in a different context that the relative self, the relative mind, the relative ego can't relate to, doesn't know about. So, the awakening to enlightened awareness is a leap from relative to absolute dimensions of real of consciousness. And interestingly enough, and it's something I think about all the time and I talk about all the time, your relative self, your relative small self, relative ego, cannot come with you on the journey be to to from the on that leap from relative to absolute consciousness. So, when people have temporary ex- awakening to enlightened awareness, if you catch them when they're in the midst of the experience, I'll tell you exactly what's happening. But, when that experience fades if it fades, as it usually does, they won't be able to tell you about it because they won't remember it. The small self, the ego that exists in time and space in this relative context cannot remember what cannot remember cannot has no access to this knowledge in this other dimension of reality, which is absolute. So, that's one thing that's very important to remember. And keep in mind everybody that your ego, God bless it, lives in relative reality. So, that the whole world that your ego lives in, all of its feelings and thoughts and concerns, all exist in relative reality. The ego doesn't have absolute knowledge of this non-absolute and non-relative domain of reality or of existence. But, when you, whoever you are, whoever you think you are, awaken, take that leap from relative to absolute consciousness, you discover your true self. You go, "Oh, I see. This is a whole different world, a whole different universe, a whole different dimension of reality." This has nothing to do with the reality of the small self. There's no There's no connection between this world and the world of the small self. There's no connection. There's no connection. There's no connection. There's no connection. Your true self, which exists in this is absolute reality, exists in another dimension. I know I'm repeating this a few times, but I'm doing it for important reasons. It's hard to get this through to people. Your true self exists in another dimension that is non-relative. And when you awaken temporarily or permanently, if you're lucky. Then you'll be cognizant of this non-relative truth. This God consciousness. That's what it means to be conscious of God in an enlightened context. Is you have this awareness of this non-relative absolute dimension of reality, and you're seeing everything through that lens. The absolute can see the relative, but the relative can't see the absolute. The absolute can see the relative, but the relative can't see the absolute. So, if you ever meet a truly enlightened being, if you ever had the good fortune and you're so blessed as to be in the presence of a truly enlightened being, you'll you'll notice from the very beginning that there's something different about them. There's some fundamental quality of being that that they have that's other. It's It's foreign, but mysterious and very compelling. That's because within them and around them, you'll feel the presence of the absolute. The presence of that which is absolute. And if they're truly enlightened, they'll be speaking most of the time about relative reality in in of absolute reality. So, their knowledge there in relationship with relative reality will be most of the time generally informed by this this absolute context which is what makes them so different. That's why they're different kinds of human beings. They're really relating to reality from such a different way for that reason. So, So, in this new in this new enlightenment, I'd like to say that this the God is the sum totality of everything that exists and everything that doesn't exist. And what the sum totality of everything that exists and does everything does not exist feels like it does it feels like enlightenment. So, what does enlightenment feel like? And that's when this kind of gets a little more interesting. Well, it depends upon which enlightenment you're speaking about. Are you speaking about the old enlightenment or the new enlightenment? The being enlightenment or the evolutionary enlightenment? This is what I want everybody to understand. This is I find this endlessly fascinating and this is interesting. The old enlightenment feels like peace. The old enlightenment feels like peace because it's freedom from karma, freedom from time, freedom from doing. The old enlightenment is freedom from nowhere to go, nothing to do, having nothing, knowing nothing, and being no one. It's being let off the hook. You You don't have to do anything anymore. You don't have You have You have obligations are finished. If you really take it all the way, if you go if you go all the way to the other side, your obligation is only to be, not to do. If you really let go, if you have the courage to let go of absolutely everything, if few people do, as I said before, most people are afraid of being having nothing, knowing nothing, being no one. But if you have the courage to go all the way to the other side and be being enlightened, you'll have nothing to do anymore. And nothing will be holding you here except maybe some past karmas. Nothing will be holding you back. Having nothing, knowing nothing, being no one. So, enlightenment feels like peace. The old enlightenment, the traditional, I call the traditional enlightenment feels like peace. What is enlight- What is the sum totality of reality feel like? And the context of the traditional enlightenment feels like peace. That peace that passeth all understanding. And that peace is irresistible, ever new, overwhelming, infinitely compelling, an abs- an experience of absolute glory. The mind can never understand or even express. But what is the sum totality of reality look like as the creative principle, as the evolutionary impulse, as the energy and intelligence that created the universe, is creating the universe right now, it feels like ecstatic urgency. It's like ecstatic urgency. It's the liberation of the unconditional commitment to be the creator of the future. What makes this very interesting is is is um um is the discovery that there's an absolute principle. This absolute principle is the God force. This absolute principle as the God force can be experienced tangibly, reliably, very distinctly as peace or as ecstatic liberating urgency. But But it's a paradox. Because the peace of being is paradoxically an opposite experience to the evolutionary urgency of the evolutionary impulse. But they're both the same but they're both But they're both the God force. They're both this absolute principle. Where did the evolutionary impulse come from? Came from the Came from the infinite depths of the uncreated. Right? Yeah, where did the urge to exist in form as form come from? It came from the infinite depths of the uncreated, the unborn, the unbecome. That's where the urge to exist came from. So because the urge to exist itself came from the infinite depths of being itself, from the unfrom an unfrom an understanding of non-duality, there's no difference between being and becoming. Being and becoming are one and not two. They're two sides of the same coin. Being and becoming are one and not two. Being and becoming are one and not two. They're both two sides of the same coin. Even though they appear to be par par par par uh opposites. They appear to be opposites, but they're not. If you really get it. If you can transcend all pairs of opposites in let go of your mind. What a new idea. If you can let all this in and just let go completely, just don't worry about it. But allow it to sink in. It'll It'll become tangible to you in a way that transcends your own mind and being and becoming are one and not two. Being and becoming are one and not two. And being and becoming are one and not two. Being and becoming are one and not two. But at the highest level, there's no difference between being and becoming. You have to step down from this highest absolute level, this with the smallest distance between any two points. Whatever that is. That's when they That's when this the the appearance of two-ness emerges. But at the highest level, there's no difference. There's no duality at all. Because they're not separate. But you step step down in the smallest distance between two points and an apparent duality emerges. And the apparent duality is the difference between the absolute difference between being, which is peace, and becoming, which is exaggerated urgency. And as I've been repeating, it's important to understand I'm not trying to bore you. I'm just trying to make this point that this this at the highest level, this duality is just apparent. It doesn't really exist. If you become deeply liberated in your soul, in your mind in your being you won't be you won't worry about these distinctions anymore. Because you'll know before thought that it's all one without having to think about it. You'll know it at the level of intuition, pure intuition. You'll know it You'll know it before you think about it. It's not a problem for you anymore. You can see God in all forms. You know, it doesn't matter to you anymore because you realize that from the highest point of view there's only one anyway. And the appearance of two doesn't mean there is two. You feel you can feel very comfortable with that. You know that in order to engage in the world and and manifest reality in the world and manifest reality we have to engage with the appearance of two-ness. Cuz what else is there to do once we're born? To engage with the appearance of two-ness. But, if we're going to do that as a conscious being, we want to do it with commitment, with enthusiasm, with joy, with conscious understanding, and creative fervor. It's very funny. I can see for myself, just to speak personally as I'm speaking to all of you about this, I can feel as I speak about this to all of you now that um this distinction between being and becoming, which I have been speaking about for about 20 years, I find less important than I used to. And I find it less important for the less important than I used to because I think I'm getting less I think I'm more some some metaphysical level feeling much more comfortable with absolute non-duality in a way that's nothing to do with my mind. So, there's up to a certain point that this is distinction between evolutionary becoming and endless formless being appear to be so dramatically different, and they are from a relative point of view. As I've been saying, from an absolute point of view, they're not different at all. They're the same thing. So, the more one becomes cognizant of the fact that from an absolute point of view, they're not they're not any different, the differences seem like feel like such a big deal anymore. Even on a relative line, it is. So, when I give these kinds of talks, the main things I want people to understand, I want everybody to When you get these the When you get these fundamental distinctions clear in yourself, I like to encourage people to pay attention, pay attention, pay attention to your own experience. Pay attention to when you are in these higher states, if you're lucky enough to be in these higher states once in a while. unsupported by drugs of any kind to help. Um When you get creatively inspired, are you aware paying attention to what it feels like? Do you why you start to feel ecstatic? Why do creative impulse makes you feel so joyous? Are you aware when you're feeling those kinds of feelings? When you're feeling when you're aware of the ecstatic urges of the evolutionary impulse? Are you Do you realize, "Oh, that's what it is." Because it's always the same. It has particular qualities, and it feels it feels a particular way. It's a particular vibration. It's very unique and always liberating, always liberating, always liberating. Whenever you experience the vibration and pulsation of the evolutionary impulse, for as long as you're in touch with it, you'll always be experiencing a feeling and a cognizance of liberation of of of the freedom that comes when you awaken to the infinite potential of the possible. Nothing's in my way. Any It's all possible. Nothing's in my way. All things are possible. Nothing's in my way. All things are possible. Nothing's in our way. All things are possible. Nothing's in our way. All things are possible. It's the ecstasy of the revelation of infinite creative potential. It's tangible. It feels tangible and immediate. Here and now. Do you feel it? Do you feel it? Do you feel it? It's so exciting. Life is no longer a burden, but it's a great gift to be lived in the consciousness of this evolutionary potential. What a gift. Oh, thank you, God. Thank you, God. Thank you. I'm so grateful. You gave me this gift. That's what it feels like. So, when you have those moments of liberation in the context of awakened to evolutionary impulse, you need If you want to learn about this, you need to bear witness to it. You need to take note in yourself. Take note, "Oh, this is it." This is it. This is the promise of the possible, and I feel so liberated. All things are possible. I had a terrible day yesterday. I felt so bad, and now I'm awakened to evolutionary impulse. Yesterday never happened. Who cares? That was just a dream. Cuz when you awaken to the evolutionary impulse as the manifestation of enlightened awareness, you awaken to our senses. I was explaining absolute reality, and absolute reality has always felt to be much more real, much more substantial, much more meaningful, purposeful, truthful than relative anything. Then I was alive. Now I'm dead. Relative reality The consciousness of relative reality is from the perspective of the absolute feels like living death. It's like a zombie. One One feels like a walking corpse in comparison to how thrilled one feels when one is awake to this evolutionary urgency and evolutionary agency. And it works in the same way when you awaken to the the cognizance of the old enlightenment to awaken to awaken to the ground of being. The ground of being is this magnificent discovery the fact that as my guru said nothing ever happened. You know, yesterday I was really disturbed because I was so upset about this that happened in my past and that which happened in my past and what this person said to me and that person said to me and everything that I need to do. When you awaken to the ground of your own being suddenly nothing ever happened. So if nothing ever happened, there's nothing you need to do about it, right? If nothing ever happened, there's nothing you need to do about it. Remember in these changes states this absolute dimension of reality is infinitely more real around than relative reality. So the so the the truth is in that the truth will be the recognition in this awakened state that nothing ever happened will be felt to felt by you to be infinitely more real and true than the fact that all these things seem to have happened and are bothering you so much. So when you say oh my god in the state of consciousness none of it seems real. I say no, in this state of consciousness it never happened. It literally never happened. You have to let it in and it literally never happened. For your true self none of that stuff ever happened. So if it never happened and you have the courage and the guts and the spiritual audacity to take it seriously, you don't have to do a damn thing about any of it. But you've got to go that deep into your true self to be able to do that for real. You can't just do this as a thought trick with your mind. You have to do it with your soul. It has to be for real. If nothing ever happened, nothing needs to be done. If nothing ever happened, nothing needs to be done. Not not even psychotherapy. Thank god. But you can't fake it. You can't letting go something we can't pretend. You know, you can you can you can pretend to to other people, but you can't pretend to yourself. So, these magnificent absolute truths which are always available to us are not always easy to actualize or to manifest. But they're they're they're they're they're they're the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, believe me. They are the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It's awakening to this non-relative rapturous dimension of life and reality and totality that makes life worth living. It's It's It's a gift. Without these higher states, at least for someone like me who's a higher state addict, I admit it. To me, reality is boring without without the without the gift of these higher states of consciousness, reality gets kind of tedious and boring. Repetitive. Predictable. And relative. This is It's when you when you get used to this non-relative rapturous dimension of reality, relative reality just never can never can add up, never can compete. Until you become an enlightenment addict. Sounds like you're avoiding something, Andrew. Yeah, I am. The tedium of relative reality, the tedium of relative existence. That can go on for lifetime after lifetime after lifetime after lifetime after lifetime after lifetime and then of course I'm getting bored. Who wouldn't? You become conscious of what's going on and you've been going through If you take If you take this stuff seriously, if it's it's it's entirely possible that we might be at this for thousands of rounds. I don't know, but it could It's entirely possible. And how much does it take to learn some of these fundamental lessons? How many how much pain and suffering do we have to live through and how much ignorance to how much of our own ignorance do we have to torment ourselves with before we begin to wake up? I My My fear is that it's more than we're aware of. That's my fear. So, getting bored with relative reality, I think is a very good sign. Means we're Means we want to live for real. Means we want to stop playing games and do this for real once and for all absolutely, totally, completely. And very few people want to do that, baby. Very few. So, when When the ego gets scared, relative reality suddenly suddenly starts looking really attractive. Hmm. New girlfriend, new boyfriend, new house, new car, new vacation. New book, new movie. New friends. Because when you really wake up to this, the truth of the absolute nature of reality, you know there's no there's no escape anymore. Either you do it or you don't. If you do it, you'll find your way to a happiness that cannot be described. And if you don't, you're going to suffer for a longer period of time. And the suffering is worse when you know what's possible and you actually know what's possible and you know how happy you can actually be and how glorious life can be, the suffering gets worse. Especially if we refused if we refused simply because of cowardice. Spiritual cowardice and we just we have to put on the brakes. What makes this very significant is that we don't is that physical existence physical incarnation, the cyclical nature of physical incarnation, means we don't have an infinite amount of time in this life to do it. And this is this is this is these are perennial utterances. But we should all take them seriously because it's true. So I think it's a good idea when we're when we're healthy in body and mind, it's a good idea to take to do everything we can to go all the way. We've got the time to pull it off and then the sense and the mental and physical stamina to to do anything and everything we need to do instead of waiting until we're running out of gas. It's oh, I want to wake up now. It's like, what have you been doing all these years? Well, I've been living. Were you living consciously? I thought so, but I guess I wasn't. One of my worst fears was that I wasn't going to succeed at this. So So just to finish um in evolutionary enlightenment in in the idealized the idealized picture of what it would be like to be evolutionarily enlightened. And I I'm I'm saying this is an idealized picture. Cuz I want to be reasonable. The idea here is to go from the The idea when you pursue enlightenment seriously, I mean seriously like as if you were the Buddha, Ramana Maharshi, people like of that caliber. Who aren't playing around and aren't compromising anymore. It means you want to live one life. To live one life in the context of awakened awareness is you want to live that life in the in the in the conscious cognizance of the absolute dimension of reality. So, in evolutionary enlightenment, it would mean awakening to being. That would mean when you're when you're still in your quiet, you're consciously cognizant of the infinite nature of being, the ground of being. And then that which would compel you to get up and start moving and engaging with life is if you are mentally with the energy and intelligence of creative universe, which would be the evolutionary impulse. The creative force of the universe would be what's compelling you to move, to walk, and to talk, and to act. And if it's the evolutionary impulse that's compelling you to move, and to walk, and to talk, and to act, that means you're cognizant of the absolute nature of the evolutionary impulse. So, then the absolute of God has moved seamlessly from its its static state of of rest, which is in conscious awake being, the conscious awake becoming. And the goal is to spend as little time in the world of the small self as possible now. We have to be reasonable. So, we know that none of us are going to be able to keep the ego out in the cold 24/7. We need to be compassionate, too, towards the little guy. But, um the idea is to spend most of our time in this non-relative absolute state of consciousness. Either as awake to static being, which is the conscious cognizance of the infinite nature of timeless, formless, beginningless and endless, eternal nowness, ground of being and seamlessly transitioning into this creative process when something came from nothing. The seamless It's a seamless shift. There was nothing and then there was something. Right? When the Big Bang happened, there was there was nothing and then there was something. It's called emergence. So, we want to be a a human physical personal human manifest expression of these two different dimensions of reality of being and of becoming. And of emergence. If you're creative and amazing and intuitively awake and creatively free emergence will happen in you, as you and through you. And you'll know it because that's the moment you'll feel most free as a creative participant in life. And other people will feel it. You'll feel it. Say, "Now I'm alive. Now I'm alive." And you're not living an ordinary life or boring life or predictable life or somebody else's life. You'll be living your own life. Guided more than anything else by these absolute dimensions of reality, these these absolute principles that are alive vibrations of God and truth. I can't think of a better way to live. Before I finish, remember, please remember that your small self, ego self, frontal self can't remember the true self. Your small self, frontal self, ego self, can't remember the authentic self. That's what's so challenging and confusing about this. So, whereas the true self is always awake to itself and the authentic self is always awake to itself. The ego is always awake to the awake to itself, too, and it always forgets about the who who it who it really is. I forgot again. How could I forgotten again? I can't believe it. I've been through this 100,000 times. I still keep forgetting who I really am. How could I do that? Most You're not alone, most people do. That's the tragedy of all this, but that's this this is why it's so difficult. This is why you we need help and guidance. It's very difficult to do this on your own. Because you because you keep forget we keep forgetting. To walk in a straight line and to not go left or right. Keep your eye on the prize. You keep forgetting the spiritual discipline that's necessary not to fall back to sleep again. So, thank you. For those of you that are very familiar with my Dharma, I'm sorry if I had was repeating things you've already heard before, but I felt people close to me were compelled felt it strong felt strongly that I needed to reiterate some of these fundamental principles of evolutionary Dharma, so I'm happy to do it. I'm not trying to bore anybody. I think you could tell. Thing is, I can't forget. I I have trouble forgetting this stuff. I just open my mouth and just starts coming out. So, where did that come from? I don't even have any idea. So, one more time. Just All you got to do for this to really work is to pay attention to your own experience in your own life. And to pay attention and notice when you're awake to the ground of your own being. And that vibration comes alive within you. And when you awaken to the evolutionary impulse and then when that vibration comes alive within you and you just just take note of it, mark it. And your inner notebook. Say, that's that's what that is. That's what's happening now. That's And then And when you become aware of it, then ask yourself, how does it feel? How does it feel like? How does it feel like and what does the world look like from that perspective? From that awakened perspective? And you'll always notice that from the perspective of the of the true self, it always feels free. And from the authentic self, it always feels like all things are possible. That's the fundamental distinction. From the true self perspective, you realize nothing needs to be done. And from the authentic self perspective, everything needs to be done and I'm ready to do it. And they both feel equally free. And the other other attribute of these these higher states of consciousness is that there's no accumulation. You can't that your true self is always fully realized, fully self-actualized, fully enlightened, in the same way as your authentic self is always fully evolutionarily realized. So, there can be no accumulation in these higher states of merit. So, only your small self can accumulate merit. And we all should, we should accumulate merit every day. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with accumulating merit, we should. But, I just want to say that your true self cannot accumulate merit, and your authentic self cannot accumulate merit, because your true self is fully realized, is fully enlightened, always already now. As is your authentic self, fully realized in the context of the evolutionary impulse. There's no accumulation there. Only freedom, only freedom, only freedom, nothing else. Unimaginable freedom, inconceivable, indescribable. So, you can see based on this talk I'm giving how lost we can be most of the time in our lives, in illusion. And these illusions are tricky and troublesome because they when we're under the influence of these these illusions, we can we're still subject to creating karma. And karma is real. Once it's been created, it's real, you got to deal with it. So, doing everything we need to to awaken to to wake up and to stay awake is the most important thing that there is. Because if you're conscious, there's no such thing as the meantime. I'll deal with this in the morning. I don't think I can wait. I'll deal with this in the morning. And what do you intend to do between now and the morning? Go to sleep. I don't think it's going to help. Leave me alone. Thank you, everybody. Thank you.