Andrew Cohen - N°15 - LAST RETREAT - January 2025

So yesterday afternoon a lot of you had an experience of freedom. A lot of you had an experience of powerful freedom. A lot of you were very excited. So I want you I want to ask you what you think. Do you do you believe that inherent in that feeling experience of the inherently liberated state of the authentic self or the inherently liberated state of the true self lies the answer and the solution to the human predicament? No, it's important question because everybody was very excited. Everybody was very excited for good reason. But you're all very excited. And the thing about higher states as you're all experiencing higher state is that they can give us access to powerful feelings of inner freedom. But I'm asking an important question. Is that the answer to the human predicament? Is that the answer to the question of the human predicament? The thing is higher states with this intensity of positive apha a effect feel so good that it can often seem like the answer because it feels so free. I feel so good. I feel so free. I feel so clear. This must be the answer. That's what it feels like. Most people don't think that deeply about anything. Remember so is that is the feeling of the freedom of the ground of being of the true self is the feeling of freedom of the authentic self the evolutionary impulse the ecstatic compulsion to exist is that feeling state of ecstasy and spiritual self-confidence the answer to the question of the human predicament I'll repeat it that these these higher states These non relative absolute states of consciousness give give us access to feelings of bliss, ecstasy, clarity and profound inner liberation and freedom. So they so the this state of consciousness itself seems to answer all of our questions we had and questions we didn't even know we had. You say yes, this is it. This is the answer to all of my questions and all of the questions I I had. I knew I had questions I didn't know I had. And all I can say is thank you. I love you. I submit. I say yes. Is that the end? Is that it? But this is this is actually very important because most people screw screw this whole thing up. So in evolutionary enlightenment as I was speaking about at the beginning of the first retreat we talk a lot about how Tibetan Buddhism Mahayana Buddhism points out that there are two truths relative reality and absolute reality the manifest and the unmanifest which from a nandal perspective are one but relatively speaking they're two different dimensions of the totality of reality right so when we have these experiences of freedom in higher states We're experiencing the freedom of the unmanifest, the unborn, the uncreated, the unbecome, the yet to be born. Right? We're feeling what that state is like, what that feeling is like. But there's the source of this kind of feeling experience comes from an unmanifest, uncreated, unborn relationship to reality where nothing ever happened or all thing or or a place where all things still can happen but nothing has happened yet. As I keep on repeating, I've been repeating this for 35 years. These higher states don't tell you what to do or what the right relationship to life is. If you don't know the answer to what the right relationship to life is, you're lost. And the higher states can't answer the question what the right relationship to life is. Then it requires a different kind of work, a different kind of spiritual work. So this is a really important question and a lot of people here in Tu who are very much addicted to higher states are walking around happy because of their in higher state. But if you start speaking to them about their relationship to life it's like oh it's a ball of confusion. One contradiction after another with no clear sense of what the difference between the unmanifest and the manifest reality is. and the challenge of embracing the what what we could aspire to call the most appropriate relationship to manifest reality because remember as I keep repeating we can experience perfection as a state of consciousness you and I we all can experience perfection as a state of consciousness which is what was happening to a lot of you yesterday afternoon you're experiencing perfection as a state experience but that experience doesn't make you a perfect human being unfortunately This is a very very very very important. So once again the experience of perfection is the beginning of liberation but it's just scratching the surface. I'm just going to repeat what I said that the experience of perfection, the ecstatic experience of perfection, the liberating experience of perfection, the glorious experience of perfection, the ecstatic experience of perfection does not make you a perfect human being. that you're an imperfect human being who as a result of all kinds of good karma has had the good grace and good fortune to experience and taste the per the perfection of the interior of the cosmos which is a big step forward on the spiritual path and I think in the way that I think about it it's the beginning it's the authentic beginning of the of the path because now you know God exists God is good so to speak to use mythic language so the bliss and the good Feelings are intoxicating. They make us drunk with spirit which they should which is beautiful. Getting drunk on spirit is that's how we get relief. We get relief from the burden of suffering through samsara, duality, illusion, pain, suffering and ignorance. Right? So so the so the bliss that's the bliss gives us spiritual relief and release from being imprisoned in some sorrow in our mind and our wrong concepts about self and world. Right? So, we're so grateful to experience higher consciousness because it sets us free temporarily. But then there's this question of what what the right relationship to the human experience is as as and through your body, mind, and personality in this world. Now, to repeat, there's no such thing as having a perfect relationship to relative reality. There's a better relationship and a worse relationship, a good relationship and a bad relationship. a clear one and a modeled one. But there's no such thing as a perfect relationship to manif manifest existence because as I mentioned, the world we're living in is is shifting constantly under our feet. Manifest reality is experience that was a Buddhist said of constant change. Everything's changing all the time. So you can't have a perfect relationship to the to reality if it's constantly changing because you always have to readjust and readjust and readjust. So we'll never never get it perfect. But we can do better, we can do worse. We could do what we could do very well and we could do terribly and and we do right. Some people do very well. Some people do terribly. Some people just are doing medium. Correct. So the ecstatic experience of oneness or bliss in these higher states compels us to want to have a perfect relationship to reality. And that's one of the greatest gifts of the higher state is it compels you to want to do better. You realize that God exists. The experience of bliss in these higher states compels us to want to do better. To use mythic language. I've seen the face of God and I want to please him. I've seen the face of God and I want to please her. Why? Because she's so beautiful. She's so extraordinary, profound, and miraculous. And I want to I want her to be happy. It's mythic dualism. But I'm just trying to make a point because these experiences are are the ultimate source of spiritual inspiration to do better to I want to do better. But they don't answer the question of how to do better. So to repeat the the question of how to do better is what is the most not the most perfect but what's what's the most appropriate relationship to the complex demands of manifest existence. What's the most appropriate relationship of my body, mind and personality? The to the complexity to the inherent complexity of this changing world, this world that's in a state of constant change. You understand how difficult this is? If there's no absolute answer to what the perfect relationship to manifest existence is, but we can only approximate doing better. We have to be on our toes all the time. Have to be shifting our position to get it better and not to miss that I was speaking about the other day the miss the change that is already happening happened since last night. So much has changed. Did you see it? Are you aware of it? How much has changed since last night within you and all around you and between us? Or are you just in your own dream world of lost thoughts about past and future out of touch with the reality of change in the present moment? So the dharma as I understand it and all my imperfection has to help us most elegantly to answer this question of what's the most appropriate relationship I can come to in the present moment to the complexity of relationship between the unmanifest and manifest reality. What's the most appropriate relationship this body, mind, this imperfect body, mind, and personality could have with relative and absolute reality? That's a question we want answered. We live in a very complex world space because one of the good things about the evolution of consciousness and culture is we seem to know more and more and more and more about manifest reality and manifest existence. So there's that's more to have to find discomfort with what's the right relationship with this new information and that new information and this new information that what's the relationship you have to really keep on staying awake and trying to figure out what's the right relationship to all of this and more. So it's intellectually overwhelming and emotionally exhausting but it's got to be done. And most people as you know are very lazy. They don't like to think too hard think too deeply about anything. They don't care enough. They don't mind sleepwalking through life. So in this context, as I was trying to explain yesterday, the ultimate fruition of this teaching is when autonomy and communion emerge in a context of natural hierarchy. The fruition of this teaching, this teaching comes fully alive. when autonomy our capacity for radical fully liberate autonomy and radical and fully liberate communion which is oneness with emerge in a context of natural hierarchy. So hierarchy I want to try to explain to you what I mean by it because it's a very difficult concept to understand but this is very much in alignment with what I was trying to share with you when I brought up this notion of verticality yesterday. Verticality is this is a perspective on the totality of reality that implies or speaks of as ascending consciousness consciousness that's ascend from lesser complexity to greater complexity. Understanding hierarchy in in a context of verticality is very important to understand what the how do we get to this question what right relationship is. So, so hierarchy exists everywhere in nature, in the cosmos, in human consciousness. Often we don't see it and for us particularly are very influenced by postmodernity and postmodern thinking. Most of us have been consciously and unconsciously compelled to find the whole notion of of hierarchy or these vertical distinctions about the nature of reality and self distasteful because we have been taught to equate the notion these notions of hierarchy with the terrible crimes that we've committed against each other with colonialism and racism and all kinds of misconr notions of hierarchy that have been so horribly destructive and painful to human development. moment. So a lot of people without thinking about it think hierarchy is bad and evil. We got to get rid of it. So we need to create a context where there where equality is taken for granted that we're all one. Are we are we all one? We're all the same. It's not the differences between us and make it that matter. It's the fact that we're all the same. We're all one. Isn't that beautiful? No more patriarchy. No more verticality. this one flat oneness. And it's funny, but it's not funny because it's this understandable reaction against the the dominator hierarchies of the past. It's very understandable that we feel that way. But if we don't keep going and embrace hierarchy in a new context to one that's meaningful, we're going to be unknowingly inhibiting our individual collective potential for developments in the future. So I'll make some simple distinctions. A growth hierarchy which is a positive hierarchy. What positive hierarchy looks like is the relationship between master and disciple, master and student, student and teacher, between parent and child, child and parent. Does anybody have any trouble with those distinctions or is that fairly obvious what I'm saying? I hope it's obvious. So a growth hierarchy is what is what compels us to grow and to become more conscious and to develop in all kinds of ways. So growth hierarchies are inherently positive and part of the evolutionary process is they they stimulate and encourage inner and outer growth individually and collectively. So growth hierarchies are part of a very positive growth system for all sensient life and especially for human beings. the growth hierarchy. We live in a flat world where we leave leave everybody alone. Now the postmodern ego in reaction to the tragic result of dominator hierarchies and all kinds of cultures all over the world says nobody tells me what to do and I'll do whatever I want whenever I want to do it. That's the notion of freedom everybody's to be completely left alone to be do their own thing because freedom is what I I want what I want to do whenever I want to do it. A lot of people think that's what it means to be free. It's the freedom to do what you want, when you want, as you want. No context besides what you want. That's my definition of hell. So, so there's dominator hierarchies and growth hierarchies. You all know a familiar notion of dominant hierarchy is kind of totalitarianism, fascism, sexism, racism. But a natural hierarchy is a growth part of a growth hierarchy should occur between a master and a student, a parent and a child, teacher and a student. All these kinds of positive growth relationships. And remember that hierarchy helps us to define the context of our lives. So no human action occurs without without a context without a conscious or unconscious context. So whenever you make an action or make a choice or make or react. There's always going to be a a clear or not so clear context for which you're reacting. belief system. A belief system, a conscious or unconscious notion of your identity within a larger context. Nobody acts totally out of context. We all act within context whether we're conscious or unconscious of what the context is. So freedom doesn't exist in a vacuum. The freedom to make choices doesn't exist in a vacuum. It occurs within a belief system that we're conscious or unconscious of. A lot of people are not very conscious of their belief system. So they're often their notions of freedom and freedom of choice are not emerging within any clearly defined set of beliefs or uh shared agreements. It's usually in postmodernity it's often unfortunately coming from this feeling of nobody tells me what to be free means nobody tells me what to do and I get to do whatever I want whenever I want to do it because I feel like it. I get because I'm I'm me. Nobody messes with my freedom. So I want you to understand that freedom is not just a state of consciousness like the state you experienced yesterday. That's that's a feeling of freedom. It's the feeling of freedom. But freedom only begins to really mean something when it's in relationship to conscious choice and to other options. You follow what I'm saying? So you have to be very clear within yourself what's the context in which you're making your choices from. What what set of beliefs, identifications, self-concepts are you is your consciousness of yourself embedded in? Where where are you embedded in terms of the world? Where is your selfidentity embedded conceptually in relationship to manifest reality? Unless you know where you're embedded, you'll never be able to liberate yourself. you know, never be able to make freer choices, choices that express greater freedom, not absolute freedom, but more freedom. So, for example, to know this, you have to work with the teaching of clarity of intention. What's the most important culturally conditioned structure that you identify with for your identity, for your moral conviction, for your sense of personal loyalty? Is it the nuclear family in a postmodern context? Is your loyalty to the belief in the significance of the of the cult of two in a postmodern context? Is that where your loyalty in your moral uh commitment is placed? Is that do you give that the greatest significance in your worldview? If you do that, it'll give you a moral compass. When you know what's most important to you, you can have a moral compass to work with in order to make choices. Or is it a particular mythic religious belief system? Are you a Catholic? Is your is your Christian Catholic beliefs alive with you? Are they helping you to make the define important choices in your life as a reference point? Or are you Jewish? Are you an atheist? Because the whole notion of manifest freedom is always in relationship to the belief system. If I said freedom doesn't exist in isolation. Freedom of choice always exists in relationship with the other. The other is the world, the whole universe. A whole system of beliefs and identifications which are largely unconscious. So if you want to be free, where do your loyalties lie and what you consciously unconsciously believe in? What do you hold most dear? You want to see where your choices are coming from. That's that's where your choices are coming from often largely unconsciously. So freedom as a state of consciousness is a feeling and an experience of of liberation. But freedom as an action is in relationship to whole complex field of ideas and beliefs about what's the most important in life. whatever you believe in, whatever you're you adhere to as being most real. So if we're talking about autonomy and community in context of natural hierarchy, relationship to what? For me personally, this is just me because we're all different. No, we're not the same person. We all have different karmas, different personal histories, different preferences, conscious and unconscious. So for me personally because of my life karmas the structure the interobjective structure that's most important to me personally terms of my life's work is the triple gem the three jewels and the evolution of the three jewels as an evolutionary structure but that's me so my personal values my morals by how I come to the conclusion what's more important than anything else is because I've believe significance of these three these these three jewels and what what these three jewels when they're activated can give rise to in this world that have that has the greatest meaning. So I relate my most important personal choices to my to my loyalty the evolutionary power of the three jewels. But we're all different because we can't all hold everything at the equal level of value. What do you hold as having the greatest value in your own personal life? Is it your relationship with your mother, your father, your sister, your brother, your husband, your wife, your children, your work, your religion. You have to look deep and and find out what makes you tick the way that you take. We're all open books. We we don't show up fully formed. We're a conglomeration of past karmas, peraba karma, and present choices in this life. And unless you're willing going to be willing to sort that out in yourself, you'll never really be free because you won't know what you're doing anyway. Even if you have experience, even if you experience higher states of consciousness, you'll still be halfbaked on a human level because you won't know what you're talking about. You'll be lost in a haze of contradictions and confusion and unconsciousness. And considering the fact that the world's becoming more complex, not less, what I'm saying is even more important than what makes the spiritual work, the spiritual work, the spiritual work that much more complicated and hard. So freedom is a is a state, but it's also a a metaposition and an action. So you want to let this in. Freedom is a state of ecstasy which g becomes the ultimate sources of inspiration because it's so powerful and profound. But freedom is also a metaposition and a choice. Whose choice? Your choice. Your choice. What how are you choosing to manifest and express your understanding of spiritual freedom as yourself in all your imperfection? That's the big question. And that's the that's the question that really forces us to come to grips of what what am I doing? What am I doing? What am I doing? Are you awake? Hello. Are you awake? What are you doing? Which means what choices are you making? Why are you making the choices that you're making? What are you doing? Are you awake? Do you know what? Do you know who you are? Do you know why you're here? Do you know what you're doing? Yes or no? Most people don't know. They say you're hurting my feelings. You're raising your voice. Sorry. just trying to help. So in the way that I understand the evolution of enlightenment, this kind of inquiry has to be ongoing with our pursuit with our pursuit of the experience of higher states of consciousness. We have to do both at the same time. One needs to inform the other. One needs to inform the other. One constantly informing each other so we can constantly be growing. Evolutionary becoming is a state of constant growth. It's not a static state. That's what I'm speaking about. This verticality, this shaft, it represents infinite becoming, infinite potential to become and to perplexify. So, are you engaging with life at that level? on a subtle level, on a gross level, you engaging with life, or you're just coasting along, letting time pass, not really paying attention to what's happening into the fact that you might let be letting all of your potential slip through your fingers without even meaning to. So once again, freedom is a state of consciousness and it's also a metaposition and a choice. And it's not a choice we make once. The truth about manifest reality, these are just a choice we might have to work with every single day. So if our life is very complicated and demanding, we're going to have to deal with these questions all the time. It's not like this this is not the kind of thing where you just answer the question once and it's done because I as I said everything's changing all the time. So life is very complicated. So to repeat, in my current position, I don't see these higher states as the answer, but they're the means to the answer that they can help. These higher states can give us the spiritual self-confidence to do the all the work we need to do to become our best person, the best person we can be in the present moment, not all our imperfection. So they're very it's very important to feel that exuberance that overwhelming inspired exuberance and spiritual self-confidence. So we'll do all the spiritual work that's necessary to compel this body, mind and personality to evolve within the multi-dimensional complexity of an evolving world. And that ain't easy. But we can do it. I'm not speaking about anything that's not possible for a smart inspiring person. But we have to be working with all that complexity as ourselves every day. See, I find it very exciting because this makes so what I'm saying makes so much sense to me and the fact that it makes so much sense. I'm a very rational person. I'm not cold irrational, but I'm very rational. So, the fact that a teaching like this, a dharma like this can help us to make rational sense out of the overwhelming complexity of the human experience is very inspiring. It gives me a lot of faith in what's possible. So the problem is us. It's not the it's not the system. We're the problem. Not not the world's not the problem. The complexity of the human experience isn't the problem. It's our own unconsciousness that's the problem. And ego forgot about that. And and the thing is when if you start working with dharma in the way I'm trying to share with you or some the dharma makes so much deep profound sense to your awakened mind when the dharma begins to make more and more sense to your awakened mind you begin to appreciate why ego is a problem in a whole different way because you'll start to see how the unenlightened ego of the wounded ego the unhappy ego if you let it's going to mess things up for you if you don't prevent it from doing But if you can see this from a very awakened rational perspective, it will help you to do what you need to do to liberate yourself. So the fruition of the teaching is autonomy and communion in context of natural high hierarchy that's been established. Yeah. But in relationship to what system of beliefs and convictions, you have to figure that out for yourself. We're all different. Autonomy and communion in context of natural hierarchy as I said does not exist in a vacuum. So if you have to figure out who you are, where you've come from, where you are now, where you want, where you'd like to be going, and then do what you need to do to make it happen. God loves you. He will help you if you want to do it or she will help you. The other point is this is a point that Ken Wilbur makes often which I have found very helpful that um the experience of these higher states of exuberance and spiritual inspiration can empower your fascist inclinations if you're a fascist. It's true because these states awaken us to the state of doubtlessness. I have no doubt if you heard the way you guys were speaking yesterday. I have no doubt. So if you we associate this doubtlessness with wrong thinking then you then we end up being more dangerous than if we then if we didn't have access to these higher states of consciousness because higher state of consciousness makes it possible for us to experience doubtlessness doubtless conviction doubtless conviction doubtless conviction which we've been speaking about it in the context of paradox because I'm a believer that if you're if you truly have access to enlightened awareness if you are enlightened is he enlightened what are do you think? Cuz it starts to sound like a stupid question at a certain way. It starts to sound like the question betrays how ignorant we really are to ask such a stupid question. Since we're on the subject, since we're Since we're on the subject, Ken made it clear that you can have access to enlightened awareness, which gives us access to this doubtless self-confidence and be a fascist monster. So he tells the story of this book called Zen and War from that just tells the story of how these all of the most enlightened Zen masters in Japan during World War II who are all recognized within their own lineage to be fully enlightened, whatever that means. They were all recognized within their own lineage to be fully enlightened, whatever that means. Fully supported the emperor's totalitarian aspirations for the Pacific. They thought his fascist inclinations and aspirations, the fascist inclinations and aspirations of the Japanese military were great. So they were enlightened within the context of their own spiritual system. And you know, Zen is tough stuff. Zen is not for babies, for softies. You got to be tough to get enlightened in Zen, especially in Japan. So these are obviously tough, smart men who are fascist monsters. had access to enlightened awareness. So this is why we have to be very careful with what we're playing with here. And uh these higher states can be liberate sources of liberation. They can also be very dangerous and sources of delusion. Unfortunately, did I ruin the party? So autonomy and communion in relationship to what? Please figure that out for yourself. what they mean for you and what I call natural hierarchy in the context of a growth hierarchy creates vertical tension evolutionary tension when you experience evolutionary tension mean there's a you're experiencing this internal and external compulsion to rise up to become more conscious to become more sane to become more true to become more authentic to become more transparent to be more But it's an experience of tension. Oh, I don't like to be tense. No stress. So evolutionary tension is when we feel this compulsion from within and for it can be coming from within you or from outside of you or both. >> The ego's going. What did you say? Something can't hear you, man. I'm just in a deep dream. Wake the [ __ ] up. And said, "Don't be rude. Now you're hurting my feelings." This is what I wanted to say that don't be so worried about how you're feeling. For some of you younger people here, I know that how you feel is your number one concern. It doesn't matter in the context of what I'm teaching is what are you doing? Why are you doing it? That's when that should be your source of well-being. What am I doing and why am I doing it? Not how do I feel now or 10 minutes from now? I was feeling good, but then I was feeling a little stressed. I had to go out and sit in the sun, practice some deep naval breathing. Now I'm ready for the conversation, but be nice. So I'm talking about a complete shift of values here, people. Can you hear what I'm It's a complete shift of values that totally transcends pathological postmodern narcissism which we are all suffering from. I'll be the first to admit it. Nobody's exempt. My generation, the baby boomer generation, were the worst. We're the first generation of culturally conditioned extreme narcissism and exaggerated self-c concern and self-importance. So, we taught all the rest of you how to do it. So, we've been conditioned to be egoomaniacs. And uh my parents didn't help me out of this. They just said, "Sweetheart, you should do whatever's going to make you happy, baby. Really? You should do whatever is going to make you happy." I said, "Oh, wow." So that life becomes some big oyster that I get to eat. It's all for me. Isn't that great? All for me. What I want, what I need, what I feel. They didn't mean better. They just didn't know any better. They were They were stupid. They were secular Jews. They had they had no moral compass besides, you know, being reasonable, sane, modernists, but they had no deeper spiritual moral compass to share with me to help me find some sense of context and direction in my confused little young life. It's nobody's fault. So for me, the most beautiful picture of how what enlightenment can look like is aligning this capacity to experience these higher non-relative absolute states of consciousness that are so liberating. They're so li they're always liberating. The experience of liberation in these higher states, it's constantly self-renewing. Ever new, like ever new, always like the first time ever new. So these higher states will keep us free. If we can come we can arrange to live our life in such a way that it becomes possible to experience the their liberating renewal on a regular basis. It will keep us young and free. But then we have to embrace this these bigger questions about who am I really? Why am I here? What am I doing for the sake of the whole? Who am I? Why am I here? What am I doing? What am I doing for the sake of the whole? What am I actually up to? What life am I living? And who created me anyway in the first place? Where does this where does my self sense come from? How was it created? And do I feel good about being the me I am right now? Or does it do I need work? I need to change this picture or do I just accept it as it is? I'll give you a secret. Muscles need a little work. So the good feeling, the good a effect of higher state tells you everything is perfect right now. With the authentic self, it tells you things could be so much more perfect. How exciting. But it doesn't do the work. Doesn't do the spiritual work. It says it's possible. Yippee. But it doesn't do the hard work for you or for anybody. that will give you all the inspiration you need, the spiritual the the awakened spiritual inspiration that you need will do whatever the spiritual work you need to do to do it. And if you do it and you succeed, then you'll be somebody special because you did what very few people actually do, which is get your act together in a deep and profound way. And you yourself will have expressed real spiritual integrity as you're dealing with these fundamental dimensions who you are in a very profound way. But please think about this. Just think about it. The experience of freedom is a is a feeling. The feeling of freedom in these higher states. It's also a metaposition and a choice. So does the does the bliss that you experience in these higher states does it clearly reflect itself according to what you think in and who you are and how you how you are and how you show up as a imperfect human being in the world. You want to get to the point you say yes I think imperfectly it does I am. Then you can feel good about yourself. you can trust yourself and you can know that you're doing pretty good. You're down the right path. The thing is there's a there's a big theme in everything I've been saying about the individual taking total responsibility for themselves in the context of all this complexity. Doesn't that sound culturally appropriate? Not to be a true believer, but to be an authentic co-creator. The true believer says, "Yes, sir. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you." That's a true believer. You have all the answers. Thank you. I trust you. That's a true believer. I just listen to what he says and I do it and I'm happy. Well, that's okay. That's a true believer, is it? Nothing wrong with it. It's just not very not for very sophisticated people. So enlightenment becomes more demanding as we evolve as a level of cultural intelligence. What enlightenment is becomes much more demanding when we evolve to a higher level of cultural intelligence. We can't just say yes or thank you. We start to doing a lot of the heavy lifting ourselves. So we become a co-creator. You know, I realized I realized a while ago that 2 and a half thousand years ago, the time of the Buddha, for example, there was very there was no such thing as individuation for most people. You're part of a family. Most people part of a clan, part of a family, part of a tribe, part of a certain place of culture. And those people didn't have individual identities as much as they were. They followed their expected ro culturally conditioned roles. Father, mother, sister, brother, farmer, carpenter, whatever it is. So at this this premodern context, there wasn't there were most people who didn't go through this higher stage of individuation. It's a big deal for for us postmodernists. So the the human mind was much simpler then. So you could be a true believer and meet somebody like the Buddha for example who was so enlightened and just say he's the one, he's the way listen to what he says and and it would work because you didn't have such a big ego to get over. You hadn't gone through the process of indiv individuation. So I think the Buddha was probably surrounded by a lot of enlightened authentically enlightened awakened true believers in a different time in history. It's not a it's not a judgment. It's not to put them, but it's just an objective observation or suspicion. So, I imagine the majority of his disciples were true believers and good people. Some of them were probably much much more highly developed. But it wasn't it wasn't common because it was culture at large. Most people in culture at large didn't go didn't become didn't have to go through this process of individuation like we have to. And as I was saying at the beginning of our retreat together, unless we go through this process of individuation and become self-actualized in a very powerful way, we won't have this. We don't have the egoic self-confidence to to awaken in a profound way and stay awake. You follow? But if you all you need is faith and love and commitment and like in those days enlightenment becomes a very real proposition then wow so much simpler you don't necessarily have to change anything you just have to become self-aware you do do this hard spiritual work to become conscious of how have I been conditioned to see the world as I do what's the source of my beliefs consciously and unconscious it's the source of my addictions, my attachments, my fears. What's their source? What's your historical source? So, we can see where where your where your frontal personality has, how it's been created, where it comes from, where all the complicated feelings come from. It doesn't matter whether it's healthy or unhealthy. It matters matters if you're self-aware of it. If you're self-aware, then you can deal with the problem. So it's all always about becoming more conscious, more self-aware, more conscious, more self-aware. That's the source of liberations is is as they say in like the subject of your of your experience. Unconscious is the object. So you I'm not aware of my ego because it's all hides right in front of my face. But when I can become self-aware, it falls away from the center of my attention. Now I see it. So if I see it, I can take responsibility for it. So the subject becomes the the subject of awareness becomes the object of awareness. That's how we awaken. Isn't it exciting? Because it awakens this miraculous evolutionary potential. Awakens us to the the evolutionary potential. That's why it's so thrilling. Most people are just depressed because they're lost in the past. I convinced nothing more is possible. That's why there's drug addiction and depression and all this unhappiness. So many people are so unhappy. They don't know what's possible. They're not connected with with what's possible for themselves. They get depressed understandably. But the enlightenment state, the state of enlightened awareness, which is the experience of this higher complexity of consciousness. This illuminated exuberance and joy and ecstatic potential is what gives us this insight into what's possible for us in the future. Right? That's why that's why these states make us so happy because we oh my god so much is possible. I had no idea. So please everybody work to see these entire states as half the picture not the whole picture of your enlightenment your experience of enlightenment. There's a general there's a general trend and the way human conditioning unfolds is that you have to let go in order to make space for the new. Right? Right? If you're holding on to that which is old, you don't make space for the new. Where's the room for change going to come from? One of the things in the last couple of years that I found very illuminating is seeing how on social media so many thou hundreds and millions of intelligent people all over the world seem to succumb to group think and brainwashing on a scale that's absolutely shocking in front of people that have high levels of intelligence and conscious consciousness and cognition seem prey to kind of these apparently crazy and foolish ways of thinking and dangerous ideas, but you think someone so smart would ever be that stupid, but they seem to be able to succumb to this kind of group think in a way that's potentially very dangerous for the whole all of humanity. So, this has helped me to reflect more upon how weak-minded we tend to be. Now, lacking in fact, lacking in even intellectual self-confidence a lot of people have. We always think somebody knows better than we do. And if someone we look up to seems to feel strongly to say, "Well, maybe they're right." A lot of people lack the kind of autonomy, having a strong autonomous mind and soul, then it becomes easy easy to be swayed by other people's ideas. And it's more of the case than I ever thought. For example, I I'm Jewish, so I was always wondering what happened in Germany in the 1930s. How could such a thing happen? It was so obvious what what was going on there. How could so Germans are smart people, unusually intelligent? And how could so many smart, intelligent, highly educated people turn into such monsters? Wasn't it obvious what was happening? But if you look at what's happening in my country right now, you see exactly the same trend. So this reveals to us how tenuous is our our ways of thinking. Most people's thinking process is very tenuous and not so not so autonomous for all the right reasons. Make sense? So the picture means we means we have to become stronger. It means we have to embrace the fact that we're inherently imperfect. We're all inherently imperfect which means we're going to be wrong about lots of things. We have to embrace our ego has to embrace that our inherent imperfection. my inherent imperfection as a given. Take take it for granted. Which means we want to be paying attention for our own lack of clarity and lack of wrong ideas and uh and realize that in all our imperfection, we have to find a way to be strong enough to do this on our own if we need if need be. Human beings seem particularly prey to this kind of weak-mindedness. Especially in times when things are very challenging like the times we're living in. This is a very challenging time to be alive. Seems to be such a dangerous time to be along. So many we're all under so many very real threats. We don't even know how to think about it. So complicated and so intimidating. So when we get when collectively we get so frightened and intimidated we pray to overly simplistic ways of thinking that are full of uh delusion that are dangerous. So in the end it's what we've been talking about this this morning. We have to become more awake, more self-confident, more clear. Knowing we'll never be perfectly self-confident, perfectly clear. We have to obviously work on strengthening our mind and our emotions and our self sense. There's no perfect way to do this. And I think also that the stronger we uh the more powerful a person we become and I believe we all become powerful. The more important it is to kind of have think learn how to think clearly about difficult things. get in the practice of thinking thinking about difficult things without needing to find out the answers. But but confronting ourselves with mind transcending complexity that's almost impossible to come to terms with without shuddering or falling apart or getting too frightened or confused. But being able to hold all the complexity from a place of strength, but we don't need to have have all the answers in order to free yourself from the tension that brings awakens in us. So we can feel more and more comfortable in not knowing. That's what I do. That's what I've been doing and it's working. But I'm totally overwhelmed by all this confusion. But uh most people are crazy as I've been saying, especially when it comes to the these psychological projections and things. So the way to protect yourself is to learn how to be more tough, to be more uh what's the word? uh resilient. That's it. Thank you. We have to be tougher and more resilient. So, we want to learn how to be more tough and more resilient and we have to realize every most people are very fragile. We have to work between these two extremes of wanting to become more tough and more resilient ourselves while beginning to see how fragile people are without judging them. But most people are pretty fragile. can't handle too much insecurity. Right? So, we want to hold hold all of this in our conscious awareness and do the best we'll work with it. Do the best we can. But there's no protection from making mistakes. So, if you know that, you'll be able to handle it. If you realize, oh, that was a wrong choice. You'll be able to handle it without falling apart. We we can only handle it and fall apart and fall apart if we think that we are incapable of making mistakes because we're so perfect and our ego won't be able to handle it. You should you should be expecting you are going to make the wrong choices. Well, if you have if you're at the top of the growth hierarchy, you should have some your closest friends in that hierarchy should be able to let you know that you appear to be act acting out of unconscious impulses. And if you're dead at the top of the growth hierarch, you should be humble enough to hear it. Ideally, it doesn't always work, but it should be right. If your positive ego is strong enough to be able to see other people's projections objectively, that's a difficult thing to do. But if your positive ego is strong enough to be able to objectively see other people's projections, that'll set you free. But it's difficult because sometimes sometimes a lot of developed people will be very giving want to give the other people the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they see something I don't see even it doesn't exist. It's only a projection. So this is delicate waters. See, delicate waters. And uh it's gets messy. So there are no there's no guarantees. Somebody's not going to mess it up. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try anyway. Because I can see in myself that I'm less and less tolerant of magical thinking and mythic absolutism and magical thinking myself. And I it's beginning to was beginning to dawn on me at this later stage of my life that it's there's too much at stake to allow that kind of metaphysical indulgence even for myself. My discrimination is pretty good. But I start to I start to feel it even when I speak with some of you here. It's not I don't mind magical thinking. I kind of appreciate I enjoy it my some degree myself and the mythic absolutism I also can relate to in my own experience very easily. But as I become more as I grow, I start to feel it's more and more dangerous to leave any room for that which is more and more rationally sound. But I'm obviously not a materialist by any stretch of the imagination. So I'm not worried about it. But I just feel I have to be more careful. I think we all do. As we evolve, as our as our metaphysical thinking evolves, we want to be more more uh to cautious and more careful, more precise.