The Edge of Evolution

The Edge of Evolution A human being trying to catalyze the emergence of a higher level of consciousness is like a rocket ship trying to break free from the Earth's gravity. The gravity that we are endeavoring to release ourselves from is the historical weight of our conditioning, both personal and cultural. If we can generate enough vertical momentum to propel us beyond the boundaries of who we have been, even if only temporarily, we will find ourselves in uncharted territory. But if we want to not only visit that new terrain but become permanent residents, to create a new culture there together, the task confronting us is even greater. Once we have broken through that gravity for long enough to experience the freedom of space, we must create the stable structures that will allow us to remain there. Endeavoring to stabilize a newly emergent cultural worldspace in this way is like breaking through the atmosphere and then attempting to build a space station—a huge structure suspended outside of the normal field of gravity. And when the space we are moving into is the outer reaches of our subjective and intersubjective consciousness, the structure we are striving to build is made up of new shared cultural agreements about the meaning and purpose of life. To give rise to the next stage beyond postmodernity, these agreements need to be based upon a deep-time evolutionary worldview, a developmental understanding of human history, and an appreciation of the fact that as the self evolves, culture evolves. This intersubjective construction project has barely begun. Imagine a space station that is only in the first stages of being built. The skeleton of its structure is there, but it's very unstable, because large parts of it are not yet in place. You can get a sense of what it will look like, but it is still so incomplete that if even one piece were to fall away, the entire construct would break apart. That's what the process of building intersubjective cultural structures is like, particularly in the beginning. The pieces are human beings—men and women just like you and me who have layer upon layer of conditioned habits and tendencies that do not necessarily support a higher emergence. Inevitably, we will find that we are trying to create a new culture while we remain deeply embedded in the old one. At the leading edge, we are actually trying to pioneer an authentic transition to post-postmodern cultural agreements and to stabilize them. And because our center of gravity tends to lie more in the old than it does in the new, this new structure will be very fragile. Entering into unexplored territory, and staying there, is an enormous challenge. But if we can take these bold steps forward, heroically embracing higher ideals and bigger perspectives like those described here, then slowly but surely, the new structures will stabilize. In the end, it's only our spiritual inspiration and commitment to evolutionary emergence that will hold the pieces in place, even while the larger structure remains unstable. It's our individual willingness to hold steady, no matter what, for the sake of the evolution of consciousness and culture, as ourselves. If we can do this, then the stability of our spiritual attainment and the depth of our relationships with each other will become the underlying framework upon which cultural evolution can establish itself at new heights. * * * If you are trying to do something genuinely new, you have to be a pioneer, you have to be a change-agent. In order to contribute to creating the future, you need to be aligned with the very edge of evolution. Otherwise, you are going to be following the beaten path, living out the patterns that have been formed by countless others. Most human beings are born and die within a preexistent cultural context that we don't necessarily feel is up to us to define. Without even knowing it, we tend to do what everyone else is doing. But at this particular time in history, for these new evolutionary stages, structures, and potentials to emerge, it requires rare and heroic men and women who have awakened to the conviction that this next step needs to happen and that we're the ones who have to take it. How many of us are willing to bear the emotional, psychological, philosophical, and spiritual overwhelm of being real pioneers? It's all too easy to sit back, observe the evolutionary challenges confronting our world, and fall into a state of despair or cynicism. It takes courage to be a change-agent. And it takes spiritual self-confidence. Spiritual self-confidence is a confidence in your own Authentic Self—in the driving impulse behind this creative process that we are all part of. If you live the five tenets of Evolutionary Enlightenment as if your life depended on it, you will align yourself with that deeper dimension of who you are, and you will develop spiritual self-confidence. Spiritual confidence is the heaviest anchor in the midst of the unending storm that is life and death. It is an unshakable confidence in the inherent positivity of the life-process itself—in the rightness of finding oneself at the very edge of the evolving cosmos, in all its chaos and complexity. Having this kind of confidence is of the utmost importance for anyone who cares deeply about the way things are—and even more so for the courageous change-agent who wants to create something new, who would dare to be the one to stand for and bear witness to that which is higher. Being an evolutionary change-agent means living on the very edge of this vast process, knowing that it has taken fourteen billion years to reach this point, and actively endeavoring to move the entire process forward through your own transformation. It won't be easy, but I have no doubt that for those of us who have glimpsed the glory of our higher potentials, this is what we are here to do. I don't believe that the clarity and liberation of mystical insight is a free ride. I am convinced that the awakening of the spiritual impulse in our own hearts and minds is actually an evolutionary trigger—an urgent whisper from the Self to Itself, God's quiet voice imploring us to relinquish our attachment to our culturally conditioned relativism, our materialism, and our narcissism. Why are we being called? So we will take responsibility for the evolution of our own consciousness and culture, in such a way that raises the bar for all of us at the leading edge. When we're talking about pushing that edge, there's always going to be an element of enormous risk. Evolution is a messy process. There are no guarantees. So anybody who really wants to strive for something new is going to have to be willing to make mistakes, take wrong turns, and even to fail. The simple truth is this: If not failing is more important to you than genuinely succeeding, you're never going to make it. If you want to succeed, you must have the spiritual self-confidence, heroic will, tenacity, courage, and commitment to fearlessly engage with the evolutionary process until something profound, mysterious, and extraordinary happens that cannot be undone. * * * When you are living this fully and fearlessly in the evolutionary passion and perspective of the Authentic Self, then something extraordinary does begin to happen. The unmanifest potential of the near future flickers into awareness and even in brief moments seems to actually become manifest in the present moment. And when we meet others in this same heightened state of consciousness, together we can see and feel, directly cognize, and intuit a compelling future that is possible to create here and now, in the present moment—not as a remote ideal but as the most screamingly imminent potential imaginable. Finding each other—finding those other individuals who feel as passionately as we do about the evolution of consciousness and culture—liberates and uplifts our spirits and gives us the inspiration to take bold steps we otherwise might not have the courage to take. When many individuals experience simultaneously the promise of the next moment, it means the evolutionary impulse is calling us to give rise to its next step. Indeed, we are compelled to be the future that we can see—the future that is emerging in the field of our awareness so clearly that it seems we are already there. But the promise of such moments poses a greater challenge than may first be apparent. Because you can see them so clearly, it is easy to assume that the higher levels of consciousness you are experiencing already exist, and all you need to do is step into them. But in fact, most often, what you are seeing is only a potential, not an actual preexisting level that simply needs to be reached. This is very important to understand. The future is not a given. What's going to happen is not already known and is not predetermined. The higher stages of consciousness and culture that lie in front of us do not yet exist. This sounds like a simple point, but it is profound. Many of us who are spiritually inspired tend to subscribe to metaphysical worldviews that tell us that the higher levels and stages of development are already laid out. But they're not. The newly emerging potentials in consciousness and culture have not yet appeared with enough consistency to become self-existing levels, or new "habits" in the interior fabric of the cosmos. They only come into being to the degree that you and I consciously participate together to develop those higher capacities in ourselves. It is always those individuals who are ahead of their time, living on the leading edge, who participate in the creation of these new structures or habits in consciousness. Eventually, when others progress through the already established stages of cultural development, they're going to follow in the footsteps of those evolutionary pioneers who went before them. When enough people take the new path, it will become, over time, an established cultural stage. But at this moment in our shared history, the next stage has barely been laid down. This is why the awakening human at the leading edge today bears such a profound responsibility to be an evolutionary pioneer—to be the one who is literally living in that place between the present and the future. Living in that place means that the next stage of development exists in your own awareness as an ever-present but as-yet-unmanifest potential, right now. With this emerging intuition of the future, your consciousness expands and you have the experience of being intensely awake. Why? Because your conscious, living relationship with the future enlightens your relationship to the present moment, fills it with conscience, purpose, and direction. And then your active, participatory relationship with life today becomes an expression of your creative responsibility to give rise to the new world of tomorrow. * * * What that actually means is an ever-new revelation for me—that, as audacious as it may sound, the depth of our conscious engagement with the life-process right now is potentially the creative edge of evolution itself. And an evolutionary worldview reveals to us that there is neither a predetermined blueprint for where we are going nor a foreseeable end to the process. Of course, if you are aspiring for spiritual freedom and are awake to the limitless potential of the evolutionary impulse, then nothing is going to be more exciting than living on that edge yourself. This is what's so thrilling about an evolutionary approach to spiritual enlightenment—the profound implications of the recognition that contrary to the beliefs of the great traditions and the popular convictions of New Age thinking, nothing is predestined. The future is not already known. And God, when understood to be the energy and intelligence that initiated the creative process, is not separate from the entire event. That's the whole point: from an awakened perspective, the evolutionary process is not dualistic. Whoever or whatever created the process is not separate from or outside the process itself. Indeed, life gets a lot more interesting when you come to terms with the fact that that creative impulse, that cosmic energy and intelligence, is not outside the process and ultimately is not separate from your own consciousness, from your own capacity to cognize the entire unfolding here and now. That's when you awaken to a new level of spiritual maturity: when you realize that God does not necessarily know any more about where we are all going than you do in your best moments. For those of us at the leading edge at this critical moment in human history, what could make the meaning and purpose of spiritual enlightenment more apparent? What could make more sense or be more compelling on an emotional, intellectual, philosophical, and spiritual level than the simple recognition that "It is up to me"? God is evolving as we evolve. And this moment itself, assuming that you are leaning into it with all of your being, reaching for the future, is potentially the very edge of the possible.

Andrew Cohen is a spiritual teacher, cultural visionary, and founder of the global nonprofit EnlightenNext and its award-winning publication EnlightenNext magazine. Since 1986, Cohen has been traveling the world giving public lectures and leading intensive retreats. Through his writings, teachings, and ongoing dialogues with leading philosophers, scientists, and mystics, he has become known as one of the defining voices of the new evolutionary spirituality. Born in New York City in 1955 and raised in a secular Jewish family, Cohen had his passion for spirit unexpectedly ignited at the age of sixteen, when a spontaneous revelation of "cosmic consciousness" opened his eyes to a new dimension of life. Some years later, as a result of that experience, he gave up aspirations to become a musician and dedicated himself wholeheartedly to its rediscovery. After several years of intensive spiritual pursuit in the United States, including the study of martial arts, Kriya Yoga, and Buddhist meditation, Cohen followed the footsteps of a generation of Western seekers to India. It was there, in the land of the sages, that he met his last teacher H. W. L. Poonja, a disciple of the revered Ramana Maharshi, in 1986. In just a few short weeks, Cohen experienced a life-changing awakening, the story of which was told in his first book, My Master Is My Self . Shortly afterwards, with his teacher's blessing, Cohen began to teach. Always an independent thinker, Cohen soon diverged from the traditional Eastern approach that had catalyzed his own awakening, with its emphasis on transcendence and the illusory nature of the phenomenal world. Grappling with questions and challenges that arose as he sought to bring the revelation of enlightenment to a contemporary Western audience, he gradually forged his own original spiritual teaching, Evolutionary Enlightenment. A modern-day equivalent of the ancient wisdom teachings, Cohen's work is no footnote to tradition but a distinct and innovative synthesis. He has brought the timeless depth of enlightened wisdom into the twenty-first century and significantly redirected its purpose and promise—calling not for transcendence of worldly attachment, or even for compassionate care and service, but for a deep and heroic responsibility for the evolution of the world. In this, he finds more in common with the great evolutionary visionaries of the last century, such as Sri Aurobindo and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, than he does with the ancient Eastern enlightenment tradition in which his own awakening occurred. To both these streams of thought he adds a further element: a rich and nuanced understanding of the practical dynamics of individual and cultural transformation at our particular moment in history. Cohen's interest in cultural evolution is much more than theoretical. For more than two decades he has been intensively engaged with committed individuals and groups from around the world who are striving to put his teachings into practice. This engagement has, in turn, informed his thinking, creating a dynamic and fertile interplay between vision and practice, ideal and reality. Among the many fruits of this work, perhaps the most significant has been a series of breakthroughs into collective or intersubjective higher states of consciousness, and the active translation of these insights into new values, perspectives, and principles that are enabling individuals to lay the foundations for a new cultural paradigm. The results of this living inquiry are embraced and shared by a growing global movement of "Evolutionaries." In addition to his work as a teacher, Cohen is also dedicated to changing the cultural conversation about the purpose and significance of spiritual enlightenment in our time. This is best seen in the magazine he founded in 1991, EnlightenNext (formerly What Is Enlightenment?), which has become the premier forum for serious discussion at the intersection of spirituality and culture. In its pages, and the live forums that have grown out of them, Cohen and his team of collaborators have engaged spiritual, religious, cultural, and scientific thought leaders in a dynamic inquiry about the nature of inner and outer evolution. Cohen's unusual perspective and commitment to dialogue have led to invitations to speak at numerous forums over the years, including the Parliament of the World's Religions (2004, 2009), LOHAS International Conference, International Transpersonal Conference, Integral Leadership in Action, and the International Conference on the Frontiers of Yoga and Consciousness Research, as well as universities, spiritual centers, and business settings around the world. EnlightenNext has centers worldwide, and members in more than twenty countries. Cohen lives at the organization's world headquarters in Lenox, Massachusetts, and spends several months of the year traveling, teaching, and leading retreats around the world. For more information about Andrew Cohen's work and his upcoming teachings and retreats, visit www.andrewcohen.org

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