Evolutionary Nonduality

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Over the course of this past holiday weekend, Andrew Cohen spoke at length about what he called “an enlightened perspective on evolution.” He introduced the notion of God falling out of the sky as a metaphor for the profound realization that you are the energy and intelligence that created the universe. Katherine and I thought this retreat created a perfect opportunity to take the recent inquiry into our most fundamental relationship to thought, and relate it to this radical shift in perspective.

Authentic Questioning

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Inspired by insights from last week’s call, Katherine and I decided to devote our discussion this Thursday to examining what it means to question genuinely. Last week we recognized that the questions we all share about how to move forward on the path of Evolutionary Enlightenment can not only be seen as personal questions, but also as the questions that belong to the energy and intelligence of the evolutionary process. In this call, we will explore what it means to ask questions that can lead to real transformation, and how to differentiate the seeds of true inquiry from the fears and doubts of the ego.

How do we create a new Renaissance?

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After a brief introduction Jeff Carreira and Katherine Miller respond to listener questions and comments about how the revolution in consciousness and culture that is the goal of Evolutionary Enlightenment can be brought into reality.

Do we really need to evolve now?

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A number of people have asked: “Why now? Why is it so urgent that we evolve now? Won’t evolution happen with or without us?” And the answer is that it is critical for us to evolve now because the world system from which we have arisen and upon which our very survival depends is faltering. We now know that we are a part of an evolving universe, and it’s just as impossible for us to go back to our previous ignorance as it would be for a reptile with lungs to go back to living at the bottom of the ocean. Evolution only moves forward, and so must we. Katherine and I will devote this week’s call to exploring the nature of the urgency that fuels the need to evolve.

On a conference call last night I discussed the first of Andrew Cohen’s Five Fundamental Tenets of Enlightenment – Clarity of Intention. I was surprised as I spoke about our fundamental intention at how much I wanted to emphasize that it is about coming to a final reckoning with being alive. This morning when I went to meditate I found myself powerfully awake, one-pointedly focused, still and steady. I am sure it is related to the contemplation of what is most important in life that I was engaged in on the call with over 100 people last night.

When we even begin to contemplate the question what is most important in life we are confronted with a shocking fact – we are already here. We are not in preparation for life – we are alive. We are already in the middle of the game. The choices that we are making are already shaping the course of our future and dictating what the outcome of our life will be. The recognition of being here puts a lot of pressure on us to get real about what we are doing and what is truly most important.

As we discussed this last night on our call I found myself, as I often do, in an interesting position. Metaphorically it reminds me of a picture my grandmother had on her wall of Jesus (she was a devote catholic) that would be an image of Jesus praying if you looked at it from an angle slightly to the right and it would magically transform into an image of Jesus and his disciples at the last supper if you shifted your head and looked at the picture from an angle slightly to the left.

On the call I was really trying to inspire, encourage and yes, even push everyone to take the question of what is most important in life seriously for themselves. At the very same time I found myself contemplating the question seriously myself. What am I doing? Have I come to a final reckoning about life? On the one hand I know that I have. All of my energy and time for the past 15 years has been devoted to the pursuit of my own development at the level of consciousness and to contributing to creating a movement in consciousness that I believe can become the revolution in consciousness that will usher in a new stage in human evolution. Paradoxically, I am constantly finding that my conclusions about life and what I am doing are more superficial than I believe. So I find myself in the impossible position of both having come to an absolute reckoning with life and at the same time having that absolute reckoning keep getting “more” absolute!

I do think this is the nature of the first tenet. It is both a final decision about what you are doing here, what this life is about and what really matters. It is a decision that is made once and then every single egg is put in that basket never to be removed. At the same time it is an ongoing contemplation in which you never assume you have come to anything solid and yet you contemplate from the solid ground of knowing that you have come to something absolutely solid.