The Moral Implications of Spiritual Awakening
"At what point does what we are doing and why we are doing it become more important than how we happen to feel? In evolutionary enlightenment, what I'm trying to do is to get people to that point in their own development where they begin to care more about their relationship to life and the effect that they're actually having on the world than about having particular experiences. And the way I measure a person's spiritual development is always based on how profound is their effort to transform in relationship to what they've actually realized.”
The Moral Implications of Spiritual Awakening
Excerpted from a seminar in Boston, Massachusetts, October 8, 2007.
Q: In the context of participating in the evolution of consciousness,
how important is the spiritual experience of awakening? Can we"fake
it till we make it"or is it necessary to have that direct experience
in order to participate fully?
AC: There are two dimensions to the teaching of Evolutionary
Enlightenment. Evolution is about vertical development, and
enlightenment is about the experience of consciousness beyond ego. So
the experience of consciousness beyond ego is what I think you mean
by"The spiritual experience of awakening.”That is when we have a
direct experience of limitlessness, when the emotional,
psychological, and cognitive boundaries fall away and the self is
catapulted into a state of consciousness beyond all ordinarily felt
constraints. Suddenly there is a sense of infinite freedom. And this
kind of awakening is the very foundation for the evolution of
consciousness.
The way it usually works is that is if we have heard about awakening
then of course our heart begins to yearn for it, to long for relief
and release. So then we start doing whatever we can to have that
experience—prayer, meditation, reading, spending time in the company
of people who we believe have some degree of enlightenment. We seek
until we have some kind of breakthrough, until we find access to that
consciousness. Ideally, once we have had one experience, we are
convinced: consciousness is real. Maybe the experience itself doesn't
last, maybe we have another experience, but sooner or later there has
to come a point where we get the picture. We know that there is an
infinite ground of everything that exists and that it is the deepest
nature of our own self. Why? Because we have experienced it.
Ideally, our orientation to life should change as a result of deep
spiritual experience. Whenever we transcend the fears and desires of
the individual and collective ego, we discover a completely different
perspective on what it means to be a human being—a perspective that
transcends the ego's narrow, limited, personal world. And that is
really what is so important about the discovery of higher and deeper
states of consciousness. Once we have tasted higher states and are
convinced that they're real, sooner or later a point has to come when
we realize that now our spiritual practice is no longer merely about
trying to have more spiritual experiences; it is about acting upon
what has been revealed to us in the experiences we have already had.
So I would apply the"fake it till you make it"Approach after the
experience of awakening. When we are experientially convinced, there
comes a point where we have to start acting upon what we have
realized to be true. In the way I teach, that's a moral imperative.
it's not about you any more. It no longer matters how deep and
profound your experience is at any given moment. The important thing
is: How true are you being to what you know, whether you feel"In
touch"With it at a level of experience or not? That's a matter of
moral development.
A very powerful example of this that we have all probably heard about
is the recent story that came out about Mother Teresa. She was an
example of surrender and unbelievable faith who inspired millions of
people, and yet she herself, we now know, was in a state of agony
because she felt emotionally cut off from her beloved God. But she
was convinced because of initial experience, and then she completely
changed her life—and look what became possible as a result. Now
obviously, we would hope that we wouldn't all have to experience such
an extended period of spiritual dryness as she apparently was
enduring. But the point is that we all need to go from initially
being attracted to higher development because we hear about the
promise of infinitude, to having the experience, to becoming
convinced, to then acting on that conviction no matter how we feel.
At what point does what we are doing and why we are doing it become
more important than how we happen to feel? In evolutionary
enlightenment, what I'm trying to do is to get people to that point
in their own development where they begin to care more about their
relationship to life and the effect that they're actually having on
the world than about having particular experiences. And the way I
measure a person's spiritual development is always based on how
profound is their effort to transform in relationship to what they've
actually realized.
Of course, nobody wants to feel bad and everybody wants to feel good.
But the point is, God did not create the universe just so you or I
could have our spiritual breakthroughs and feel good! Too many of us
these days approach the spiritual path as if the only purpose to all
this was our own peace and happiness. So one of the things that I'm
trying to share with as many people as I can is the recognition that
a sign of moral development, spiritual development, and philosophical
development is giving up that ridiculous idea.
I personally have come to the conclusion, and at this point I'm
doubtless about it, that the reason God created the universe is so
that the process itself could develop. And at this time in history,
it is the awakening individual at the leading edge of cultural
development who has to find the spiritual maturity to take
responsibility for the evolution of the process itself at the level
of consciousness. So once we become convinced beyond any doubt of who
we are, beyond ego, at the level of consciousness, it is essential
that we make the spiritual effort to develop so that we become an
expression of that egoless freedom in action. That is when our own
spiritual awakening becomes the limitless foundation that empowers us
to take responsibility for creating the future—which is the whole
point of Evolutionary Enlightenment.
Andrew Cohen
http://www.andrewcohen.org/teachings/moral-implications.asp
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