Videos tagged with "Andrew Cohen"

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It is the experience of higher states that can convince even the most hardened cynic that in fact they have seen God. But in order for that glory that has been glimpsed in higher states to become the foundation for an actual level or permanent stage of individual and collective development, an enormous price has to be paid. More often than not, the mistake is made where simply because an individual has experienced a higher state they conclude that they have actually made that leap or transition to a higher stage. And that is rarely the case. Only with dedicated and consistent practice and committed engagement with the enormity of the task at hand can any individual or group actually make this momentous transition.

~ Andrew Cohen Quotes from A Declaration of Integrity -- An open letter from Andrew Cohen to his friends and foes
Self-Development Quotes on: States, Stages of Development, States vs. Stages, Development

As far as I’m concerned, the spiritual life is just like any other endeavor—you can succeed or fail. And when the goal is actual evolution beyond ego in an intersubjective context, success or failure is plain for all to see.

~ Andrew Cohen Quotes
Motivational Quotes on: Evolutionary Enlightenment, Enlightenment, Spirituality, Development

In an evolutionary context, the goal of the spiritual life is not peace; it's perpetual development. Evolutionary enlightenment is about the ecstasy that compels us to create the future. And it's not a future that's going to unfold by itself while we go back to sleep. It's a future that we forge the hard way through direct, conscious, intentional engagement with the life-process itself.

~ Andrew Cohen Quotes
Inspirational Quotes on: Evolutionary Enlightenment, Enlightenment, Spirituality, Development, Ecstasy, Challenge

Its taken 14 billion years for matter to gain the capacity to become conscious of itself. If this is true, it wouldn't make any sense that the whole point of enlightenment would be to escape from the whole process at the very instant that the universe is beginning to awaken to itself.

~ Andrew Cohen Quotes
Famous Quotes on: Evolution, Awakening, Spirituality, Universe, consciousness

The soul--which I'm defining as our capacity for these deeply positive human qualities--is something that, in most of us, desperately needs to be developed. Too many of us live in a fractured state, deeply divided against ourselves--often far more so than we are aware of or able to feel. We exist in a self-generated vacuum of moral ambiguity, where everything is relative and our attention is focused mainly on our emotional state. Most of us know a lot more about what really matters than we are willing to live up to. Indeed, we are attracted to that which is beautiful, profound, and meaningful but find ourselves lacking the soul strength to really struggle, to engage in a life-and-death wrestling match with our own division, cynicism, and inertia. The awful truth is that it is just easier for us not to care that much. In order to care that much, we have to be willing to feel a connection with life that is so deep that it hurts. We have to be ready to step onto the field of our own experience in a way that is authentic, unconditional, and deeply committed--to embrace a kind of fearless vulnerability where our transparency is our strength and the living experience of connection is permanent, unbroken, and inescapable.

~ Andrew Cohen Quotes
Self-Development Quotes on: Soul, Truth

Evolutionary philosophy and evolutionary spirituality are based upon the recognition that we are part of a miraculous process that has existed and been developing for billions of years. It reveals to us that our own personal experience of that process in all its many dimensions—inner and outer, gross and subtle—is only a very small part of an infinite unfolding. Thoughts and feelings that arise in individual consciousness reflect emotional and psychological structures, or habits, that have slowly developed over tens of thousands of years.

Some people, when they hear the word process, interpret it as meaning something inhuman. But it's actually quite the opposite. I'm not referring to a process in a flat, mechanical, materialistic sense. This process is alive. And it's you. The process is you. Indeed, what is so important about this shift of perspective is that you begin to see your own sense of self as part of a vast unfolding stream of development. Your understanding of what it means to be human expands almost infinitely, because you start to see your own humanity and your own potential for greater humanity as a result of this process, and an inherent part of this process—and as far as we know, the highest expression of this process. In this way, evolutionary spirituality enhances and enlarges to almost infinite proportions your sense of the significance of what it means to be human.

~ Andrew Cohen Quotes
Motivational Quotes on: Evolutionary Enlightenment, Enlightenment, Spirituality, Development

If you dare to take up the banner of enlightenment, you will be attacked from all sides. From the inside you will be attacked by your own mind and from the outside you will be attacked by everyone else's mind. Anyone who dares to succeed automatically presents a huge threat. If true freedom is going to survive within you, you have to be willing to fight for it. You have to have a sword in each hand at all times. One sword is for your own mind and the other sword is for everyone else's mind. You must be ready to use them. Anyone who wants to be truly free must be willing to stand alone in the truth.

~ Andrew Cohen Quotes
Inspirational Quotes on: Truth, Enlightenment, Warrior, Freedom, Mind

The future is not a given. What's going to happen is not already known and is not predetermined. So often, we tend to hold onto metaphysical worldviews that tell us that the higher levels and stages of development are already laid out. But they're not. This is a new way of thinking: the recognition that the structures of the future are yet to be determined, yet to be created. And they don't create themselves; they are created to the degree to which human beings at the leading edge consciously engage in the evolutionary process. Only those individuals who are way ahead of their time begin to create these new structures or grooves in consciousness, and in time, when others progress through the lower stages, they're going to follow those grooves that have been laid by the evolutionary pioneers who went before them. When enough people take that path, those grooves get deeper and eventually become stages that everybody is going to develop through automatically. So the awakening human at the leading edge today bears 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. There is no one else who can do this for us.

~ Andrew Cohen Quotes
Famous Quotes on: Evolution, Awakening, Spirituality, consciousness

This is our challenge at the beginning of the twenty-first century - we need to find the courage to see our own spiritual yearnings in the biggest possible context, in such a way that is going to compel us to finally transcend our self-concern. We need to find the heart to come together in such a way that will enable us to face the challenges before us. And to do this, we need a new spirituality. We need a new enlightenment.

~ Andrew Cohen Quotes
Self-Development Quotes on: Courage, Spirituality, Enlightenment

The authentic self is the best part of a human being.  It's the part of you that already cares, that is already passionate about evolution. When your authentic self miraculously awakens and becomes stronger than your ego, then you will truly begin to make a difference in this world. You will literally enter into a partnership with the creative principle.

~ Andrew Cohen Quotes
Motivational Quotes on: Authentic Self, Ego, Evolution, Awakening

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