A History of Evolutionary Spirituality
“History as a whole is a progressive, gradually self-disclosing revelation of the Absolute,” wrote the German philosopher Friedrich Schelling. Indeed, evolution has always been a fundamentally spiritual concept. And over two centuries ago, he and others were beginning to intuit that the nature of reality itself was, in some essential way, going somewhere. Nature—and humanity—had a direction.
Another Quote of the Week by Andrew Cohen
What is ego?
In an enlightenment context, the word ego refers to a deeply ingrained, unconscious, compulsive, and mechanical need to remain separate and superior at all times, in all places, under all circumstances. Ego is expressed as an irrational refusal to say yes to life, to love, and to God—to an unconditionally positive relationship to the human experience.
The true face of ego is rarely seen for what it is except at those brief moments when you have recognized something as being absolutely positive, wholesome, and good, and are compelled to respond, to say a wholehearted yes to that which you have recognized. It is only in those moments that you come face to face with the force of a powerful inertia within you that blindly resists, defies, and denies that which is radically positive.
This is what ego is: that immovable stance, deep in the human heart and mind, that irrationally resists any call from within or without to embrace the greatest goodness. When we aspire to evolve at the level of consciousness, to live a spiritual life, to become an enlightened person, we open our hearts to the thrilling possibility of something so inconceivably glorious that it's just too positive for most of us to bear.
And it is only when we dare to even consider saying yes to this highest good that we will experience this kind of profound confrontation with our own self—both with the anti-evolutionary force that exists in all of us, and with our normally untapped potential for extraordinary developmental leaps.
When you realize that consciousness and culture are one-not just as a metaphysical statement, but as a literal, manifest, truth-something very profound occurs. When this perspective is internalized, when the split between subject and object, between consciousness and matter is seen through in the deepest way, a fundamentally dualistic perspective that most of us are unconsciously holding disappears.
What is it that will inspire any of us to find the courage and the heart to take our own lives deadly seriously, to get to that point where we are ready to embrace the overwhelming urgency of the call of the future?
It's very difficult to get human beings to feel as passionate about the imperative to evolve as they would feel if their life was being threatened. But the whole point of evolutionary enlightenment is to evolve to a level of consciousness and conscience where we care that much. And if we want to create a truly enlightened future, the source of our strength has to be the highest.
The experiential recognition of what's possible—the glory of it, the significance of it, the sense of meaning and purpose—should be what's compelling us. Only there will we find the conviction and passion to catalyze the kind of transformation that is so desperately needed.
Andrew Cohen
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