September 29, 2009
Bearing Witness (Quote of the Week)
The “rational” values of the culture that we live in may have freed us from the myths of the past, but unfortunately they have also undermined our capacity to have any faith in the unseen metaphysical domains of our innermost interiors. In the ancient premodern world, that unseen dimension was validated by shared myths and religious beliefs and was empowered by the supercharged energy of awakened consciousness in inspired prophets and seers. Today we no longer have myths to rely on to validate our spiritual illumination. Together we need to create a post-traditional consensus about the great significance and place of Spirit in the human experience. This has to be generated by those of us who have seen beyond the veil of appearances and have experienced those deeper metaphysical domains to such a profound degree that we’re willing to bear witness in public. But to be taken seriously, we must do so in a way that points us not only beyond the myth and superstition of the ancients but also beyond the naïve idealism predominant in so much of New Age thinking. We must be ruthless in our rationality in order to authentically transmit the light of the trans-rational God in the twenty-first century. This is an enormous task, but our willingness to take it on will slowly but surely make a profound difference.
[To receive these weekly quotes by email, or to read past quotes, visit spiritual teacher and EnlightenNext founder Andrew Cohen's website
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Andrew Cohen is a spiritual teacher, cultural visionary, founder of EnlightenNext, and the author of 
If only we empowered a structure that embraced mysticism, religion, and science without bias to any of them.
http://ecocosmology.blogspot.com/2009/09/tenets-of-ecocosmology.html
End of the world discourse with, and how could you not put an accent on this: WITH as your conclusion the earth being eaten by the sun and a series of 1-2-3 steps on how to overcome that…. I am so happy that we do not, as a society, venture too far away from what is reassuring. Because, frankly, that’s just kind of scary to me. But yes, excellent food for those that suffer from anxiety and/or boredom.
Dear Andrew,
How can we enlighten ourselves, can you somehow rationally explain it to those of us who have no idea where to start; who are not even sure what they are asking, but who are trusting a gut feeling, your magazine, that there is something beyond the Ego and that this something may be Divine?
Especially for those of us that have rejected all forms of organized religions, obviously because too much is based on irrational myth… I recognize not having the psychological/intellectual understanding of what it truly means to be spiritual except for a feeling that there is – that there must be- an energy, a God, a Divine, Eros, out there ?
EnlightenNext is my only connection to something I can *vaguely* trust because I believe that a) this is not a cult and b) I believe in you, specifically, because your words touch me as genuine.
So I hope that one of your future issues will have a more introductory discourse to the subject of enlightenment.
I learned and was convinced of the idea recently that there are no Enlightened persons, only Awakened persons and the enlightening moment or moments of spiritual Awakening that results in a commitment to a life led following the dictates of higher consciousness and the Perennial Wisdom, including the Golden Rule. Doing the right thing becomes an involuntary requirement, an Awakened person’s path.
Will we humans ever be divested of the need for myths and would that be a good thing? The myths which humanity takes to heart that serve to explain our existential condition are valuable and powerful, including religion’s.
I wonder with the Internet and the collective consciousness so amplified and accessible, if established myths will become adapted and be modified to 21st century sensibilities? Perhaps long-held myths and even religions will be cast aside as new, more acceptable “truths” will become instead embraced by modern thinking?