March 22, 2010
The Luckiest People Who Have Ever Been Born
After a wonderful and uplifting teaching trip to Mother India (to watch a short film about my trip to India, click here), last week I flew to Copenhagen and Amsterdam to give lectures and day retreats. What a change of context and culture in the blink of an eye (or a few hours in an airplane)! The joy, for me, of being in India is that in spite of her current rapid transition into modernity, Spirit still abides as her foundation more palpably than in most other places on our small planet. That means that God is at least a concept that most people relate to one way or the other. In Scandinavia, on the other hand, where the postmodern cultural experiment is at its leading edge, God or Spirit is nowhere to be found. What is to be found is the highest standard of living, coupled with the greatest human freedoms ever known.
In my talks in Denmark, I stressed to the audience how I and they were–without any doubt–the luckiest people who had ever been born in the history of human civilization. Never have there been human beings so wealthy, so educated, and so absolutely free to do as we please as we are. I made this point over and over in order to get to my second point: why is it that so many of the luckiest people who have ever been born are not deeply happy? I mean, if it is true that we are the luckiest people who have ever been born, why do most of us not feel grateful beyond measure? Why is it that so many of us in fact suffer from deep existential confusion and ambivalence as to whether being here on earth in this human form, as ourselves, is even inherently a good thing?
I spoke passionately about this, which I call the postmodern cultural predicament: that the luckiest people who have ever been born don’t seem to feel very lucky. As a matter of fact, more often than not, we find ourselves lost and without a clear sense of who we really are and why we are here. As all this sank in, I brought up a provocative question: If it’s true that we really are the luckiest people who have ever been born, do we really have a right to be unhappy?
From a psychological perspective, of course it seems perfectly reasonable to be unhappy. For the postmodern soul, a psychological perspective on our personal experience is the only one most of us have, and I tried to make it clear that that might be a big part of what the problem is. But from an evolutionary perspective, from the vantage point of cosmic, biological, and cultural evolution, the picture of what it means to be ourselves looks very, very different.
When we begin to grasp how hard the universe has had to work for the last 14 billion years to make it possible for each of us to have the profound and multidimensional experience of consciousness and highly developed cognition that we’re privileged to have right now, our perspective changes dramatically. We realize how lucky we really are. And considering our wealth and unprecedented privilege on top of that, we have a moral awakening, a cosmic epiphany. We begin to grasp what a miracle it truly is to be ourselves–the luckiest people who have ever been born. In fact, and I know to some this may sound like a radical idea, we may actually begin to feel morally obligated to be happy . . .
In Copenhagen, after I’d made all of the above extremely clear, a young woman raised her hand and said unselfconsciously, with a tinge of self-righteousness, “I still don’t understand why just because we’re the luckiest people who have ever been born, we don’t have a right to be unhappy.”
Two days later in Amsterdam, I delivered a similar message: We are in the midst of an evolutionary crisis at the level of culture. The luckiest people who have ever been born don’t feel lucky and are spiritually lost, philosophically confused, and morally adrift. I reiterated that this is in fact a global cultural predicament and not a personal problem.
To illustrate this point, I described how I had just come from India and that the night before I left I had been invited to have dinner with one of India’s wealthiest families. They were savvy, sophisticated, generous, and big-hearted people who were also spiritually informed and inspired. Their daughter had recently returned from Stanford. She was struggling with the postmodern predicament big time. She explained how she was frustrated with her friends and social circle in modern India because nobody was really communicating and all anybody wanted to do, besides work, was party and get drunk. Then she said that in relationship to her career, she didn’t know what to do, because, as she put it, “I feel that whatever I do is just futile. . . .” I spent the next two hours energetically trying to convince her that maybe she was wrong. Her parents’ and grandparents’ traditional Vedantic belief system was apparently not useful to her. Her father thought maybe because I was a Western teacher I could reach her soul.
The Amsterdam audience slowly but surely seemed to begin to get the message: We, the luckiest people who have ever been born, are in big trouble. Even if our collective global crises of climate change, environmental degradation, and overpopulation were to magically vanish tomorrow, we’d still be in the same mess. Survival and evolution are not necessarily the same thing. Even if we manage to find a way to save our endangered planet, it doesn’t automatically mean we’ve found a way to save our own souls.
Individually and collectively, we desperately need spiritual self-confidence. And that kind of deep confidence only comes from knowing who we really are, where we’ve come from, and where we’re trying to go. It’s up to each and every one of us who fall into the category of the luckiest people who have ever been born to urgently find a way to consciously evolve–morally, spiritually, and philosophically. Culture evolves through individuals at the leading edge who take those all important next steps beyond the status quo. And I’m convinced that until we realize how lucky we really are, we probably won’t be ready to take those steps.
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Andrew Cohen is a spiritual teacher, cultural visionary, founder of EnlightenNext, and the author of 
thanks..
Andrew, why do you feel there is such an inner resistance to the kind of relationship to life that you are expressing? I know and have seen this resistance, but it is hard to pintpoint its source. Is it existential confusion (lack of, or underdeveloped moral and spirital compass)? Is it purely biological/neurological: is the mind simply not able to comprehend, surrender to this kind of conscious engagement? Or is it an entitiy in itself – the ego, that refuses to expand itself beyond its small perceived borders, or feels existentially threatened.
Why are we threatened by such a powerful, positive and creative impulse?
Feedback greatly appreciated!
The article is interesting. I am digressing from the point in the article but right after reading this article, I heard this beautiful prayer sung by Jagjit Singh. And I was thinking he has spread the name of God through his songs, his songs have brought happiness to millions, when he sings prayers/ bhajans — he is praying to God — still why did he have to suffer the ultimate pain of losing his only teenaged child.. how does one explain sad things happening to people spreading the name of God.. how does one continue to pray to Him when such a huge tragedy befalls one.. it leaves me very sad….I have only lost somebody who was middle aged and the memory of her suffering before her death still leaves me shaken and scared .. how does one move ahead….would love to hear…
Let me see judgement, criticism, blame the spiritual 1% are missing the point…………God does not insist on recognition, dogma & leaders-writers…..& your idea about the luckiest & the most unlucky is contaminated by your belief about ‘the leading edge’ & the saving of souls. Do we really need another lecture about what an ‘ enlightened’ teacher thinks we all should do, be, think? Give it a rest help someone who is hungry, do something political & practical to re distribute wealth…….give your $$$$$$ away, sit still, be silent until you hear the echo of your voice in your heart. You & the other 1% of ‘teachers’ have said it & written it & said it again & again. Perhaps we really do need another book by Wilber, Dwyer, Chopra, NDW, ahhhhhhhhhh how many trees must die, how much jet fuel must be burned, how many people need to be judged ????? Stop, You’ve said the same thing for years, you have enough $$$$$$$$ & have the opportunity to just stop & give it away, Who do you think you are? & who do you think the rest of us are? The 1% reaching down to help all the rest have done as much harm as good.
Peter, I think you’re clearly missing the point here. Andrew’s speaking about the “luckiest people in the history of the planet” is meant to spur people onwards to higher moral obligations. If you think that is a waste of oxygen or digital media-space, there are no words anyone can give you that can help you, not even God. Take a breath and think about it, you’ll be doing yourself a favor.
“If you think that is a waste of oxygen or digital media-space, there are no words anyone can give you that can help you, not even God. Take a breath and think about it, you’ll be doing yourself a favor.”
Hey Ryan, don’t be so condescending here. Peter has a point you know… I share from time to time the same anger with spiritual teachers. Sometimes I share this feeling that “ the king is naked” and that it is time to get serious here.
So…. spiritual teachers make tons of money in the west, they have a very nice life with a few people adulating them, but they preach to others being disinterested, they put themselves on a pedestal preaching against narcissism, and we give them money and credit, and at some point when it is too much it will simply explode. Are they able to take criticism of any type even the mildest one ? are they able to put themselves into question, scientifically and admit the karma they have a still do produce ?can they work together, cherish the value and qualities of other teachers ? can they say with all their heart that another single person is greater than themselves, that another teacher is higher ? Are they curious of life, curious of human qualities, curious of the wonders of this planet, or do they only preach, preach, preach with absolutely no real interest in really affecting and knowing the world around them ?can one day, only once, a spiritual teacher admit publicly to have “made a mistake”, or only scientists nowadays can make mistakes and can admit of them publicly ?Maybe only scientists do make mistakes and by definition spiritual teachers are always right ? humm… if they are not always right then maybe it is time to seriously investigate systematically in what ways they can be wrong. So Ryan, yes…., I side with Peter’s anger from time to time… and if spiritual teachers continue with always presenting themselves as if they were right, and they knew better, at some point it will be not only Peter and me but a full revolution….
….until the time of truly modern and scientifically inclined Spiritual Leaders will come. Hopefully very soon !!!
By the way the article is interesting. So why is that northern Europe is suffering that much? isn’t it because human beings don’t only need bread and cars but food for the Soul ? Post modernity means starvation of the Soul. So Andrew I respectfully disagree with you, we certainly don’t have “ an obligation to be happy” , how can one have an obligation to be happy, happiness doesn’t command itself… but one has an obligation to nourish one’s Soul and share the food for the Soul with others. That we have a survival obligation to do as a species.
Andrew, when you say “ be happy, it is an obligation !” it is basically “the” typical double bind sentence. Of course it doesn’t work and doesn’t nourish the Soul of people. Are people really happier after you said this ??
“ I , big brother, order you to be happy !!!! if you don’t succeed, you will go to hell for eternity to punish you of your inability towards happiness” And this poor girl who was so desperate that she said “ I have the right to be unhappy !” I feel for her, I understand her, she is right,her Soul is in need of food and you just laugh at her in this blog. The right to be unhappy is the only small food for her Soul that she was finding, and she was clinging on it, desperately.
Northern Europe has become dull place to live and the Soul hates dullness. The Sol needs curiosity, interest, joy of living, fights, love making, f…. and evolutionary tensions. The Should cannot suffocate like this forever without being fed, hence it is predictable that Northern Europe will drastically change in the near future or get extinct. They are in the middle of the post-modern crisis.
Hey guys, the truth is that it is not enough to have plenty of food and rights, we need to feed our Soul as well. We need to give value to this, to value Soul food in us and in others. Spiritual leaders shall be exclusively showing where to find this food ( if they knwo where…)
And f… to the “spiritually correct thinkers”, time for a true revolution to find food for our Souls.
Love, C.