January 8, 2012
Inspiration Is Liberation: New Year’s Reflections on the Nature of Existence
Last Sunday, I gave my annual New Year’s Address. The post below is edited from that talk. Enjoy!
A very warm Happy New Year to everybody!
As we begin this new year, I want to share my reflections on what this day means to me, and to help all of us think more deeply about the concept of a new beginning and the significance of the powerful, life-positive experience of inspiration that so many of us feel at this time of the year.
The first day of the new year represents for all of us, a possibility for profound renewal. It’s the beginning of a new cycle in relationship to the passing of time, a moment at which many of us feel as if we are getting a chance to start over. And for most of us, that is usually connected to our higher aspirations, to projects we had wanted to accomplish, and various ways we had intended to improve ourselves. The new year represents that moment when we renew our desire to develop—and ideally, to live less selfishly, to follow through on our highest intentions to make world a better place.
If we pay attention to the powerful experience of inspiration that we feel at the beginning of the new year, we will recognize that it is a sense of conviction that we can really do something that we hadn’t believed possible before—that we are capable of breaking through to new ground and attaining higher levels of our own potential. If we look more deeply into the thrilling experience of inspiration when we feel it surging through our bodies and minds, we will see that it really is the sense that anything is possible. And that experience of inspiration is simultaneously an experience of spiritual freedom, because when we are deeply and profoundly inspired in this way we feel liberated from any fundamental sense of limitation.
Most of the time, when we are not in touch with that liberating experience of inspiration, we tend to live with the conscious or unconscious belief that “it’s not possible” or “I just don’t have what it takes.” Within the narrow sphere of our emotional and psychological selves, we often lack self-confidence and don’t believe it’s really possible for us to change, or to accomplish great things. And this is compounded by the current state of our shared culture, in which there is a deep and abiding cynicism. Many people, for many reasons—founded and unfounded—are very doubtful about the possibility of change, either in themselves or in the world itself. Especially now, when we are all struggling with the great challenges of the economic downturn, and with the continued strife and conflict in the world, many of us consciously and unconsciously have fallen into a state of despair because we don’t really believe that we as a people, as a species, have the capacity to change and develop in ways that so many of us feel are urgent.
So on days like the first of the new year—days of renewal when many of us do, at least temporarily, light up with a sense of inspiration—the feeling of self doubt and the cultural climate of cynicism momentarily fade into the background. We find ourselves awake to a lightness of being, a felt sense of life-positive inspiration, a powerful experiential knowing that it really is possible to change. And not only is it possible, but we as individuals do have the wherewithal and the indomitable spirit to catalyze extraordinary and significant change in ourselves and also in the world around us. We are awake to an infinite creative potential. When human beings are in touch with this powerful creative positivity and inspiration it provides the boundless energy source from which we have historically been able to move mountains.
What I want to make clear is that when you feel this kind of inspiration, it’s not just a personal experience you are having. From a mystical perspective, it becomes apparent that what you are awakening to in such moments is the tangible, felt, human experience of the energy and intelligence that created the universe, that catalyzed the evolutionary process, and that is driving it right now. Just stand back and bear witness to the majesty of the process as a whole—the miracle that emerged from nothing in a burst of light and energy 14 billion years ago. See the glory and inconceivable creative power of this cosmic process that ultimately created the conditions that made it possible for you to have the experience you are having in this very moment. And then pay attention to the experience of existence itself when you step this far outside the normal narrow sphere of your daily awareness. Realize the enormity of what it means to exist, right now. What you will notice is that inherent in the enormity of what it means to exist is a powerful driving urgency. That urgency is the felt sense that the entire creative process is moving, is going somewhere, and there is an energy and intelligence that is driving it all.
When you or I awaken to the experience of inspiration, infinite possibility, and unrestricted potential, what we are experiencing is not separate from that. As human beings, we are tapping into the source of the entire cosmos. The reason this is so significant is that when we directly experience this tremendous energy, we realize its profound positivity. In those moments when you are awake to this creative inspiration and you are free from crippling self-doubt and the long shadow of cynicism, you directly experience the overwhelmingly positivity of existence itself. Your personal existence is not separate from a vast creative unfolding that is definitely trying to go somewhere. And the experience of inspiration is in fact that cosmic energy and intelligence trying to evolve and renew itself through us, as us.
So the experience of inspiration that we feel on days like today is very important because of what it reveals to us about the nature of life itself. It also points to our potential to be liberated, deeply creative, engaged people, if we only have the courage and conviction to begin to trust what becomes apparent to us when we are awake to this kind of inspiration more than we trust the fears and doubts that come from the psychological self and the cynicism that is so prevalent in the world around us.
It’s important to recognize that no matter what appears to be happening in our fast-changing world and in our often challenging and confusing personal lives, the experience of inspiration points us to a deeper, unchanging truth about the nature of reality. Even if personally or collectively we find ourselves in very difficult circumstances, it is still true that the power and energy that is animating the entire process is the experience of overwhelming positivity. That does not mean that the challenges we face are not real or do not need to be dealt with. But our relationship to these challenges changes when we awaken to the mystical realization that the energy that is driving the entire process, which we experience as this powerful sense of inspiration, is positive. Why? Because that means that to exist is good. Life itself, at its essence, is good. Remember, the entire process is trying to get somewhere, is in a state of continual becoming. So on a day like today, the first day of the New Year, when you experience the thrill of renewal, the powerful and life-positive sense of inspiration, realize that it is not simply a personal experience you are having. The universe is always trying to evolve through you. The challenge for most of us is that we forget that fact when we lose touch with the sense of inspiration. I think that’s why so many of us, on the first day of the year, seem to intend to evolve and to change, but as the sense of renewal and the inspiration that goes with it falls away, we fall back to sleep, so to speak, and lose ourselves in mundane realities once again. We forget how we felt and what was revealed to us when we were awake to the life-positive experience of inspiration.
So what I want to propose, as we begin the new year, is: what would your life be like if every day was like today? What if every day represented that sense of renewal? What if every day you were in touch with the sense of infinite creative potential and life-positive inspiration? I believe that to live an enlightened human life, these days, it is essential that we find the courage and conviction to live like that. And in order to do that, we need to not only awaken to the life-positive power of creative inspiration but to remain in touch with the deeper truth it reveals to us about the nature of reality, no matter what our external circumstances may be. Remember, when you are awake to the thrill of the possible—when you can see it, touch it, taste it—you no longer feel trapped in the mundane presence of the present, because you are awake to the unmanifest potential of the future. You are always reaching beyond where you have already come. When your mystical heart has been opened to a profoundly creative context, you realize that to consciously exist—which is what it means to be enlightened—is to evolve, to be in a constant state of becoming, renewal, and creative inspiration.
So make this day every day. Then you will find the spiritual self-confidence that comes from being in touch with the infinite source of creative potential that lies at the heart of existence. When we are awake to that, it makes it possible for us to bear the enormous challenges of life, to hang in there and to fight the good fight, to become the kind of people we could be and change the world into the place we want it to be.
The experience of inspiration and sense of renewal associated with the new year is precious, because of what it reveals to us about the nature of existence itself. Let’s make every day like today.
Please join Andrew Cohen on Saturday, January 28th at 3pm ET, for a free Q&A call about his new book, Evolutionary Enlightenment. You’ll have the chance to engage live with Andrew via conference call and ask him any questions you may have about the book.
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Andrew Cohen is a spiritual teacher, cultural visionary, founder of EnlightenNext, and the author of 
I always greatly enjoy hearing Andrew’s voice clearly streaming into my living room, and this New Year address, though brief, was of the quality of meaning I’ve come to know and expect of Andrew. You can hear the conviction, the complete lack of hesitancy, in his clarity of tone and, I think I can speak for the majority, hearing words, as compared to reading words, can be so much more inspirational and moving. I suppose it is the immediacy of voice that “rings true;” tonal vibrations touch more of us, and Andrew, no doubt being intimately aware of this, beautifully extended himself with us as this inspirational (new year) beginning.
Thanks and a very inspirational New Year to All!
Thanks Andrew for this Inspiring Inspirational message . Engaging with Life fully Inspired for sake of the Whole!
With Immense Love , joy n Gratiutde !
But we hould remember that inspiration with out action is just entertainment.
That was an extraordinary inspiring new years day address and I did indeed feel connected to that source of renewal and inspiration that Andrew was talking about, it’s worth absolutely everything.
Dear Andrew,
This is an amazing letter which I will read aloud among my group of intimate friends and acquaintances for my birthday this Thursday, January 12. Yes! I share the same birthday as beloved Masters Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Swami Vivekananda.
On that evening, I will be telling my guests of my first spiritual retreat “The Authentic Self” in December 2007 and the incredible opportunity I had to be close to a spiritual leader.
People in Miami know me as whatsupmiami, the popular website that I founded in 2009 to cover the arts along with my personal blog, La Columna de Jesus where I have posted dozens of your thoughts, ideas and excerpts of your books of spirituality.
Your teachings have profoundly affected my consciousness. They have ignited the evolutionary impulse within me which has led me to discover the beauty of life in this existence, living self-realization.
So this coming Thursday, aboard SeaFair during MIA ART FAIR Collectors Invitational I will be addressing the audience to let them know about you and your latest book which I just finished reading, Evolutionary Enlightenment. SUPERB!
Best Wishes,
Jesus
When I got to your words about living every day like it was New Year’s Day, I thought now we are getting somewhere. I don’t know if it’s my age or my cosmic connection, but the coming new year has not meant anything to me in a long time. New Year’s Day is just another day off work to me. At first it used to bother me, but then I realized that I was truly living in the moment, and not by the linear time that we require to function in the 3D.
Infinite and Eternal Blessings, Gratitude, Appreciation and Love to Andrew!
Infinite and Eternal Blessings, Gratitude, Appreciation and Love to ALL!
Thank you for the ‘refresher’! Excellent timing!
Andrew
Your words resonate with my innermost core.The very fact that I am on this blog [or anybody else for that matter] means that we are being pulled along by this irresisitible force, or at the least curious.The words ” The evolutionary impulse or GOD experiencing “IT’S SELF” through us”, is extremely profound to me and indicates to the awakened soul that ” You are ready “. Being brought up as a christian in my early years, I always believed that I was unworthy to believe that we are all a droplet of god within. God was some powerfull being seperate from us who lived in heaven. I would like to ask you a few questions Andrew if I may.As soul who has had direct experience of the being and becoming evolutionary impulse, Did you find the being experience affect you more profoundly than the becoming or vice versa? And if a soul has experienced one [ becoming ] is he ready to experience the other [ being ] I would love to hear about your experiences on this subject. Namaste John
Dear John,
Both the liberating and transformative experience of awakening to absolute Being and the life-reorienting recognition of evolution are polar opposites, but are equally powerful. The reason for that is they are both Absolute. And yes, once a soul has experienced either Being or Becoming, he or she is ready to awaken to the other.
newsletter welcome
thanks
claudia
This is rather picky, but as someone who has had speech training and does some public speaking, I noticed Andrew has a “you know” problem. I became so aware of it that I was constantly waiting for the next one. I think a session with some kind of trainer could help him get past that and be a more fluent speaker. Content wise, he’s great!
New Year’s Day is an “opening day” in two ways for me. It is also my birthday. I sent this New Year’s message to my daughter and received a warm and loving response from her. That is what birthdays are about! I have enjoyed, and embraced, Andrew’s views, wisdom and notions since I first discovered him among the teleseminars and other enlightened visionaries. The New year and I hold promises to return to writing an experiential story that reveals the possibilities and healing from paralysis to 90% range of movement…medically referred to as a miracle. And, yes, aren’t we all a magnificent miracle! We are so much more than we dare to think we are…what a breakthrough!
The new consciousness liberation and expansion is like that of prison bars dissolving and with the force coming from behind we step into the mystical wonders about six inches from the end of our nose.
Thank oyu for what you do. It is so affirming to know we journey together.
I DO feel called to be a contribution to the evolutionary impulse and it DOES drive me and take me over. I am your partner within the scope and limit(?) of my capacity to stay inspired by a burning glimpse of what’s possible.
“What I want to make clear is that when you feel this kind of inspiration, it’s not just a personal experience you are having.”
A deep bow of thanks for bringing what was felt at a deeper level into my awareness, so as to engage more consciously with this. It feels like a fundamental shift within.
Peace be with you.
Dear Andrew,
What did you mean towards the end of your talk, when you said that being awake to this evolutionary impulse, it literally changes everything, we become completely different people? Thanks!
This means that our fundamental relationship to life, to existence changes in the most dramatic way. Now we have discovered an absolute, non-relative reason to be who we are. We’ve realized that we are products of an evolutionary universe, we’re on a moving train, and that train is going somewhere. This realization shifts our attention from the past and the present to the future. Now we are constantly preoccupied by what’s possible instead of what has already been. Awakening to evolution instills a super life-positive inspiration to be in this world as ourselves and most importantly, to make sure that the world is a better place because we are here.
Andrew & new friends at Enlightennext
I first read Evolutionary Enlightenment with Intregral Life Practice and these two books brought together all my ponderings from the last couple of years into one big resounding YES! After your talk I picked up your book and began to read it again, wow how wonderous and beautiful your descriptions of us, all of us are. It has inspired me to retool may exercise and meditation and through this a flow has shown itself that seems to be carrying me along just doing the good work. Thank-you for that book Andrew I’m sure I will wear it out. I have some questions regarding the Yugas and the 24k year cycles. Could I drive over from NY or talk with some one?
Please clarify a sentence in your book “Evolutionary Enlightenment”.
On page 136 at the top it is stated: “The Authentic Self is buoyant, joyful, awake and future -oriented”. This needs further comment when most spiritual teachings reject the future as unreal and that truth can only reside in the present “NOW”
Your next sentence intimated that by contrast, the ego is absorbed in every moment. That should also be addressed since my orientation toward the moment, as true reality, is the only place transcendence of the ego can be realized.
thank you, robert
Dear Robert,
Eros, the evolutionary impulse, or what I call “the energy and intelligence that created the universe,” is only future-oriented. Looking at this question through a theological lens helps to clarify: If you were God and decided to create the universe and then, as a result, gave rise to time, space, and directionality, would you be more interested in what you had not yet created, or would you be more interested in what you had already created? That creative impulse is always only interested in what hasn’t happened yet. The “Be Here Now,” present-oriented mysticism of the great Traditions points us not to the energy and intelligence that created the universe, but to that state of consciousness–that timeless, formless Being before time began, before the universe was created.
Dear Andrew,
I think you are, I believe you are, I know you are a blessing to perhaps millions of people seeking a firm direction into higher consciousness.
I very much enjoy everything you say and if I did not have my own guide then I would certainly bet tempted to follow you.
The best of luck.
Love,
Jean
Andrew, At age 82 I’m grateful to have your inspiring message for 2012. Thank you!
I think it is great to be remind not to fall asleep and that every day should be a new years day. And to be reminded of how important our self confidense is and that chainging is a real possibility and that the inspiration, the infinite potential energi that created the universe are creating the whole present process of evolution, because it reminds us not to fall asleep, we are connected and it´s more than hope and imagination it´s real present without a second.
Thanks so much
Andrew –
Many thanks for this– I have read it four times, and each reading brings up another set of thoughts and feelings–
I think this is one of the clearest and engaging writing on this theme that I have seen in a long while, either from you or other writers.
It is deeply important — critical in fact — that a sound theoretical construct not only in spirituality but in any other field, deal adequately with what was (past) — the here and now (present), and that which is yet to arise (future)– and dwelling overly much within any one sector is a form of hermetism.
I am a lifelong student of philosophy and not easilly impressed — and I am impressed with this address.
I hope you continue to speak and write with the sort of clarity and simplicity that strikes home to the heart as well as mind, in language and format that sirs up the neurons not only of a small community of zealous
academics and long-time spiritual seekers, but also the ordinary guy/gal on the street .
Just because somebody carries a lunch bucket, doesn’t mean they don”t have a deep thirst for a meaningful structure to think around and feel around — matters that are critical to the human soul.
In every place, and every time —
Many thanks –
Al