Recent Posts in ‘Cultural Evolution’
The Science of Consciousness
Here is the next installment of an interview Andrew did for Intent.com where he describes how the teaching of Evolutionary Enlightenment aligns with the deepest and most profound understandings of the cosmos that science is continuing to reveal to us: Question: How does the concept of evolutionary enlightenment fit in with modern scientific notions about
The Holy Life
There is something so incredibly life-affirming about the kind of joy and fellowship that emerges when many human beings, inspired by spiritual values and a higher sense of purpose, come together. The Buddha, when asked if association with like-minded people was a part of the holy life, is reported to have declared: “Association with like-minded
1st International Forum for the Evolution of Consciousness
On October 13th in Paris, EnlightenNext France will host, together with other sponsors, the 1st International Forum for the Evolution of Consciousness. It will be a day-long event that features talks by Andrew Cohen, along with a host of other leading-edge voices in the field of conscious evolution, including Ervin Laszlo, Dr. Elizabeth Debold, Carter
VIDEO: The Joy of Stats
I just watched a video clip from a recent BBC show, The Joy of Stats. In it, Professor Hans Rosling charts over a hundred thousand points of data and presents one of the most inspiring, original, and eye-opening four minutes that I have ever seen. After watching a video like this, it’s hard to argue
Globalization Isn’t Just for Economists
The world really is getting smaller. I’m a 56-year-old Jewish Baby Boomer from Manhattan who became a spiritual seeker in my early twenties. Typical of so many of my generation, I looked for Enlightenment in the East, not the West. I traveled to India in 1984, and three years later, in a brief encounter with
VIDEO: Faith, Progress & Evolution
Here’s a video excerpt from a talk that I gave at the Rubin Museum of Art last summer. It’s a dialogue with my brilliant visionary friend Howard Bloom (author of Genius of the Beast) about faith, progress, and evolution. Enjoy!
AUDIO: On Being & Becoming
On Sunday, April 1st, Andrew Cohen led a free call as part of the lead up to his two upcoming Being & Becoming retreats this August in Tuscany and this December in Arizona. The essence of Andrew’s teaching of Evolutionary Enlightenment is to enable people to come together in an egoless context and create a
Evolutionary Enlightenment in India: Days 1-5
“Whatever happens in India happens on a whole other scale.” This was how Sri Pingali, director of EnlightenNext’s programs in India, described the start of Andrew Cohen’s 2012 book launch tour in his homeland. By the close of day five, Andrew had addressed audiences in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and New Delhi, with venues ranging from an
Evolutionary Enlightenment in India
I arrived in India on Friday to launch the Indian edition of Evolutionary Enlightenment. Since landing three days ago, I’ve met audiences in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and New Delhi, and talked to students in 900 colleges in a satellite broadcasted e-classroom (see mini updates and photos on Facebook). The Times of India is graciously supporting some
In Honor of Ken Wilber: The Philosopher of Everything
Today is the birthday of my good friend and collaborator, the great integral philosopher Ken Wilber. To honor him I wanted to share an article that we published in EnlightenNext magazine in 2006 called “A Philosopher of Everything,” written by Carter Phipps. It’s several years old, but it stands as a great introduction to Wilber’s
Egoless Relatedness
When two or more people meet who have awakened to the evolutionary impulse, there is the potential for egoless relatedness. And that is what those of us at the leading edge who want to push the boundaries of our own spiritual development need to discover. We have to find a way to meet one another
A New Spiritual Orientation (Quote of the Week)
Evolution is a new spiritual orientation. Most of us with a Western education are familiar with the idea of cosmic evolution—we’re aware that the cosmos is in a process of ever-greater complexification and that we are part of that evolving process. We’re aware of the Darwinian notion of biological evolution and accept the scientific evidence
Spirituality in Public (Quote of the Week)
If you begin to evolve spiritually, at a certain point you awaken to a moral imperative. You discover an inner compulsion to live for a higher purpose and to actually to do it in public. This is quite a radical stance to take in the midst of postmodern culture. Much of postmodern popular spirituality is
What Is Evolution? (Quote of the Week)
Whenever I explain what evolution is, I say simply this: Evolution is a cosmic process that is going somewhere in and through time. And we are all part of that process. This simple fact is potentially life-transforming, but it’s also hard to grasp at a deep level. The process that created us is moving. We
The Highest Form of Spiritual Practice (Quote of the Week)
The highest form of spiritual practice, for those of us who aspire to create Heaven on Earth, is our relationships with one another. That means being willing to sacrifice anything and everything so that the intersubjective world of our shared culture becomes the stage on which the spiritual reality of who we really are, beyond
Spiritual Practice Is Spirit Lived
Are you a seeker or a finder? This is a very important question. If you are on a spiritual path, have you found what you are looking for? Or are you still searching? If you are doing a spiritual practice, are you doing it to reach a goal or are you doing it just because
Identifying with the Evolutionary Impulse (Quote of the Week)
The evolutionary process is going somewhere. And now, maybe for the first time in history, we can decide with more conscious awareness where it’s going. But our ability to do that depends entirely upon who we understand ourselves to be. What part of our self are we identifying with? Is it the personal psychological ego,
For the Sake of the Whole (Quote of the Week)
Most seekers are interested in enlightenment only for their own sake, only for their own personal liberation. Indeed, when we begin the spiritual life, the most important thing to us is our own happiness, our own personal experience of expanded states of consciousness, our own enlightenment. But there comes a time when some of us
The Greatest Good (Quote of the Week)
From an evolutionary perspective or worldview, development—the emergence of that which is new—is seen as the greatest good. So during the limited time that each of us has here on Earth, we all have the opportunity to develop, to make a difference in this world through applying our God-given capacity for free agency, or freedom
Andrew Cohen is a spiritual teacher, cultural visionary, founder of EnlightenNext, and the author of 
