It’s Time
Jeff
I am back in the US and over my jet lag after being on retreat in Italy with Andrew Cohen for eight days. Now that some time has passed I am reflecting on the retreat and everything that happened there from a different point of view. In the middle of it naturally you enter an alternate state of consciousness that is extremely powerful. You are living in a swirl of insight and understanding that is utterly thrilling and the only thing that breaks up this state of ecstatic revelation are periods of deep and profound meditation. A wonderful experience to be sure, and very valuable, but it is somewhat one-sided at the same time.
Now, sitting here, it is time to consider what it all means, or rather, what am I going to make it all mean. As the memory of the retreat amalgamates in my mind the single message that was coming through loud and clear is what remains most obvious in memory. What was that message? Well, in a word I would say it was the question “When?”
When are those of us who “know” going to decide that we are ready to take the evolution of human consciousness to the next level? When are we going to realize…for the last time…that there is no one anywhere better qualified to evolve than we are? When is the time to work on ourselves going to be over and the time to change things going to arrive?
This line of questioning was alive in the background of every talk on Evolutionary Enlightenment that Andrew gave during his retreat. It was at the heart of every answer he gave to every question he was asked. It was present in the buzz during the lively mealtime conversations. And on the last day of the retreat when Andrew Cohen and his jazz fusion band Unfulfilled Desires ripped out a rockin’ two hour set to a crowd of excited and surprised retreat participants the same question seemed to be ring out behind each note and bang with every crash of the drums. When? When? When?
The answer to that question can only come from each one of us naturally. When am I going to decide that it is time? When have I prepared enough to go to battle? When does practice end and the game begin? In the world in which we live there is only one answer that makes any sense…now!
The time is now! That is the message that I have come away from this retreat with. The time is now and it will always be now. I look at the year behind me. I look at what Andrew Cohen has accomplished, what I along with many of my compatriots have done, and I want 10 times more to happen in the coming year.
It is time!
We are all trained. We have done the meditation, studied the great works, learned about ourselves, our world and its problems. If we all decided right now, together, that this is it! That it is our time to take hold of the reigns of creation and build a future better than we can imagine. If we all decided to do this together, and if we acted on , moving mountains would look like child’s play.
Think about it. If we all knew beyond doubt that every other person like us – every other person who cared about consciousness, higher development and creating a new future – was going to “do it” that would give us enormous strength and confidence. If we knew that millions of people were going to act together to change the world, if we really knew that, wouldn’t we join in? Of course we would. So what is missing? Trust. We don’t trust that everyone else is going to move, so we don’t either.
I am going to move further than I have before. That will be my response to being on retreat…movement. Is anyone else ready? Let me know!
Access: Public
andrew cohen
December 2007
What's missing is a simple declaration of freedom.
When you say “I am free,” you are.
“When you are ultimately truthful with yourself, you will eventually realize and confess that ‘I am Buddha,' ‘I am Spirit'. Anything short of this is a lie, the lie of ego, the lie of the separate-self sense, the contradiction in the face of infinity.” [Ken Wilber]
When you say “I am free,” you are.
Hi MIck,
I'll give you that…I'm free! But I would add that “being free” and “acting free” are not necessarily the same.
I suppose we have to get more deeply into what we mean by the word free. In the sense that I as consciousness have never been attatched or limited by anything that has or could ever happen in time..definately I and everyone else is already free whether we say it or not. But in the sense of being free enough from the mind's conditioned impulses towards self-protection to be able to live a life that is a truly extraordinary contribution to the development of the human race…well, very few seem to be.
thanks for writing,
Jeff
Hi Jeff, welcome back and thanks for the blog posts,
For sure, saying “I am free” and acting that way are not necessarily the same thing at all.
The definition of freedom is best kept simple, for example, that you do not cause any unnecessary suffering for yourself and others, with the litmus test being that all of your important relationships are free from personal conflict. To get an individual to admit “I am free” allows them to engage with life (and their karma) as a free person and
not as one who stil wants to be free. This is a big step towards being able to make an extraordinary contribution to the evolution of this precious human birth…
thanks for your response,
Mick.
Hi Jeff: There is a certain zeal about your commitment expressed in this post that I found both inspiring and…well, familiar, given my upbringing in an intensive communal environment lead by a charismatic leader.
What about the idea of you or someone else who is well trained in enlightened communication coming to the next integral spiritual center gathering (oct. 29-31) to share your gifts? That would seem to be a wise use of talent…to share it with a group of talented spiritual teachers…but what do you think?
Durwin, I like the idea of me or someone else presenting at the Integral weekend. Are you in a postion to extend and invitation. Tell me more about the Integral Center Gataherings.
Thanks,
Jeff
And Mick…Agreed! Thanks for your thoughts.