Living for the Cosmos (Quote of the Week)
When we awaken to the evolutionary impulse as our own Authentic Self we begin to know, in ways that are hard to describe, that we are no longer living the life of the ego. Now we begin to intuit that we are living for the whole cosmos and start to experience all the drama that such a big perspective inherently entails. From this lofty vantage point, our ego or personal self is seen as nothing but a small shell containing a finite self-structure. Indeed, from this expanded state of consciousness, we realize that the ego’s personal perspective and limited worldview is just not big enough to contain the enormity of what we are now seeing. When this kind of shift happens, it is dramatic and unmistakable. It is unmistakable because when we plug into this surging momentum we become animated by its power, intelligence, and upward trajectory. As a self, we are carried by what feels like a cosmic momentum, stretching way beyond ourselves towards an as-yet-unmanifest higher potential. Inexplicably, we are drawn to fulfill a glorious promise that seems to be ever calling us to itself.
Filed Under: EnlightenNext Editors’ Blog • Evolutionary Enlightenment • Evolutionary Spirituality • Quote of the Week • Spirituality
“Living for the Cosmos” – Language really falls short to describe the indescribable. How can you start living for some thing, does not matter how vast and big it may appear to be, if you do not know what it is in fact? And why should you live for something different from you in spite of the fact that it may make you feeling vast and big? I prefer calling this mysterious phenomenon not Living for the Cosmos, but Living for You, for Your Innermost Center, Your Core Being, which is also the center of the whole Universe. Then we are not caught in measuring space and dimensions, big or small, past or future. We simply know that this innermost center of ours is the Ultimate Truth whereas no time and no space exist.
“Living for You” – but isn’t that just what the Me, Me, Me generation is preoccupied with?
Living for You, for Your Innermost Center, Your Core Being, which is also the center of the whole Universe, has a much deepest sense in it than just living for yourself as being an isolated island, separate from the whole, from the Universe. The all secret lies in the eternal question “Who am I?”. And the only way to find the answer of this question is to take the inward journey … which is also the God ward journey. There is nowhere to go but in.
The challenge of this is that the illumined person (one who has eyes to see) must then await the opportunities to shed light on a given situation, and it seems that it must be done in its own time, in its own way. |Illumined people are few and far between. How often we must watch and Do Nothing while the play acts out in front of us. This is frustrating only if ego has a dog in the fight. Only when we can truly view the situation through a long enough lens can we see the true workings of the whole.
Do Nothing is always a problem for the Ego. Ego is a great doer, doing is the way for the ego to exist. Do nothing, sit silently and see grass growing by itself is killing the ego. Non doing is the death of the ego. And this is the most difficult art of living to learn – the art of Let Go.
I was delighted to receive this weeks quote of Andrew’s.
Last night I shared in a pod-call where we discussed the first tenet and in that sharing moved to aknowledging together just the excitement of the larger- than- ego- perspective offered by the commitment to that first tenet.
We shared that it was at once overwhelming, very scary, purposeful and demanding.
Such a synchronicity has allowed a glow to stay with me all day.
I’m new to this site but am excited by the idea of conscious evolution and a recognition of the action of the Ego. I’m a bit concerned though about all the negativity about the ego. It is, after all, an essential part of each one of us. If we view it only as an enemy, might we be in trouble. That it needs healing, it’s true, but it is that aspect of our minds that should discern and choose. That it does this imperfectly is because of the lack of openness to the light of the Self. I’ve found the Bhagavad Gita and Tao Teh Ching helpful in this connection, along with Matthew 5.
Ego does not need healing! Absolutely not! How can you heal something which does not exist in reality. First you need to understand what ego is, its false nature. Ego is a byproduct of your mind and all its projections, identifications, beliefs, desires, all the conditioning done upon you by society, parents, religion and so on and so forth for millions of lives. Ego is your greatest illusion of being separate from the Existence, the Totality, the Organic Unity, which is within and without. Ego is your biggest enemy, thus self created, the biggest bondage of humanity I am aware of. Ego is an illusory veil covering your eyes of understanding yourself and the Ultimate Reality. The only way for you to get free is to understand the falsity of the ego and to transcend it by just slipping out of it. What will remain then is the pure and Divine You.
Thanks for taking the time to answer my ramblings Aliya. You sound very certain about this. How can you be so sure? Is this your own experience or what you’ve been told by someone else? We’re surely talking about the ineffable here and expressing it in models and metaphors. I’m interested to learn. What should I read?
And how cannot you be sure about Truth, Brian? Truth is our very nature, so close, so obvious. We really do great efforts not to see It.
The only thing is that Truth is so simple, so very natural, that it does not need linguistic exercises and philosophical treatises, it only needs experiencing. Because the Ultimate Truth cannot be said, it can only be experienced, it can only be part of your very being, of your blood system. That is the price you have to pay for Truth – yourself (or what you think you are), nothing more, nothing less.
If you are really ready to take the jump, I recommend to you to read Osho. You can get much insight from Osho, because he will push you back to yourself.
I’m with you on this Aliya. I guess, having once been a
fundamentalist, I now have a slight problem with the word ‘truth’,
especially with a capital ‘T’. I’d probably use the term Meaning, but
that’s only a different word pointing to the same ineffability.
I agree that it can only be known in experience and that that
experience is manifest in love. Strange how we’re none the less drawn
to try to express this in words.
Dear Brian,
What you say about your feeling towards the word truth is very significant.
Osho points to the same problem: “Against truth, the greatest enemy in the world is the knowledgeable person ?
and the greatest friend is one who knows that he does not know”
Down the ages many attempts have been done by the organized religions to monopolize the truth, to transform it into a belief, a dogma.
However, Truth is not a belief, it is utter intelligence. It is a flare-up of the hidden sources of your life, it is an enlightening experience of your consciousness.
But you will have to give the right space for it to happen.
And the right space is accepting yourself as you are.
“Except man, nobody lies. A rosebush cannot lie.
It has to produce roses; it cannot produce marigolds — it cannot deceive.
It is not possible for it to be otherwise than it is.
Except man the whole existence lives in truth.
Truth is the religion of the whole existence — except man.
And the moment a man also decides to become part of existence,
truth becomes his religion. ” – Osho
this idea – to experience oneself not as a small, separate part of the vast universe but rather as the universe itself, is often proclaimed by Daisaku Ikeda – the leader of the Soka Gakkai International, which is an organization based upon the teachings of the 13th century Japanese buddhist priest – Nichiren Daishonin.
This Is A truly Beautiful and Inspiring post..Living For the Cosmos..Is the ultimate truth..As Usual Andrew..Strikes the Core ..OF spiritual Work..When A Seeker takes this on they eventually find..at least a taste of this..And for some they become this..Seeing glimpses of this in my own seeking..I would say with out a doubt ..that is the truth..ANd that is why these words move my so much..And I will always be deeply touched by andrew cohens work..unspeakably..
Aliya- how very close you come to saying the unsayable. You have a way with words that is more like a great watercolor painting; particilarly if you are the artist and you’ve got the paper just wet enough to let the colors run as they will, joining where they may. I think I could ride your words all day…. They feel true.
Manitou,
It is a nice colorful way of yours to say you do not understand.
It is bound to be so. Contemporary man can only understand intellectually, from his mind. The man of today is totally centered in his head and all his energy goes feeding that same mind , at the expense of the other center – the heart. Yes, the heart cannot help you much in the market, in business competition. Vice versa, it can even make you weaker, hesitating. So it is the mind which counts nowadays. And intellect is a mind product and as such has nothing to do with intelligence. Intelligence is from the beyond, from the Totality. Intellect is from the narrow mind. That is what the human mind is – a bio computer, which works according to the programs installed in it by your past conditioning, by your parents, religious priests, teachers, politicians. Mind is past oriented and as such he can never conceive anything from the beyond, from the Divine Infinite Ocean, it is simply out of mind’s programs and capacity.
Never misunderstand intellect with intelligence, they are polar opposites.
Intellect is of the head; it is taught by others, it is imposed on you.
You have to cultivate it. It is borrowed, it is something foreign, it is not inborn.
But intelligence is inborn. It is your very being, your very nature. Intelligence is a natural phenomenon — just as breathing is, just as seeing is. Intelligence is the inner seeing; it is intuitive. It has nothing to do with the intellect, remember.
To understand the beyond, the “unsayable” you cannot intellectually, from the mind. You have to transcend both mind and intellect and through your heart to reach your innermost being, where the secret of life lies. The intelligent man´s way is the way of the heart, because the heart is not interested in words; it is interested only in the juice that comes in the containers of the words. It does not collect containers, it simply drinks the juice and throws away the container.
The mind does just the opposite: it throws away the juice and collects the containers. Containers look beautiful, and a great collection of containers makes a man a great intellectual giant.
Intellect can only understand a pasteurized, homogenized, categorized truth. Intellect cannot conceive of life as a mystery, a beauty, a bliss and ecstasy. And it is here that intellect misses the Truth. (with excerpts from Osho talks)