Evolutionary Enlightenment, by Andrew Cohen is a refreshingly enlivening read that aligns well with the Evolutionary Intelligences of Integral City.

Cohen, starts with the traditional path of enlightenment as the starting place for practitioners to achieve a deep knowing of the evolutionary experience of the “Big Bang”. His description of this as not only a scientific proposition, but a spiritual reality, underlies a deep and abiding recognition that all Life started as ONE. That as living systems, humans – both in their manifest form and their inner consciousness – arose from a singularity. As Cohen, reiterates, “something came from nothing”. This is both the greatest discovery and the greatest mystery of our 14 billion year old universe.

And yet, in his own path as a spiritual teacher, Cohen has come to the conclusion, that as profound as the traditional experience and teaching of enlightenment is, it is not the end of the story. For the impulse to evolve that sparked the journey of emergence in the universe, is still alive and emerging. In fact it is alive and emerging as humans. We are not only human “beings” but we are human “becomings”, and as such humans represent the evolutionary impulse’s  leading edge (at least on this planet).

Cohen, conveys his deep inspiration and commitment to all that this evolutionary impulse demands. In fact, he proposes that as we realize the implications of our relationship with the evolutionary impulse, we are obligated to grow up from our egocentric, ethnocentric and even worldcentric preoccupations and mature into a cosmocentric collaboration with it.

Such a proposition demands discipline that can be leveraged by expanding our solitary experiences of evolutionary insights through the relationships we develop with others on the same journey.  Such intersubjective relationships create wholly new levels of order, even of the phenomenon of Oneness. With Evolutionary Enlightenment, the sharing of non-duality with others (of like hearts/minds) leads to the experience of Shared Oneness that is experienced between or amongst multiple selves.

If Cohen sees the possibility of this new order of Oneness becoming an actuality amongst the intentional community (who has been following him beyond his traditional Enlightenment “Being” teachings into the Evolutionary Enlightenment “Becoming” teachings) then the “paths that are also goals” become of high interest to Integral City.

What practices might Integral Citizens want to engage in order for Evolutionary Enlightenment Intelligences to emerge? Cohen suggests that we follow these five tenets:

  1. Clarity of Intention
  2. Power of Volition
  3. Face Everything and Avoid Nothing
  4. Process Perspective
  5. Cosmic Conscience

Now I am curious how these five tenets might be related to the five wisdom/energies we explored recently from Irini Rockwell’s “Natural Brilliance“? Perhaps the morphogenic field of Enlightenment Traditions are converging on the patterns or habits that the Evolutionary Impulse is calling into existence?? If that is the case, then perhaps we are seeing the emergence of practical paths for those of us who want to enact the Master Principle of Integral City: Take Care of Yourself, Take Care of Each Other, Take Care of this Place?