It was the spiritual New Year's party . . . 2008 was ushered in at integral artist Alex Grey's loft/gallery/studio in New York City with a powerful dialog between Alex and Andrew on Creativity and Spirituality, followed by a rock-the-house down performance by Unfulfilled Desires.

Check out the video montage of the event here.

Soul in Scandinavia

This fall, Andrew taught in Copenhagen, Denmark. Speaking to this highly sophisticated culture, which has one of the foremost social service structures in the world, and which also has one of the world's highest depression rates among its affluent population, Andrew offered a view and perspective on human purpose that addresses some of the unique challenges at this strata of social development.

Soul development, the cultivation of a higher morality, is not something commonly spoken of in our times. And when it is, usually it carries with it at least undertones of a traditional culture's sense of ethics and values. Yet soul strength is exactly what our post modern culture falls short of, and is an essential part of ourselves that we must develop for us to evolve to the next stage.

Listen in to a short exchange, for a glimpse of "the good, the bad, and the developing" . . . for a sense of the new culture real soul development can lead to.

Watch "Soul " recorded at a public talk in Denmark.

THE EMERGENCE OF EVOLUTIONARY CONSCIOUSNESS with Andrew Cohen
Michael Toms interviews Andrew Cohen on New Dimensions Radio



Most of us have had at least one profound spiritual experience. Some of us have had many. These are awakening moments when we have been in touch with infinite and boundless love. It is a moment when we are beyond our egos, our little selves, and are connected with the cosmic force of the universe. Some call it the "nature of mind." But have these experiences changed our lives so that our behavior is more moral, more kind, less neurotic, and less narcissistic? Teacher Andrew Cohen says, "Over the years I've realized the experiences we have are a lot less important than our behavior... what really matters most has to do with what is motivating us to act in the way we do, to make the choices that we make, to be the kind of person that we are, and what motivates us to express whatever it is that we do in the world." He takes us on an ever widening, yet very personal journey into the mysterious territory of evolutionary enlightenment in this penetrating dialogue.


Topics Explored in this Dialogue:

What you can do to develop spiritually
What is consciousness
How do you reach enlightenment
What is the evolutionary impulse
How your spirituality is influenced by the culture

This interview was broadcast on November 14, 2008 and is available on online archives at NewDimensions.org

 

An All-Consuming Care

In Evolutionary Enlightenment, we begin to understand that who and what we all are, at every level of existence, is part and parcel of a vast, cosmic process-a process that began 14 billion years ago when something burst out of nothing, and is constantly developing and ever-unfolding in every moment. And our own personal salvation is found when we reach that point where we begin to care more about the evolution of that process than we do about our own liberation, our own happiness, or even our own enlightenment. When we begin to care about something that is so much deeper and higher and more important than ourselves, we find ourselves remarkably and quite spontaneously less preoccupied with and burdened by our personal fears and desires. This is not because those fears and desires have necessarily gone away, but because something more important has entered into the very center of our being, and our heart has become consumed with that. In this way, personal liberation becomes no longer the goal of our spiritual search, but merely a spontaneous byproduct of our passionate care for the unmanifest potential of the next moment.

This quote is taken from "The Emergence of Evolutionary Consciousness," a New Dimensions interview with Andrew Cohen.

Thursday, September 20, Andrew gave two live teleconferences from the studios of the Evolutionary Enlightenment Webcast.* He spoke about what he calls the Universe Project, a vast vision describing the process of evolution itself. Click here to listen to both sessions with Andrew.

The Universe Project is not only a philosophical term, it also refers to an initiative founded by Andrew Cohen and EnlightenNext designed to energize and mobilize the creativity and conviction of people around the world who recognize the need for humanity to evolve.  This idea of an organized project dedicated to creating the consciousness and culture of the future has captured the imagination of thousands of people throughout the world.

Sign up (it's free :-) ) and connect with the growing network of Evolutionaries who are actively engaging with the creative evolutionary process.

The Evolutionary Enlightenment Webcast was pioneered earlier this year by Jeff Carreira. These creative discussions and dynamic Q&A sessions bring people together from all over the world weekly in a powerful exploration of the fundamental themes of Evolutionary Enlightenment.

The Universe Project

Listen to Andrew's recent webcasts as he explores what the Universe Project is, describing this vast movement of evolution and what it means for all of us to consciously engage with the creative process ourselves.

Click here to access both sessions with Andrew, recorded from the Evolutionary Enlightenment Webcast.

Global Student Teleconference

Early this summer, when Jeff Carreira, long time personal assistant to Andrew Cohen and Director of Education began working on the programming for the EnlightenNext student body, he set up a creative cycle of engagement that put Global Students, wherever they may live, in bi-monthly contact with Andrew by phone. These calls, followed by a series of guided teleconference and in-person meetings are forming an intercontinental matrix of evolutionary engagement that is enlivening all levels of the EnlightenNext student body. They are also creating a new envelope or holon of exploration, where the evolution of consciousness and culture is being worked by students in many different settings. Discoveries are shared regularly and this cross-pollination is starting to seed an entirely new chapter in our living experiment of human development.

To give you a taste of how Andrew is working, here's an excerpt from this past week's call. Several students explained to Andrew how they'd been exploring his new teachings on soul development from this summer's retreat in Tuscany. Picking up on their discoveries and questions, Andrew began detailing how, through focused contemplation, practice, and collective exploration we can begin to understand, deconstruct, and reconstruct our value system, creating a new and higher level of morality between us.

Comments, questions? Feel free to email.

Celebrating 10 years of creativity, consciousness, and culture in the Berkshires, EnlightenNext opens its doors to the neighborhood with a free jazz concert, featuring Unfulfilled Desires and jazz guitar legend Oz Noy.   If you're in the neighborhood, please come by! The Oz Noy Trio Oz Noy - guitar James Genus - bass Rocky Bryant - drums Oz Noy invigorates New York City's music scene with a distinctive style that seamlessly integrates jazz, rock, funk, pop, blues, and heavy metal. "...this amazingly accomplished guitarist has an unbound sense of creativity, adventure and fun." -Jazziz Magazine "Oz brings a startling innovation and command of the instrument rarely encountered...he is the future of the guitar." -Chris Botti, Grammy Winning Trumpeter "Oz is a fantastic guitar player...one of the best" -Mike Stern, 3-Time Grammy Nominated Guitarist "Oz is one of the most creative guitar players on the scene today...blowing people away with his unique style and compositions...You gotta check this guy out!" -Keith Carlock, Drummer for Sting and Steely Dan » Biography » Audio clip: Say What?!  (5:50, MP3) » Audio clip: Hit Me  (5:07, MP3) » Audio clip: Just Groove Me   (4:37, MP3) » Web site Unfulfilled Desires Andrew Cohen - drums Rodrigo Tarraza - sax/ewi John Suters - guitar Carl Oman - bass Special guest Jim Campagnola - tenor sax "A hard-driving jazz-funk sextet playing virtuosic jazz and jazzrock." -Time Out London (Hot Pick of the Week) "Powerful and expressive, they play with infectious enthusiasm." -Johnny D's, Boston "Unfulfilled Desires are real masters of their style . . . they know how to groove and rock with explosive energy." -Baiser Sale, Paris » Biography » Audio clip: Freedom Jazz Dance   (2:33, MP3) » Audio clip: Al Dente   (7:10, MP3) » Web site

No, that's not our headline, the popular Israeli magazine "Shiva Yamim" (7 Days) in the national paper Yediot Achronot did an inset box interview with Andrew on his thoughts on Israel.

Reshef Levine, a journalist from the popular culture and arts magazine Time Out penned his assessment of Andrew in last week's issue -- whose cover (below) sports one of the most recognizeable revolutionaries and the headline "Want Change?!" No Andrew isn't aligned with that kind of revolution but we take the sentiment as a compliment. :-) Enjoy the article, it gives insight both on modern Israeli mindset and Andrew as a teacher.

   

The Great Cohen

 

by Reshef Levine

Andrew Cohen, spiritual teacher, is coming to Israel.

This time also as a musician.

 

It's difficult to read texts written by Andrew Cohen. Reading requires great concentration, attention to every word and sentence, and most of all a change in perception and great openness, or else reading quickly turns into another cynical scanning of a text from another spiritual teacher, who "will get us enlightened in a second." Cohen, who is arriving this week in Israel, and not for the first time, is not "another" spiritual teacher, but one of the greatest teachers still living among us.

Unlike others, Andrew does not offer easy solutions. His teaching combines perspectives and concepts relating a lot to what's happening around us today, in a complex but structured spiritual model, which can be easily perceived as "over-philosophized" but that's not the case. Distinct from ancient and classical spiritual theories, which he considers no longer suitable for life today, Cohen sees the process of spiritual development on the time axis (the teaching of evolutionary enlightenment) as a path that individuals go who aspire for personal development and understand that they are part of the process of human transformation, that actually requires them to support also the evolution of the whole. It's like a combination of spiritualism and socialism. Personal enlightenment, according to Cohen, is not the end of the path but its beginning. The actual leap in consciousness is achieved only after the individual's consciousness has been liberated from the remnants of cynicism, fear and denial, and is then ready to develop within a collective and take part in its development. A bit complex for reading, as we've already said.

Surprisingly, listening to Cohen is a completely different matter. Cohen is a man with a captivating personality and an impressive didactic capability. Aware of the complexity of his teaching, he succeeds in his lectures to communicate and clarify these issues (provided you sit quietly and behave nicely). In his upcoming visit Cohen will give three lectures in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa and a one-day seminar in Kibbutz Shefayim, all under the rather banal title "introduction to evolutionary enlightenment," although the content of each lecture and seminar is not planned in advance - each time they develop in a different direction, interwoven with actual issues, questions from the audience and meditations.

Choosing the spiritual path led Cohen to give up his great love for music but over the last few years he started playing again, and for the first time he is coming to Israel with his jazz-fusion band, Unfulfilled Desires. The internet site of Cohen promises gigs of "jazz-fusion from another dimension" and "dynamic and sophisticated tunes that make the audience dance to almost hypnotic rhythms."

TimeOut, July 5-12, p. 15; translation by Igal Moria

Andrew Cohen in Israel, Thu. (7.12), 20:00, Eretz Yisrael Museum, 65 NIS. Seminar with Andrew Cohen, Kibbutz Shefayim, Fri. (7.13), from 9:00. For additional information and registration 03-6811810 www.EnlightenNext.org.il

Haim Tovim, one of Israel's popular daytime cable stations, runs a program on spirituality and culture. At the end of Andrew's visit, they will be filming a 5-part series with Andrew and a live studio audience to air later this year. As part of their support and promotion for Andrew, they produced this commercial which is running on 17 stations all week. Whoever thought, daytime TV meets Evolutionary Enlightenment? And . . . it works! If you think you recognize the background music -- you're right, it's our favorite jazz-fusion from the 4th dimension . . . "Enlightened Dog" by Unfulfilled Desires :-)

For those non-Hebrew speakers, the spot starts like this:

"Do you want real change? It's up to you!"