Andrew Cohen – Creating an Enlightened Culture

In this seminal talk from his October 2009 retreat in California, Andrew Cohen recounts how he first discovered what he calls "intersubjective nonduality"-enlightened consciousness between individuals. He takes listeners back to the earliest days of his teaching career, evoking the ecstatic state of higher consciousness that he shared day and night with a small band of friends in India, and tracing his growing recognition that what they were experiencing was a new kind of enlightenment.
 
Reflecting on both the challenges and breakthroughs of the 23 years since, Cohen shares his now-unparalleled understanding of how to bring about this newly emerging potential. He describes the paradoxical experience of Autonomy and Communion, challenges common cultural values with his revolutionary teaching of Natural Hierarchy, and explains why this shared enlightenment is nothing less than the foundation for a new culture. Precise, authoritative, and accessible, this 40 minute talk is an ideal introduction to Cohen's original philosophy and vision. 

BIO

Andrew Cohen, founder of EnlightenNext magazine, is a spiritual teacher and acclaimed author widely recognized as a defining voice in the emerging field of evolutionary spirituality. A life-changing awakening in 1986 brought Cohen to the end of his own search for liberation while simultaneously starting him on an exploration of the meaning and significance of enlightenment for our time. This has led him to a profound investigation of the human predicament and into dialogue with sages, saints, and spiritual luminaries from nearly every tradition and beyond.

In 1992, Cohen released the first issue of EnlightenNext (formerly What Is Enlightenment), expanding his own inquiry through the public forum of a magazine and pioneering an innovative form of spiritual journalism reminiscent of classical Socratic dialogue. Over the last decade on the pages of EnlightenNext, Cohen has brought together leading thinkers—mystics and materialists, philosophers and psychologists—to call for a higher and wholly contemporary synthesis of the spiritual truths found in the East and the empirical rigor of the West. Through the magazine and his writings, Cohen is creating a new context for understanding enlightenment as a human evolutionary imperative. Together with a growing network of integral visionaries, including Ken Wilber and Don Beck, he is helping to define a culture of thought that places spiritual transformation at the center of any vision of transforming the world.