It's challenging to get back to writing this blog after an almost three month hiatus, but I know that where the juice in life is where the challenges are.  So, it's great to be back.  The impetus for me to take my place behind the keyboard again was the kickoff to the second Introduction to Evolutionary Enlightenment Course in Philadelphia.  We started the course with fourteen people and I am thrilled to be teaching along with my colleague and friend Kevin McCracken.  It's wild to be co-teaching with someone rather than doling it on my own.  It seems so much richer and there is so much more possible out of having two perspectives united as a force for conscious evolution! 

The course got off to a great start - it felt like the time flew!    Seeing everything newly, with fresh eyes, demands a care and attention that is almost unimaginable.  However, if I can let go of "how much I "think" I know" and go further and deeper into these radically new teachings, then I feel that we - I, Kevin and the students--who have come to understand and experience the teachings of Evolutionary Enlightenment, have the possibility of miraculously developing our Selves during the course of these next five weeks.  It is a privilege to teach this course and be in the presence ofsuch a wonderful body of students..    In order for me to "walk my talk" over the course of the journey that we have come together in Philadelphia to take, I must be willing to change now!

   WHOA!  What a class.  I feel that we are creating a vortex of evolutionary energy in Philadelphia.  It is so exciting to be a part of it.  Can a group of people, intent on understanding and experiencing the power of Evolutionary Enlightenment, CREATE the future?  Is it possible for each and every one of us to leave behind what we know, and change...really change in the space of these five short weeks?  Judging by last night's class, I say, YES!

   This is the second course that we are having in Philadelphia and what is mysterious to me, yet palpable, is the depth and perspective of the students in this course.  It seems that we're going further and deeper than the first course.  In fact, if you think of consciousness as a field, could it be that what I am experiencing is this field developing itself through the conscious participation of us all? As if the conscious intent of the people in the first course laid down some grooves in consciousness that we are now developing further?  Is this how culture develops?

   This is what leads me to think that we are creating this evolutionary vortex.   And, even if you don't believe in vortices or morphogenetic fields, experiencing the power of a spiritual inquiry amongst a group of people with a singular intent for Self development is enough to make the most skeptical amongst us, begin to leave self-consciousness behind -lightening up for the sake of evolution. 

This week we had Class 3, Meditation and The Ground of Being, and here I am, posting and entry to my blog, as I do after every Class. I don’t necessarily want to do this tonight. Indeed, since class, I have had two days when I feel like I have played “full out,” and now I would much rather relax. You know, “take it easy” and watch some TV, just chill. Yet, here I am, for this is clearly something that I need to do. So, whether I want to or not, or feel like doing it is just not a consideration. After all, I’m writing this out of my desire, more than anything else to consciously evolve and to no longer be imprisoned by any want or feeling, good or bad. Finally, I’m here doing this out of a sacred obligation that I’ve made both as a student of Andrew’s and as an Instructor of the Introduction to Evolutionary Enlightenment Course.

In moments like these, I find myself struggling against my conditioning, fighting to go beyond and pay attention to something other than the force of my own narcissism. Yet, also it is in moments like these, that I feel so grateful for the power and clarity of The Teachings themselves. For it is through the practice of Evolutionary Enlightenment that I have come to know who I really am, why I’m here, and how to live my life.

The gift of Evolutionary Enlightenment has been the end to a radical degree of any existential confusion in my life. Before, I struggled with a lot of things. Now, it seems as though all my struggles are about living up to what I know to be True, where integrity has become a matter of my being in congruence with the Authentic Self. So, in moments like this I am grateful. Grateful to be able to consciously participate in the evolution of consciousness; grateful to no longer have any doubts about life; grateful to have a teacher like Andrew and be part of a revolution in consciousness and culture where people bring out the best in you..

So what, might you ask, does this all have to do with meditation and the Ground of Being? Evolutionary Enlightenment is a learned perspective. And. it is through the practice of meditation that I am learning to let go - learning that I am not the movement of my thought and the presence of my feelings. For in experiencing the absolute depth of who I am, I have come to know the Self free of the fear, concern and desire. And the more I come to know the Authentic Self, the more I am able to live a life of conscious choice. For that, I am grateful. For choice is freedom. So, perhaps choosing to write this blog tonight is a victory, a small act of being free.

What do you think?