The big 'yes' at the heart of the cosmos

You probably sense that profound awakening is possible in this life. You may also know how challenging it is to truly live a spiritually enlightened life, especially if you have been on the path for a long time.

At times it can seem that deep and lasting awakening is a distant dream, far away from our everyday experience. Evolutionary enlightenment teaches that a spiritually awakened life is really much closer than we might think.

Most of the time, our attention is unwaveringly focused on the separate sense of self or ego. While this fundamental habit of attention remains unbroken, no matter how diligently we practise, we will inevitably fall short of the profound transformation we know is possible.

But what if the freedom we've tasted in our most profound moments could become stabilised? What if we could remain anchored in this depth, even when we are in the midst of life's biggest challenges?

This is what becomes possible when we discover the profound liberation, meaning and purpose of living in alignment with the primordial impulse of the universe itself. I call this primordial impulse the evolutionary impulse.

The evolutionary impulse is the energy and intelligence that gave birth to the cosmos 13.

7 billion years ago. It is the relentless forward motion of the cosmos, the primordial driver of cosmic evolution. It is the profound YES at the heart of the universe.

This YES is not separate from you — it is the deepest part of you, the unlimited creative potential of the cosmos expressing itself through you. It is a big unconditional YES to life itself, arising from the deepest dimension of the Self and the deepest part of the cosmos.

This big YES is not personal. It is the interior of the universe itself: the evolutionary impulse trying to become conscious through you. This impulse is felt in human beings as a deeper self-sense that I call the Authentic Self.

When we learn how to identify and align ourselves with the Authentic Self, it changes everything. Why? Because the Authentic Self fearlessly embraces change, and it remains forever untouched by the wounds of the past and the fears and desires of the ego.

In our most awake moments, we have all glimpsed this self. It's the best part of us, the part that is free from doubt, fear, and pride. It's the part of us that is free from self-consciousness and egoic self-concern. Accessing and activating this part of yourself is the key to understanding what enlightenment, and specifically evolutionary enlightenment, is all about.

Through evolutionary enlightenment, thousands of people around the world, including other teachers, have discovered how to reach far beyond the illusory prison of the separate sense of self, to the highest potentials of evolved consciousness.

The profound yet subtle shift of attention that's required to begin confidently expressing this radically different dimension of self is within anyone's reach—for anyone who has the eyes to see it, and the heart to desire it.

It is a journey of profound discovery, sometimes a challenging one, in which one does not merely taste the unconfined freedom and joy of the Authentic Self, but finally finds a way to abide in it in a way that makes a profound difference in one's own life and in those around us.

Andrew Cohen