Manoj: There’s a Zen quote, “Prior to knowledge: Chop timber, carry water. After enlightenment: Cut timber, carry water.” In this context, just what has actually been your personal experience of enlightenment?
Andrew: In my experience, the context changed totally. Prior to, every little thing that occurred happened in a very small individual globe that was about the worries and also needs of my mental self. That has actually altered completely.
Now, it’s always evident to me that my body, mind, as well as personality are just lorries whereby the energy and also intelligence that developed, and also is producing, deep space can involve with it. While earlier, “Chopping timber as well as bring water” used to be all for and also about me, now it’s about everybody else.
Manoj: Generally, knowledge has been thought to be an abrupt phenomenon, like a person switched on the lights in a dark area and also every little thing is unexpectedly clear? Is enlightenment constantly sudden like that or can it be a progressive process?
Andrew: It all depends after the individual. There are several ways to get to the top of the mountain. One could take a long as well as winding path or one can, specifically these days, arrive very quickly by helicopter. In my situation, as a result of the transformative poise of my last instructor, the terrific HWL Poonja, my experience was the helicopter range. Meeting the Master resembled going through a looking glass. My life has actually never been the exact same and also I have never recalled. That being stated, I was an extremely earnest candidate for 8 years prior to I met him. I was figured out that one means or the various other, a profound and also irrevocable change needed to occur and was going to occur. So from this viewpoint, it was only an issue of time prior to it did.
Manoj: What does it cost? of a person’s life in the world, inning accordance with you, is free choice and just how much is karma or destiny? Is knowledge totally a human endeavour, or does one need divine poise for it?
Andrew: All of the above! The options you make identify your destiny. Favorable as well as adverse experiences from the past, including [I believe] former lives and the method we replied to them, determine our fate. Finally, what I call the ‘evolutionary impulse,’ the spiritual impulse that forces us to look for out knowledge is the significance of grace itself. Unmanifest spirit offered surge to time as well as area and all of indication. The wish to exist at all is a spiritual one for sure. So by doing this, grace and greater human goals are one as well as the exact same thing.
Manoj: What’s the significance of knowledge in one’s everyday life? Why should any individual desire or look after knowledge? If existence has no purpose, what objective does knowledge serve?
Andrew: Enlightenment has no importance to the life of the different mental self, which is the ‘daily self.’ In fact, if you have the good luck to genuinely awaken for yourself, you’ll realise that the concerns as well as needs of the mental self, from the viewpoint of informed recognition are, believe it or otherwise, entirely irrelevant. That claimed presence has no function? It is my firm sentence that Spirit as the Uncreated, Unborn, Unmanifest, timeless Ground of Being ‘selected’ to develop the universe. Exactly how do I recognize this? Due to the fact that, from our viewpoint in the 21st century, we could recall and see where we originated from– nothing whatsoever.
God or outright Spirit need to have wished to do something after doing absolutely nothing whatsoever for endless time. That’s why, when we experience the imaginative impulse in deep space vibrating as well as vibrating in our bodies and also minds, we experience an effective sense of purposefulness. When you awaken to advancement, you awaken to a profound sense of directionality that is integral in the life force, inherent in presence itself. At the reduced degrees, the objective of presence is to endure. At the highest degree, the purpose of presence is to produce. God, or Spirit, as indication is the felt desire to develop and also provide surge to that which has never existed before.
Manoj: Is the phenomenon of enlightenment beyond the 5 detects and the intelligence? Usually, enlightenment seems something that requires a high level of intelligence– if this is real, does that mean that enlightenment is accessible only to those with a high IQ?
Andrew: Undoubtedly not. Two of Mother India’s greatest realisers in contemporary history, Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Ramana Maharshi, were both ignorant men. Ramakrishna was completely uneducated as well as Ramana Maharshi didn’t even complete secondary school. And yet their realisations are taken into consideration to be peerless and also beyond comparison.
Manoj: Just how does one recognize that the principle enlightenment isn’t just an intellectual exercise, an indulgence of very smart minds? Long as we discuss it, the mind is engaged– whereas the real phenomenon seems to be experiential as well as for that reason beyond exactly what words could explain …
Andrew: Unless you have the direct experience of transcending the mind for yourself, it’s tough to know the answer! Always remember, the trip to knowledge is a jump from the recognized to the unidentified. After returning to see my very own Teacher after a number of months, the first thing he claimed when I went through the door was “I’m so pleased you discovered a friend you’ll never ever be able to see.”
Manoj: You make a distinction between conventional knowledge and transformative knowledge. Could you explain the difference?
Andrew: Evolutionary Knowledge has to do with stiring up directly to the power as well as intelligence that created deep space as well as is developing the cosmos. The Big Bang, the development of deep space was the unimaginably effective expression of that power as well as intelligence– and still is. The nature of just what I call the ‘evolutionary impulse’ is a thrilled necessity that is always only thinking about one thing: to develop the future– to generate that which is new … tirelessly. What I call ‘Standard Enlightenment’ is around awakening to the ageless, formless Being– that prehistoric vacuum from which the entire innovative procedure arised 14 billion years earlier. Before the world was developed, there was no time as well as there was no space. That’s why when you participate in a really deep state of meditation you experience such deep peace. That’s since there you stir up to that deepest measurement of truth as well as of your very own self that is constantly totally free from time as well as background. The new Evolutionary Enlightenment is concerning developing the future unendingly. Typical Knowledge has to do with being devoid of background altogether.
Manoj: Isn’t knowledge simply just what it is– by labelling it as evolutionary, are you not differentiating it from the traditional enlightenment? How does it then harmonize the principle of advaita or non-duality?
Andrew: It doesn’t suit the concept of advaita in all. Advaita is about transcending time and also experiencing/knowing/seeing/ being timelessness itself. And also indeed, I am really purposely distinguishing Evolutionary Enlightenment from Traditional Knowledge. Evolutionary Knowledge is a various pet altogether, because it happens in and via the moment procedure as well as is constantly just about creativity– countless and unceasing creativity for eternity.
Manoj: If enlightenment is the peak of our consciousness, can there be anything even more than that? On reading your publication, it appears that enlightenment alone, in the typical feeling is not nearly enough, and also after traditional knowledge, [the kind which was achieved by the Buddha or Mahavira or Jesus Christ] one needs to go in advance and do more. Is this truly feasible for the typical human being?
Andrew: Thinking about that the ordinary human is not thinking about greater issues, obviously such lofty goals and also attainments are not within their reach. However the point is that in a transformative context, advancement has no end. That indicates we can always develop more, better, higher, and much deeper. In Traditional Knowledge, it’s feasible to come to be ‘fully enlightened.’ In Buddhism, they call it ‘cessation’ or ‘completion of ending up being.’ Evolutionary Enlightenment has to do with infinite becoming for eternity.
Manoj: In your book, Evolutionary Enlightenment, you describe the Five Basic Tenets that those who walk the course should comply with, namely Quality of Purpose, The Power of Volition, Face Every little thing and also Avoid Nothing, The Process Perspective as well as Planetary Conscience. Does it imply that unless these are adhered to– like guidelines– evolutionary enlightenment is not possible?
Andrew: Yes.
Manoj: Just what is the influence of the recent exploration of the so called ‘God Particle’ by scientists on the idea enlightenment?
Andrew: No effect. The ‘God Particle,’ or the Higgs-Boson, regarding I recognize, is that strange subatomic bit that imbues other bits with mass and substance. The ‘God Bit,’ in this context, is really attempting to comprehend how matter as well as energy interact to provide kind and also framework to our universes. There’s no straight relationship in between this discovery as well as higher human capacities for consciousness.
https://www.yogadivinity.com/the-evolution-of-consciousness
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