Fifteen years Enlightenment

A Revolution in Consciousness and Culture Editorial by Andrew Cohen Bio & resources by rjon on Wed 27 Sep 2006 09:09 AM PDT Permanent Link "What is Enlightenment?" Magazine

As a young Jewish American teaching Eastern enlightenment in a postmodern Western context, I found myself in a challenging yet incredibly exciting position. I had found the ultimate answer—nonduality—but like so many of my generation, I had no solid ethical, philosophical, or moral ground in which it could root itself. And because we were nearing the latter portion of the twentieth century, when the world I was living in was changing at a faster and faster rate, I knew I could no longer look to the past in order to find out how to live a human life. I had to find the answers for myself. And it was this very inquiry that led to the birth of What Is Enlightenment?

So for the last fifteen years, I have spent many, many, many hours with a small group of students/coconspirators—sitting around a table in a crowded office, sweating bullets in a sauna, jammed in a van on the way to the airport, grooving in a rented villa in the south of France, huddled together in a café in Bangalore, Paris, or New York—in the incredibly precious, deeply focused, one-pointed practice of spiritual inquiry. And this inquiry always, sooner or later, brings those elusive gems of wisdom and understanding that, in this crazy time in which we find ourselves, reveal how to live a human life in a way that makes the deepest sense...

A cultural revolution is a revolution in thinking. Profound change in the world only happens when thinking changes, and in What Is Enlightenment? magazine, we’re endeavoring to communicate with our growing body of readers in ways that are going to compel all of us to think more deeply. We seek out those individuals who challenge us to stretch beyond familiar mindsets in order to meet the overwhelming demands of our time. And as we learn from this ever-expanding network of leading thinkers, we simultaneously try to create an enlightened context in which their voices and visions will be amplified. It is my firm conviction that through the practice of sincere inquiry, of honest dialogue together, we can discover new perspectives that will enable all of us to make much greater sense of our shared human experience.