Dear Jeff and Katherine,

Do you both not see that there is no inquiry in your dialog? You simply put forth your point of view and then look for agreement with it. That leaves no room for uncertainty or the fire and friction of creativity. The energy to learn disappears along with any real genuine interest. I have brought this to your attention before and either you are totally not interested in what is going on out here? Or you have no real facility in the dynamic of dialoging and inquiry. You just keep going back to your familiar comfortable format of authoritatively explaining, taking everyone’s offering and rearranging it to fit your point of view or premise. Its always healthier to be questioning rather than dogmatic.

Sincerely David,

..................................................

Dear David,

Thank you for your candor and care for the quality of the conversation that we have all embarked upon. It is true that you have pointed to the need to look at the nature of our inquiry in the past and it is indeed an important point of investigation for any of us who endeavor to evolve at the level of consciousness.

I do however disagree with your main premise – that “there is no inquiry in our dialog.” Before we could possibly agree upon such a sweeping comment we would have to be sure that we both meant the same thing by the word “inquiry.” And this, I feel, gets us to the heart of the matter. What is the nature of the inquiry that we are attempting to generate on our calls. Prompted by some of your early probing in this direction I have done some research into this whole question of inquiry.

The term inquiry is not as easy to nail down as it may appear. There are several definitions for the word and when we enter into the realm of philosophical or spiritual inquiry there seems to be an unlimited number of interpretations of those meanings. So even a preliminary investigation leads me to believe that getting clear about what the nature of this inquiry is will be very helpful to all of our development.

I wanted to start by presenting the broadest and most general definition of the word that I could find.

Inquiry – any process that has the aim of augmenting knowledge, resolving doubt, or solving a problem.

Using this definition we certainly have inquiry in our dialog, because many people have told me that as a result of our discussions they understand more about their experience of being a human being, they have less doubt about the meaning of their own life and some have even expressed the resolution of fundamental problems that have plagued them for years.

At other times you have stated that Katherine and I have an agenda, as you say above, “our own point of view,’ The implication being that having an agenda – a vested interest in the outcome of the dialog – negates the possibility of inquiry.

Katherine and I do have an agenda. We are trying to facilitate a more comprehensive and deep understanding of the perspective of Evolutionary Enlightenment in all of the listeners that join us for these calls. To achieve this end we assume a position of authority in relationship to this perspective based on the fifteen years that we have each devoted to it.

It is my opinion that if the outcome of an inquiry is meant to be evolutionary there would have to be directionality to the discussion. That means that something were being held up as the truth and then examined.

We have spent a great deal of time on our calls talking about the nature of the post-modern self. Our post-modern condition – yours and mine – doesn’t like to think that anyone knows any more about anything than we do. That tendency is most pronounced when the topic of inquiry is human life. We all feel that we are experts on human life and that no perspective is any higher than ours.

So we are all (me too) hyper-sensitive to any positions of authority taken in relationship to matters of this type. One of the things that Andrew Cohen has long tried to make clear in his work is that authority in these matters is crucial for development. If we do not have examples to aspire towards we invite what Ken Wilber has termed pluralistic flatland where every opinion is consider equally valid regardless of context. In my opinion, this is what leads to the negation of inquiry.

Another thing that I have been thinking about is the fact that it is commonly believed that inquiry is best fueled and informed by disagreement. In other words, when people inquire together it is the points of disagreement in their thinking that present the greatest possibility for growth, development and creativity. I certainly agree that points of disagreement can be powerful points of investication. I also believe that points of agreement are loaded with creative possibility.

In our discussions I can find examples of both – moments where disagreement has been the catalyst for higher understanding and also times when points of agreement moved us all to a deeper place. I don’t feel that looking for agreement in different points of view is inherently any less valid as a vehicle for true inquiry.

All these are outstanding departure points for further discussion and I for one would be interested in starting a separate dialogue devoted to a deeper understanding of them.

And yes, Katherine and I will continue to work to provide the best possible facilitation that we can every Thursday. We both realize that we have a lot of room for development and improvement – but then again, that is the whole point.

Thank you again for your sincerity,

Jeff

READ a blog post related to last week’s call by Jeff here.

Dear Jeff and Gail,
Thanks for the incredible call, it definitely stretched my awareness. Sam and Patricia were also here listening, it was sweet being together. We talked for a while, then had dinner, then were on the webcast with you. You're both taking on so much, and it's so big. I feel stretched to even try to meet you in that. You've been my mentors from the beginning of this path with Andrew, and I want to thank you for being so consistent and bold.

Steve

Dear Jeff,
I just wanted to say what an amazing call that was tonight! It's incredible to hear about the development that's occurring as you travel the world, regardless of where you are geographically. In DC, there's just a natural impetus to expand the conversation further, to engage in as many conversations as possible. I can't believe that a new culture is ACTUALLY beginning to emerge--just the thought makes every cell in my body light on fire with overwhelming positivity and excitement. Here's to creating a global Revolution!!
Love,
Sam

Dear Jeff andf Gail,

Tonight’s call was very different.  It felt like there's an increase in awareness of a growing alignment everywhere with the real energy of the Evolutionary Impulse.  When the process that is the Authentic Self is more apparent, more common, the strength of it is palpable. And the fear just fades because there is simply no room for it.

Love,

Peggy

Dear Carter & Ellen

Last night conference call "Creating Culture" -intersubjective gave me the answer "what does higher consciousness have to do with the reality of our day -to -day problems?

It is so simple, clear and obvious that the development of intersubjective consciousness and create the structure is my project, is the most important thing, is the only solution of the problems in the world in this time right now ,is the most worthy thing to give myself 100% even take high risk and is the purpose of life.

Now I get a glimpse of "Accountability and the military metaphor of not loosing  formation"

I feel lucky to have people like you guys because I feel myself like a toddler with this development.

Thank you,

S...

 Dear Andrew and Jeff,
What a wonderful phone call it was this evening!  Thank you so much. Somehow on the phone call your voice sounded vulnerable and penetrating at the same time, in a way that was really quite sublime.  I am hoping that this program gets turned into a podcast that I can direct my friends to via links or whatever. I think it was perhaps the most succinct, impassioned and simply compelling description of the context, the purpose, and the passion for Evolutionary Enlightenment that I have heard yet.
Thank you so much!
Carl

Dear Jeff

I have just heard Andrew Cohen’s talk via the web. I like his conclusion that basically we are all one in primordial consciousness. But now - in manifestation - we are many and the universe is our project.

My question is: why does 'our' Universe Project contain so much pain??!! Isn't evolutionary spirituality, like every other theology, crumbling under the tremendous amount of pain present in this world? Is it all just involution and evolution - a godly game - lila and existence, consciousness, bliss -satchitananda (Sri Aurobindo)?

Looking forward to your reply, yours

Michael (Zurich)

Dear Michael,

Thank you for your question. I have to agree that there is tremendous pain in the Universe. I am not as certain that the existence of pain is the source of our problems. The goal of Evolutionary Enlightenment is not is not to end pain, but to discover universal purpose and meaning. I don’t believe that pain is what causes so much suffering in the world (particularly not for highly developed cultures in the west) rather it is the lack of meaning and significance that holds far too many of us in a state of meandering despair. My own experience of Evolutionary Enlightenment has been that the more I have found the drive of my own deepest heart to be non-separate from the creative drive that initiated the process of evolution in the first place, my concern with the experience of pain has been replaced by the explosive inspiration for what the future could be.

Thank you again for writing,

Jeff

Hi Jeff and Katherine,

    I enjoyed the call on the 4th tenet.  I especially find that this is an enlightening tenet.  I recall my first retreat with Andrew where he had us contemplate the difference between the personal and impersonal dimensions.  I was clear about the freedom and space of the impersonal.  Your call had that quality in the initial dialogue between the two of you and with all of us.  I think that we can really awaken to something that is cosmic in our consciousness as we realize we are a process and not an individual entity.  I have found that many aspects of my individual life have pointed to the evidence that I am/we are a process.  It is also an existential realization. But to realize we are one entity or process or being together is really far out and reaches the psyche beyond itself. I like it. It is freeing.  And it is not the way I usually feel which is more this idea of being imprisoned in a self or body or idea of me. Yet to give over oneself completely to this large process as onesself is a leap... that seems daunting especially in the secular world.  I see here the need for a community with others who are interested in this and see the possibility of it as well.

    I think most people including myself don't really know how to let go of self as object completely and then to go beyond even self as process to self as no self and only big process as existing.

Thanks again.

Gail

 

Jeff & Katherine

What an unbelievable thought.  The Evolutionary process awakening to itself, realizing that the human form is its vehicle, to use and discard.  At first it is a little scary to think that, as a human being, I am disposable to the process.  Humans are conditioned to believe they are essential.  I almost want to think I am the BEST vehicle to convey the process (but there is that ego talking).  There must be many other forms that are equally as necessary to it. When the Evolutionary process wakes-up to itself, through me as a human being, what is the next use for this vehicle?  The only thing is to consciously let go of this vehicle, and for the universe to take it back.  I feel like I will have reached the edge of this boundary (a cliff of sorts), and I am looking out into this vast area of pale color where nothing is above, below, or on either side of me.  At this spot, I must make what I think for a split second is a choice, but in reality what is the inevitable step.  Looking out at this vastness in front of me, I will know the feeling that I can take the step over the edge of this barrier, and I will not drop down, like a person falling from a cliff.  So I am ready to take my one step, that static energy pulling me.  That brief glimmer of fear from knowing I will cease to exist in this form once I take the step, suddenly dissipates.  I put my foot out and lean in, becoming one with the process of evolution.  The universe which I was born to takes me back in, because on a completely consciously level, I am no longer separate from it. Don't ask me where all these thoughts came from.  It just surfaced near the end as I was listening.   (a listener)

Just had to say.....GREAT call last night!  Your Passion was palpable!!  As I awoke this morning...my world...or The World was/felt different!! Can't really explain it.....it's like Harry Palmer, author of the "Avatar" teaching says...."It's a "World" experience, not a "word" experience". Thank you and Katherine for all your effort in this Universe Project!! From across this continent on Vancouver Island, Canada...I send my heartfelt gratitude and appreciation!

Bless you....Monique

Hi Jeff

 

Loved the conversation on soul development -2. Talking about urgency. I am just experimenting with few ideas…..If I look upon the soul as beyond this life time (which means even after my death, the soul take on a different life time)... Which means what ever my actions are develops or not develops 'my' soul. At the time of my death, what ever is the level of development of 'my' soul at the time of my death is the level to which the soul appears again through another life form (this life form is not me as ego). So for example 'my' soul is now having a life form called Arul Dev. 200 years from now 'my?' soul may have another life form called Mary (who is not me as ego). When I allow this to hit me, it dawns on me a huge moral responsibility. If I don't develop my soul Mary is going to have to do lot more work. Its like in Shuttle relay that we play in school. If out of the team one person slows down the whole team loses. This really compels me with high urgency that every moment I contribute to development of my soul and that of others.

 

Now another question arises what happens to the soul after death. When I asked this to someone she said, it joins God or consciousness. Well this hits further. If what I do today, this moment, is going to develop my soul, which impacts other life forms and which ultimately impacts God or Consciousness, there is no choice. I am implicated to develop soul of all in this life time to the very best and more of what I can. In spite of all odds.

 

The danger of this implication is that one is overwhelmed. And sometimes then one says this is too large; and can just go on the opposite direction. So I guess the action path is to push and allow this implication to hit you and at the same time take action and succeed in being integral again and again and again.

 

However the way I am looking at this seems a bit too 'personalising'. The key I guess to action in terms of integrity in day to day life is to look at this impersonally, as a human condition. And fully participate in the development of soul as if my life and others depended on it

 

Thanks for the call. I listened to it in podcast

Arul Dev

Jeff & Katherine,
     I appreciate the integrity in your listening. It seems if we support each other in staying present to the urgency – for it is the urgency that makes it real – we will step up to the plate and be rigorous in the use of the five tenets as a forum of inquiry into integrity and its impact on the human condition and evolution. In the face of integrity we see the deepest cowardice of human condition as well as the noblest courage.
David

Dear David,
     I very much appreciated your contribution to last night’s call. I have been thinking about the idea of urgency and what it is that makes our calls crackly with reality. It occurred to me that the “urgency” that you were calling for last night comes when what we are talking about is personally implicating. Last night for instance the real urgency of this matter of integrity doesn’t come from ideas about the need for integrity in the world as much as the need for integrity within ourselves. I think it was this aspect of personal implication that you felt was missing from the first part of our discussion last night. And as you said I should re-examine my own conclusions that people are not ready to handle urgency and find out if they are.
     It takes, as you say, a very courageous soul to even begin to face our own lack of integrity. To look square in the face of the fact that most of us have recognized much more about what is true than we are willing to live up to. We all use excuses like “I don’t know what to do,” but in the end they are in fact just excuses. I know from my own experience that anytime you decide to act on what you really know, beyond all of your fears and hesitations, you discover that you were always completely surrounded by opportunities to act with integrity. I think next week’s call will be along these lines as we discuss the third tenet, Face Everything and Avoid Nothing. I intend for there to be plenty of urgency to fill the airspace.
Jeff

I agree with Jeff’s take on the call and also appreciate the question of urgency that came up. I have found there is really no urgency out there somewhere for me to find or to be moved by. Even understanding the world’s problems more doesn’t make me more urgent, unless that understanding is in the context of that deep recognition that I am the world and the only way the world changes is through my change. That recognition that we are the world is already there in us, not far away or hidden at all, it’s the willingness to see clearly and unflinchingly whether or not our lives are a reflection of that recognition that puts the fire under our buts and that develops our integrity at the same time.

Katherine

Dear Jeff and Katherine,

I have really appreciated your calls and the opportunity to hear the teachings of Evolutionary Enlightenment in your own voices. I think that because it is in your own words and based on your own experience that the inquiry is so powerful.

A few weeks ago you asked us to suggest a topic, and I asked you to talk about the role of autonomy in the spiritual path. The sense of poetic justice wasn't lost on me when you emailed me back and suggested I write about it myself. :) So I have been thinking about it. What is autonomy anyway? This morning it all crystallized as I was speaking to my sister.

For a long time, I have been under the impression that autonomy is synonymous with interest. Interest is similar to intention. It is like the gasoline of the evolutionary impulse:  you can't go forward if you don't have any interest in doing so. Autonomous interest. But lately I am realizing that interest isn't the whole picture. It doesn't have any weight itself. It's like how gasoline can get you places in your car, but it doesn't have in it the knowledge of the landscape you just passed.

When it comes to standing solidly in the truth revealed in my own experience, especially in the face of opposition, I have not lived an autonomous life. I've run from conflict, and kept far too private the beauty of truth. It's shockingly immoral, in this context, to cave in on what you know to be true. But I didn't even realize that until just now.

I'm starting to change. I am suddenly finding the ability to be strong in what I believe without having to hold on to it, because it isn't separate from me. It is easy to be strong in the company of others who share similar interests but to be strong, to be truthful on your own is autonomy.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Thanks again for the weekly cosmo-cast!

Love,

Christiana

Jeff and Katherine,

I've never written to you but feel that I owe you.  When you began the Universe Project I was very interested but thought that I had to attend the N.Y. seminars to participate.  When I finally realized I could still participate from Idaho I began downloading the calls as podcasts.  Astonishing!  I don't just listen once or twice to each call.  I listen again and again and again.  It is amazing how much I continue absorbing even though I have heard it before. And, even on downloaded calls I experience that thrilling 'oneness', ecstatic motivation and deep caring.

KP

Dear KP,

Thank you so much for such an enthusiastic response. It is important to all of us to share not just our questions, but also our insights, passions and joys. We help each other by providing inspiration and also unabashed and unapologetic passion for living.
Jeff

I asked a woman who spoke on our last call to write something about the expereince that she was describing on the call. This poetic description is what she wrote back.  Jeff

...I've been thinking about the fact that even though we're in the middle of an information explosion and in the middle of our lives, a question like, "what is most important about being alive?" presents us with a "blank slate".    As if we're at the starting point.

We've been breathing since birth, but between every single in-breath and out-breath, there is a very brief, but physical sensation of neither.  There's a gap there.  Questioning the value of life itself belongs to that liminal, in-between place where life and death are defined.  It is that close to our human experience and that profound in its implications.  With every single breath we take, we start again, we choose to stay alive.  The question is, "why?"...