Really cool interactive spiritual model

[DFischer]

I found this link on another community, I find it to be pretty damn cool.

http://www.andrewcohen.org/teachings/model-viewer.asp


It's a model on the research of spirituality. It's interactive too! How fun.

[spiritzzz]

Hello Daniel, the model is very interesting and holds much wisdom.

[Electra]

The First Tenet:
Clarity of Intention

The first tenet is called Clarity of Intention, and it places the outcome of the spiritual quest directly in your own hands.

In the teaching of evolutionary enlightenment, the individual is ultimately responsible for his or her own development. You may say that you want to evolve, that you want to become liberated or enlightened, but whether or not that aspiration bears the fruit of transformation is entirely dependent upon you. The bottom line is that if you truly want to be free, nothing will be able to stop you. Clarity of intention is the foundation of the spiritual life, and it states that your desire for freedom, your impulse to evolve, has to become more important to you than anything else in this world.

Wanting to be free more than anything else is not a feeling; it’s an action. It is a conscious position you take in relationship to every choice you make. Without the clear intention to be free, no amount of spiritual practice will change you in the long run. Your success depends entirely upon your conscious choice to be free in every moment. Ultimately you will reach a point where you no longer have a choice, where your own freedom is recognized to be a choiceless obligation. Then the authentic self, which is already perfectly free, will have become the dominant force in your being and therefore the first tenet will no longer be something you are struggling with. But until you reach that point, clarity of intention needs to be consciously cultivated.

When you begin to contemplate clarity of intention, you are likely to discover, as most of us do, that you don’t really want freedom more than anything else. You may want to experience the liberating bliss of higher states. You may even have glimpsed the absolute nature of reality from the perspective of consciousness itself and felt compelled to respond to that revelation. But when you attempt to bridge the gap between that higher perspective and the reality of your life in the relative world, the ultimate challenge of spiritual freedom reveals itself. You recognize that to become a living expression of that higher perspective demands nothing less than everything.

The serious contemplation of the question, Do I want to be free more than anything else? will inevitably catalyze a profound confrontation with your relationship to life. It will bring to light deep and powerful structures that usually remain hidden—the authentic self’s unbridled passion for freedom and the ego’s fierce resistance and inertia. The first tenet makes it possible, once and for all, to freely choose which of those will determine your destiny.

Clarity of intention is simple, but its implications are radical and profound beyond measure. If you want to be free more than anything else, you don’t have to depend on higher states; you don’t have to wait for God to save you; you don’t have to hope for grace to descend. In a truly courageous soul, this tenet will forge a strength and independence of spirit that in and of itself is liberation. Clarity of intention is the foundation of the enlightened life and the key to the evolution of consciousness itself, because it places your freedom entirely in your own hands.

Andrew Cohen

interactive model: http://www.andrewcohen.org/teachings/model-viewer.asp


Very good!

[spiritzzz]

Hello Electra, those are some pretty powerful words contained in this Clarity of Intension and if followed will bring much to one's being. Now the question becomes how to transfer those words into action in the crucible of life. When reading them and comtemplating what they say the words of a guy called Budda come to mind in what he called " the noble middle way ". That is neither here nor there in a sense except that older theory or instruction tells the same tale which is a good thing. Meaning the essence of the message is the same only the language or words have changed. This is only interesting when viewed from a point of humanity as a whole and seems to indicate the evolution of possibly the same teaching from possibly the same source. Taking this line of thought possibly deeper, then humanity as a whole is following a spiritual path and presently more individual units of humanity are moving along that path then ever before in so called history. That would seem to indicate a world wide spiritual moment where individual units of humanity are choosing to follow the direction of higher energy bringing the whole of humanity in higher consciousness one unit at a time. If these words hold truth might there not be a hint as to why we here gather as many others also gather? Then if the words " where two or more are gatheres " are applied and we are muti demensional beings could that mean that on another level those individual units divded by distance on this plane are all gathered together on some other plane? Just thoughts forming a humble opinion about possibilities.

Doug

[Electra]

Dear Doug,

It is a world of infinite possibilities. I am glad to be finding my way with you.

Hello Electra, those are some pretty powerful words contained in this Clarity of Intension and if followed will bring much to one's being. Now the question becomes how to transfer those words into action in the crucible of life. When reading them and comtemplating what they say the words of a guy called Budda come to mind in what he called " the noble middle way ". That is neither here nor there in a sense except that older theory or instruction tells the same tale which is a good thing. Meaning the essence of the message is the same only the language or words have changed. This is only interesting when viewed from a point of humanity as a whole and seems to indicate the evolution of possibly the same teaching from possibly the same source. Taking this line of thought possibly deeper, then humanity as a whole is following a spiritual path and presently more individual units of humanity are moving along that path then ever before in so called history. That would seem to indicate a world wide spiritual moment where individual units of humanity are choosing to follow the direction of higher energy bringing the whole of humanity in higher consciousness one unit at a time. If these words hold truth might there not be a hint as to why we here gather as many others also gather? Then if the words " where two or more are gatheres " are applied and we are muti demensional beings could that mean that on another level those individual units divded by distance on this plane are all gathered together on some other plane? Just thoughts forming a humble opinion about possibilities.

Doug

[Electra]

The Second Tenet:
The Law of Volitionality

The second tenet, The Law of Volitionality, states that if you want to be free more than anything else, you must be willing to take absolute responsibility for your own self.

Living the second tenet is no easy task. There are many influences that come together to make up the self: personal history, cultural conditioning, biological instincts, and perhaps even the karmic imprints of previous lifetimes. There are the fears and desires of the ego and the evolutionary impulse of the authentic self. But what makes it possible for you to take responsibility for all of this is the recognition that, in the end, you are always choosing to be the person that you are. You are making conscious and unconscious choices in every moment that determine what actions you will take and what impact you will have on the world around you.

The power of the second tenet entirely depends upon accepting the fact that on some level, we all always know exactly what we are doing. It boldly declares that if you want to manifest the revelation of wholeness, nonduality, and enlightenment in this world, you must actively take responsibility, right now, for everything you are doing in the present moment, for all you have done in the past, and for the conditioned responses that arise as a result of things that others have done to you.

Enlightenment means freedom from karma. Karma is created every time you act out of unconsciousness, ignorance, and selfishness in ways that cause suffering to others. For most of us, karma is a powerful force—the accumulated momentum of literally countless actions. The momentum of karma is what makes the personal world of ego and unenlightenment appear so attractive to us. The authentic self in each of us is compelled to become enlightened and perpetually evolve, but the ego is driven by the need to always be in control and ever remain the same. And it is the choices that we make in every moment that determine which part of our self will be creating our destiny. Each time we act out of ego, karma is instantly created.

There are few human beings who truly aspire to be absolutely responsible for themselves. Most prefer to see themselves as unconscious victims of the forces within and without. As long as you allow yourself to be victimized by your own conditioned responses that arise as a result of past wounds and traumas, it is inevitable that sooner or later you are going to wound and traumatize others, and the momentum of your own karma will only increase. But when you renounce the victim position, you finally take the weight of your karma upon your own shoulders. You bear it so that no one else has to suffer. Heroically, you choose to liberate the world from your own miserable ego—and if you care about the evolution of consciousness, you will be in a position to make a significant contribution.

In an evolutionary context, the individual is aspiring to become liberated so that the authentic self, the evolutionary impulse, is free to act, to respond, to transform this world. The authentic self has no past; it has no karma; it has never been wounded or traumatized by anything that has happened to the historical personality in time. It is egoless by nature, and when it meets itself in others, a state of ecstatic intimacy and perfect trust emerges that brings heaven to earth. But in order to be a vessel for that miraculous emergence, you must be living the second tenet to such a degree that the conditioned and irrational responses of the ego are always contained. Then the multidimensional complex of energy, consciousness, and contradictory impulses that you are will become the expression of an integrated whole that not only ceases to create karma, but begins to generate an entirely new and positive momentum as it moves forward on its evolutionary trajectory.

Andrew Cohen

interactive model: http://www.andrewcohen.org/teachings/model-viewer.asp