Revolution retreat

I attended my first Revolution retreat with my teacher Andrew Cohen with around 95 of his closest students from around the world. Because these retreats are closed, Andrew has a chance to work us in a way he cannot do on a public retreat.

The theme of the retreat was dedicated to spiritual practice and why it is so important.
He said the whole point of practice is to break inertia on many different levels.
He started talking about the physical body and how it is important to exercise and be very careful what we put in our mouth, we have to be very sensitive and look after our body. After all it is the vehicle for our consciousness.

Then he talked about how our relationship to sexuality and how important it is. What would it be like to be free from lust but in no way deny the fact we are sexual beings he said on one of his talks. I know from being on the path myself that the sexual impulse is one of the hardest areas of life to deal with if we want to free ourselves from attachment and ego driven impulses. Most of us define our destiny and make a mess of our life through the identification of this powerful creative force.
Also it is common for people to compromise their highest ideals just to be in a relationship.
He went on to say that if there is a problem with our personal life that is not in alignment with our highest ideals then something has to be changed, unless we are willing to compromise.

This is the hardest part of being on the path of ego trancendence, we want to experience higher and deeper states of consciousness but don't want to change our outer life to reflect that.

He then went on to talk about the value of meditation and how important it is to know that the mind is a veil, we have to keep piercing the veil through the practice of renouncing the mind.

There is different levels of commitment to Evolutionary Enlightenment that one can engage in.
The most commited is called a core student, this normaly means that one lives in a centre and has given their life to the practice of EE. Then there is a global student (which is what I was) this means that you don't have to live near a centre but are still commited to the practice of EE, with this level one engages in a study program for a year and commits to seeing Andrew 4 times per year which will includes one long retreat. The next stage down is called a practitioner, this means that one recieves a pack with meditation and contemplation instructions and is endeavouring to put the teachings into practice, but there is no formal commitment to do anything. It also includes a free subscription to WIE magazine and to WIE unbound.There is also a global enquiry site where one can link up and share information and experiences with people from around the world.

Andrew now wants some of the Global students to be part of the core body. The Revolution retreat was our first initiation into the core. Part of this transition means we now do prostrations every morning. Prostrations are a physical expression of surrender, where one lies down flat on the ground stretched out with the intention of giving yourself to the Evolution of consciousness. It is a very powerful practice to do in the morning before meditation as it really breaks inertia and resistance. A great way to start the day!



The group of 15 Global students that have become part of the core mostly live in the world outside of a main centre. We are part of a new experiment to see if EE can be brought into the world in a new way.



I feel very privileged to be part of this adventure of consciousness!