Andrew Cohen

Bio & resources

I’ve always hated the word “community.” Since we started working on this issue, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about why that is, and I realized it’s because there is no evolutionary tension or vertical imperative in the way that word is typically used. Maybe it’s because I grew up in the sixties, but I always found the notion of being part of a community loathsome because it seemed to imply that I would have to give up my personal freedom. I remember, back in the days when I was a seeker, I would often go to Buddhist meditation centers (even though I was never a Buddhist) to engage in long retreats. When people saw that I kept returning, they would inevitably ask if I wanted to spend some time with the community in order to do service. And I always, without hesitation, said “No!” All I wanted to do was sit in the meditation hall day in and day out. All I wanted to do was get enlightened. I didn’t want to spend any precious time working in the kitchen or engaging in seemingly endless psychological processing with other “community members.”

Little did I know that when I became a spiritual teacher, several years later, the essence of the realization that people would experience as a result of spending time with me would be defined by a powerful urge to come together with others in order to share the higher state of consciousness and new perspective that were being revealed. Before I knew it, I had my own community on my hands! This was nothing I had anticipated or ever really wanted, and yet it seemed to be the spontaneous result of my own awakening. When any one of us awakens in a profound way to a higher state of consciousness, our values inevitably begin to change. We are naturally drawn to others with whom we can share our newly discovered revelation, because in their company we feel we can share the deepest part of our self, our soul, in ways that are ordinarily just not possible. Being together with others in this shared higher context becomes the source of a newfound faith and conviction in the inherent joy and goodness of being alive.

Contrary to my previous culturally conditioned interpretation of the word “community,” I now see our most important philosophically and spiritually based relationships as the only ground upon which conscious or intentional evolution can actually occur. Without being deeply connected with others in a conscious commitment to a shared ideal, there is no way that we will be able to create any kind of future that we are going to want to live in!

It’s been deeply rewarding to put together this issue that you are holding in your hands because while tackling the topic of community and utopian idealism, we were gently endeavoring to challenge our culture’s habitual and often well-founded skepticism about the possibility that human beings can actually come together for a higher purpose without making a total mess of it. And it’s been quite an adventure—from the esoteric wonderland of an impressive and unusual community in the Italian Alps to the digital dreams of our cyber-utopianist friends at Zaadz.com. I hope that we have succeeded and that our efforts will inspire our readers to think of ever-new ways to come together with others in a shared ideal that will be one step toward creating a more enlightened future for us all.