Andrew Cohen, founder of What is Enlightenment? magazine, is pioneering a new and radical vision of human spirituality called Evolutionary Enlightenment, in which he casts the ultimate nature and purpose of human life within a vast developmental context—all the way from the creation of the universe to the present moment and beyond.

In this fast paced dialogue, recorded live at the EnlightenNext center in Boston, Massachusetts, Andrew delivers a concise and passionate explanation of the basic philosophical and experiential differences between this evolving view of enlightenment and the traditional eastern teachings (from Buddhism to Advaita-Vedanta) so popular in spiritual world today.

Responding to a question about the basic nature of enlightenment, Andrew launches into a comprehensive explanation of how Evolutionary Enlightenment combines both the experience of the unconditioned, or timeless ground of being, with the inherent complexity and forward movement of creation itself. Rather than escaping from the world in order to find true peace, as many traditions maintain, Andrew says that our highest fulfillment as human beings is realized in our total engagement with the world. By becoming enlightened expressions of the creative impulse itself, we can transcend the contradictions between being and becoming, between the underlying emptiness of our true nature and our unrelenting engagement at the edge of creation itself.

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