Written by Melisah Feeney

There is movement afoot in the Theosophical Society with some groups actively integrating the notion of evolution and integral philosophy into their ponderings of the universe and the perennial wisdom contained within. New Zealand theosophical society members, Linda Watts and Victor MacGill are pioneering this exploration and recently teamed up with myself and Julie McNall (both EnlightenNext Australia students from Brisbane) to deliver a workshop titled “Creative Awareness: the tools and skills to ride the waves of change”. The workshop was an initiative of the Theosophical Society on the Sunshine Coast QLD: an excitingly fresh group who are very open to synthesizing new ideas that explore the frontiers of consciousness.

Linda and Victor started the workshop with an open mind about the creative synthesis possible between Integral thought and practice and Theosophy. It was wonderful their willingness to “not know but be interested in exploring” the dimensions of the inquiry they were embarking on. They posed questions like:

• Have we tried to corral and institutionalize theosophy?
• How do we honour the essence of theosophy?
• Do we keep theosophy for ‘us’…contained, imprisoned and separate?
• Can we enable the surrender and free flow of the essence of Theosophy into all human forms and organizations?

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Written by Mendy Urie

From L-R: Tanya, Kim, Megan, Gilly, Joe, Jenny, Collin, Teresa & Mendy (standing)

Over many years in the past, it has been the venue for Buddhist meditation gatherings, invited teachers and on a continuing basis, my own daily meditation practice. It is not a large space, but it is cosy and comfortable and being separate from the house is usually quiet.

This year I have used the yurt to run 2 courses; ‘Meditation from an Evolutionary Perspective’ and (just completed) ‘Living Evolutionary Enlightenment’. It’s the perfect space for up to 10 people to watch video clips of Andrew Cohen explaining various aspects of an Evolutionary perspective, discussing and grappling with what has been heard and finally sitting quietly together letting go of all uncertainty, all thought, everything, in meditation.

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Written by Christopher Liddle

In our recent Meaning and Purpose seminar in Sydney I was particularly struck by the depth of the shared space we created together. We were a small group completely focused on the topic at hand, which was an investigation into establishing a fixed reference point to guide our choices in life. The material we used was from a seminar taught by Jeff Carreira, stimulating an authentic inquiry into our place in an evolutionary process, our responsibilities and the fixed reference point of that position..

Aside from a deeper understanding of the material, which also included a strengthening of intentionality, what I began to see were higher values emerging between us. While this emergence was subtle it was clear that we were together in a different way. So by focusing fully on what was deeply important to each of us, we were creating a shared value sphere of a sacred dimension where I knew I could trust these people in a way that is usually not possible. It wasn’t only trust that was arising, but a gravity and willingness to be responsible that was thrilling. It’s not easy to capture the essence of this uplifting and expansive togetherness yet in this collective was a release and freedom in being able to give to the whole. [Read more →]

Written by Andra Kins

We had a great EnlightenNext meditation and discussion evening last Wednesday in Fremantle. We usually start our evenings at The Healing Point by meditating together for 20 minutes. Doing this immediately brings us all together in our focus on the spiritual nature of life.

Following this we watched a short video clip featuring Andrew Cohen with Lama Surya Das speaking about Evolution as a Source of Meaning and Purpose. In this video clip Andrew Cohen outlines the spiritual predicament of the postmodern individual who has all the advantages of relative wealth and education, but lacks access to a deeper source of meaning that would engender a greater appreciation of the magnitude of the life process. In the discussion that followed we spoke about the amazing 14 billion year process of evolution that we are the edge of, and how holding this deep time perspective on life enables us to discover and develop further our role and purpose as human beings living at the start of the 21st century.

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On Tuesday 21 June, Mary Adams and Morgan Dix re-commenced their fortnightly Australia-New Zealand-Asia-Pacific discussion forums. This is their invitation to you, to join the last in this series of three to be held prior to the Being and Becoming Retreat in August.

Dear Evolutionaries,

Once again, Morgan Dix and I are looking forward to this week’s EnlightenNext discussion forum on Tuesday, 19th July. This will be the last open discussion in our teleconference series of three before the Being and Becoming retreat coming up in Tuscany, Italy in August. These teleconference discussions are designed to be time-zone friendly for the Australia/Pacific region.
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Written by Graeme Burn

Sometimes we think about going on retreat as a means to escape from the stresses of everyday life, to take a break from the pressures of work or to renew, refocus and refresh. It’d be just great to get away, we think, so that when we get back we’ll be better equipped to deal with family, relationships, job, and life in general. Entirely understandable in today’s fast-moving world where nothing seems to get any simpler and every day brings a new set of decisions and challenges. So we do the retreat and to varying degrees manage to leave behind the world and gain some degree of peace, sanity and perspective on our lives. We return to our lives and perhaps for the first few days or even weeks life is simpler, we worry less or not at all, work goes smoothly and we feel relaxed and content. But before long the experience fades and the inspiration and insights that came to us on retreat no longer seem to be enough to help us deal with the ongoing complexity of life. And we’re back pretty much where we were before.

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Written by Christopher Liddle

Over the 4 days of May 12th – 15th Jeff Carreira, a long time student of Andrew Cohen, gave a series of presentations and day seminars in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast that were both inspirational and developmental. It was clear from speaking with participants that’s Jeff’s powerful use of metaphors and personal stories facilitated deep insights into their own lives and fueled an excitement for what is possible between us.

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According to Mahayana Buddhism, a Bodhisattva, or Enlightened one, postpones their own liberation from the cycle of birth and death so they can return, birth after birth, to help enlighten all other sentient beings.

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