On Saturday, the 25^th of August I went to Boliqueime, a small town in the region of Algarve, at the south of Portugal. I went there to meet with a group of 23 people who expressed interest in learning about Evolutionary Enlightenment (Iluminação Evolucionária). This was a great opportunity, one that I had only dreamed of, to bring the teachings of Evolutionary Non-Duality into the culture that I grew up in, it was probably the most enriching teaching experience of all the courses and seminars that I had run prior, Throughout the course of the day I had to draw on my own experience of Andrew Cohen's teaching, my own experience of life and above all my experience and acquaintance with a culture that partly defines who I am, being familiar with the way of thinking and the language, played an important advantage to success.
I marveled at the enfoldment of creativity that was released from the initial moments, the teaching venue was a large theatre room with high ceilings, we used one of the walls to project the teaching models and arranged the chairs to face the wall, probably using only about 20% of the whole room, which made it a little difficult to hear those sitting at the furthest chairs.

We didn't start at ten o'clock as planned partly because people were still arriving until half past ten, I think the sense of commitment and responsibility towards spiritual or religious matters are taken too lightly, or even maybe a suspicion towards new interpretations of enlightenment given the catholic dominance in the Portuguese belief systems, probably making people hesitant about something new as well. Nevertheless those who came were very interested and curious about this new perspective of enlightenment, I didn't have any videos or audios of the teaching translated to Portuguese, therefore I had as I said, to draw on my best to present the teachings in line with the EE Course sequence, the result was a creative context right from the beginning that made it possible and incredibly simple to step by step present the philosophical, spiritual framework and developmental context found in class 1 through to class 5.

I loved doing this in Portuguese, there was more freedom to articulate concepts and draw on experiences, I could use words that better described my experience, even though I stumbled a couple of times I got help from Rosalia and the others.
The morning was great with some good questions and comments, very interactive also, and I could see a keen interest in some people to understand the deeper implications of evolutionary enlightenment, in how to hold the enlightenment perspective and what it means to develop through that perspective.

During lunch we all stayed together, lots of talking and good food, mainly vegetarian,.. and wine also, it's a Portuguese costume!!  Then the afternoon went even better than the morning, I felt that we went deeper together and so the engagement was very real,.. some were having a greater depth of understanding, I think mainly due to the felt sense of oneness that was being shared, some people were deeply touched and expressed their sympathy to this new potential, it was a great and positive day, much more can and will happen with this group of people, I wish to continue to engage with them and help create a new movement fuelled by evolutionary enlightenment, so much needed in this predominantly male dominated culture (22 of the participants were women).

I want to thank Rosalia, Michelle and the others who made my visit possible and also for their loving care and hospitality, nothing was missing and we had a great time there.

Adéus e até breve.

Hello,.. Last saturday I led a "Living with Meaning and Purpose" seminar in the Capital City of Australia, it was a fantastic experience to once again put myself in a Leader's position, These seminars and courses that I have been running are not just a source to get information from, they are actually an opportunity to find real meaning and deep purpose in the life that we are already living, through active participation and full engagement with the concepts and philosophical framework offered in these work shops, the individuals involved can literally walk away with a transformed perspective on all of their human experience. I hope that all who came on Saturday found the meaning and purpose that they came looking for... and please stay in touch so that we can continue to discover what it means to live according to this new perspective.

All the Best
Alex

Click here to check out
The Sydney Evolutionary Enlightenment Group!

Last weekend, We "East Coast" Australians came together to explore Soul Development, one very foundational and all importante aspect of Andrew Cohen's teaching, the most interesting insight of this shared enquiry for me was to confirm the revealing nature of the enlightened consciousness, when a group of people come together in authentic self enquiry, a liberated, unselfconscious context is discovered, and it's only from this infinite context that i have been able to truly understand Evolutionary Enlightenment.

So in light of this, what really fuels my heart and interest to come together is to become consistent in this new way of being and relating, as i witnessed last weekend we were on and off the place of authenticity, sometimes even a very dysfunctional group, this disfunction is quite normal for the average person, it's how the world operates, but when i experience and live for long periods of time in a functional way then i know what is possible and also become more aware of what makes us dysfunctional.

What follows are photographs and testimonials from the retreat.

 

"....It was great to be together and we came with great joy and determination....

Jammed into an old caravan at the farm where we could get enough reception to make a phone connection with Patrick in Foxhollow, it was easy to sense the big context we were working within... knowing that we, as well as the Foxhollow retreatants were all part of the very same push at the front edge of this process.

Patrick said, "we need to LEARN to come together in the authentic self." 

...and this turned out to be an excellent preface to our weekend...

As we focused on the first three tennents, it felt like we often had to make

real effort, to slow down, to become more conscious of the need to CHOOSE....choose to listen.... choose to lean in... and to be interested in the new and yet-to-be-created. And this WAS soul development...

A fantastic, moment-by-moment experience of the need to have deliberate intention, to take absolute responsibility for our own choices and to willingly undertake the task of facing everything.

To be able to do this work because we were together and because each of us willingly gave so much to it filled me and continues to fill me with a great

sense of joy. There is nothing more I could ask of life.   "

Much love and gratitude

Mendy

 

Thank you all for giving so much to make our retreat an experience of openness and full heartedness.  Sure we struggled against the forces of darkness at times and didn't always win but my heart was filled and my being nourished from the intimacy generated by our purposeful determination to enquire more deeply and to practise Andrew's vision of a new way of being together.  It's great to be part of a band of comrades who are ready for duty.  I didn't want to leave.  We were transported on the wings of the Authentic Self back to Sydney blessed to be travelling together in life.

Much love, Graeme  

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It is truly wholesome to come together and this weekend we took a few more steps in the process of learning how to stay on the edge together. Even with strong intentionality the challenge of being the process rather than slipping into talking about it was revealed. Nonetheless these periods confirm the  reality of Andrew's vision and spur me on in the knowledge that nothing is more important than learning how to come together as one.

Christopher

During the discussion, it seemed immediately apparent, that being

Authentic meant being Authentic in the present moment, with no abstractions,

but speaking right then and there, directly from one's own experience.

There was a sense that one could viscerally see when someone was speaking

From that place, from the core of their stomach, or when they were

speaking from their head, or being 'intellectual', then this became quite obvious too.

Indeed it seemed that one could also observe our own internal

experience and know when we had wandered from that sacred place within, and

become abstract.

Joanna

  

What a joy it was to be in retreat again with such a committed group. 

If our group does not stand the blazing light of evolutionary

enlightenment nobody will.  So bring it on and keep smiling in the face of adversity.

When the foundation are strong we can walk the talk.  Pure

consciousness, the authentic self, ultimate concern and the

foundational tenets will lead us unto the land of milk and honey.

Thank you all.

Love.

Jocelyn.

My experience of the weekend retreat at Caloola was really great. It was so

clear to me that progress depends more on how much we put into it and how

serious we are than on the fact that we are simply together in a beautiful

and relaxing environment. I have also learnt experientially what it really

means to be simple and move together with others very slowly and with care.

It is so fulfilling to be who we already are and act without having to

leave this place of authenticity. It gives me the courage to see everything

so clearly without having to act on the need to avoid or deny anything.

It was also very clear how much more is still required for me to do.

Specifically to learn to be more simple and not let pride or the fear of

losing anything stop me or make me move away from this place. That means

bear whatever comes without having to act on it. It is easy to see how

heaven is created on earth by simply coming together with others who are willing to commit to be real and simple no matter what.

Frank


Till next time
Alex

 

As Andra wrote in her blog http://andrakins.zaadz.com/blog I also found teaching the course together to be a very rich and full experience, it was as if we had done it many times before such was the harmony and egoless co-operation between and in the two of us, and it was also very remarkable and inspiring to have eleven great people who seemed very relaxed and deeply interested in evolutionary enlightenment right from the beginning.

Andra's introduction was very precise and paved the way to a seamless and effortless day as we moved into the first chapter of the course, What is Enlightenment?, I think we all (teachers and students) have a predilection for certain aspects of this teaching, I do - I delight in teaching this first class and am always amazed at the limitlessness of perspective that this module convey, it's bigger than big!

In "Context is Everything" I was awestruck once again by the depth and subtlety of Andrew's definition that the "World is not Outside", I feel that anyone who really gets this at a very deep level will never be the same person again, how could you? if you realized that the world is you and that anything you do affects the world! As the great Krishnamurti used to say "when you change the world changes", I never got this so deeply.

Then we ended an awesome day half way through "The Ground of Being" with a guided meditation, powerful indeed as they all are these days, these guided meditations are the gateway into the absolute dimension of another reality, one that is always free, free from all self concern... and so we started the following morning, in the mood of ecstatic energy, delved deeper into the nature of no separation and awoke together to a field of compelling consciousness, this was the perfect setting for module four of the course "The Ego and the Authentic Self", Andra gave the most amazing introduction to this module and continued to express a clear understanding of these two different parts of the self, I delighted in listening to her, it was like music to my ears, and it was marvelous to hear people speak with great passion about these two distinct aspects of ourself and the fact that we have choice in every moment to chose which side we're on, we recognized the challenge and difficulty in doing this all the time because the movement of ego is so strong in human beings, but also realized that by shifting our attention to the Authentic Self as much as we can, we will be creating a new movement in the human being, a new movement in consciousness!

Into the day we worked our way into the teaching module up the spiral of the five tenets, intention, soul strength, integrity, living with dignity and care for the whole, this is the enlightened perspective no matter how one feels, it's very absolute and has to be done NOW, there is no time to get ready! WOW... somebody said to me on this course "I feel like I've been hit by a brick" and I think I understand how that feels as I finish writing this blog.

I would like to thank everyone who attended the course and my dear friend Andra and wish you all the best......And Revolution in Consciousness!

Please comment if you like!

Love, Alex

 

Last Friday night I led an authentic self presentation to an audience of about forty people at the Theosophical Society in Sydney, it was probably the most extraordinary event in my life, standing up in front of so many people to speak about the dearest subject to my heart is no small thing, it is very humbling to realize how much more one has to give, the potential in the human heart and mind is limitless, and when one is willing nothing can stop you.

After Graeme's great introduction of  Andrew's awakening, I started with a brief overview of evolutionary enlightenment based on my experience with the teaching, it was difficult at first, as I stood up and started talking I realized that I was completely alone, and I had to deliver the goods by myself, it's true that there were forty people there but they were all expecting me to run the show, somehow I got through the introduction and played the first video "the authentic self" , after that it all started to happen, the questions were really good and coming from a place of interest and care, as has been my experience in teaching Evolutionary Enlightenment Courses, when the audience is with the teaching, it all begins to run very smoothly and the miracle begins to unfold, it was a great meeting and in the end there was a palpable field of wholesomeness, a strong attraction towards that which is whole and good, true and full and always free...and yes ...also striving towards more.. Harmony???

On a personal developmental level, these are some of the words that I wrote to my teacher afterwards,

"But now I want to convey to you my experience leading up to last night's event, I have run some eecourse seminars and although it's always challenging to sit in front of people and talk from the teaching's perspective, last night was very different and infinitely more challenging than anything I've ever been through in life, and I have been through very challenging moments in my life, especially when I was a younger man.

As the days went by and it got closer to the evening of the presentation, I experienced all sorts of emotions, feelings, thoughts of uncertainty and doubt and on and on it went... in short I should say I experienced the fears and desires of the ego as never before and the passion and urgency of the authentic self to move forward no matter what, three or four hours before the presentation I was at home still preparing for my introduction, pacing my living room back and forth, and then it hit me at a deep soul level, that regardless of whatever happened on the night, I had become a stronger man in the process leading up to it, this revelation was felt in a way that my mind cannot understand nor would I try to do so, I know I am a stronger human being today than I was one week ago."

In Love of my Teacher, the source of my freedom

Alex Goncalves

Sydney 25 March 2007

Caloola Retreat Feb 26-28, Canberra, Australia
 

For the last three or four years a few of us students and practicing members alike have been coming together three or four times a year for a weekend retreat, living so far apart from each other is one of the reasons why we have made the commitment to come together in this way, although the conference calls are great, there's nothing like spending two or three days together in the intersubjective, impersonal context within which, each and all of us are able to look deeper into our own experience and commitment to the teachings.

The following is a brief account with quotes and photos from our last retreat in Caloola, a beautiful but harsh farm land in the outskirts of Canberra, Australia.

The focus of this retreat was Meditation and why it is the foundation for Evolutionary Enlightenment, nine of us spent two full days exploring and looking at our commitment to meditation, why we meditate and the context in which we meditate, for some it was a breakthrough to find out their actual relationship to the practice of meditation.

Unlike other previous retreats this one was not about ridding the edge of the authentic self and higher states of consciousness, this time we were more serious and interested in our own relationship to the foundation of enlightenment and why it is so important to become firmly rooted in that place of "no problem",.. the ground of all being,.. and the source of the authentic self, we all discussed that meditation practiced to Andrew's instructions is a way to build this firm foundation but we truly have to do it, here some of us expressed how sloppy we can/have been about meditation and realised (again) that CONSISTENCY is very, very important!!!   

"We endeavoured to hold the vast perspective of there being no problem and at the same time to be realistic about facing everyday issues that when they arise can make us doubt"   Jocelyn Goson

 

"The seamless thread between the ground of being and the manifest world. How they are perfect reflections of each other, and the purpose of engaging in real life from that place."  Joanna Abernethy
 

"I recognized and appreciated Alex's unmoving insistence and doubtless conviction, that there is no problem. This is the true foundation for the emergence of the Authentic Self. This perspective allowed the space to open up for me to be able to see where I was really at within that context.

The whole retreat continued to be held in that big context."  Jeanine McMahon

"Everything was satisfied, from the higher to the lower, from guts to God"

Graeme Burn

"Mary's suggestion that we go into Jeff's blog on meditation deserves ***** 5 stars.... It was a joyous and evolutionary enquiry"

Jeanine McMahon

"I had the idea that through meditation I was going to have something special happen to free me, I had been looking for an experience and now I am more attentive and aware, with a significant change of focus"

Christopher Liddle

 

"A complete new take on the practice of meditation.  I saw that I had to give up the illusion that thoughts give me, which was the most intimate sense of who I am."

Graeme Burn



Graeme, Alex, Christopher, Joanna, Melisah, Jocelyn, Jeanine, Frank & Julie

This class was the culmination of five amazing evenings, I’m really pleased at how the course developed over the last five weeks, during this time we went through a great deal of teaching material, deep experiences of meditation and I believe most of us if not all experienced the authentic self and realized that there is choice between the authentic self and the ego, this I think was the highest point of development in the class as some participants glimpsed the possibility of freedom in this lifetime, not only freedom but also the potential to consciously participate in the evolution of the human race, in other words to bring us to a point of evolution where our human relationships are not manipulated and ruled by the fears and desires of our egos but are an expression of a higher or deeper holistic and continually evolving sense of self.
Class five revealed the tools that we can adopt if we are willing to live a victorious life, I repeatedly emphasized the absolute nature of the tenets and that if we really want to succeed we will have to cultivate an absolute, undivided intention that will enable anyone of us to embrace these absolute tenets, I think that most participants got the idea and what it takes however difficult.
At the end there was a very positive energy in everyone, a positive field that was a constant throughout the course and it made my job really easy, as I said in previous blogs having a good group of interested people liberates one to be more authentic and creative, I have to thank everyone for being so together and attentive, for engaging together through discussion and for asking the right questions.

Once again I am really pleased and I’m looking forward to meet again in the new year!

Best to All in the new year!

 

It's not fair to say that this lesson was the greatest so far as they all differ in context and depth, however I can confidently say that this lesson had us all glued to our seats until the end, yes specially in the end I had to make an effort to end it, well honestly I have to admit that I haven't been able to run a single class within its two hour time frame, I know...I know there is improvement to be made here, but when you're having fun.. time flies! isn't this an Australian saying? or is it universal? anyway it is true no matter what.
Now back to the class room, every class in Canberra has been so full that it is difficult to say "see you next week" so I don't know how much we aware of the inherent goodness and purpose that has us glued to our seats, but it is a fact, it is real and the more we are able to pay attention to our experience the more we are going to acknowledge this reality,...YES THIS IS THE AUTHENTIC SELF, a deep sense of purpose and fullness of being that seem to glue together anyone who enter its path, it is true, sometimes it is hard to part ways.
So in our class on The Authentic Self and the Ego we discussed in great length and depth the different qualities and attributes that define these two completely different dimensions of our self, it was very revealing to some people to even begin to recognize a third part of the Self, the part of us that is choosing! so helpful indeed because then it is possible to chose freedom....right now wherever we are!
Man...I am having so much fun teaching this course...and each time more implicated also, as no fun comes without a price!!!
Thank you all again and I look forward to seeing you in class next week!

It's a challenging class, the absolute nature of this teaching is utterly difficult to come to terms with intellectually let alone emotionally, but it's also very inspiring and most importantly real, real in the sense that it offers a way out of our human predicament, real in the sense that it can become our own experience, it can become the way we live life not merely as an ideal but actually, for this to happen "I" have to give up my personal self preoccupation and any ideas I may have about what it would look like to embrace these five fundamental tenets... because we simply don't know!

In light of this unconditional "not negotiable" stance I can understand why it is so challenging for most of us to even begin to consider that it is possible to come to the undivided victorious commitment that is the beginning point to live the five tenets.

Some people in my class tonight expressed the challenging aspects that I mention above, but the way this was expressed brought about very positive enquiry and alive discussion that in my interpretation led to a deepening of our understanding and a promise of development.

I was very pleased to hear from some participants how their understanding and depth of Evolutionary Enlightenment increased over the last five weeks, someone said to me.. thank you for launching me on this path, some want to stay in touch so we decided to meet next week and continue this evolving journey, I wish everyone the best, as the instructor of the course it is to my heart's delight to see people on the right track and I am there with you, thank you all for the amazing time together!

Alex