Shaykh Fadhlala Haeri

A post on the Enlightennext UK blog co-written with Carole Raphael to describe a summer evening spent in the company of a revered Muslim mystic.

We were honored to host Shaykh Fadhlala Haeri, his wife Aliya Haeri,, a Sufi master in her own right, and many of Shaykh Fadhlala’s devoted students at our London EnlightenNext Centre recently. It was an evening of rare spiritual camaraderie and joy.

Shaykh Fadhlala is a Sufi sheikh who comes from a long line of respected teachers of Islam. Born in the holy city of Karbala in Iraq, he was educated in Europe and the US and pursued a successful career as a businessman before becoming a religious teacher more than twenty years ago. Shaykh Fadhlala is the founder of the Academy of Self Knowledge, the author of many books on Islam, and spiritual guide to students living across the globe. Currently, living in the Republic of South Africa Shaykh Fadlalah is a progressive mystic and is as deeply informed by the global context and his scientific education as much as his spiritual heritage.

The evening began with an intimate dinner with the Shaykh, a few of his closet students, and EnlightenNext’s Managing Director, Finance Manager and Head of Operations. Following the meal Shaykh Fadhlala gave a talk in which he gave a brief overview of the Sufi Path, which he described as the spiritual heart of Islam.

His main theme was how to pursue an authentic life. With great warmth humour and clarity the Shaykh explained that authenticity, or the condition of being truly ourSelves, with a capital “S”, is the goal of the spiritual life. And by authenticity the Shaykh meant living from that part of ourselves which is highest—the divine within us, the light of God, the soul, or higher consciousness…whatever you want to call it, he said. That higher part is already in us, he said, and it is already enlightened.

Any virtuous attribute carried within in it an expression of divine essence, when drawn to express these qualities we become a vehicle for the infinite to express itself in the world. It is our work to turn away from that which is lower so that higher consciousness can be known and embraced.

The Shaykh sprinkled his talk with a number of metaphors. These imparted an intangible poetic quality, I thought, to what he was conveying as well as served as a tool for envisaging the breadth and absolute dimension of what he was speaking about. For example, he spoke about the “map of creation” as a way to express that life is a process and one with a definite goal. And the process, or path, has a direction, he stressed, one towards higher consciousness. “The issue is arrival,” he repeated in various ways.

He also acknowledged that we have to be aware that we are conditioned beings that our consciousness is conditioned no matter who we are and, at the same time, we are always changing. But that doesn’t mean we can’t also experience the ever-present boundless dimension of consciousness. He explained that by accepting boundaries and our limitations, we will be able to transcend the lower attributes of the self. When the ego’s will is subservient to God’s will, or the authentic self, we are able to rise to higher dimensions. In a particularly beautiful turn of phrase, he said “we are already colonized… by [our] soul.”

With expert precision he identified the many pitfalls and delusions of ignorance, which shield us from progressively uncovering our sublime true nature. He also counselled us to avoid attachment, especially in spiritual matters, and to remain humble.

Thanks to the Shaykh’s spiritual transmission an extraordinary evening was conducted at the EnlightenNext Centre in an atmosphere of considerable mutual respect and warmth. A soul sharing between two dissimilar groups dedicated to the second face of God, connected and bonded by the mutual recognition of spirit being higher, through the auspices and grace of two visionary contemporary teachers. What occurred throughout the evening forged a template for an interfaith communion conducted at the deepest possible level and thereby opening up a potential for ecstatic unity to be spread amongst the diverse faith communities of the planet

On the initiation of the EnlightenNext Discovery Cycle in Tuscany July 25-August 16 2009

Seven weeks ago Andrew Cohen initiated the Discovery Cycle on the Being and Becoming retreat held amidst the outstanding beauty of the Tuscan hills.

The 'Being' part of the event was held over the first ten days where Cohen propelled participants into the perfect timeless ground of enlightenment. Using passages of his earliest work ‘Enlightenment is a Secret’ Cohen guided the most veteran meditators and the newest initiate deeper and even deeper into that nameless place where nothing ever happened and from which a problem never arose. After a day or two those attending felt an enormous magnetic field developing compelling them into letting go into the freefall of that weightless place. The field made the act of meditation increasingly natural and easeful allowing retreatants to shed layers and possibly lifetimes of habitual unconscious tension. With immense care and forensic precision in answering questions Cohen facilitated 120 delegates to encounter the mysterious wonder of enlightenment and allow it to fully permeate their experience. After ten days of total silence and immersed in that matchless perfection participants were radiating a rare quality of inner peace and stillness

Midway through the retreat it shifted gears into the 'Becoming' section, a handful of meditators left and 150 plus others arrived to take the retreat forward into hitherto uncharted waters. With his prodigious talent for creatively illustrating the dimensions of the self Cohen spoke for up to three hours at a time revealing the many subtleties and complexities inherent in the challenging task of conscious evolution. His consistent focus throughout the retreat was on the four essential elements of human experience, contrasting the authentic self the absolute positivity of the big bang in motion, with the sublime emptiness and indifference of the ground of being and then comparing these absolute dimensions with the relative and conditioned nature of the cultural as well as the personal psychological self.

Cohen’s consistently metamorphosing teaching style produced striking elucidations of both new and familiar principles. He defined ego as both best friend and worst enemy, the worst being that part of the self which is inert and violently resistant to change, the best being aligned with the culturally conditioned self that has developed over time and that which is capable of encompassing greater and greater degrees of evolutionary complexity. The core tenets of the teaching were described not as a guidance that if applied would create an improved person but kosmic laws that pulsated with their own radiant vertical enlightening energy.

In addition to these radical and illuminating discourses Cohen arranged the 250 plus people into groups of around 20-25 to meet daily and share their reflections insight and experiences on specific topics outlined by Cohen that he had raised in that morning’s talk. Each group was carefully arranged to compose of individuals with similar levels of knowledge understanding and familiarity with these Evolutionary Enlightenment teachings and were facilitated by two of Cohen’s most senior and closest students. Three or four groups were composed of individuals with little or next to no understanding and experience of evolutionary enlightenment the eleventh comprised of those with 11 -23 years, so a whole gradation of experience was represented within all the groups.

The morning teaching was followed by a group discussion in the afternoon and subsequently in the evening, all of the groups lead facilitators reported on the progress and some qualities of each group. During which Cohen took any questions offered by group members on the discussion content or group process. Remarkably every single day each group progressed step by step into deeper understanding of enlightenment and the process of intersubjective conscious development, irrespective of existing understanding or knowledge of the principles being taught. By the end of the retreat every participant was in an altered state, inspired enlivened and ecstatic and acutely conscious of the immense potential for the good of humanity and its future that this impersonal emergence represented.

In addition a small group of volunteers who had signed up for The EnlightenNext Discovery Cycle Higher Development Research Project before the retreat and were assessed at the beginning and end of the retreat on a range inventories, scans and profiling instruments to gauge the impact of the retreat on these individuals. As the study will be longitudinal these scientific tests will evaluate the participants responses and conscious evolution over a significant period of time and eventually scientifically evidence and demonstrate the effectiveness of these teaching methods.

Overall, Cohen's initiation of the EnlightenNext Discovery Cycle clearly demonstrated that a new utterly positive wholesome human culture can be created and/which is well within the grasp of anyone at a post modern stage of development, With little preparation or training 250 sincere individuals recognised that the future was in their hands and their creative power to affect the course of evolution was imminently achievable. It was also clear that this developmental milestone would be scaled up and made available to even larger numbers over time and as one former Buddhist observed that the retreat catalysed the turning the 'Fourth turning of the wheel'. A revolution in consciousness in culture is occurring and waiting for you to sign up!!

On the initiation of the EnlightenNext Discovery Cycle in Tuscany July 25-August 16 2009

Seven weeks ago Andrew Cohen initiated the Discovery Cycle on the Being and Becoming retreat held amidst the outstanding beauty of the Tuscan hills.

The 'Being' part of the event was held over the first ten days where Cohen propelled participants into the perfect timeless ground of enlightenment. Using passages of his earliest work ‘Enlightenment is a Secret’ Cohen guided the most veteran meditators and the newest initiate deeper and even deeper into that nameless place where nothing ever happened and from which a problem never arose. After a day or two those attending felt an enormous magnetic field developing compelling them into letting go into the freefall of that weightless place. The field made the act of meditation increasingly natural and easeful allowing retreatants to shed layers and possibly lifetimes of habitual unconscious tension. With immense care and forensic precision in answering questions Cohen facilitated 120 delegates to encounter the mysterious wonder of enlightenment and allow it to fully permeate their experience. After ten days of total silence and immersed in that matchless perfection participants were radiating a rare quality of inner peace and stillness

Midway through the retreat it shifted gears into the 'Becoming' section, a handful of meditators left and 150 plus others arrived to take the retreat forward into hitherto uncharted waters. With his prodigious talent for creatively illustrating the dimensions of the self Cohen spoke for up to three hours at a time revealing the many subtleties and complexities inherent in the challenging task of conscious evolution. His consistent focus throughout the retreat was on the four essential elements of human experience, contrasting the authentic self the absolute positivity of the big bang in motion, with the sublime emptiness and indifference of the ground of being and then comparing these absolute dimensions with the relative and conditioned nature of the cultural as well as the personal psychological self.

Cohen’s consistently metamorphosing teaching style produced striking elucidations of both new and familiar principles. He defined ego as both best friend and worst enemy, the worst being that part of the self which is inert and violently resistant to change, the best being aligned with the culturally conditioned self that has developed over time and that which is capable of encompassing greater and greater degrees of evolutionary complexity. The core tenets of the teaching were described not as a guidance that if applied would create an improved person but kosmic laws that pulsated with their own radiant vertical enlightening energy.

In addition to these radical and illuminating discourses Cohen arranged the 250 plus people into groups of around 20-25 to meet daily and share their reflections insight and experiences on specific topics outlined by Cohen that he had raised in that morning’s talk. Each group was carefully arranged to compose of individuals with similar levels of knowledge understanding and familiarity with these Evolutionary Enlightenment teachings and were facilitated by two of Cohen’s most senior and closest students. Three or four groups were composed of individuals with little or next to no understanding and experience of evolutionary enlightenment the eleventh comprised of those with 11 -23 years, so a whole gradation of experience was represented within all the groups.

The morning teaching was followed by a group discussion in the afternoon and subsequently in the evening, all of the groups lead facilitators reported on the progress and some qualities of each group. During which Cohen took any questions offered by group members on the discussion content or group process. Remarkably every single day each group progressed step by step into deeper understanding of enlightenment and the process of intersubjective conscious development, irrespective of existing understanding or knowledge of the principles being taught. By the end of the retreat every participant was in an altered state, inspired enlivened and ecstatic and acutely conscious of the immense potential for the good of humanity and its future that this impersonal emergence represented.

In addition a small group of volunteers who had signed up for The EnlightenNext Discovery Cycle Higher Development Research Project before the retreat and were assessed at the beginning and end of the retreat on a range inventories, scans and profiling instruments to gauge the impact of the retreat on these individuals. As the study will be longitudinal these scientific tests will evaluate the participants responses and conscious evolution over a significant period of time and eventually scientifically evidence and demonstrate the effectiveness of these teaching methods.

Overall, Cohen's initiation of the EnlightenNext Discovery Cycle clearly demonstrated that a new utterly positive wholesome human culture can be created and/which is well within the grasp of anyone at a post modern stage of development, With little preparation or training 250 sincere individuals recognised that the future was in their hands and their creative power to affect the course of evolution was imminently achievable. It was also clear that this developmental milestone would be scaled up and made available to even larger numbers over time and as one former Buddhist observed that the retreat catalysed the turning the 'Fourth turning of the wheel'. A revolution in consciousness in culture is occurring and waiting for you to sign up!!

Dr. Rupert Sheldrake: The Extended Mind, Morphic Resonance and Spiritual Experience

Notes based on a joint conference held by the Alister Hardy Trust and the London Science and Medical Network group at Kensington Unitarian Church 6th June 2009.

Rupert gave a perfectly organised and cohesive talk on this topic straying into areas that he does not frequently cover in public forums. Interestingly he talked about the use of psychedelics to catalyse religious experiences throughout the history of spirituality and also divulged the positive lasting impact of his own personal experimentation with these drugs. He included this comment within a comprehensive categorisation of the types of activity that induce or generate religious experiences.

He followed this by describing three theories of mind; the materialist view which he claims has failed to prove its case, those metaphysical theories that are in essence platonic because they claim that there are laws outside of nature that govern the mind. Finally he explained his own theories and evidence for what he terms the extended mind.

He then talked about his appreciation of religious place, ceremony and ritual observance, commenting on how acts of ceremony and liturgy repeated consistently over time provide us with a direct ancestral connection. Those identical acts performed by our forbearers have set up a sympathetic field of Morphic resonance that is so embedded in sacred spaces that they can induce spiritual experiences in people simply by entering them.Rupert also extrapolated on his recent musings on the nature of consciousness and the past as well as the realm of possibility.

In the plenary session he depicted his own views of the 'credit crunch of materialist science'. He states that conventional science has constantly offered promissory notes on it’s conviction that a complete explanation of various phenomena in scientific terms is not far off. He stated it was time to insist on an end to these promised explanations. Especially because these scientists have cornered all the available funding using just one modality of scientific research.

He proposed a Littlewoods football pools betting exchange, whereby scientists had to declare specific dates and then bet their personal finances on these predictions! Furthermore he proposed an ‘ecumenogenesis’ of western life sciences in order to properly pool information to create a more convincing explanation of the unexplained and conveniently ignored gaps in the current scientific model .

In the break I commented to Rupert that his musings on consciousness the past and possibilities had move forward since the time he had spoken on the topic, he replied by stating that it was constantly on his mind as he tried to come up with a coherent explanation for the relationship between past present and future.

Rupert Sheldrake Visionary Scientist

I went a talk given by Rupert Sheldrake presented by the Gaia Foundation at Burgh House in Hampstead on Wednesday night.

The event was held in a unique and intimate setting. A buffet meal and wine is served beforehand in a flat on the ground floor of the Gaia Foundation’s office and then the talk is held for one and half hours in Burgh Hall just across the road. This is then followed by more food and wine back at the flat afterwards. The talk was titled Morphic Resonance, Collective Memory and Habits of Nature.

I arrived early to network yet ended up in the garden and was invited by Rupert to sit on the available chair next to him. So I found out what he is currently doing and thought to publish some of this on this blog.

He is currently republishing his books ‘A New Science of Life’ and the ‘Presence of the Past’ and updating them in terms of his own experiments plus the latest developments in current science. Whilst these developments stop well short of proving his theories he feels they are headed in the right general direction. I noted to him that he was lot more active giving lectures and talks recently and he said he was doing this to emphasise the importance and significance of his work on Morphic Fields and Morphic Resonance as his books of late had focused a lot more on his experiments.

The talk he gave was both beguiling and riveting and as usual he put everything into a huge philosophical context, pointing out some of the erroneous assumptions upon which most of materialist science is based. The latter part of the talk was full of the scientific examples and anomalies that point to his theory of Morphic Resonance.

There are three further points that were of most interest to me;

1) Creativity
Toward the end of his talk Rupert added a postscript about creativity, explaining that his theory of Morphic Resonance really has little to say about creativity as it describes habits which have been repeated and that which is repeatable. Science is essentially a study of habit. He felt creativity occurred in nature when the existing habits are blocked and this almost forces creativity to occur but this could not really be studied or understood by science.

I questioned him further on this as I felt happenings such as the ‘big bang of plants’ must require a fuller explanation. His response was to say some of these things were beyond the mind and therefore we lacked the capacity to know or understand them, he was aware of these ‘punctuated bursts of evolution’ and his best explanation he said drew from the realms of philosophy and theology. In actual fact he saw these occurrences as interventions from the Holy Spirit.

2) Consciousness
My recollection of this component is quite indistinct as it was a small fragment right at the end of the talk. However Rupert was answering a question about the space of emptiness and that of potentiality, when he alluded to the fact that everything that is created that is matter, which is studied by the science is arising in some sense out of the past.

Consciousness in contrast was arising out of the future and was looking backward at the past. I may not be expressing this exactly he meant and was fleeting moment in time but I thought this nano moment revealed something significant and different about his view of consciousness.

3) A Wager

Rupert is shortly about to publicise in the Economist I think, a bet he has constructed with Lewis Wolpert one his most eminent scientific detractors with whom he has conducted several public debates. In a recent debate Wolpert stated he was fully confident that within 20 years science would have discovered the totality of information that governed the development of the human organism.

Rupert challenged Wolpert’s ‘faith’ in science (he is a rabid atheist!) to produce this result and subsequently Wolpert changed his prediction to 100 years. To cut a long story short since the debate and after a lot of bargaining down by Wolpert, they have wagered a case of the finest port (which will matured to it’s peak by May 1 2029 in twenty years) that science will have discovered everything that it needs to know about the development of the nematode worm the simplest animal life form within those twenty years. Rupert is obviously betting against the likelihood of this happening. I may not have the exact terminology right here but I hope you get the sense of the wager!

Overall an inspiring mindstretching and very valuable evening.

Interesting approach to meditation by Buddhist monk

At the end of February 2009 -I am really behind with my posts!!-

I attended a meditation session at the Hub in Islington with Vajradaka, a non-sectarian Buddhist meditation teacher.Vajradaka started meditating in Kyoto, Japan in the late sixties. After practicing in various Buddhist traditions, he joined Friends of the Western Buddhist Order and until recently lived for 21 years in a meditation retreat centre in the hills of Wales where he led retreats and mentored people in meditation.

Whilst the content of the session was not highly remarkable by the standards I am used to, the style of presentation was unusual and possibly something our teachers at Enlightennext could learn from.

Key features included;

Silence was a component but not the main activity of the session
Meditation was presented within a philosophical construct and partly as a contemplative exercise
Illustrates how work with total beginners can be achieved
Highly accessible almost secular presentation
Free of all Buddhist cultural trappings and obvious Buddhist dharma
Use of Leonardo Da Vinci as an example made it very easy to for people to relate to the content
This style would be easy to adapt to business and educational sessions
The philosophical impulses utilised can easily be related to the authentic self

The session

The session started with introductions and sharing experience of meditation

Then there was a short 10mins session of silence

Vajradaka encouraged people to stay in the space and opened up to some contemplation by asking to write down whatever came into our minds through free association in answer to the question 'what is true'.

He then spoke about becoming aware of habits, becoming aware of habits created choice, choice was extremely important as choice and evaluation plus awareness offers the possibility of a different choice.

Becoming aware of the relentless nature of habits allows for disengagement from them

He drew some comparisons with Leonardo da Vinci who despite his wonderful technical abilities and achievements it was his constant drive to understand creativity. It was Da Vinci's striving to understand and his drive to learn about the source of this is what has made him unsurpassed in his achievements. He emphasised it was Da Vinci's curiosity and continuous practicising of creativity that made him excel

Vajradaka then got people to reflect on something they wanted to change and had people share this in small groups of four people.

Everyone that came back into a big group and then Vajradaka started a discussion concerning the inherent paradox of meditation practice of being relaxed and alert at same time. He got people to give their own examples of this in their own experience. The first example was of a person who considered themselves shy yet could still be quite extroverted in varying situations. The instructor talked about bringing science and art together. Also the paradox of 'No I and No will vs I will and how will I?' which gets you onto the cushion in the first place.

Vajradaka has just started his business Creative Engagement and is delivering meditation sessions to the British Library. he has a blog sit https://owa.wie.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=d7e7a6f50667441d8f05c1f638f951fd&URL=http%3a%2f%2fcommunicatingmeditation.wordpress.com

As a volunteer at EnlightenNext London I am and have been a key organiser, promoter and networker supporting the work and the mission to transform consciousness and culture. As well as meeting numerous people and going to an eclectic range of London talks and events, I spend hours writing copy for various Enlightennext events, sending e-mails and posting web listings to publicise these various happenings.

This year key tasks outside of working hours, have included the following; I have written copy and promoted Ursula King's talk at the Islington centre on Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: An evolutionary mystic with a global spiritual vision, worked with the London Integral Circle to present the Don Beck workshop Don Beck Spiral Dynamics in Action: Dancing the Integral Vision this last weekend do see the report below. The tasks for Don included a huge copy writing fest a massive mail out, endless to and froings via e-mail with Don, countless discussions on how to best organise present and partner, for an event that turned out to be a massive success.

Other work in the pipeline has included more copy writing and consultation around a partnership with Alternatives St James in Piccadilly for the third in a fantastic series of dialogues between Rupert Sheldrake and Andrew Cohen Creativity, Habit and Freedom . In addition I have been prinicpally responsible for drafting the copy for another EnlightenNext partnership event with Olivier Mythodrama Associates titled 'Men and the Quest:A weekend evolutionary journey for Men, with Richard Olivier, Linus Roach and Chris Parish. More on this to follow.

A Record of an Emerging Culture?

The profound ramifications of Charles Darwin's scientific model of evolution are still barely unfolding within human understanding. The implications of his work stretch, far beyond the mere materialistic ordering of cosmic, planetary and ecological human development.

Whilst Darwin's discoveries, inform most contemporary scientific and technological developments to some degree. What is rarely considered, by even the most educated individual, is what Darwin's discovery implies, for the bio, socio, cultural and spiritual development of the human race as whole. Those few individuals that have deeply explored this subject, frequently characterise this approach as an evolutionary worldview.

This aim of this blog is to be offer, informative and educational content, concerning those events, notions, happenings and ideas, that might shape the progress of a culture based on an evolutionary view of human development. To some degree it will be a personal journal that aims to record my efforts to explore develop and link to people, events and experiences in London , that might apply, or uncover what it means to live according to evolutionary principles. My fellow pioneers charting these frontiers, believe that evolution has not stopped, but needs to be engaged with individually and socially at the level of consciousness and culture.

Though these evolutionary principles have only recently come to light within human consciousness, a growing number people are discovering, that the most exciting and positive way forward globally for all, is underpinned by an evolutionary worldview. This revolutionary perspective offers the immense possibility of utterly positive future for the human race.

This worldview is emerging through the efforts of a few radical, visionaries, thinkers and leaders who are integrating, science, religion and culture to create and formulate, a comprehensive rational and meaningful meta narrative, of the entire human story from before the big bang until now and forward to the future . These include but are not limited to Andrew Cohen, EnlightenNext the organisation and magazine, Ken Wilber and the Integral Institute, Brian Swimme, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Robert Godwin, James Gardner and many others.

As a former close student of Cohen and volunteer at EnlightenNext London, I wanted to add a voice and views on this blog, concerning the development and implications of an evolutionary worldview.