There’s Nothing Virtual About It!
Jan 31st
For those of us whose lives have been touched by Evolutionary Enlightenment and have been inspired by the spiritual impulse to change the world, we often feel the desire to share what’s had such a big impact on us with others. So let’s use this blog post to brainstorm ideas of how get people excited about Andrew Cohen’s Virtual Being and Becoming Retreat on February 13th & 14th. Use the comments below to post ideas, ask questions and build off each other so we can help reach our goal of sharing an evolutionary perspective with 50 new people.
How to realize the green revolution!
Jan 19th
By Jonas Schnor, Martin Norddahl & Christian Claudi
Hopenhagen – a shift in consciousness?
About a month ago, all the world leaders were gathered in Copenhagen at the COP15, to find a solution to the immediate climate crisis. The climate crisis is one of the largest and most profound problems the world society as a whole has ever faced, and the consequences may prove to be life altering for the whole human species. Unfortunately the climate conference didn’t end up with anything close to the agreement most of the world’s population had hoped for. Copenhagen is now called ‘Nopenhagen’ instead of ‘Hopenhagen’.
But we had a different experience. So three of us from Copenhagen, Christian, Jonas and Martin, worked together to write this piece describing our experience and perspective, which, apart from posting on this blog, we are sending to newspapers in Denmark.
Although change did not seem to present itself on the political level in any noteworthy scale, it sure felt like a change was going on in the streets of Copenhagen. While the UN Conference was taking place in the Bella Centre, another conference were being held in the heart of Copenhagen, this being the alternative NGO-conference KLIMAFORUM, in the DGI-centre. Here Jonas decided to participate wholeheartedly as a volunteer for the whole eleven days of the conference. And his experience was one of being a part of something big and positive: “Outside in the streets, hundreds of thousands were demonstrating, and inside a myriad of happenings were going on, showing a lot of goodwill and visionary perspective towards a climate friendly society. And the place was crowded with people of all races and nationalities. The multiculturalism was awe-inspiring. It felt like a global, unified movement was being catalyzed, from here, to all over the world, that hadn’t been there before, and where I, as a singular person, could participate in something larger than any individual, but solely driven by individuals. It was fundamentally positive and forward-looking” Jonas reflects. Read the rest of this entry »
Context is Everything!
Jan 13th
One of the most amazing and important things about the way we experience and think about the world is that, in the words of the American philosopher Ken Wilber, “context is everything.” The perspective through which you look at something can completely determine what you see… and I think this inspiring video is a perfect example of just that. Check it out!
Spiritual Struggle Is Not a Bad Thing
Dec 30th
I was recently reading through the back posts on this blog and was struck by how many of them are about entitlement, narcissism and the need to be making serious effort. Because these topics aren’t talked about too often, the experience of reading all these posts was a little bit like getting yelled at without fully understanding why it was happening. But since I’ve been seeing why it’s so important to understand these issues in my own life recently, I thought I’d try to clarify a bit—because Merge is meant to be an inspiration for taking charge of creating a better future, not just a beat-down of the post-modern Gen Y self 
Life is difficult. In particular, trying to change oneself is extremely challenging. Some societies are very deliberate in emphasizing this fact. In Buddhist countries people are brought being told stories about monks who had to scrub floors and carry water up hills for years on end before they had made enough effort begin the process of spiritual transformation. Read the rest of this entry »
On Travelogues
Dec 23rd
Have you ever noticed that when we Gen-Y’ers speak about travelling, we’re not actually speaking about travelling? Our stories are never about beautiful beaches, or colourful people, or even food poisoning. Our stories are about us.
I’m never surprised when trading travelogues with my Gen-Y brothers and sisters. Inevitably, our stories are only about where we went, what we did, and how we felt. Actual locations and events are secondary. But it still took me awhile to realize that nobody was all that interested in my travel stories. And why should they be? They weren’t really stories at all, just narratives about what my trip meant for me. And so, for those of you like me, all you Gen-Y’ers out there with tales of that time in Thailand (did it involve scooters, buckets, or a full moon?), do not fear, there is yet another way. Meet Robert.
Robert is from another era: the 1960’s. A true hippie who never burned-out, he was a fixture in the urban middle-class neighbourhood where I grew up. The father of one of my closest friends, over the years Robert and I have become friends in our own right, united in our love for travel. And he’s an old hand. As colourful and as laid back as any you’ll ever meet, he spent the better part of the last 40 years globetrotting from East to West to North to South. From the rooftops of Northern India he’s played sitar for the Buddhists, he’s led llama caravans through the upper Andes in lower Chile, and he’s pow-wowed with the pygmies in Central Africa. The man has been everywhere. And the man can tell a story. Read the rest of this entry »
Meditation as a means to Consciously Evolve!
Dec 16th
In an evolutionary context, meditation is seen as a means to a higher end. At the same time, paradoxically, we meditate for its own sake with no expectation to gain anything from our efforts. It becomes more and more apparent that over time, through our determined and dedicated practice, a greater purpose for meditating is awakened within us that absolutely transcends the personal. We start to see that as we go beyond our separate sense of self, or ego, it enables us to more fully align with and take responsibility for the part of us that is none other than the driving force of the Universe.
By transcending the limiting parts of ourselves in meditation that come in the form of thoughts, feelings, memories, and time, we awaken to a deeper dimension of the Self that is limitless. As we give more weight and attention to the Self Absolute, or the ever-present Ground of Being, it becomes our fundamental reference point for acting in the world. When we are no longer acting on behalf of the limited ego, we become vehicles through which the creative passion of the evolutionary impulse, or Authentic Self, that emerged from that empty Ground fourteen billion years ago, is free to express itself in this world. Read the rest of this entry »
MGMT on The Youth
Dec 12th
Starting as a little-known college band, MGMT made it big when their alternative single, “Kids,” became a pop hit, followed by the even more popular “Electric Feel.” Hailing from hipster-loving Brooklyn and my liberal arts alma mater, Wesleyan University, their super-catchy songs are a great expression of what the most-progressive, well-educated Americans are thinking and singing about right now. Here’s an interesting song that transmits their perspective on the culture and youth of today — I think the mix of irony and optimism is definitely worth some commenting. It’s an interesting contrast with the blog Tom Huston just posted on Lily Allen.
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