Freedom Has No History: A Call to Awaken - Softcover

Cohen, Andrew

4.25

8 ratings by Goodreads

9781883929176: Freedom Has No History: A Call to Awaken

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1883929172 ISBN 13: 9781883929176

Publisher: Moksha Press, 1997

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Written with an unwavering conviction that the possibility of profound transformation is never far away for anyone who is deeply serious, "Freedom Has No History" inspires us to abandon a small-minded approach to our liberation and take up a life of real heroism. Not the kind heroism that ends up in glory for the individual, but the kind that expresses a profound recognition of how much depth and meaning a human life can truly have.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From the Publisher:

This powerful collection of excerpts from talks given by spiritual teacher Andrew Cohen unravels the timeless mystery of true spiritual awakening. It answers many traditional spiritual questions -- how should we relate to our minds and the process of thought, what does it really mean to hold on to nothing, what are true surrender and absolute trust? While other more unusual and unexpected topics -- the birth of spiritual conscience, abandoning the future, cynicism is an obstacle to liberation -- capture a profound and original approach to spiritual exploration. The direct experience of awakening unfolds before the reader's eyes and is explored with a depth of subtlety and simplicity that makes this book accessible to anybody. As each chapter illuminates a different facet of "the jewel of enlightenment," what is revealed over and over again is that freedom truly has no history -- it is always right in front of us waiting to be discovered. We simply have to awaken to our heart's deepest desire and then open our eyes to see it.

From the Author:

Shortly before I started teaching, I was sitting by myself one night thinking about some extraordinary insights that I had experienced over the prior twenty-four hours. They were inspiring, uplifting, liberating insights. I found myself thinking about them very intensely. I wanted that penetrating clarity to return. Indeed, I desperately longed to have those insights again and because of that I was suffering. I was making a tremendous amount of effort while I was thinking about them, because as often occurs when something liberating happens to us, we have trouble letting go. It was for that reason that I was trying so hard. I was attempting through the power of memory to recapture something that had occurred only hours before. Suddenly, in the midst of all of this I caught myself. "What are you doing?" I said out loud. "What are you doing?" In that instant of recognition, it became obvious that the striving to recapture what had occurred in the past was not only causing me to suffer, but was the very thing that was keeping me separate from what I had always thought I wanted the most which was to be free. When I saw this, everything came to a halt. I stopped in my tracks. Ever since that moment, I've ceased to look back in time to any particular experience in order to know if I'm free.

This insight in many ways was more profoundly liberating in its impact than the countless moments of revelation that I have experienced before or since. What I realized in that instant was that freedom has no history. This literally was a quantum leap in my own evolution.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.