The Kosmocentric Stage - Part 1

August 4, 2008 By Tom

What does it mean to be “Kosmocentric”?

That’s the question I want to explore over the coming weeks on this blog. It’s something that, as a student of Andrew Cohen’s teachings of Evolutionary Enlightenment, I think about all the time, and it’s also a clear line of inquiry that I think may finally give this blog of mine some juice (and compel me to make the time to post to it!). The question of what it means to be Kosmocentric — to be identified with the Kosmos as one’s own Self, to be alive to the “post-postmodern” state/stage/perspective of consciousness — has been explored to some depth in the writings of integral philosopher Ken Wilber, as well as in the regular “Guru & Pandit” dialogues between Wilber and Andrew Cohen in the pages of What Is Enlightenment? magazine. But I think the concept is so new, the territory so vastly uncharted, and the implications so important for the future of human evolution that it can’t be inquired into enough.

So, to kick things off, let’s start by addressing an obvious question: Why is this term spelled Kosmocentric instead of Cosmocentric (or even Cosmos-centric)? The simple reason is that it has to do with the difference between the ancient Pythagorean conception of a living, multidimensional Kosmos vs. the modern scientific notion of a dead, material Cosmos, as elucidated at length by Ken Wilber. In Wilber’s integral philosophy, the difference between that K and C is profound; it’s the difference between a universe suffused with Goodness, Truth, and Beauty and a universe suffused with random chance and physics. So, true Wilberian that I am, I’m going to stick with this very useful convention. (You can read a short explanation I wrote about the distinction here.)

Next, check out this two-minute video, just produced by the A/V department at EnlightenNext, featuring Andrew Cohen explaining what it means to hold “A Kosmocentric Orientation”:

To be continued . . . (Comments and questions welcome! I’d love to get a real discussion going if people are interested in this.)


Comments

1 Comment so far

  1. Will on August 16, 2008 6:18 am

    I believe that fastest way to get some traction in answering this question is to ask oneself: “what of my most inherent, and even favorite values are not Kosmocentric?” Then one can stop putting energy into those that are not Kosmocentric. When nothing is leftover and you have no idea what Kosmocentric is, you’re getting somewhere!

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