Evolution is a messy process. So anybody who really wants to make the effort to strive for something new is going to have to be willing to make mistakes, take wrong turns, even to fail, but never give up. The simple truth is this: if not failing is more important to you than genuinely succeeding, you’re never going to make it. If you really want to succeed, you have to have the big heart, heroic will, tenacity, courage, and commitment to fearlessly engage with the evolutionary process until something profound, mysterious, and extraordinary happens that cannot be undone.

Andrew Cohen, Feb. 2010

I was with Andrew in the early days in Devon, UK. At the time I was one of three managers at the then well-established Buddhist meditation centre Gaia House. Not long after Andrew arrived in the area and began to teach I stayed with him and the growing community for a few years which took me from Devon to Amherst, MA and finally to Marin county, California. I left with good will from Andrew telling me that “I knew everything I needed to know for the rest of my life”. That has never left me. Continue reading…