From Relative to Absolute

Teachings of enlightenment, whether traditional or evolutionary, always present us with a unique way of thinking about and understanding who we are. What makes an enlightened perspective different from any other is that it emphasizes the significance of those dimensions of Self that are non-relative, or Absolute.

What does Absolute really mean for human beings like us? For most of us who have grown up in a secular culture, almost every way we are accustomed to thinking about ourselves could be called relative. For example, we tend to think of ourselves as individuals with a unique personality based upon some combination of our psychological experience, our ethnic identity, our cultural background, our gender and our personal strengths and talents. Some of us even tend to base our fundamental sense of self on our shortcomings, weaknesses or misfortunes. These are real and valid aspects of ourselves, but they are all relative because they are only partial. There is, however, another dimension altogether upon which we can base our sense of identity. And that dimension is radically different from all others because its very nature is non-relative, or Absolute. Absolute is a metaphor for that which is infinite, that which has no boundaries.

~Andrew Cohen