Watch Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ7VVXAfHLY

Amidst the Parliament presentations on how to energize and galvanize the power of organized religion for our world's ills, the insightful discourses from religious leaders of all the great wisdom traditions, a new recognition and acceptance of the indigenous peoples side-by-side with the other major religious traditions, women's discussions, and youth panels, the two sessions on Evolutionary Enlightenment with Andrew Cohen served as an engine and a symbolic flag waving towards a religion of the future.

The two sessions, the first a talk and the second a dynamic Q&A, touched on the difference between survival and evolution, the distinctions between the ground of Being (that primordial fullness, voidness, Is-ness discovered in spiritual realization) and the Authentic Self, that inexhaustible spiritual motivation and evolutionary impulse of the manifest or worldly domain.

"It takes a lot of faith and conviction to live an extraordinary life," Cohen said to the audience. He went on to explain why it takes such a depth of conviction to hold a God's eye view on our human experience. And why this kind of kosmic perspective is the mark of a new spirituality-one that can encompass all dimensions of our complex postmodern lives.

Watch video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NPJ_bHRdrc

I'm back home in frigid New England again and half a world away from Melbourne and the 2009 Parliament of the Worlds' Religions. I wanted to add one more video here to bring closer to my coverage of the activities of the Parliament. On the last day His Holiness the Dali Lama was the honored guest during the Parliament's closing ceremony. In this video you will get a few highlights from that closing event.

Watch video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNjcC8mQ8I8 

In a few hours I (Jeff Carreira) will be heading back on the long journey home to the EnlightenNext World Center in Lenox, Massachusetts, and I hear that I will be leaving sunny 80 degree days for 12 inches of snow. I scrambled until early morning and then again after a few hours sleep to put together one last video before leaving.

In this video I have tried to capture the flavor of a typical day with Andrew Cohen at the Parliament of the Worlds' Religions. You will see an array of discussion snippets, presentations, and chance encounters that make up the heart of the POWR. I don't have time to perfect the video edit or write out the names of all the people you will see, but I think you'll enjoy this last taste of what it has been like here in Melbourne, Australia for the past extraordinary week.

(Melbourne - 2009 Dec 4) From UN Millennium Development Goals to an exploration of Sri Aurobindo's philosophy and a call for integral education to start informing our higher education systems to new visions for women of faith, the Parliament themes bombard participants at all kinds of different levels and dimensions of the mind, psyche, and self. 

The session on the Divine Feminine was one that perhaps the most disturbing and confusing of all the sessions I attended or heard of. Presenting were superstar in interfaith women's circles Sister Joan Chittister OSB, Karma Lekshe Tsomo, president of Sakyadhita, the international association for women in developing countries, Mother Maya, spiritual head of the Ayurveda Wise Earth School, and Phyllis Curott Wiccan priestess and Trustee of the Council for the Parliament.

(Melbourne - 2009 Dec 4) In this massive Parliament gathering of mahatmas, saints, pundits, theologians, and practitioners of all kinds of faiths, there are approximately twenty sessions on poverty. And the promise of these sessions, if they prove to be anything like the opening plenary "Poverty Must No Longer Be With Us," are going to put tremendous pressure on congregants world over to turn their eyes, their hands, and their wallets to help uplift the poorest of the poor.

With strong words, harsh facts, and powerful positivity, the presenters, all spiritual activists of an extraordinary degree had an unmistakable message: to recommit more intensively to the UN Millennium goals, and as Jim Wallis, bestselling author, New York Times contributor, and theologian said "make poverty history.

Watch part 1 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fK2yUmEhQE

Watch part 2 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvx3BqGqAJs

The event of the Parliament of the Worlds’ Religions is not only about the Parliament itself. It is also an opportunity for a host of other related events and encounters with extraordinary people. In this case Andrew Cohen was invited to a dinner event at the city center of Swami Shankarananda. Included on the guest list were a number of swamis from an ashram in Hawaii where the quarterly magazine Hinduism Today is published. After dinner an impromptu discussion erupted around the question what is the best path to enlightenment, feeling or thought? This video (in two parts) is a recording of that debate.

P.S. As you will find out,  Jeff Carreira is also at dinner and capturing this video.

Watch video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0GCr_6cL7I

In this video clip you will see highlights from Andrew Cohen's talk given at the Parliament of the Worlds" Religions.

Watch video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMwkG0QiYWc

During one of the evenings of the Parliament of the World's Religions Andrew Cohen was invited to participate in a special satsang (teachings given by spiritual teachers) at the ashram of Swami Shankarananda just outside of Melbourne. During the special evening seven different Hindu masters each gave a short talks. Andrew Cohen was invited to speak as a master in the lineage of Ramana Marharshi. This video will give you a taste of this magical evening.

In this video you will see excerpts from talks given by Swami Sankarananda, Andrew Cohen and Swami Murugananda Saraswathi.

Watch video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fDKzMH7p1U

In the hallways of the Parliament of World's Religions you can sometimes have the most fantastic and wonderful chance encounters. This video is a recording of just such an encounter. Andrew Cohen happened to meet Dr A T Ariyaratne in the hallways between sessions. Dr. Ari (as he is affectionaly known) is a modern day saint living in Sri Lanka and doing extraordinary humanitary work in tens of thousands of villages. Soon Andrew and Dr. Ari were joined by two mutual friends, Rev. Michael Beckwith and his wife Rickie Byers Beckwith.