Andrew Cohen (Guru)

Andrew Cohen

Andrew Cohen (born October 23, 1955 in New York City ) is an American guru , author, magazine editor and musician. He calls his philosophy Evolutionary Enlightenment. According to Cohen, this philosophy should contribute to the development of a new level of human consciousness and culture . To this end, Cohen and his students are in dialogue with a variety of other spiritual teachers, philosophers , activists and cultural workers. Many interviews and reports of these encounters, as well as texts by Andrew Cohen, were published in the magazine EnlightenNext , which appeared quarterly (also with a German edition).

EnlightenNext is called a cult by critics . In the summer of 2013, the group disbanded after a dispute between Cohen and some of his closest supporters, and Cohen withdrew to India for the time being.

Life

Cohen has an older brother, Joshua. Raised in a non-religious Jewish family, Cohen at the age of 16 had a deep experience of “cosmic consciousness” that changed his life forever. Since he could not forget this experience, he gave up his ambitions, jazz - drummer and to be made instead on the search to rediscover the experience permanently. He was intensively involved with martial arts , Kriya Yoga and between the ages of 22 and 30 with Buddhism until he met Advaita Vedanta master HWL Poonja in 1986 . After two weeks with Poonja, Cohen had an experience that he described as a deep spiritual awakening and began to teach, initially with the support of his guru, until later, due to philosophical arguments, the two broke up.

In 1988 Cohen founded EnlightenNext, a nonprofit spiritual network that aims to create a new global culture. In addition to students living in different parts of the world, there are public EnlightenNext centers in New York, Boston , London , Amsterdam , Frankfurt , Paris , Copenhagen , Tel Aviv and in Rishikesh, India . The EnlightenNext organization is headquartered in the 890,000 m² retreat center in Lennox , Massachusetts , where Cohen currently lives.

Shortly after Cohen began teaching, he met with other spiritual teachers to share experiences and dialogue about the fundamental nature of spiritual enlightenment . In 1991 he founded EnlightenNext magazine (then called What is Enlightenment? ) To make the discussions and investigations on this topic publicly available and thereby continue them. As the editor of EnlightenNext magazine , he believes that “it is our responsibility to help shape the future” and sees the magazine and its additional offers as a contemporary forum for dialogue and in-depth research into the meaning of the spiritual life in postmodernism . EnlightenNext developed a series of events with international speakers entitled Voices from the edge , an online multimedia forum LIKE unbound, and a partnership with the TGI (Graduate Institute) offering a Masters course in Conscious Evolution. In 2006 and 2007, the What Is Enlightenment? (now EnlightenNext ) www.WIE.org awarded the Webby People's Voice Award in the Religion and Spirituality category by the International Academy for Digital Arts and Sciences.

In 2000, Cohen co-founded the Ken Wilbers Integral Institute . In 2004 and 2009 he was a speaker at the Parliament of the World's Religions and in 2006 he was awarded the Kashi Humanitarian Prize.

Ideas

Evolutionary Enlightenment is a spiritual teaching which, as Cohen says, places the traditional understanding of enlightenment in the context of cosmic evolution in an independent way. When people awaken to the timeless “ground of being”, says Cohen, they can free themselves from self-centered motives and the ego and learn to manifest the “ authentic self ”. This self beyond the ego is the highest expression of our humanity: creative, compassionate and motivated by an evolutionary impulse that is "one with the Big Bang itself". According to Cohen, people who choose to live from the Authentic Self can see their inseparability from the universe and find a deep meaning in life that transcends egoism. This sense consists in the unique human ability to participate actively in the evolution of consciousness .

Cohen distinguishes Evolutionary Enlightenment from traditional "personal" enlightenment. In Evolutionary Enlightenment, enlightenment is not a matter of an individual, but becomes the connecting foundation of human relationships on which a new culture can be created. Cohen emphasizes that the development of a new consciousness and a new culture is essential for the survival of mankind and is of the opinion that especially people who live in the highly developed, rich countries and are therefore "at the forefront of development" have the Responsibility to take this next development step. To assist those who wish to evolve in this way, Cohen has developed a comprehensive doctrine, the most important elements of which are "The Five Principles" and "The Six Principles" of Evolutionary Enlightenment. An interactive model of teaching sums up the perspective it describes.

music

In 2001 Cohen turned back to playing drums and formed the jazz-funk fusion band Unfulfilled Desires. The band plays their own compositions and standards and performs in Europe and the USA. They have released three CDs: Live at the Iron Horse (2002), Enlightened Dog (2004) and Punk Funk (2008).

criticism

Some of his former students, including his mother, Luna Tarlo, refer to Cohen as a charismatic, manipulative spiritual teacher. Tarlo wrote the book Mother of God about her experiences as his student . She accuses Cohen of the cruelty, arrogance and abuse of her and other students and describes what she describes as her struggle to break free from his control.

In his book Pushups to Enlightenment. Years of apprenticeship with an American guru says Dr. André van der Braak, Cohen demanded large sums of money and extreme, uncritical devotion from his students.

The American journalist John Horgan questions the existence of "the totally enlightened guru", particularly with regard to Cohen and others.

The weblog What enlightenment ??! includes reviews from ex-students including some of the former co-editors of What Is Enlightenment? (now EnlightenNext ) who accuse Andrew Cohen of manipulation and psychological and physical abuse.

American Guru: A Story of Love, Betrayal and Healing by William Yenner and contributions from other former Andrew Cohen's students (with a foreword by Stephen Batchelor) documents and discusses allegations of authoritarian behavior, financial manipulation, and psychological and physical abuse in Andrew Cohen's community the challenges of healing after leaving the community.

Different points of view

At a meeting with his mother in 1996, Cohen described his concern as follows: “Under everything, very deeply, at the bottom of everything, where there are no thoughts and no emotions, most people believe that the world is not all right nothing is right ... I'm trying to convey the opposite to them, namely that basically everything is good ... This is a new attitude towards life. "Luna Tarlo describes her reaction as follows:" 'How can you have an attitude towards life Have posture without thoughts and emotions? 'I asked. 'In my opinion there is only primal consciousness without thoughts and emotions and in this primal consciousness there is no right or wrong and therefore no concepts of life. There is actually nothing there that can be changed. '"

Fonts

• Enlightenment is a Secret (1994), ISBN 978-3-9241618-9-7
• Frei Sein (1998), Param Verlag, ISBN 3-88755-009-9
• Hugging Heaven and Earth (2000), Param Verlag, ISBN 3-88755-011-0
• Enlightened life (2003), Via Nova Verlag, ISBN 3-936486-26-3
• My Master is My Self (1989), ISBN 1-883929-07-5
• Autobiography of an Awakening (1992), ISBN 0-9622678-4-8
• An Unconditional Relationship to Life (1995), ISBN 1-883929-04-0
• The Challenge of Enlightenment (1996), ISBN 1-883929-14-8
• In Defense of the Guru Principle (1999), ISBN 1-883929-27-X
• Wer bin ich? and How Shall I Live? (1998), ISBN 1-883929-24-5

Cohen online

• Andrew Cohen's official German website
• The website of the German edition of EnlightenNext magazine
• A statement of integrity, October 18, 2006
• Andrew Cohen's New Year's Day Address, January 1, 2009

See also

• Integral theory
• Integral Institute
• Ken Wilber
• Spiral Dynamics
• Sri Aurobindo

Web links

• Literature by and about Andrew Cohen in the catalog of the German National Library
• Gruber, Jordan. An Enlightenment Interview with Andrew Cohen
• Tailor, Lisa. Meet the 'Rude Boy of Enlightenment' .

positive

• The Evolution of Enlightenment - Experiences with Andrew Cohen by Thomas Steininger, Info3 magazine, May 2005
• Guru Talk: American Guru Andrew Cohen - Statements from former students
• EnlightenNext, Inc. - nonprofit organization founded by Andrew Cohen
• 11 Days at the Edge - a book by the American author Michael Wombacher about a retreat with Cohen in July 2005
• IntegralNaked.org IntegralNaked.org - Multimedia dialogues with Andrew Cohen and Ken Wilber
• 2006 & 2007 Webby Award honorees - with WIE.org in the Religion & Spirituality category
• Andrew Cohen meeting Amma Andrew Cohen meets Amma
• Willing Hunter and Andrew Cohen in dialogue
• Andrew Cohen at the Parliament of the World's Religions, Melbourne, 2009

Critical

• Mother of God official website of Mother of God , Luna Tarlo's account of her time as a student of her son Andrew Cohen
• Freedom of Mind Center
• Falk, Geoffrey D. (2007) "Stripping the Gurus: Sex, Violence, Abuse and Enlightenment", Chapter 21 Sometimes I Feel Like a God
• Rick Ross Rick Ross Institute for the Study of Destructive Cults, Groups, and Movements
• Spiritual Counterfeits Project
• Integral World Article - "The Problem of Abusive Gurus" See the article, Part 2b, Section iv - a discussion related to a criticism of Ken Wilber's support for gurus who are alleged to have been abused.
• Spiritualteachers.org Website about spiritual teachers
• What Enlightenment ??! a website with statements from former students, including some former editors of What is Enlightenment? (now EnlightenNext )
• American Guru Official website of American Guru: A Story of Love, Betrayal and Healing (2009), to a report by William Yenner and other former students.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Cohen, Andrew Autobiography of An Awakening , Moksha Press (1992) ISBN 0-9622678-4-8
2. ^ Integral Institute. Who is Andrew Cohen? ( Memento of the original from September 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ 2004 Parliament of the World's Religions ( Memento of the original from September 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ AndrewCohen.org: Interactive Teaching Model ( Memento of the original from May 11, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ Tarlo, Luna (1997). Mother of God . Autonomedia.
6. ↑ van der Braak, André (2003). Push-ups to enlightenment. Years of apprenticeship with an American guru . Winterthur: Edition Tracks. ISBN 3-03-300037-1
7. ^ Horgan, John: The Myth of the Totally Enlightened Guru . Archived from the original on October 24, 2010. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 11, 2010. 
8. ↑ http://whatenlightenment.com//
9. ↑ Yenner, William and contributors (2009). American Guru: A Story of Love, Betrayal and Healing . Epigraph Books. ISBN 0-982453-05-1
10. ↑ Tarlo, Luna (1997) p. 311, 312
11. ↑ http://andrewcohen.de//
12. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from March 28, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
13. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
14. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.