Dear Mr. Wilbur,
I am an illumined person with no followers, rejoicing in my solitary view of life. I wrote a friend of yours an e-mail not long ago, and received no response, indicating the failure of one illumined being to recognize and shelter another. I have ceased wondering whether Cohen is “awake” or not, and have begun wondering whether he is even alive! I have given up on him; he must be a very busy person, with many responsibilities and little time. My mind, however, is ever-restless, and coming upon this series of questions and answers between Cohen and a student felt compelled to comment upon it. Why do I write to you? I have a website, www.neochristians.com, where I will post this on my “Wall of Shame,” documents I have written to various humans who were either incapable of response or for some other reason chose to ignore me. It is so fun! I love being ignored! I bet you won’t even read this whole document! Can you even read? Can any of you think at all? I do not think so! I think you need my Father’s help, otherwise you would sit around staring at one another like frogs on logs. Is He going to help you, or will you also join the growing list of the “would’ve been there, but got lost on the way?” I’ll bet you don’t even believe in the Father! It’s just as well. I seem to be the only one who can perceive Him, though it gets me into the worst trouble off and on. If you see Cohen, poke him with a stick for me and see if he responds, or whether he is in some unresponsive spiritual state, lost in contemplation of the Self. Otherwise, I wish you a good day, sir!
From: http://www.andrewcohen.org/teachings/egolessPassion.asp
The following dialogue took place during a recent teaching given by Andrew Cohen in New York City.
Question:
You say we need to transcend ego. But my experience is that ego can be a positive and necessary thing; without it I don't know how I'd get through the day. Especially in my work, I use ego as fuel; it gives me motivation and energy to act. It's kind of like starting a motorboat; you have to pull that cord to get the motor going. The ego, for me, is that cord that gets me going.
Andrew Cohen:
But the whole idea is to rip out that cord and then see what happens to the boat.
Guru Kurt:
It is very good to cultivate the “good ego.” A man cannot live without some sense of self-identity; since we must be something, the best idea is to become good, to learn to excel in the modes of goodness, which include the attitudes of kindness, compassion, sympathy, empathy, love, generosity, forgiveness, forbearance, enthusiasm, mercy, energy and vibrancy. The ego cannot be gotten rid of “just like that.” Cohen likens the ego to an old-fashioned boat engine, which had a rope that you needed to wind on again and again, pulling it off each time completely as you attempted to start the engine. Cohen’s ego was like this; it was a false or fake ego, an “ego of knowledge,” put in place by the Atman in the childhood of a person who has been previously illumined, in another life. Cohen gave one rip to the cord of his ego, off she came, and the motor of the Atman started humming. In the rest of us, however, the ego is like a more modern pull cord, one that is attached and cannot be released. We pull it, and it retracts right back to its original position. The questioner here is very perceptive; you cannot get through the day without thinking “I,” though Cohen attempts to give man a way around this fundamental principle here, that will not be successful. It is helpful to think, “I am the bestower of good things upon the world; I am the benefactor; I am the facilitator that helps sweeten the lives of those around me by contributing in clear and obvious ways to the happiness of the whole world, of whom I am a part. I will continue to use my physical and mental energies and capacities to add to the welfare of all, not to detract from it in any way.” One who thinks in this way is thinking like Brahman Himself, and so although Cohen might accuse such a person of thinking “egoically,” in truth it is unegoic, righteous and clean thinking that will undo the ego in the end, for the ego shrinks from universal joy as vampires shrink from direct sunlight, or as moles dig deeper and deeper into darkness. The ego wants to sit and have its own joy, apart from all others. The egoless being wishes to sit and have his own joy, along with all others. This is all the difference between the worldly person and the sage, in a nutshell. When seeing joy in the face of another, not just someone in your family but perhaps someone you don’t even know, brings you a rich measure of joy, then know that you are far advanced along the path indeed, and the ego cannot long stand in your way, which undoes itself becoming good, and merges at last with the Atman, which is pure goodness, divine richness, and heavenly sweetness.
Question:
It won't go anywhere.
Andrew Cohen:
That's where you're wrong. It will go, but not in the direction it's been going. It's going to turn around and go in a completely different direction.
Guru Kurt:
The questioner is indeed perceptive, and Cohen is not addressing his questions well. I saw this same phenomenon with my own teacher, Eknath Easwaran, who once was asked about the “ascended masters” at a retreat where I was present. The questioner had a good deal of anger in his voice, for Easwaran never mentioned these individuals in his discourse. It is my firm conviction that this individual was an embodied angelic being, expressing righteous wrath. The correct answer, of course, is to explain that “ascended masters” are those who have entered sahaja samadhi, having gone through many lifetimes of successive nirvikalpa samadhi events, to the extent that their lower minds are purified sufficiently for ascension to the astral realms. Since no human is even close to sahaja samadhi at this stage, nor will be for over a thousand years, there are only “descended masters,” walking amongst us all the time in deep disguise, unrecognized by any save the most advanced spiritual aspirants indeed. Had I been in Easwaran’s shoes that day, addressing my comments to this particular individual I would have given him cause to know that I recognized him, and welcomed him to my company. Ramakrishna, for instance, was well-known for His keen interest in any sadhus who happened to wander by Dakshineswar. As Lord, He could quickly recognize the “ever-free,” the “ascended masters” who, like His foremost disciple Vivekananda, had descended from the astral realms on missions of kindness and mercy among mankind. There is indeed a good chance that Cohen’s questioner here is an embodied angel, and as such is much, much higher than Cohen himself! See, angels like to have fun like this. They like to pretend to be ignorant, of no account, worthless, who are the embodiments of perfection, grace and wisdom. A follower of Ramakrishna’s with whom I had the pleasure of exchanging e-mails said that Vivekananda was an incarnation, and that Ramakrishna was the source of all incarnations. There is a good deal of reality in taking this attitude, although we would then need to introduce another word for the real Incarnation, who is a true God, as opposed to the ever-free, who have become smaller gods, angels, after ascending to the astral realms in the spiritual perfection of the embodied human entity. The angel, here, is right, and Cohen is wrong. The angel knew that what I say is true, that the ego cannot be gotten rid of just by wishing it away. The bad ego must become a good ego, and once it does this it becomes susceptible to the supreme experience, nirvikalpa samadhi. It is not really helpful for struggling aspirants to imagine that their ego is not present, because the imaginer is still the ego; it is the ego imagining that the ego is not present, which of course is even more present than before, although we may not know it by the same name, or recognize the same internal identity. If you seek to do this, you play a mere mental game, and do little to offend the ego, who can play “ego spurner” as well as many other deceptive and illegitimate parts within our minds. Who can identify the ego? Truly, no one can until after nirvikalpa samadhi, when it has departed at last, because until this time all that we think, all that we are, all that we see inside and out, is tied to the ego with indissoluble bonds. Well, so far we have from Cohen that the ego should be ripped out like an old-fashioned rope pull cord, and that if this is done the boat will go in another direction. Our angel, and I myself, ask for clarification:
Question:
What do you mean?
Andrew Cohen:
There is a different motive that can easily equal the energy of the ego, if not far surpass it. I call it egoless passion. And the goal in what I'm teaching is to awaken this egoless passion in human beings. This teaching is all about awakened, deeply conscious, profoundly passionate, committed participation in the life process. Usually the word "passion" is automatically associated with ego or a very strong self-sense. But there is a different kind of passion that is absolutely free from ego. It's very powerful. And the way I understand it is that this passion is synonymous with the energy or the impulse behind the evolutionary process itself, the force of creation itself. When that creative impulse is unleashed within the individual, extraordinary things become possible.
Guru Kurt:
“Egoless passion” exists only in the illumined. Cohen describes his own state, with the idea that this will help his students. It may help a few, but only by way of inspiration. Cohen describes what it is like for him, as an illumined being. When you become illumined, you too will experience what he describes here. The angel gets out of his way, respecting his illumination and playing the role of earnest student in order to help Cohen further his teaching work. The angel does not make it his place to challenge Cohen, in accordance with his mission. I challenge Cohen continually, because while he exemplifies illumination perfectly for man, his teachings are seldom or never practical and useful for average person, advanced sadhu, or even illumined individual seeking to deepen his or her awareness of Paramatman, that portion of Brahman’s spirit available for the illumined teachers’ spiritual expansion. The problem with Cohen’s teaching here is that no student will be able to identify the “life process.” They are living egoic lives; they see the “ego process,” not the deep spiritual underpinnings of life. If you cannot witness the “life process,” how can you become committed to it? You really cannot get anything that is absolutely “free from ego” until you have cleared the bar of nirvikalpa samadhi. Until this time, everything you know is tainted with the ego. Cohen does not even recognize that he is egoless, and his students have egos! His is a strange kind of spirituality that seeks to be “buddies” with everyone. He really expects that there will be a great wave of illuminations sometime in the future, perhaps precipitated by his oh-so-wise commentaries (which are actually errantly foolish), but this will not occur! Illumination will remain an extraordinarily rare event upon the earth. At the current moment, I know of only two living bona fide illumined teachers from the West, Andrew Cohen and Da Free John. The rest are all in dhyana, the spiritual state preceding samadhi. You will not feel Cohen’s “passion” until after nirvikalpa samadhi. Though inspiring to read or hear about, you will not see yourself as “synonymous with the energy or the impulse behind the evolutionary process itself, the force of creation itself,” which is Cohen’s way of describing his personal perception of Brahman’s spirit, of which he is aware, though he by no means encompasses the whole thing as does the Avatar. Please take Cohen’s paragraph here as a very nice, almost eloquent description of the state of illumination, for that is all that it is. He does the world a disservice by not distinguishing his own state as Self-realized, by this kind of “elder brother” approach which seeks to befriend everyone as his equal. It is actually a noble impulse in Cohen that causes him to offer illumination to all, as a very easy thing that will only take a slight change in mental attitude to attain, but this is neither true nor real, and thus will be found in the long run to have been short-sighted. People following Cohen will become quickly bewildered when they find that their own internal realities do not match his descriptions, their motivation fades as the goal becomes unclear and limited to mere changes in perception, and that his techniques, though beautiful in conception, are unmeet and unfit in practice, having very little effect upon the ego indeed.
Question:
Can you explain how that works on a practical level?
Andrew Cohen:
Well, for example, I produce a magazine called What Is Enlightenment? But personally, I have no previous life experience or skills that would put me in a position to be able to create something like this. So what makes it possible? It's the passion that I'm speaking about. This egoless passion really does make it possible to create and manifest things that one would never ordinarily be able to do if it were coming from ego. One begins to express something that's very profound, and very meaningful in a non-personal way. And it seems that this passion has no end to it. There's never a point where it's over, because there's always more to be done.
When a conscious human being who has transcended the fears and desires of the separate ego to a significant degree feels this intense passion for evolution, for life itself, awakening in them, it's recognized as a sense of care, a sense that something must happen that's more important than anything else. It says this must occur. And there's a tremendous impersonal, non-egoic passion in this. One has nothing personal to gain from it. But it is possible to begin to care that much about something that one has nothing personal to benefit from. When it's egotistical passion, of course, one has everything to gain from it. It's all about personal glory. But in what I'm speaking about, this passion comes from an overwhelming compulsion. It's not for oneself. And as a result of giving oneself that much to the task, one wins one's own personal liberation. As a result of giving oneself to this deeper passion one loses one's hypnotic attachment and slavery to the fears and desires of the separate ego.
Guru Kurt:
This is ridiculous. There is no real virtue in being able to produce a magazine! An illumined person talks every day, writes every day, volumes and volumes, with an endless supply of new creative insights, blinding announcements, and inspiring aphorisms. All illumined teachers can do as Cohen has done, which is a very simple thing. Again, however, Cohen’s description can be taken as an illumined person’s self-perception. Easwaran used to talk like this a lot, but instead of taking this “folksy” and “smarmy” approach of “you’re like me, and I’m like you,” he would clearly notify his listeners that he was speaking about what life is like for you after the supreme state of consciousness is attained. What does Cohen mean by “meaningful in a non-personal way?” He means that he does not perceive his actions as having a direct return unto himself after their completion, which is the hallmark perception of the illumined man or woman, who works for an internal reward in the external world. Finding the source of bliss and joy within your heart, you seek a means to open up this endless spigot further, and do so by learning to help in Brahman’s Great Project of freeing all living beings as one of His treasured and beloved sons or daughters. Cohen has perceived the Paramatman, which appears impersonal to man; this is his highest perception, and he is true to it in his teaching work, with the candor and honesty characteristic of an illumined individual. Once he goes a little farther, he will detect that he retains something of the personal in himself, indeed that he has a personality which is supreme by comparison with the unillumined people around him. Possessing a supreme personality, Cohen looks outward to reality and attempts to “go impersonal” in an attempt to penetrate farther into Paramatman. He will eventually discern that the Paramatman has personal characteristics that are made manifest in the Avatar and that by ceaseless repetition of the Avatar’s name he will be able to make much more progress into the impersonal than he currently does. Easwaran had this ceaseless repetition, in his case of the Name of Krishna, which is called ajapajapam in the Hindu tradition. Only those who have been illumined in at least one previous life are capable of attaining ajapajapam, for it requires the unstinted and unholstered power of the Atman, finally free of the ego’s niggardly and stingy clutches.
Cohen’s mistake is most evident in the second paragraph, where he says, “When a conscious human being who has transcended the fears and desires of the separate ego to a significant degree feels this intense passion for evolution…” for he is again speaking of a person who has undergone samadhi, though by inference one gets the idea he speaks also of advanced aspirants. This shows a fundamental lack of appreciation for his own state, as well as a fundamental lack of understanding of the states of his students. There is no “almost illumined,” “partially illumined,” or “halfway Lord.” Illumination is like the switching on of a brilliant floodlight in a room that was formerly pitch black, which is the real state of even those aspirants right at the edge of samadhi’s halcyon shores. Ramakrishna used to say that it was like an onrushing tsunami, a tidal wave. It is a specific event, of great internal purification. It is a step-change. It is a revolution in consciousness. It is like the explosion of a bomb within your being. One moment you are man, the next you are divine, a god. This is the real nature of enlightenment. Cohen is enlightened, and seeks to drag everyone else to his state, instantaneously, when Brahman requires that each soul make its own effort, struggle along its own path, and find its own glory in due time. The best teachers, therefore, do not seek to drag others along with them, speaking overmuch of experiences that no one can immediately share, but seek to empower their students with real techniques that are practical and effective on a day-to-day basis, so that each person can focus on his or her individual life and begin making progress immediately, no matter how small or humble this may be at first. Cohen, who has discovered the underlying “spiritual ropes” of life, tells his students, “Stand on top of Mt. Everest, grab a rope (surely you can see them!), and swing to K2! Watch me do it! See? It’s easy!” His students stare at him dumbfounded, uncertain what to do or where to go. They are awe-struck, to be sure, but Cohen guarantees his influence will be small as the centuries begin to roll by and new teachers (among whose number he will certainly be counted, in his future lives), with more practical and commonsense advice, begin to arise. I recall fondly that Easwaran put this subtitle in the early volumes of his book “Meditation,” though it was later removed to my bewilderment and dismay: “Commonsense directions for an uncommon life.” That’s really it, you see. Spiritual people are uncommon, and Cohen is absolutely wrong to take personal glory out of the picture. It’s all about glory, in the end. The illumined man or woman expresses the glory of God in his or her life. Those who are advanced spiritual aspirants also express God’s glory, to the extent they are able. The Avatar seeks always to increase in the modes of unceasing devotional service unto Brahman, which means, in the end, expressing the glory of Brahman in all his words, thoughts and actions. Brahman has made us, and His creation is glorious beyond our ability to describe. Show this glory forth, and you will become His righteous, cunning and resourceful son or daughter. Miss this glory, by leading a selfish life without any concern for the happiness of the world around you, and you are a long ways off from becoming one of His own. Cohen’s gaffe is seen in the last sentence, “As a result of giving oneself to this deeper passion one loses one's hypnotic attachment and slavery to the fears and desires of the separate ego.” There you see it; he has attempted to make a description of the self-perceptions and personal efforts of an illumined being into a teaching work that all can follow, by connecting his idea of “egoless passion,” which is a true and good one that accurately describes the illumined state, with sadhana. It will not work, however. You don’t need to take my word for it; just try it, and if you are earnest a few days’ effort will convince you of the truth of my words.
Question:
How can one find this egoless passion?
Andrew Cohen:
We have to look deeper. If we only put our attention on ourselves, my fear, my worry, my pain, my frustration, my anxiety, and so on, we're never going to find that passion. But underneath all that there's a passion for life, a passion that's not selfish. So in order to find that passion for life we have to be willing to disregard all the fear, all the self-concern. You see, the selfish ego is like a dam. And just as water gets stuck behind a dam, so all that energy, that passion, is stuck behind the fears and the desires of the ego. But when we feel the spiritual impulse or evolutionary impulse, then our attention goes from the ego to something bigger, and when our attention goes to something bigger, then all that energy is released. So this is the heroic spirit that we have to cultivate to disregard all the self-concern and then this tremendous passion comes up out of nowhere. It surges up, and suddenly it becomes incredibly thrilling to be alive.
Guru Kurt:
The angel asks the all-important question, which he and I know Cohen cannot answer. The egoic being cannot find “egoless passion,” though there is a passion which may be found that is practical and suitable for those traveling along the path, however humbly, at their own leisurely or enthusiastic pace. I recommend that people cultivate an attitude of “selflessness,” which means learning to take joy at the joy of others, and to seek to contribute to the universal pool of human happiness, of which all of us are a part. A selfless person makes the simple choice to spend a portion of his or her time in volunteer work, on the evenings and weekends, in the community. It is very simple, yet enormously effective, and when combined with daily meditation and occasional repetition of the Holy Name of God silently, within the mind, with love and devotion, will propel you forward rapidly on the path. This was my own sadhana; I spent all my free time at Ramagiri, Easwaran’s ashram, contributing to the work there, and thus you see that selfless action can become as intense as you wish to make it, depending on your level of commitment. Mine was extreme; I was always repeating the Holy Name, working selflessly, or meditating, although of course like everyone else in the modern world I needed a job so that I could eat and afford a place to rest at night that was out of the cold and wet. Volunteer work is the best for this, although there are some selfless jobs which pay, and every paying job can be made selfless with the right attitude, if you think about the people whose joy will be increased by your work. Picture them, with their smiling faces, their lives having been made easier, sweeter or more spiritual through your efforts, and your work becomes a spiritual, purifying force in your own consciousness. This really works, as I have verified time and time again in my daily life. The wellsprings of joy will open from within, and you will go forward, though samadhi may be a long ways off yet. Cohen’s advice seems deceptively similar to mine here, and a careless reader will get swept away by what he says. As they say, “the devil is in the details.” Here, Cohen posits a “passion for life, a passion that’s not selfish” underlying all fears, worries, pain, frustration and anxiety. I tell you, if you still have an ego, and you look for this passion, you will not find it. It does not exist as a real thing until after the initial nirvikalpa samadhi event. If you try to look for it, you will see a vague sort of reality in your mind, which is your own representation of Cohen’s idea to yourself. This representation is not real, but since it was formed by the ego is illusory and will not help you to go forward. It will only make you more and more confused, as you go after it, and find yourself coming up empty handed again and again. Since this passion is not real, it is bad advice to tell people to “disregard all the fear, all the self-concern.” I do not tell you to disregard these things, but to overcome them with the Holy Name, or to work through them as you engage in selfless actions of various types in your home, school, community and world. So far as you know, these are all real, immovable portions of your personality, with which you identify completely. Merely seeking to disidentify yourself with them will be of no avail. You must burn them out, through meditation, japam, and selfless action. This is called “tapas” in Hinduism. One who follows my Way will find a good deal of heat generated in his mind and heart, that overcomes negativity quite easily. If you apply spiritual disciplines correctly, you will get a great deal of this internal heat, long before samadhi even comes near you. There are many advanced states, spiritual states, to be attained before samadhi. Those in dhyana live in a sea of joy, always, though this joy is still tainted by the ego, with which they still identify. The dam of the ego, however, will not be removed until samadhi, and you will not experience this “tremendous passion” which “comes up out of nowhere” until this time. I do not wish to disillusion anyone, but illumination is the supreme state for man. It is not cheap. It is not easy. It takes a long, long time to achieve it. The best way to make spiritual progress is to think, “It matters not to me whether illumination comes in a day, a week, a month, or even ten lifetimes. I have uncovered the source of joy within, and though it may remain tainted with ego, it is my joy, emerging in radiance and warmth from my own soul, and I rejoice to bask in it.” When you engage in selfless action every day, you will experience this joy each evening, which settles in over you like the crowning mantle of a king. You have done what you were to do this day, which is to act in a manner that should bring a greater degree of happiness to others than they otherwise would have experienced, and the Self within rewards you with spiritual treasure as it sees your attitude, actions and even thoughts coming closer and closer to being in tune with the underlying spiritual nature of all life. Top