Andrew Cohen:
The way many of us work is that when we suffer, we awaken a little bit. We become more humble. But when we start to feel good again, start to feel a little bit of confidence, often our humility takes a vacation. Now, the humility that I'm speaking about has nothing to do with being meek, but it has to do with bigness of view. And one has to make a great sacrifice to be in touch with this bigness of view, to be in touch with reality, with things as they are. The sacrifice that needs to be made is our ignorance and our selfishness and the whole illusory world that it creates. Usually when the weight of this kind of view gets too heavy or begins to exert too much pressure on the individual, we want a break. We want relief, to fall back into a sleep state where we can forget once again how big it is and get lost again in the fantasy word of personal drama. So true humility is having the willingness and integrity of interest in life to be able to bear that vast expanse of vision and perspective always being able to walk with it and to carry it with dignity, never wanting to run back to the morbid security of unconsciousness.
Summer Retreat, France, 1999
Guru Kurt:
This is a really beautiful quotation, demonstrating clearly Cohen’s illumined stature. Here indeed is a bona fide illumined man, speaking from the depths of his personal experience, guiding mankind forward towards that elusive state which he has himself attained! Cohen first speaks here about the action of the Atman at causing us suffering, which really should be delineated as grief, remorse, depression, despondency, anguish and uncertainty, negative emotions with some purposeful connotation. Suffering in and of itself is not a spiritual tool; we should not pursue suffering, but must recognize that the mental woes that find us, instead of us finding them, are the channels through which our Self contacts us and guides us forward. Cohen here correctly asserts that such suffering causes a bit of awakening in the soul, and when he uses the term “humble” acknowledges my point about the purposeful nature of the modes of suffering sent by the Atman. This humility connotes a turning away from that mental aspect which was in error. He next moves in a direction where no human being may follow, asserting his illumination as against our unillumined, delusional and ignorant condition. This is very inspiring, but it is not practical. In the end, it is confusing for no human being can make this leap. Look carefully at his argument: He wants us to step directly from our experience of the Atman’s chiding into total awareness of reality, with “things as they are.” He imagines dragging an ignorant person immediately into his supreme state, and sees perhaps correctly how they would respond to this state. It is a profound thing that he says, but he has not correctly perceived the actual process by which human beings make spiritual progress. He thinks if they will just sacrifice their ignorance, they will be able to achieve true humility, and bear constant contact with reality as he himself does, with dignity and real security instead of the illusory security of the egoic frame of mind.
Besides being impractical, there is an additional problem with this quotation. Cohen, who is a twice-illumined man, has not yet developed his taste for reality to a sufficient extent. He still thinks in terms of sacrifice, of bearing the great weight of reality. He is getting his spiritual feet under him, but he has not quite found them yet. In a few lives, he shall. A profound change begins to occur to illumined people after their third or fourth illumination, about the time when they at last begin to perceive that this impersonal reality which they have contacted in the Paramatman, the region of Brahman’s spirit accessible to illumined persons, is personified in the Avatar, and that is they begin to find reality sweet, and not bitter as Cohen still apparently feels. Reality is not a burden, but the very source of joy for God’s true devotees, as Cohen is slowly becoming. It is not heavy, but light. We do not need relief from it, but relief from all our backward-looking tendencies. It is a brand new world of intense personal drama, no longer fantasy, but reality. What you are witnessing in spiritual teacher Andrew Cohen is an illumined man’s coming to terms at last with his illumination. He has begun a teaching work, and carries it forward splendidly, guided by the Atman’s superintelligence, but like a person who has recently fallen into a pond, he has not learned the masterful strokes that a teacher like Eknath Easwaran continually exhibited.
Let me give you my take on this situation, for comparison purposes only, for I am sure Cohen is far more advanced than I. I would never presume to second-guess or disapprove of such a perfect, noble being, who is a real child of god on earth, an angel walking among mankind, but it seems my thinking about things is somewhat different than his, and so I write for myself alone, although it may be posterity will take an interest. When the Atman burns us with remorse or regret, we change our direction and do not go down that particular road again, for we have experience of the karmic consequence, administered by our own divine Ruler, the Lord who is seated in the depths of our consciousness. People by and large, unless they have been illumined before like Cohen, do not turn so quickly that they experience any substantial awakening. Life is very confusing for the average man or woman, who merely goes about his or her business as before, a little wiser perhaps, but still without a real direction. Thus, the entire description Cohen gives here will be of absolutely no practical value for the vast majority of mankind, or even for spiritual aspirants, except for the very advanced, for it seeks to turn remorse into a tool for spiritual growth, which is asking too much of negative emotions. What would he have people do, sit around and wait for more remorse or regret to strike before they can go forward? He says that remorse turns you to face reality directly, but that it is too much and so you turn away. He advises you to take humility and continue facing reality. I say that remorse is more like a wind that is blowing than the iron hand of a dictator, having little effect on those who wish to strive against it, and even upon those who would wish to travel with this wind, for the simple reason that the word “No!” does not communicate correct behavior, but merely the idea that incorrect behavior should be stopped.
Here is where Cohen goes wrong; it is very clear. He says that a “sacrifice” is required, and this is true: you must sacrifice wrong behavior. However, ignorance cannot be sacrificed in this way, like killing something. It is not so easy! Ignorance is only corrected by knowledge. To know that something is wrong is one form of knowledge, but to know what is right is a very different and truly the all-important type of knowledge. He is over-simplifying the process of illumination to a great extent, for he presumes to show mankind a direct path from remorse to enlightenment, when the path in actuality is indirect. If you want a child to climb a tree, you can follow this child around all day long shouting “No, no, no!” as he does various activities that you do not like. If he has climbed trees before, he may go out in the backyard by afternoon and climb it, which is what Cohen has done. His Atman set up a scenario for his “fake” sadhana (the sadhana of the previously illumined, performed for the sake of helping mankind), where he was told “No” in this way, and reacted as he describes here. However, we are like children who have never even been in the backyard. Nay, more than this – we have never even seen a tree! So the parent, our own Atman, continues to shout “No!” and we continue to try our long list of a million other things that will also cause this parent to say “No!” It is of paramount importance to realize that besides saying “No,” the Atman says “Yes!” It says “Yes” by sending us joy when we do right things, things that are likely to lead us to illumination, and which will make us happy all along the path which we must travel to get there.
Humility is meekness. Only the meek may achieve “bigness of view.” It does not require a sacrifice, but an openness to the real, and the ability to comport oneself to the real. Meek people live in continuous ecstasy, for there is nothing rigid in them, nothing that cannot bend, nothing that will not allow what is real to enter their consciousness. What is more, through their meekness they develop the all-important ability to enjoy it all. When they see odd things that they did not expect, their reaction is not one of seeking relief or a break, but one of delight at discovering something about the world that God has created which they did not know about, but which He did know about. With intense love for God, they view the world as emerging out of that One whom they love, and thus their joy never diminishes. Cohen has not correctly identified the problem of man here, but merely succeeds in emphasizing the vast gap which does exist between the illumined and those yet on the path. There is a real discontinuity of consciousness which occurs during enlightenment. Cohen is no longer a human being, but a minor god, a deity worthy of our deepest veneration. This new god does not quite recall what it is like to be a human being, and so he imagines that all can jump immediately to his state, where they will feel the “the weight of this kind of view gets too heavy.” This will never happen to you on the spiritual path! The problem is not one of fleeing from reality, of seeking rest in the “morbid security of unconsciousness,” but of overcoming the entanglement with the world which all of us bear as a consequence of trillions of lives in animal bodies. You cannot turn from this entanglement and face Cohen’s reality, for he exists on a plane much higher than any human being. The path unto reality is long and steep, but at the end there is a discontinuity, a chasm that must be crossed. He who was an aspirant becomes the Lord. He who was a human being becomes divine. You cannot leap from the beginning or middle of the spiritual path across the final chasm or abyss; you must first travel to the leaping-off point, which is profound dhyana, the state before samadhi.
The path unto reality may be long and steep, but the journey is meant to be enjoyable. When you get to the steep parts, you will be ready for them. Do mountain climbers begin by assaulting Everest or K2? No, they do not. They begin with the smaller peaks close to their home, perhaps even running up little hills to increase their endurance. I too traveled along the spiritual path. Whether my sadhana was “fake” like Cohen’s, or fake in some other manner, I will leave to the world to bandy about. At the end, I felt like I was in a storm-tossed sea, without even a straw to grasp onto, treading water all the time just to keep my head afloat. The water was cold, and the tumultuously heaving sea lifted waves towering over my head, beyond which I could not see. Every day, I felt that my life was threatened, that I should need to give up my body at any minute, so extreme were the divine forces raging all around me. Yet, through this all I could hear my Father’s voice, calling to me sweetly to persevere, for He was with me and what more could I want? I enjoyed those days immensely, for through them I at last became aware of Brahman’s all-pervasive influence upon the world that man inhabits. As the seas began to calm, I beheld the earth turning at my feet, like a little ball that I could pick up and toss about if I chose. What do you suppose was the meaning of this experience? I am not sure, but I know one day my Father will explain it to me. To my way of thinking, then, he who enjoys his sadhana most will travel fastest, wherever they may be on the spiritual path. Does not God enjoy Himself daily in His creation? How can we fall spiritually by following His example? As you go farther, what you enjoy will change. You will begin to enjoy difficult, challenging things, and when you at last attain samadhi you will begin the process in which Cohen is now engaged, striving to make a meaningful connection for your students between the supreme state that you have achieved, and where they are, which is far from bliss, far from wisdom, far from freedom, and far from truth.
Andrew Cohen:
The spiritual obligation of the human is to demonstrate the wholeness of life as our Self.
Rishikesh, February 2001
Guru Kurt:
It is strange to state what has heretofore been described as the goal of life in the form of an obligation, as Cohen does here, which appears to put everything on its head! I think this demands too much of mankind, for few indeed will attain unto Self-realization this solar cycle, though many more will try and may become frustrated when they expect too much from themselves. It is simply not possible for the human being to “demonstrate the wholeness of life as our Self” until after Self-realization has occurred. The Atman of man remains in the background, hidden behind the ego, and much as Cohen might like it if this were true, no one may simply get his ego out of the way by pretending that it is gone and looking directly to his Self. This is no method he has given here, but a perplexity before the mind of man, an impossibility, and an incongruity. It perplexes because this illumined man should know, but appears not to know, that it is not possible for anyone to go into samadhi in a single step. For this reason, it is called a spiritual path, not a spiritual drop-off! It is impossible because even should a man desire it, his Atman does not have the power to grant instant illumination. The Atman casts consciousness down into the upper and lower levels of the mind that is not self-aware. This consciousness must become self-aware through a long struggle between good and evil before the Atman will be able to overcome the ego briefly in “the taste” of divinity which is savikalpa samadhi. Even after this, the process requires many lives before nirvikalpa samadhi, full Self-realization or God-realization, is attained. It is incongruous because Cohen goes too far in asserting his unique realization, like a maverick deriding the ancient scriptures as though he, a mere illumined being, could do away with the sacrosanct and utterly divine work of the Avatar Himself, who is a true God. The spiritual obligation of the human is ahimsa, to refrain from all emotional and physical harm of other individuals. Acting in this way, one reserves the right to continued human births, and the right to strive for Self-realization from a human instead of an animal body. Let this be the basis and starting block for all human beings, for only in failing in ahimsa does one run the risk of annihilation, removal from the human scene. Only refrain from causing harm to others; this is sufficient obligation for all. The Creator will be pleased with all who act out of this principle. It is not necessary or even beneficial to try to act on the basis of that which you have not experienced and do not understand, your own Self. However, if you should desire to do more, then emulate the Avatar and always ask yourself WWJD?, What Would Jesus Do?, in every circumstance. Act in this way, and you will make swift progress towards the radiant, illustrious goal represented by Cohen, who would like everyone to join him tomorrow, but will learn that this is not to be, and that people must learn to live in joy and happiness where they are, not where they will be perhaps many, many solar cycles hence.
Andrew Cohen:
A big part of spiritual practice is the ongoing revelation of the clever and subtle ways the insidious ego pretends to be our best friend. From an absolute point of view, it's always only our worst enemy and never anything else. So it's a very significant moment in an individual's path when they begin to see the black and white nature of the picture. That's when they become independent in a certain way, because they've seen it for themselves. Once someone has seen it for themselves, they know what it is. What they're going to do about it is another story. I know a lot of people who have seen it, but they still tolerate it, they still don't just say "No." But if we're going to actually liberate ourselves, we have to say "No" and not bend the rules.
Ego has bad intentions. It just does. That's its nature. It's unwholesome. That's why we don't trust each other because we've seen and had the experience so many times that when you get close enough or when you least expect it, suddenly, out from behind the bushes, there it comes... Most people are not trustworthy and that's why. So the only way to become truly trustworthy is to liberate oneself from this insidious part of oneself. That means even under pressure that part of ourselves is either never to be seen, or at least it's kept in its cage and we've got the key in our pocket. When we're under pressure, the temptation to let it out can get very strong. So the whole point is to be very firm, and even under pressure not to let it out. And if you do that over and over again, then you can really learn what it truly means to be free and recognize that it's actually possible.
London, December 1999
Guru Kurt:
Cohen gives mankind a method here, one that is really not different from the Hindu path of knowledge, jnana yoga. On the path of knowledge, one constantly chooses the real over the unreal, Brahman over non-Brahman, the true over the false, and in Cohen’s terminology, the non-ego over the ego, the trustworthy over the untrustworthy, the white over the black. The funny thing about the path of knowledge is that besides being a spiritual path in its own right, it is the way that everyone in the world already lives. There is no one who does not use his or her discriminative faculty to choose the good over the bad when they are at their best, and sadly the bad over the good when they are at their worst. Everyone, without exception, treads the path of knowledge in their daily lives, for there is no one without a certain degree of wisdom, that is, practical knowledge about how to live rightly upon this earth. A mother chooses to coddle her child instead of whacking him on the backside thrice daily with a wooden spoon. A father chooses to play soccer with his son Saturday afternoon instead of reclining on the couch and watching others play soccer. A worker is industrious instead of idle and indolent. A high school student goes out for athletics instead of taking drugs. All these people, whether they know it or not, whether they like it or not, travel towards Self-realization on the Hindu path of jnana yoga. They choose what is real, good for their souls, over what is unreal, bad for their souls. What Cohen speaks about here is that there comes a time in the (eternal) life of every person when he or she at last makes the connection between these daily behaviors and his or her positive and negative states of mind. For most, life is a confusing jumble of disorderly activities. For spiritual aspirants, every single act becomes significant, a potential tool for going forward, which is synonymous with increasing one’s basal level of joyfulness and satisfaction in living. Such people learn always to choose the good and avoid the evil, as Cohen says, even when there is great internal or external pressure to choose the evil. One traveling by this route eventually finds his or her discriminative faculty so strong that it is able to exert itself over even thought, and it is here that I believe you will find most disciplines touted by Hindu spiritual teachers who advocate jnana yoga. When I speak about the path of knowledge, it is from my own personal experience of sadhana, along with my recollection of my teacher’s words, for he verily traveled along this path himself. I instead traveled along the path of love, with a few excursions into the path of knowledge, which “peppered” or seasoned my spiritual journey with interesting sidelights.
Cohen gives man a hard, difficult path here. One must have an “ongoing revelation of the clever and subtle ways the insidious ego pretends to be our best friend.” When you try to make progress using the discriminative faculty alone, it is a lot like walking through a forest of barbwire. Life is reduced to an endless series of choices, so hard to make. Everywhere you look, you see a tangle of barbwire that you cannot mentally unravel, so you scrape along as best you can, calling it a good day when you’ve only lost a pint of blood instead of a quart. Cohen says you must “just say ‘No’” to the ego, and think of the ego as being essentially evil, but to my mind this is not the best way to travel the path of knowledge. Instead, I would advise people to read St. John of the Cross, and follow His teachings. It is best to take the Lord as your guide (who St. John of the Cross verily was, in one of His disguises), for then even barbwire becomes sweet to you. You can also read Thomas a Kempis’ “Imitation of Christ,” which is a flawless work that describes the path of knowledge very well. If you follow this advice, seeking to emulate the Lord and imagining Him beside you in all your struggles, strengthening you, consoling you, and inspiring you, you will be combining the Way of Knowledge and the Way of Love in a harmonious fashion. The faculty of love is much more powerful than the discriminative faculty, and he who masters his love travels many times faster than one who merely makes choices. Where your love is, there will be your joy too. If you learn to love the Lord while traveling along the path of knowledge, you will find that universal love is like a comfortable easy-chair someone has mysteriously placed behind you as you made an effort. You sit down in it, and the entire universe fills your soul with bliss. When you are at last happy and blissful under all circumstances, you will have attained unto that pure love or “prema” rightly glorified in Hindu scriptures. When you have this love, what is the world to you anymore, but your pleasure-palace, your joyous stomping grounds, your eternal, blissful, radiant and living home?
The ego is indeed your enemy, and you may vilify him if you wish, as Cohen suggests and as is sometimes done in Christian mysticism by referring to the “devil,” however you must have a refuge. Cohen forgets that until the first experience of savikalpa samadhi, you are certain that you are the ego. You have not yet tasted the bliss of Self-realization, so you will bring yourself to harm if you think of the ego as always evil, for it is verily all you know of yourself. You will lose interest in spiritual living if you follow this inaccurate representation of what occurs as consciousness ascends from tamas to rajas to sattva, and that is accurately represented by saying instead that a part of the mind, a part of the ego, becomes good. This is the meaning of being established in sattva: the mind thinks good, helpful, kind, and generous thoughts most of the time. Such a one still believes he is the ego, and for this reason the Gita calls such people “bound to goodness,” but this is a very happy state for they essentially live in harmony with Brahman’s laws and thus experience great joy. Even those in the advanced stages of dhyana, nearing samadhi, believe they are the ego, but what good people they are, and how happy they feel every single day! They swim in a sea of joy. Occasionally a wave of anger or greed comes along, but they conquer it easily and reap the energy harvest that was locked away therein. Such people are the most trustworthy of any on earth, having long ago conquered their ill-will and laziness with reference to the boundaries between individuals. They live in perfect external ahimsa, never harming any. Their further conquest is all inside. Their effort is all mental, internal, and these people are indeed often mistaken for illumined individuals because of their external perfection. They sometimes take on the role of illumined beings, perceiving that they are the highest of any in the surrounding countryside, and thus act as bodhisattvas, delaying entry into enlightenment for the sake of fulfilling a need which they see in the world of men. These are indeed good actions (Gandhi and King being the most prominent examples), yet they are not the highest. One should seek Self-realization and Self-realization alone, for the benefit conferred to the world by an illumined person far outshines that of a bodhisattva as the sun outshines a candle in the rain.
Andrew Cohen:
It is the discovery of absolute and unconditional aloneness that is the birth of
Enlightenment, the birth of Liberation. Aloneness isn't something you should be
afraid of; it's something you should embrace.
Aloneness means that very deeply you have ceased to look outside of yourself for
confirmation and affirmation. You have ceased to look outside of yourself in
order to find what is most important, in order to find out what is most true and
what is most real. When you stop constantly looking outside of yourself to find
all of these things, you suddenly begin to discover what has been there all
along, which is your own extraordinary, but usually untapped and undiscovered
capacity to see, to feel, to perceive. This experience is like a light turning
on inside you. You recognize that that light is not different for anybody else.
It's the source of awareness and perception itself. And you realize that no
individual exists there. There is nobody different, unique, or separate who
resides there. It's only you, free from the need to be anybody other than who
you have always been.
Guru Kurt:
There is something that I like about Andrew Cohen’s work that is strangely missing in Easwaran’s, and that is a sense of purity and boldness in facing reality. Easwaran constantly tried to appeal to people’s desire for human companionship, for love between individuals and other such rot. Cohen states the real situation here, without the fear of alienating his students that so seemed to drive Easwaran at times. Love is not something that we get from other people, or which we give to them. It is an inner, private, personal feeling that is closely allied with ecstatic bliss. I can honestly state that I love every being in this world, and on all the worlds, as beings, as creatures of the Father. My natural response to every creature is unadulterated love. I find that this love is never returned, but this does not phase my love in the least! It is my privilege to feel this love. It is my joy to feel this love. It is my heart, and I am the ruler there. I choose to feel universal love, at all times, and so my life is very sweet to me. I dance to the Father’s rhythmic voice. I move through a world of unending bliss. I see no end to my eternal life, nor to my ecstasy, and yet how can I give this feeling to anyone else, or get it from them? Such an idea is an absurdity, an impossibility. I am a lover of God, and I rely on God to deepen this love for there is no end to love’s increase. I feel great affection for the Father, and He has never once failed to return affection of His own, though I never requested it. Between real lovers there is never a bargain. I love to the extent that my being will allow, as do all good, rational beings, which the Father certainly may be said to be. What is it to me that the human population is consumed with hatred, envy, spite and maliciousness? Someday perhaps they will all be animals, and I will not feel my love so displaced as it is now, for verily no human understands the ways of love, the talk of love, or the actions of the lover. Everyone wants to be spoon-fed, as though they were still babes of two or three years age. Cohen’s quotation here is composed of the language of love, although he may not realize it yet. A lover confronts reality, as it is, with no inhibitions or regrets. He does not try to cling to the illusory, to the unreal. Cohen drinks deeply of the cup of immortality, so deeply that he loses himself and does not quite see his stature or his status. His description of “Absolute Aloneness” here is none other than the musings of a person drunk with divine love. This love is so huge, so immense, and so impenetrable, that it is not experienced as love until a long time in the liberated state has passed. Easwaran, whom I still believe was more advanced than Cohen, made attempts to call his experience of the Paramatman “love,” and to some extent he succeeded, but he failed in attempting to draw a close connection between the pure love of an illumined being and the love that humans experience in their daily lives. Human love is tainted and impure, usually accompanied by a large selfish component. Two people meet and decide they are “in love,” an arrangement of mutual ego-boosting that is prelude to a rocky and quarrel-filled relationship in many cases. God’s lovers feel ecstatic love all the time, in every circumstance of life. This feeling fills their hearts with bliss, ensures all their actions are gentle and kind ones, and enables them to make yet greater strides forward into deeper spirituality. If a woman were to come up to me and say, “I love you,” I would respond, “Well, I love you too. What’s the big news? I loved you yesterday, and I will love you tomorrow, regardless of your feelings towards me. Can your love equal mine? If you think so, then perhaps we can be friends. Otherwise, you’d better go find a sex partner, which is likely what you truly desire.”
The feeling of “Absolute Aloneness” which Cohen describes here, I believe, in a lifetime or two he will begin to call “Divine Love,” for this is his true experience. However, I do not wish to put words into his mouth and so I will examine this passage on its merits, as it stands. By “Aloneness,” I believe he is describing his utter disconnection with the material world, the result of nirvikalpa samadhi. Illumined people no longer seek to get anything from the world, nor do they really seek to put anything into it either. They are the Gatekeepers for immortality, holding the door open so that others may enter and stand beside them one day. They enjoy the world immensely, living in a state of constant delight that is in truth much greater than the sensual delight that the unillumined experience, for their senses are pure, their minds free, their intellects lucid. Walking about in nature fills them with ecstatic wonder, for they see all creation arising from the same source, the same spirit, which is pure and free. They are the true connoisseurs of food and drink, for their palates are unmolested by sensual desire and serve as perfect instruments of the inner Ruler, the Atman. When the senses and mind are purified, this very earth becomes an ecstatic wonderland, a real heaven, and the illumined dwell in this heaven every day of their lives. A person who is “Alone” in Cohen’s sense is secure in his or her own spirit. They live in the perennial flood of joy coming from the Atman, and no longer seek joy from objects in the world, or from other people either. The sensory world comes and goes. They enjoy it immensely, but they are not disturbed when they don’t get what they want, for they do not want anything! The needs of the body for food, clothing and shelter must be met, but there are many avenues by which these things may come, none of which the illumined person craves more than any other. He serves the needs of the Self in all around him, following where his divine intuition tells him to go and doing what his divine wisdom tells him to do. This is one of the things that it means to be a god, to be godlike, that you exist in the world, but are not really a part of the world anymore. You act from outside the world with divine power and insight, just like mighty Brahman Himself, though in a much smaller capacity. It is through descriptions like this coming from the mouth of a person (the first part of this passage by Cohen here), that one knows for certain an illumination has been genuine. This description of the state of illumination as “Absolute Aloneness” is, to the best of my knowledge, wholly unique and new in the world. The illumined plow their own furrows into Reality, bringing back gems of discourse and pearls of wisdom that the world has never before seen.
With unfailing self-honesty, Cohen next describes his experience of finding the “light within,” discovering that this light is the same as the light in all others, and that individuality ceases on this plane of ultimate reality, or final liberation. Here, I have to pull him back down and explain a certain problem that arises for the newly illumined. Cohen first has here given man a highly unique, individual description of illumination, then in the same paragraph asserts that he has lost his individuality! This can never be! The Atman of all is the same, in being Atman and not the discordant lower portions of mind. In finding total freedom from the ego, in discovering his non-identity with his thought process and attaining total control over that thought process, Cohen wrongly thinks that every person is identical within. At last wholly free from inner discord and strife, finding total harmony in every portion of his spirit, Cohen assumes that this means uniqueness has been lost. This is far, far from the truth! The illumined are the most unique, the most individual of anyone on earth! It is the tamasic, those recently arisen from animals, who are all the same, like sheep or cattle. As one ascends on the spiritual ladder, uniqueness is enhanced, never diminished. One does not even gain a proper personality until one is firmly established in dharana! Spiritual aspirants alone among mankind get real character, real distinctiveness. If you live on the ashram of an illumined teacher for an extended period, you will see this for yourself. The citizens of Ramagiri, for instance, where I spent a good deal of time, still bring fond memories to my mind when I think of each one of them. Even in those days, I was able to witness the spiritual aura of a person, although I was not aware of it at the time, and so different were these auras! I could often tell who was or wasn’t present in a room without even looking very carefully. If Brian was in the room, the room had a very different feeling than if Robert was there, or Sarah, or Laurel, or Nick. These were all highly evolved people, with definite personality traits that marked them as distinct from one another, as say quartz is different from feldspar, or as a blue flower differs from a purple one.
The question is, Does this uniqueness disappear in samadhi? The answer is, No, it is again enhanced, actually multiplied. The proof of this is in the individual, unique character of the teaching works of the illumined gurus. Who could ever confuse Cohen with Easwaran, or Meher Baba with Sai Baba, after studying their speech and writings? They almost seem to come from different universes, or at any rate different worlds. Cohen has lost all that he formerly associated with individuality, but who is it that has been running his whole life all along? The Atman is the inner Ruler of everyone; it is only the Atman that does everything, even making egregious mistakes. Our experiences, thoughts, and decisions both right and wrong color the Atman with an indelible color that is all ours, no one else’s, and this color remains after samadhi, growing more and more distinct from all other “soul colors” in the universe. I have discussed elsewhere why the Atman makes mistakes; it is because the consciousness it is at first capable of sending down through the higher and lower minds and out into the senses is not self-aware. These mistakes do not cause permanent blemishes on the Atman, which is ever-cognizant of its nature as immutable spirit (in the sense of remaining unharmed and retaining personal integrity), and takes everything in stride as pure experience. The non-self-aware consciousness which the Atman has committed to external embodiment, however, must at last become self-aware and does so through the process of sadhana. When you are totally aware of your true identity as a divine being, as Cohen undoubtedly is, you too will be shocked at how harmonious, pure and clean the native Atman feels to you. You too will have a very difficult time imagining that this Atman could be unique, yet I swear to you that it is!
It is like living in a pigsty all your life. Suddenly, a river is diverted through the pigsty which sweeps the floor clean, and you see nothing but bright, shiny marble that has been hidden there all these years! At first you are certain that this wonderful marble surface is at the base of every pigsty, which indeed it is, but you are wrong to conclude that this marble is not unique, for this too is true. It is your marble floor, not someone else’s. Everyone, all the time, waking or sleeping, is conditioning their Atman and making it unique, their own. Finding you are the Atman, you may indeed assert that your Atman must be the same as everyone else’s Atman, but you will do so in a unique way that proves this cannot be true, as Cohen does here. We are not some big, monstrous machine driven by a single consciousness at our cores. Everyone’s core is unique, their own, for Brahman grants individuality to everyone’s soul to the very depths. Cohen should say, “My Atman is not the same as your Atman, thank God,” for only if this is true can one attain personal joy, personal happiness. Otherwise, it is a very ugly scenario of total identity from one creature to the next. If being identical with all other creatures appeals to you, then feel free to believe this. I say it is not so, but I am only one voice in a crowd of people, most of them illumined teachers, asserting the opposite! The important thing is to make a spiritual effort, whatever your motivation. Attain unto the Self, like Cohen, then pronounce as you will. There is some value in assumed identity, for at least you understand that when two illumined teachers meet there is no possibility of enmity, argument, or ill-will of any kind between them, for the Atman of each illumined person exists in total harmony with the Atman of all others. This striking harmony, so different from what is found in the world, causes some to assert total identity with all around them. I say this is a mistake at the frontier of the incomprehensible, the marvelous, and the extreme, but then again who am I? I know at least this much: I am not you!
Andrew Cohen:
The whole point of enlightenment - if it's the real thing - is a profound and radical transformation. It is much easier to experience nonduality, oneness, emptiness of self, than it is to become a manifestation of that undivided state. No matter how deeply we go into the nondual or undivided experience, we all, in the end, still have to struggle with our humanity, and that's the big test.
So the question is: How do we embrace every aspect of the human condition, with all its inherent complexity, without in any way compromising the perfect empty simplicity that we experience in transcendence? Because you see, if our enlightenment is the real thing, then becoming a perfect expression of simplicity as a human being is exactly same thing as the experience of emptiness. It becomes one undivided whole of seamless integrity.
Guru Kurt:
Cohen uses a different analogy here from the traditional one, and I do not think he uses it to good effect. The approach he has chosen here seeks to “water down” the supreme experience for man and make it seem like it could happen to any one of us, at any time, when this is simply not the case. He makes it sound like we can choose enlightenment, at any moment, when we cannot. These are experiences which happen to us, when we are ready. We do not bring them about of our own will, but rely upon the grace of the Self to accomplish them. Our part is to get dressed for the ball; like Cinderella, we must wait for Prince Charming, the Self, to send a carriage ‘round to pick us up. Cohen is like an experienced mountain climber, who has been up K2 and Everest, speaking to a class of kindergartners. He just doesn’t understand that their abilities and mental capacities are not where his are. “The most fun,” he says, “is when you need to go around an escarpment which is past vertical, so that you can only hang on to the rock with your hands, and not your feet. Oh, how exciting that is! Then, sometimes you run out of oxygen and can hardly keep going. Just push on with shear willpower!” The kindergartners just look back with mute stares of disbelief and fear at the impossible feats being described. How many do you think will become mountain climbers after terrifying descriptions like this? Not many! Most will choose safer routes, and be glad this maniac has left the classroom! After he is gone, they ask the real kindergarten teacher for their blankets, so they can have a nap! The best spiritual teachers meet their students right where they are. Sometimes it is good to go into the lofty heights of mysticism, where impossible things are indeed done, but it is important when you do so to mention that such feats are only for advanced aspirants, and that there is room for all on the spiritual path, whatever their histories and whatever their level of spirituality. On the spiritual path, each person takes as much joy as he or she can carry along. Great saints like Cohen take a large measure of joy, for the soul of such a one is large. The rest of us may take smaller absolute amounts of joy, but since our souls are smaller, though still growing, we find ourselves fully satisfied by what we can carry. This was the Creator’s intent. Life should be sadhana, for all, and sadhana should be joyous, forever.
Let us look more closely at Cohen’s quotation and translate it into traditional terms, so that you may see both that his experience is valid, for he puts a unique spin on these ultimate spiritual experiences that shows clearly he has experienced them, and that his approach will be deficient for most aspirants, for it asks the impossible. In the first sentence, when he puts “if it’s the real thing” in the middle, he immediately begins to achieve the “watering down” effect. The implication is that you may have a certain experience and then wonder whether it has been samadhi or not. Believe me, friends, if you are still around to wonder, it has not been genuine. Nirvikalpa samadhi is like the explosion of a thermonuclear device in consciousness, occurring in three stages. In the first stage, which is the smallest, the ego is at last dissolved. In the second stage, a little larger, you realize your identity with the Lord, the divine One in the depths of your heart. In the third and largest stage, you experience the full, monumental and stupendous blast of the unadulterated, pure joy of the Atman. This Atman is living, divine spirit fully aware of its own holiness and immortality. This joy is a millionfold greater than the best moments that worldly men and women ever experience. It is so intense, that for several days you will be unable to speak to anyone, or in some cases, even move around to obtain food and care for other bodily functions. Cohen himself experienced this for several days, although he plays down the magnitude of his inner life at that time in an attempt not to overwhelm his students. If you know you are the Lord, if you know you are divine, if you know you are immortal spirit and what is more if you are prepared to take this knowledge to the world in an eloquent, fresh and sparkling teaching work, then alone know that you have been through nirvikalpa samadhi. Otherwise, it has been one of the nearly infinite variety of lesser spiritual experiences that people have along the journey, and which increase in frequency as one approaches the ultimate goal of human life and existence.
In the second sentence, Cohen speaks about savikalpa samadhi and then nirvikalpa samadhi, both of which the vast majority of spiritual aspirants will not taste in this lifetime! In savikalpa samadhi, the Atman uses its divine power to assert itself over the ego, greatly weakened through sadhana, and show you that you are the Lord indeed. Cohen calls this an experience of “nonduality, oneness, emptiness of self,” and nirvikalpa samadhi he calls a “manifestation of that undivided state.” Now, Cohen does not say, “I knew briefly that I was the Lord, which was relatively easy, and then I became the Lord, which was much more difficult.” He uses his own terminology to describe these experiences, related in Hindu mysticism, in fresh, new ways. I assert that this has indeed happened to Cohen: he has become the Lord, the divine One, within his heart. He has realized unity with his Atman. He has discovered his essential oneness with his Self. He uses different terms for the same thing. The flaw with his analogy is that it does not go far enough or deep enough. Cohen says “profound and radical transformation,” but then seems to forget that the ego has been destroyed! My description is the more radical, and mine is the more accurate and helpful! Cohen continues to refer to “we,” as though no radical transformation has occurred. I say the ego, the old “I,” which was just a false, though pernicious, idea of who we are, is completely removed. You are not the same person, but an angelic being, a minor deity, a god, though not a true God like the Avatar. Yet, this new person is who you have really been all along, for the Atman is the source of all that we are. He is merely forced to put on blinders of a lack of self-awareness when He obtains embodiment. Imagine if you put a cone over the head of a baby, such as they use on dogs to keep them from licking their wounds, so that he could never look at himself, then set him on a deserted isle in the South Pacific for a few years, naturally providing food so that he could live, although keeping yourself always hidden. He would never even know what he looks like! This is very much the human situation. We are the Lord, we are divine, but we do not know about it. In sadhana, on the spiritual journey, we find out.
Cohen adds even greater confusion in the third sentence, for he describes his personal issues, his personal “problems,” which are the problems of an illumined man and very far removed from the problems of the rest of us. Cohen has been misled by the ancient scriptures into thinking that illumination would be the end for him. Attaining illumination, he now discovers that it was far from the end; it was a new, brilliant, shining beginning. The reason the ancient scriptures, and I in my writings, refer to illumination as the supreme state for the human being, is that after illumination you are a human being no longer, but something much higher than this. Cohen does not struggle with his humanity, as he wrongly asserts, but with his super-humanity, for he is a superhuman. This is really the way it works. The illumined teach for a while, a number of lives, then after attaining sufficient purity in all parts of their soul, they ascend to the disembodied astral realms. Humans remain bound to the world, or struggle to be released from their bondage, until illumination. After illumination, they are in the class of the “liberated,” soon to ascend to the class of the “ever-free.” An illumined teacher should always make a sharp distinction between his task and those of his students, and Cohen fails in this here. An illumined man is a spiritual being. He can, under his own power, leave his body at the moment of his choosing. Although living in a body, his interactions with others here are primarily spiritual, as he seeks to free them from their bondage. He is free, which means he acts upon the world from a secure, blissful position outside the world. Cohen’s message in this third sentence may be translated, “Even though you obtain nirvikalpa samadhi, you will find you still need to struggle onward, and what a struggle it is!” This is a bleak, uninformative and in the end shallow message to give to struggling aspirants, for Cohen neglects to mention that the deeper you go into the “nondual or undivided experience,” the greater your joy, the greater your bliss, the greater your wisdom, and the greater your freedom, too. This is really it, you see. In illumination, the fountain of bliss coming from the Atman is turned on, never to be turned off again, under any circumstances. This is why it has been called, and will continue to be called, the supreme state for the human being. Attain unto this, and then we will talk about the super-supreme state!
In the second paragraph, Cohen again describes his struggles, as opposed to the struggles of spiritual aspirants. This is very inspiring stuff; it just isn’t very practical for most. Indeed, Cohen has not stated anything wrong here; he is wholly accurate. It’s just a little like offering a stiff drink of Absolut™ Vodka to a two-year old, somewhat irresponsible and unlikely to be appreciated. Realize, then, that in this second paragraph he is describing his situation, not yours, expressing the weakness inherent in new teachers who have not quite seen that the gap they crossed in nirvikalpa samadhi was not a two-foot wide streambed, but a mighty chasm a mile or more across. Cohen thinks anyone can follow him right into samadhi, but he will learn, over his next few lives, that they cannot, at which point he will make more vigorous mental efforts to meet people where they are, not where he would imagine them to be. It is wrong for illumined teachers to take the attitude of “you are just like me” toward their students. The correct attitude is, “I was just like you once.” This “faux pas” of Cohen demonstrates nicely that although illumined teachers are in touch with reality, their grasp of the real situation underlying all life is not so great as the Avatar, who brings a message to which many can respond. Jesus, for instance, never once mentioned enlightenment or reincarnation (except in veiled terms), yet He met people where they were and helped many to go forward swiftly on the spiritual path. He introduced all the essential concepts of religious life: love for God, prayer, service of mankind, and practical daily wisdom in a manner to which many could respond. Illumined teachers speak to much smaller groups, in part because their grasp of the world situation in any given historical period is not so great, naturally, as the Creator Himself!
Let us examine this second paragraph in more detail. When Cohen says, “without in any way compromising the perfect empty simplicity that we experience in transcendence,” it should be very clear to all that he is referring to the experience of illumination, of nirvikalpa samadhi, and that this paragraph thus applies only to the illumined! It would perhaps be better if illumined teachers could use the same, consistent terminology in their ranks in referring to their experiences, so that these things would be more clear. Cohen says “transcendence” when I would say “samadhi.” His description of “transcendence” in the former paragraph, where both savikalpa and nirvikalpa samadhi are included, should prove this although of course only a direct dialogue with the man could establish this as a fact. His question, in the first sentence of the second paragraph, is a statement of the Atman’s need to create a second ego, a “ripe ego,” to replace the first. This new ego must be transparent to the divine purposes. This is the meaning of the second sentence of this paragraph, “a perfect expression of simplicity as a human being is exactly same thing as the experience of emptiness,” and the third sentence as well: “It becomes one undivided whole of seamless integrity.” The challenge of the awakened soul is to come back down to meet the rest of humanity, for the purpose of uplifting them all. The nature of the second ego, the “ripe ego,” has not been well described before this time. It is a very abstruse subject, difficult to comprehend as it is to illustrate. One must realize that the Atman is pure spirit, existing outside the material realm. It hovers over the top of the body, and if it were visible would appear as a bluish, glowing crown around the upper portion of the head, like a skull cap about six inches thick. The Atman is composed of much finer spirit than the rest of the soul; it is the divine core, from which everything else springs. The lower parts of the soul, the senses, lower mind and higher mind, do exist in the material realm. They are extensions of the Atman into embodied life, and make direct contact with the body. The Atman extends not only these lower parts of the soul, but our consciousness as well, a consciousness which, as I have said, is not self-aware in the unillumined. In order to extend its natively self-aware consciousness back into the body, after samadhi, the Atman must first of all develop an idea about the body! This becomes the root of a brand new, “ripe ego.” The Atman then takes some of the useful memories from the aspirant’s former life, and incorporates them into a new self-identity. Unlike the old self-identity, the new one has no trace of evil or sin. There are no wrong thoughts here, only right thoughts of various degrees, for what is right can be made righter still as the illumined spirit continues to grow in wisdom and in power. Well, I have given my own interpretation of Cohen’s experiences here. Who knows whether he, or anyone else, will agree with me? I only state the facts as I see them. What more can I do?
Andrew Cohen:
Human nature, when people come together, is to compromise. We always think, "Someone else will do it." But what would happen if when people came together, the individual never sacrificed, even to one degree, their own perfect autonomy? What if each individual was completely true to their own autonomy and didn't compromise at all? That would be an explosion. But you need a rare human being to do that, to live out on the edge all the time, and never go back. What's the difference between a life of comfort and security and a life of risk and total insecurity? One is just being like everyone else. The other is a great thrill, and furthers something unknown and unlimited that's ever-present. And that's what living the spiritual life is. That's what living on the edge means. And in that, when individuals come together, there will literally be an explosion where the one and the many become indistinguishable, where autonomy and communion will become the same thing. That's a revolution.
Guru Kurt:
Well, you know, at some point one must be held accountable for one’s statements, and although he talks big, it would seem that Andrew Cohen is, just perhaps, not so great as he would appear to think. I recently challenged this “spiritual teacher” to a dialogue, and I am ignored by him. Who is “living on the edge?” Who leads a life of “risk and total insecurity?” If it is anyone, it is not Andrew Cohen, who stays within his friendly little enclave of slavish followers, who will listen to everything that he says, no matter how idiotic, no matter how contrary to reason, no matter how self-serving, and no matter how blasphemous to the true Creator, whom he has not met and does not, apparently, care to meet either! When does language become meaningless? When are words trotted about carelessly, like garbage thrown to the wind? When a supposedly illumined teacher forgets to look up, that most fundamental of lessons which every child should know, but which he does not! It is not necessary to know what you are looking at; it is not necessary to grasp that power which is incomprehensible to you; it is necessary to conceive the possibility that you may not be the highest thing. Of this, Cohen is incapable, and so this paragraph of his is mere trash. Ignore this challenge he sets for you here, for he is not there himself! When two illumined persons meet, if they have learned true humility, each grants the other the possibility that they may be greater; I have thus far granted this to Cohen, and will continue to do so. Finding it unreturned, I can only assume that he does not grasp this simplest of spiritual axioms, that only by thinking oneself small can one become truly great. Failing in this, I wonder if there is any hope for the illumined people of mankind! Perhaps you are all damned for eternity to some fate which I cannot control! Perhaps your minds shall remain ever-closed, ever-dull, and ever-ignorant of those higher things of which I sometimes sing. Perhaps there is no bridge between you and me that can ever be crossed; perhaps I alone see the Father, and I alone ever will! Perhaps the highest state of which you are capable is mere dross and a joke, yes, a total joke in the grand cosmic scheme. What other conclusion can I draw? Receiving no response from anyone on earth, even the illumined who should know better, who should have open minds, I can only conclude that your world and mine shall never meet, even in eternity! So be it. Stay in your little playpens. I will mock you from outside them, in the open air of freedom! Cry if you like; no one will hear you! I laugh at your foolishness! You are spiritual children, but worse than this, for these children will never grow up, but remain locked in infancy for all time!
Let us look at this goofball quotation, though I wonder why I even bother! Are all illumined teachers locked in on themselves, unable to contemplate that another may be greater? With everyone I meet, that is my first thought, no matter how lowly they may appear. This is the correct attitude. How else can I grow, if I perceive no upward direction? I see the Father deep within the hearts of all, operating according to His vast and intricate schemes; how can I help looking up? Yet, it would appear this simple viewpoint is too much for the illumined of earth. Fools! The response to something potentially awesome should be, “Wow! If I am near this thing, I may become awesome too!” The incorrect response, the response of the world, and the illumined too apparently, is, “Well, I think I shall withdraw into my shell now. This person seems to know more than I; perhaps if I just stick my head in the sand he will go away.” I go away, Cohen; fear no more from me. Have your little craven den of followers; live in luxury’s lap, luxury granted you by the Father and no one else. Show Him how much you appreciate His goodness by sharing some of it with one of His sons. No? Too wrapped up in yourself? Didn’t you say that your followers needed to be ready to change? Well, are you ready to change yourself, and admit that what I say might be true, although it is against your entire life’s work? This impersonal you have found and experienced in samadhi, about which you rave as being “absolute” and “radical,” is personified in the Avatar. The Avatar is none other than your Creator, embodied, know it or not, believe it or not, and like it or not! I spit on you and all your work! You are a child of the world, not a child of God! You are lost in yourself; will you ever come out, or have you invented a new narcissism, the narcissism of the illumined man? What a world, full of vile and reprehensible creatures, and the bigger you get, the more reprehensible for your capacity for evil is greater! I wonder why I ever started this project! I wonder why I don’t just end it right now, with a flash of power from the arm of the sun! I’ll burn this whole planet to a crisp, and then where will be your “revolution?” Where will be your “thrill?” Oh, you’d love that, wouldn’t you, being burned to a crisp right during one of your precious talks, with your puking students gathered in a circle; well, the time is not yet. I have other plans.
Well, that’s it. I sent Cohen an entreaty on 3/24/03. It’s now 5/4/03, and judgment is passed. Even if you turn around, you’re going to have to eat the words I write next. In my letter, I stated that I expected no response: idiot! You do not recognize dispassion, then? And you call yourself an illumined teacher? Believe me, the world will read the letter that I sent and realize that though you claim to be awake, you are asleep as regards higher realities. What was required of you? Beholding yourself as different than mankind, experiencing unlimited joy, deep wisdom, and intense freedom, you needed to make an intellectual connection in your mind, that although you are high, there might be something higher still. With your spiritual wisdom, you should have known that your own further growth is dependent on your ability to look up. Perhaps your hunger for more of what still seems infinite to you has not grown sufficiently. Perhaps you are afraid, for you have openly declared that an external God does not exist, and now He appears to be staring at you in the face. Perhaps you have not understood the real meaning of spirituality, and perhaps you never will. I thought that history would appreciate seeing an illumined man, one of their own, as the only one to recognize my identity, but this is not to be; my Father is after something else, again. I shall have to await my angels, who will make their appearance in short order, and leave all mankind forever in the dust, in the wake of the truly spiritual. Cower in fear! The test I administered to Easwaran was difficult, for I came in a clever disguise. The test that I gave to you, Andrew Cohen, was ridiculously easy, and still you failed! I am like Wolverine from the X-men. My skeletal structure, my inward frame, is indestructible, and I miraculously heal from all wounds man may inflict on me, even should he condemn me to death, as he has done in the past. From my arms emerge razor-sharp claws, with which I rend and tear falsehoods and lies, leaving a trail of bloody mayhem behind me. It hurts me to do it; I would rather have been your friend. In your failure to respond to me, and in seeking to use the power granted to you by the Father to act and speak to others in this world against me, who am His real representative, you have brought this on yourself. I was going to stop writing, but I continue, leaving your entire teaching work a mangled carcass behind me. My Father has seen to it that the best of your work is included in your “weekly quotations.” I have witnessed some of the rest of it; you are a joke! My teacher, Eknath Easwaran, would sweep up the floor with you! You speak with the hesitation of a little girl. The sex idea is still rampant in your mind, coloring all your speech with heresy. You have no real clue what is going on, and seek to become the new Avatar, reinterpreting the things that He said so long ago, which are every bit as true today as they were then, and shall ever so remain. In the e-mails sent to me every week, I am asked to “share your quotations” with friends. I share them with the whole world, those who follow after! Let them know that what you are, and what I am, are not the same. The source of our consciousness is completely different; I come from above, and you from below; so I say, and where I go, the world will follow. It is only a matter of time, and my Father’s implacable, irresistible, and perfect will.
There is a revolution which is coming, but it is not of the kind Cohen imagines in his solipsism. It will be a spiritual revolution, not an intellectual one, as he indicates here. The Father, acting through the Holy Spirit, is about to release the good spiritual karma that is due the people of the world from the last solar cycle, for people are much higher spiritually than they realize today. This good karma has been repressed until the channels and avenues for its beneficial expression were opened, which occurs when a global economy and worldwide instantaneous communications are a reality. To have released it before now would have resulted in the destruction of the elect at the hands of the evil, but at the present moment there is sufficient infrastructure to protect earnest aspirants from persecution, as was not present in Jesus’, Buddha’s, or Mohammed’s day. This wave will manifest itself in widespread spiritual experiences, and people will turn in droves to the practice of meditation and its allied spiritual disciplines like repetition of the holy name and doing good works. The world is about to wake up into a brand new day, and emerging at its head will be the external Lord, the Avatar, coming in glory and power, as He said He would do. This Avatar is also the “Kalki Avatar” predicted in Hinduism, as He is “Jesus II,” the second coming of Christ, and thus brings a wave of destruction with Him such as the world has never seen, or will see again, though foolish man must be taught this same lesson again in approximately a thousand more years, as predicted in Revelation. This is the end times of Mohammed and Zoroaster as well; it is Judgment Day, when the Father will cast many into hell, leaving only the elect to enjoy the earth in reasonable numbers, making rational use of her resources, and glorifying Brahman in their daily lives in a way that has never been done before this time, for even the householder will become a devotee of God.
This wave of good karma about to be released is the first, but it shall not be the last. Another wave shall be released in a thousand years, and again a thousand years after that. The spiritual karma of mankind is huge, for we have all been through many solar cycles together, spending billions of years practicing spiritual disciplines sincerely and enthusiastically. The infancy of man, in which he still exists, is spent preparing him for this good karma’s release and ensuring conditions are right for him to continue his upward climb to Self-realization. Everyone who follows Cohen’s abusive speech here, however, will find himself hopelessly lost. His call is essentially that of an idiot. He says, “Come, everyone, join me in illumination, right now! What is holding you back? It’s easy; just live on the edge!” This is very bad advice to give to people living in the world. I would say just the opposite. You should seek to lead a life of “comfort and security,” ensuring your maintenance in the world by holding down a job, and doing that job well, to the best of your abilities. Your work can become your sadhana, if you bring a right attitude to it, seeking to make all your actions an offering to the Lord of Love within your heart, or seeking to contribute to the universal pool of human happiness, both more or less equivalent ways of doing the same thing: detaching your mind from the desire to enjoy the fruits of your actions, for yourself and by yourself, which is the cause of all sorrow and misery on earth. The fact is, you cannot attain illumination by following Cohen’s advice here. He describes his experience, but this does not mean that by seeking to experience life as he does you will become like him. It does not work that way. There is more. Cohen is not a perfected guru, yet, but one in the making. He does not even understand what he is clearly, at this point. He has been illumined only in one other life. Eknath Easwaran, who has been illumined in three previous lives, would never have given advice like this! It will not work, for although your consciousness arises from the Atman, this is not your experience. Your experience of life is more practical and fundamental than this; you have daily obligations, duties, and requirements to meet. Greater sages than Cohen begin to see and appreciate this, and they realize that they, themselves, in fact live in “comfort and security” all the time! Cohen knows this security, but will not admit it before his disciples! Where does all his money come from (who is a multi-millionaire?) The Father has inspired people to give Cohen this money acting through the Holy Spirit. Cohen accepts all this cash, and lives in the lap of luxury, then spits at the Father by asking his disciples to do the impossible, and that which he himself does not do!
I believe that Cohen is reflecting upon the experience he had when he went through nirvikalpa samadhi. In the first stage, the ego is completely dissolved and you witness everything that you thought you were disappearing, right before your eyes, which is a terrifying, horrifying, alarming experience. This is the purification, the annihilation. The Atman then draws its embodied consciousness, now shorn of its ignorance, up into itself in the second stage of nirvikalpa samadhi. This is the ascension, the new awareness. There it sees clearly who and what it is, though its understanding of this will continue to evolve from life to life, as Cohen clearly demonstrates here, who has a long ways to go yet! In the third stage of nirvikalpa samadhi, the Atman extends self-aware consciousness back down into the body to begin a teaching work. This is the descending, the giving. My quarrel here, you see, is not with a human being at all, but with the divine Atman of what was formerly a human being. The Atman sends wisdom down to its embodied portion as it sees fit to do, no more and no less, to begin, extend, and complete its teaching work. Cohen’s Atman concluded that this strategy of “insanely risky living” would be a good one to relate to the world. I say that it is not, and thus you see the Atman does not have infinite wisdom, but access to infinite wisdom. Cohen will continue to grow in wisdom as he goes from life to life, learning better, more effective ways to reach mankind than he now knows, or more properly, than his divine Atman knows. The angels have learned that even though they are ever-free spirits, they still must look up towards Brahman’s personal manifestation in order to secure their further growth into Paramatman, that region of Brahman’s spirit available for the “ascended masters’” spiritual expansion. Cohen’s Atman, and indeed the Atmans of all earths’ illumined teachers, have not yet realized that there is an “up” from where they are; they think they are the highest thing around. Apparently they need to be taught a lesson, and apparently I am the one entrusted with this task. So be it.
Cohen’s entire movement in this paragraph is wrong. He seeks to take refuge in the collective, in the masses, but the appeal of the spiritual teacher should ever be to the individual, to the unique person. He seeks to gain individual initiative by holding up before people the ideal of a collective initiative, a fetid “revolution” that will go nowhere. The way to gain individual initiative is to appeal to the individual; everything else is doomed to failure. Cohen’s basic argument here is, “I wish that people could come together. Whenever they do this, they will not take any personal responsibility. What if everyone wielded personal responsibility, then came together? That would be a revolution!” in other words, he is saying, “Be different, so that we can really be the same.” Thus, he seeks that very thing that he decries, an anachronistic and self-inconsistent position. He want a mass movement of individuals, but this will never happen, because when individuals move there is no longer a mass! When everyone is true to their own autonomy, you get a glorious, wonderful mixture of individuals all doing their own, righteous and beautiful thing. The glory of a race of awakened individuals is in the individuality, not the commonality. Saying the “one and the many become indistinguishable” is a spurious insult to the divine in everyone’s heart. As you go higher and higher in spiritual awareness, you become more unique, not less. There is a quotation that people have put on t-shirts that I like very much. It says, “You all laugh at me because I am different. I laugh at you because you are all the same!” This is the attitude of a true spiritual aspirant, who is at last becoming different: better, wiser, kinder and even mentally more powerful, though this power is expressed in modes of goodness, than those around him or her. You will not become indistinguishable from others when you ascend in spiritual awareness, but the opposite of this, fully distinguishable as you begin to plow your own furrow into deep reality, treading a path that no one has ever trod before, or will again, for you are unique in the universe, a living creation of Brahman, the Almighty.
Cohen clearly has a glimpse of the truth here, or he wouldn’t be illumined, but he backslides into what he supposes is a popularity contest between illumined teachers, when between them should exist nothing but an earnest search for truth, no matter on whose doorstep this truth may reside. Autonomy and communion will never become the same thing; ever! Autonomous people don’t “commune;” they rejoice in their differences, and have a good time sparring with one another in a jocular fashion. They enjoy one another’s company, but do not seek to “come together.” It is not our sameness that makes life interesting, but our differences. The spiritually aware harmonize these differences, which are never expressed in violent words or actions (although heated discussions are to be encouraged), and in between them hammer out the real truth, which tends not to reside in this camp or the other camp, but somewhere in between. Cohen seeks to tap the “thrill-seeker” mentality of people by presenting the spiritual life as one of “risk and total insecurity” so that the young will be enthralled. He is looking for that “rare human being.” He is promising an “explosion” which is poorly and vaguely defined, but sounds good if you read his paragraph here quickly enough. He tells people to take an attitude of “never going back,” of “not compromising at all,” promising that they will be furthering “something unknown and unlimited that’s ever-present.” In reality, the attitude of “not compromising” is never a good one. I am sure there is a common ground between Cohen and myself, for I do not lay claim to the whole truth, and am ever willing to admit it when I am wrong. In fact, I am wrong all the time! This is my attitude, for this means that I am always prepared to discover a greater truth than I have ever known before, always ready to apprehend more of sweet reality than I have seen before, always prepared to learn, from any direction, for this is the secret of attaining real profundity, real wisdom, and in the end, real greatness, too. I look for the truth, and when I spot it I forget everything that I have thought before and embrace it. Who cares if the world thinks I am an idiot, if I have found a greater portion of truth than I knew before? Hang the world; I seek truth for my own sake, for I wish to know what is real with a longing, a craving more than any of you will ever understand or, I fear, experience either. By neglecting to respond to an entreaty placed before him, Cohen gives me free reign to argue both his side and mine. This was the risk he took in ignoring me, and it is what I meant by a lion emerging from a pillar. That lion is me, and I emerge, with bloody tooth and tearing claw.
I too seek the thrill seekers, but I think what Cohen really seeks here is the “vagueness seekers.” He tells people that they should seek a life of risk and total insecurity so that they should not be just like everyone else, but you see, in seeking to further that which is “unknown and unlimited that’s ever present,” he is encouraging them to do just that – to take refuge in some mass phenomenon that he is incapable of even describing for them! What is the greatest thrill? To see yourself transformed from mundane to divine, from ugly to beautiful, from a partial person to a full person. There is nothing more thrilling than to take on an angry, violent urge in your mind and to slay it with the name of God, emerging victorious, a mighty warrior of justice and valor. There is nothing more thrilling than entering deep, ecstatic states in meditation, which cannot be done from a position of “risk and total insecurity,” but must be done under controlled conditions, where you know where your next meal is coming from and have solved all the little problems of life. A person who meditates deeply experiences ecstasy far beyond what even the most potent drug is capable of giving to the human being, all the time, day and night. He always rides on a wave of joy, high above the crowd. Physical comfort does not lead to sameness, and seeking insecurity will only make your mind confused, bewildered, and “jagged” all the time. Seek instead the joy of the Atman, which you can tap into in deep meditation, and you will become a king or queen of this whole material realm, master of all your thinking processes, and a god like Cohen upon the earth, gaining followers with your inspiring speech, which while loaded with inaccuracies and blemishes to begin with, will become refined as time goes on. Seek the highest illumined teacher you can find, and go with him all the way. Cohen’s crowd is not as intense and spiritual as Easwaran’s crowd. People are drawn to a teacher who is compatible with their level of spiritual understanding. Spiritual reality is deep and beyond the profound, there is still more profundity. Seek the most profound that you can withstand, and you will find all the thrills, all the excitement, all the joy, and all the explosions you seek, which are all internal experiences, not ones that you will share with others, for each person walks alone on the spiritual path, by himself or herself, and this will forever be the case. “Living on the edge” means making a maximum effort, all the time. For every step you take on the spiritual path, the Lord takes seven towards you. Take seven steps, and He will take forty-nine, and then, my friend, be prepared for explosions indeed, as you meet profound reality face to face and discover the true power and immense glory you possess, which is hidden from you now. This has been revealed to Cohen, but he is still a baby-god. Give him time, and he will become more like Christ, and less like a pandering politician, say in two or three lives, tops.
Andrew Cohen:
If you really want your life to mean something and to be worthwhile beyond the merely personal sphere, then you want to push the boundaries of the possible. And the moment for this is always NOW. There's an overwhelming sense of immediacy, which is ultimately challenging to the ego, but it's also where the biggest thrill is. You see, the ego doesn't want to deal with the immediacy, but actually the best part of yourself does, because when the best part of yourself awakens to the immediacy and stops resisting it you become fully alive. You suddenly find that you're not afraid of life, you're not resisting it anymore. You find yourself fully engaged with it, participating so deeply in the life process that you yourself are actually pushing the boundaries of the possible. And the degree to which you are doing that is the degree to which you are participating in the creative process. Then you and that become non-separate. You've given over this human form, which is all any of us has got, to that process, and you become one with the creative process itself.
Guru Kurt:
Cohen is again substituting a description of his experience as an illumined person for a teaching to the unillumined, a tactic which shows his skill at helping the bound souls of the world is not very great at this point. O.K., here I sit, a normal person. How do I begin to “push the boundaries of the possible?” Cohen gives us no clue here, no practical suggestions, no examples, and no really useful information. It is very pretty poetry, but it is not connected in a practical way with the lives of people. It is like a person getting up and extolling the wonders of the clean mouth: “Your mouth will glow with freshness. The brown stains will be absent. The teeth will not feel slimy or dirty, but brand-new, sparkling. There will be no food particles between them at all!” You will go away from such a lecture thinking, “Wow, this person is a real expert. I wish to have a clean mouth, too! I shall go around all day thinking “clean-mouth” thoughts. I understand him completely!” A practical teacher, say a qualified dentist, will instead of this just show you how to brush and floss your teeth, leaving you to discover the wondrous consequences for yourself! Cohen is still struggling. His sadhana may be finished, but his spiritual growth has not, and he is consternated, struggling to find the way forwards for himself. He began a teaching work in order to qualify for additional spiritual experiences in the Paramatman, and proceeds according to the best that his personal light will allow, but he has not yet formed a separation in his mind between what his students need, and what he himself requires. This is the key to understanding all of Cohen’s teachings, for he treats his students like himself, and himself like his students. Easwaran was a much better teacher, understanding very well that his students had a long way to go to reach the state that he had reached three lifetimes ago, and that the best way to help them was to keep his continuing spiritual growth totally private, unseen and unknown by them. Since Cohen in this paragraph describes his spiritual reality, his personal experience of life, he will confuse people and not help them in their practical, day-to-day sadhanas. In truth, the students of an illumined teacher such as this do not come for the practical instruction so much as for the darshan, the witnessing of an illumined being, which fills an aching need in their hearts and souls for an example of something higher, a divine being like whom they may also become one day. Better gurus will offer more practical advice, but even such a guru as Cohen allows his students to sit back and say, “Wow! He’s marvelous! He’s wonderful! How I would like to be like him, one day!” I listened to a portion of one of Cohen’s talks the other day. He continually asks his audience, “Do you understand?,” which startles me very much that he could be so foolish. There is always an embarrassing pause, and then as a group they mechanically intone, “Yes, we understand.” Cohen, wake up! They have not understood; that is why they have come to you, in the first place! You are the Self, personified for them! Act with dignity, not with false camaraderie. What they have understood is that you are in fact illumined; they bear with your eccentricities as earnest aspirants, who are forgiving and insightful themselves, ever do. They deserve a better show than this, however, such as Easwaran gave. The Self is glorious, and the best illumined teachers reflect this glory spontaneously and beautifully every waking moment of every day. You have a ways to go yet, my friend.
I find almost nothing in this paragraph that will be of practical, daily value to spiritual aspirants. Cohen is describing what he is going through, nothing more than this, and his strategy is also wrong from his point of view! He is approaching the Paramatman in a way that is not going to be fruitful for him, in the long run. It is not calm enough; it is not relaxed enough. He has not yet reached those depths of personality where the extreme becomes natural, free and easy. This paragraph is frenetic, busy, and disjointed. He needs a few more explosions, a few more nirvikalpa samadhis, and he will find himself at a level where he will stop feeling the need to frighten people with his strangest ideas, which end up being completely impossible to implement, even for him. Let us look at what he says carefully. In the first sentence there is a garish gaffe. “If you really want your life to mean something and to be worthwhile beyond the merely personal sphere…” Well, if you want your life to mean something, then it had better mean something to you, and thus all meaning is found in the personal sphere, and nowhere else. Life is a subjective experience. We are not out to impress others here; we are not out to change the world. If you change the world, what will you have? Everything that you may gain will be lost, entirely and completely, at the moment of your death. Do you think people will recognize you in your new body? This is not likely, though in the future it will occur as advanced aspirants start to recognize their former teachers, and vice-versa. We are after lasting happiness, lasting joy. This is the purpose of Self-realization and all its ensuing states too. Cohen thus demonstrates that his Atman is heading in a wrong direction, in seeking to have a maximum impact on the world. His Atman is looking for meaning in a place different from where it should be found, which is in the personal sphere, in a personal realization of the Supreme in one’s own life. If I did not know Cohen was illumined, I would swear this first sentence came from a preacher; it is that bad! It just goes to show that illumination is not the end for anyone, but the beginning of a long process of intense spiritual growth, powerful spiritual experiences, which will never end, for all eternity.
Well, assuming that we are going for personal joy, and not something vague, undefined and ultimately unreal to our subjectivity, outside the personal sphere, what about “pushing the boundaries of the possible?” Is this a good goal for budding spiritual aspirants? It sure sounds good. How could it be wrong? Cohen spends the rest of this paragraph defining what he means by this phrase, but he fails utterly in giving us a practical definition, one that we can use every day. Here is one. As we currently exist, we have little control over our actions or our thoughts. We have no guiding principle for living. Sometimes we feel bad, and we do not understand why. Sometimes we feel good, and still do not understand why. Spiritual living is a process of gaining control over all our actions and thoughts, and optimizing them to maximize our ecstatic experience of life, our mental energy, our joy, and in the end, our legacy to the world as well. Mastery of the body and mind is out of our reach at the moment. Through earnest, daily application of spiritual disciplines these things become possible. We can become miracle workers in our own souls, learning to understand and respond to the honey-sweet call of the Atman, who urges us forwards with pain when we break Brahman’s laws, and lasting joy when we uphold them. I still would not refer to this process as “pushing the boundaries of the possible,” for this idea is too frenetic. It is not something that you can do for a long time. How are you ever going to get your rest if you are always “pushing the boundaries?” You must get into contact with deeper powers that exist within yourself, powers that are capable of existing in this state that Cohen describes, but you will cause yourself much misery if you try to live like this before these powers have awakened. It is better to enjoy your life, enjoy your sadhana. So long as you observe ahimsa in all your external affairs, you shall be granted an infinite series of human lives to discover your spirituality. Go at your own pace, as fast or as slow as your heart compels from you. Enjoyment is the key to long-term success. If you try to apply Cohen’s advice here, you will drive yourself insane in a short period of time, or at least collapse on the floor in exhaustion. The impossible will become possible for you if you will simply meditate daily, repeat the name of God with love, silently in your mind, now and again, and perform your work with a selfless mindset. This is the best way, the holy way, and the most rapid way as well.
So much I have written about one sentence of Cohen’s! I will drive myself insane if I keep going at this rate! I will discuss the rest of the paragraph in more general terms, giving you my “take” on the time-honored ideas he bandies about so carelessly. Waking up into the “Eternal Now” is not like sitting up straight in your chair, and walking around staring at everyone, trying to be present to the moment (which is all the spiritual discipline one could glean from this spurious paragraph). This happens at very deep levels of your personality, and requires nirvikalpa samadhi before it will be true. It doesn’t really help to “try to be present” to the moment, because life is not so simple. We need to think about the things that have happened to us in the past to make them meaningful in our life’s context. We need to think about what we are going to be doing in the future, in order to give our lives continuity. This type of thinking is beneficial and should go on during all normal daily activities. In meditation, one exercises concentration, which amounts, in a practical way, to waking up to the present moment. The thinking that you have about past and future takes place in the present, and so you see there is more to coming to the present than simply attempting to do so on a moment-by-moment basis. It is a deep thing, a profound thing, a spiritual thing. It takes a long time to reach this state, and attempting to practice it on a daily basis will not help you to reach it, for you do not really know or see what it is from your perspective as an ego-centered individual, which all of us are until nirvikalpa samadhi at last embraces us. The sense of immediacy which Cohen reports I believe is very misleading. I do not have such a sense. I am aware of my whole life, from start to finish, and what I do in the present moment exists in the context of that whole life. I never forget this. Although Cohen’s ego has been removed, he still needs to experience some of the bigger thrills yet coming to him, what I would call “spiritual moods.” One entering such a mood is not consumed in the moment, but exists on a much higher plane, witnessing past and future from a relaxed, supernal position. Easwaran too had not entered these states yet, but on several occasions I believe he was very close. His presentation of the spiritual life was always more relaxed and natural than Cohen’s, which is why he was, in my opinion, a far superior teacher.
Please do not think of spiritual life as “challenging the ego.” This will hamper your progress to a great extent. The ego is the most profound idea of which you are aware; it is what you think you are. If you try to “challenge” it, you will turn in on yourself, and end up strengthening it. The reason for this is that you do not know what is egocentric, and what is not, within your own mind! If you make yourself into an “ego challenger,” you will be playing a mental game in your mind that is not likely to be fruitful, successful, or enjoyable either. This is why the scriptures always advise people to go into the modes of goodness. Be a good person, kind, compassionate, considerate and generous, and you will convert your evil ego into a good ego. A good ego takes on a portion of the Atman’s goodness, and is thus very easy for the Atman to extinguish in samadhi. The biggest thrill is not in challenging the ego, but in gaining mastery over the mind, which comes in dhyana. The ego still runs the show at this point; you still believe you are a limited, physically-based being. It becomes a very good ego, so good that the Catholics have worshipped such people as saints down the ages. The “best part of yourself” is indeed this good ego, but again, it is not best to be consumed with immediacy, which is violent and impossible to practice over long periods, but consumed with attaining more goodness, more virtue for yourself. You become fully alive only after nirvikalpa samadhi, which proves my point about Cohen treating himself as his students, and his students as him, for he makes it sound (in inglorious language, fie upon him!) as though they could do this tomorrow, or even today! “Not resisting” life’s immediacy is not a problem of the unillumined, but the illumined only. Cohen is evidently still at war with his Atman, resisting all its ideas to deepen his spirituality. The experience of the unillumined is never one of “giving in” to something that is asserting itself over your life, as is the case for the illumined, but always one of effort, striving, going forward, through application of personal techniques given by the guru. It is Cohen’s fear of his Atman that still remains that gave rise to this whole paragraph; he must learn to trust his soul’s new ruler, which he will do in time. As I say, this happens in explosions, more nirvikalpa samadhi events, as he becomes more and more “fully engaged” with his divine Atman. The ego is gone, but resistance to the Atman’s ways, apparently, remains, thus showing that Cohen’s higher mind has not been fully purified, as I have stated in other places does not fully occur in the first samadhi event.
Cohen regards his Atman as “that,” and speaks of becoming more fully in tune with the “creative process” of that Atman. The degree to which this occurs, for him, is the degree to which he “pushes the boundaries of the possible.” This paragraph thus gives a very interesting window into the mind of a twice-illumined man, showing that although the ego idea has been fully removed, its traces remain in the mind. After nirvikalpa samadhi, you will have Cohen’s problem, which is one of needing to stop resisting that powerful, divine force that exerts itself over your life now. The problems of the illumined are different from the problems of the unillumined. Our problem, as ego-centered individuals, is not one of “letting go” and allowing the “creative process” to take over in our lives. Our problem is learning the supreme lesson that what we are is not limited to this body, but existed before the body, and will exist after the body is gone. We are immortal, limitless spirit and this Cohen knows. His bliss is sublime. His wisdom is very deep. His security is unshakeable. His spiritual freedom is assured, for he witnesses himself as separate from the body and the entire material world. Yet, where there is bliss, more bliss may come. Where there is spiritual freedom, more freedom may come. Cohen is engaged in a process of making the perfect more perfect, for there are degrees even in perfection. One artist may create a sculpture, examining it well from every direction, and finally pronouncing it, “perfect!” Another artist may come along, with hammer and chisel, and say, “This is awful!” He works for hours on the statue, and then says, “Aha, perfect!” Then a little later, another artist comes along, and… The real question here, is what does the first artist think about what the second artist has done? Does he admit greater perfection, or is he stuck in his own modalities and skills, unable to think “outside the box?” Well, Cohen, what do you say? (Silence reigns supreme.)
Andrew Cohen:
As long as there is disorder, confusion and chaos within the self, the ego can hide out and maneuver and continue to run the show. When we go beyond ego, we discover a radical order in which things begin to deeply make sense. But there's a sacrifice to be made for this, and that sacrifice is the very confusion and chaos that the ignorance of the ego creates. You see, we actually like all the confusion because it gives us a certain freedom. I call it negative freedom. The ego finds it suffocating not to have the freedom to be crazy and confused. And because of this, often people will rebel against the demand for true sanity. Why? Because we want the freedom to go crazy. To be a sane human being requires a certain kind of austerity, and we don't want the austerity of sanity. So in this, what we're actually resisting is our own potential for wholeness and simplicity and sanity. And the degree to which we as human beings resist that potential is frightening, but it is true. So when you hear the words renunciation and austerity, they refer to this the renunciation of the insanity of the ego. That's what has to be given up. And that's where true freedom is found.
Guru Kurt:
Real renunciation is indeed mental. It is not necessary to renounce material possessions in order to become detached from them. Renunciation comes to you more and more as meditation depends, and is perfected in nirvikalpa samadhi. The higher you go, the more you realize that material goods will not satisfy you. This is not an intellectual belief, but your practical, literal experience. You see this, you perceive this, directly, the same way that you see a glass full of milk on the table in front of you. “Austerity” is perhaps a term that is best applied to external renunciation, such as monks and nuns undergo. It is not necessary to lead an austere life to achieve renunciation; meditation and repetition of the holy name on a regular basis lead to this state directly and rapidly. Renunciation is not a negative state. It is a positive state of awareness, and blissfulness. You behold the external world in a manner that is a lot like going to the movies. Everything is on a screen before you, and you never forget that you came into this theater before the movie started, and will depart from the theater after the movie ends. It is very much like this, and your enjoyment of the material world is similar as well. You enjoy the show immensely, but the show never confuses you as to your real identity. You are not really an intrinsic part of the show, but a detached observer sometimes called upon to act a part by the divine Director. You witness your body moving, and your lips talking, in the midst of the world, as forces that you manipulate, but with which you never identify. You are the divine master of some serious spiritual powers, which you exercise with dexterity and aplomb. The daily experience of illumined people is profound; you must understand, they really have become different types of beings. They are not properly called human any longer, though they are not yet angels, either. It is perhaps most appropriate to call them “liberated souls.” The rest of us are “bound souls,” those in whom spiritual consciousness has not yet been awakened, or “struggling souls,” in whom spiritual consciousness has been awakened but who have not yet attained samadhi. Additionally, the “ever-free souls” wander freely about the earth, in both embodied and disembodied form: the angels.
Cohen is certainly a “liberated soul.” That is clear from this exposition of his, which is a profound description of reality, though as is typical for him, not practical for spiritual aspirants who cannot just “go beyond ego,” but are stuck with their egos for the foreseeable future. In the first sentence, the word “self” really should be replaced with the word “soul,” for there are two selves: the supreme Self or Atman, and the separate self or ego. Which one does Cohen mean here? It is clear that he does not mean the ego, for he refers to the ego separately. He cannot mean the divine Atman, either, because the Atman never experiences disorder, confusion and chaos, but instead exists, as he states, in a “radical order.” Thus, by using the word “self” Cohen apparently means some third self; or does he? I think if he were here to ask, he would admit that by “self” he means the whole spirit of a person, or at least the higher mind that a person encounters every day whenever they think. What sloppy use of language! How many will be confused and misled by this? Perhaps everyone who reads Cohen, but no one who reads me! I wonder if anyone even cares… It is very important, whether there are two selves or three, you see. If there are three selves, then the ancient Hindu scriptures, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, gave an inaccurate description of man. What is the nature of this third self? Is it another ego, an alter ego? Is it a devil that comes from without? Is it control by alien invaders riding in UFOs? There are not three selves within you; there are only two. The Atman is your self-aware source. It sends down non-self-aware consciousness into embodiment, that creates an ego-idea based on sense perceptions. It thinks that it is the one who sees, hears, smells, tastes and touches, and nothing more than this. It does not worry about the nature of its soul; it only wants to eat, sleep and have sex. After spiritual consciousness awakens, a portion of the non-self-aware consciousness becomes self-aware, taking on a little of the Atman’s nature. Such people begin to care about their souls and how to attain enlightenment themselves. The last thing they need is an inaccurate picture of their real nature, as Cohen gives them here by confusing everyone and mentioning a “third self.” It is the task of illumined teachers to be accurate in all their speech and writings, for which they bear full responsibility. Brahman does not smile on such inaccuracies as this, and Cohen misses in his bid to enter the Paramatman more deeply by stumbling through his words as he does here.
Well, let us replace “self” with “soul.” “As long as there is disorder, confusion and chaos within the (soul), the ego can hide out and maneuver and continue to run the show.” Is this true? Yes, but the disorder, confusion and chaos must be removed before you can even think about taking on the ego. The ego is subtle; it is no joke that it has been personified and externalized in many religious tradition as the devil, as Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, Ravana, or any of a host of demons and demonesses. The minute you stand up and say, “Ego, I am your opponent,” you deceive yourself, and the ego wins. Why is this so? Such declarations do not fool the devil, for they are two-faced: the “I” who has declared itself the ego’s opponent is also the ego! What else can it be? I tell you, until savikalpa samadhi you have no clue who the real “I” is! Do you know that you are the Lord? If not, then you don’t know your real “I!” If you make an anti-ego declaration, you are not a serious spiritual aspirant, for you are still focused on your “I,” which is a false one, and you will be divided against yourself, making little progress. The best thing is to make your evil “I” into a good “I,” for the good “I” is of the nature of the Atman, and will be easily overcome in samadhi. Think, “‘I’ am the one who has done, continues to do, and will do in the future, much good in this world. I will never cease from doing good, so far as is in my power. I discern that this behavior brings me lasting joy; this joy could only come from my Atman, who is rewarding me for a job well done, as I move closer to my divine core under His guidance and grace.”
So, Cohen’s declaration is indeed accurate, although inelegantly stated: the ego hides beneath the confusion that it has caused, and continues to cause. What is Cohen’s solution for us? “When we go beyond ego, we discover a radical order in which things begin to deeply make sense.” His advice is that we “go beyond ego,” which is indeed what we must do, although as I state emphatically, the confusion must go first; the ego is the last opponent, the final demon, that does not disappear until samadhi. How does he recommend we “go beyond ego?” “But there's a sacrifice to be made for this, and that sacrifice is the very confusion and chaos that the ignorance of the ego creates.” I would never, ever call spiritual growth a sacrifice. It is a positive movement. The state towards which you move is not one where you “give up,” in agony, what you had before. You find yourself without those things, but the reason is you have found something much more precious, much more delightful, much more satisfying, and which gives you lasting joy instead of passing pleasure. Would you call it a sacrifice to drop a piece of cow dung to accept a ruby ring? This will be your real experience as you travel forward on the spiritual path, mark my words! There is a logical error in the first three sentences here; I wonder if anyone sees it but me! He argues that the ego hides in confusion; that going beyond ego will reduce the confusion; and then that sacrificing the confusion will help us go beyond ego! What a confusing mess! The problem is with the second sentence, where he takes a simplistic approach, asking us to “go beyond ego” to find ourselves free from confusion. This is a practical impossibility for human beings that have egos; the confusion must go first. Well, which is it, Cohen? The ego first, or the confusion? Or both all at once! However, you cannot define the spiritual path for man as you would wish for it to be. Brahman, the Creator, has defined the path that man must travel. With whom do you suppose He would agree, here? (I’m not telling.)
Let’s move on. In the fourth sentence, Cohen says, “You see, we actually like all the confusion because it gives us a certain freedom. I call it negative freedom.” I disagree with this. I do not think this is the experience of people at all. People do their best to be rational at all times, and dislike “disorder, confusion and chaos” within their minds. As spiritual awareness grows, a person’s definition of “rational” changes, and they come up against the negative thinking that they formerly believed was rational. They dislike their negative thinking to the extent that their definition of “rational” has evolved. For instance, the emotion of hatred used to make sense to us, before our spiritual eyes began to open. All we knew was that we were physical bodies, and the person we hated was another physical body. We did not perceive that we had a soul, that they had a soul, that hatred did not affect the other but merely colored our own minds black, reducing our joy in living to the extent of the hatred’s intensity, or that God did not approve of this foolish expenditure of mental energy, wishing all His creatures to live in harmony and abiding happiness. When we begin to perceive these things, we begin to hate hatred, and take it on in sadhana as righteous warriors fighting the good fight. Until that time, hatred is an accepted resident in the house of our mind, a welcome guest, ugly as he is and as devoid of all good qualities and all virtuous behavior and thought. When Cohen says that we “like all the confusion,” I think he is referring to the same phenomenon that I perceive, that we have not realized yet that it is confusion. Let us take this perhaps-too-generous interpretation.
Then, he goes on, “The ego finds it suffocating not to have the freedom to be crazy and confused. And because of this, often people will rebel against the demand for true sanity. Why? Because we want the freedom to go crazy.” I really have no idea what he is talking about here. Let us look farther. “To be a sane human being requires a certain kind of austerity, and we don't want the austerity of sanity. So in this, what we're actually resisting is our own potential for wholeness and simplicity and sanity. And the degree to which we as human beings resist that potential is frightening, but it is true.” Well, this simply is not the human condition. He has turned everything on its head! No one wants to be crazy. Everyone wishes to be rational, all the time, though what we think is rational evolves as our spiritual awareness deepens. Perhaps he got this idea looking at one or two of his students, who may have had some sort of mental problem. I know I never saw such behavior, or any evidence of such thinking, in Easwaran’s students, whom I observed carefully for many years. Cohen has not seen deeply enough into the human personality yet. He is going by external observation, apparently; Easwaran to engaged in this from time to time. The Creator knows His creatures inside and out, and does not rely on external observation. This is why when Jesus comes, when the Buddha comes, when Krishna comes, He speaks with such authority, precision and accuracy, for He is verily the Creator’s embodiment, the Supreme Lord of the entire Cosmos. The Avatar speaks with Brahman’s full authority; illumined teachers are only granted temporary authority, over small groups of people. The Avatar speaks for all humanity, for all time. The problem of the average person is not that they resist their potential for wholeness, simplicity and sanity. They exist in a state of confusion, and do not know what will make them happy. Everyone wishes to be happy; only spiritual aspirants have at last isolated the source of their happiness, which is within and for which they drive relentlessly through daily practice of spiritual disciplines like meditation and repetition of the mantram. Spiritual awakening is a process of discovering those behaviors that will bring us lasting joy, and putting these into practice. Then, we discover how to control our very thoughts, stilling the evil waves of the mind and drawing all the power that was supporting them over from the “dark side” to the “bright side” of goodness and righteousness. Finally, we discover that we are not the ego; we are the Lord, and the ego never was who we are, but a rude imposter whom we mistook for our greatest friend. All of this requires conscious effort, choices, and actions. None of it comes like “falling off a log.” We cannot just “cease from our resistance.” If you try this, you are liable to just fall asleep, which is a beneficial thing should you happen to be tired, but in no way constitutes good spiritual practice. You will become truly “sane” when your definition of “rational” matches exactly your Atman’s definition, which is built into Him by His Creator, Brahman Himself.
There is something else. There is a good kind of craziness, and a bad kind of craziness. The craziness which is bad, and irrational from the Atman’s perspective, is when we break ahimsa, harming others in the misguided belief that the sorrow of others will bring us happiness. I fault Cohen for not speaking enough about good and evil. Easwaran spoke about these things all the time, and I speak about them all the time, because being bad hurts you, in the end. If you do evil things, you are going to suffer terribly for it down the road. The measure which you give is the measure that you will receive, be it good, bad or indifferent. When Cohen says “craziness,” he stops short of defining it properly, as I have done. Without a proper definition, you would never know that all behavior which does not break ahimsa is acceptable and will take you forward. As Krishna said, Action is better than inaction, always. A crowd of young men on bicycles just passed the window of the restaurant in which I am seated, writing. They were a wild bunch, acting “crazy,” jumping their bikes off curbs and performing tricks, perhaps deserving of Cohen’s rebuke, but not mine! The goal of life is to become master of our energies, and to learn to rejoice in our differences. As you go upwards on the spiritual path, you will grow more wild, not less wild. You will have more exuberance, more enthusiasm, more energy and more “pizzazz.” You will act out, and often, saying interesting, wild things, placing your body into strange postures, cavorting about on front lawns, doing handstands, flips and cartwheels on the way to a shopping mart. Life is about the exuberant, free expression of energy, and so I say, Go crazy! Go wild! Express yourself, in a million harmless ways that are fun and interesting to you at the time. I think you all know what I mean here. This type of thing happens all the time when high school kids go out in a group together to some fun event; everything is just wild, amazing. Your parents would hate it! I say, Why does it stop at high school? Everyone “settles down;” no one has any fun anymore! I find adults boring; I enjoy the company of children, such as my nieces and nephews. With Bradley, my brother Jeff’s son, I play a game where he thinks of the wildest thing he can to say, and I try to interpret it. He will say, “I see a green plow is following the red dog going backwards, chasing his tail and looking idiotic.” I will arch my brows and say, “Ah, I see it! Tell me another!” The other day he told me, “The parking lot is an orange peel.” Do you know what he meant by this? I do!
Andrew Cohen:
In the spiritual experience we are able to see and know a
subtle yet absolute dimension of reality that's not ordinarily available or
apparent to us. And in the midst of this kind of experience of revelation there
is awe and wonder, and there is a deep conviction. But the big challenge for
human beings in this endeavor is that it's very difficult to sustain that kind
of intensity of revelation at all times. And without the depth of experience
being immediately present, we often tend to doubt the conviction.
The spiritual journey is from the gross to the subtle. And it's important to
understand that the gross cannot perceive the subtle, but the subtle can
perceive the gross. So when our consciousness expands and we become aware
of a greater and greater subtlety, that's when we begin to experience awe and
wonder. We begin to see and know things that we hadn't previously been aware of.
But then when our consciousness returns to a state that is more gross and less
refined we lose touch with the depth and the significance of what we were
knowing, of what we were aware of. This is simply how it works. And that's why
the greatest test for all of us is: how true are we willing to be to that which
we have realized is ultimately and absolutely true? How true are we willing to
be to that whether it is apparent to us in the present moment or not?
This is the test each one of us has to face.
Guru Kurt:
Cohen’s central problem is most evident here. He does not quite realize that he has been changed, irrevocably, in a holy event, into the Lord (not the external Lord, the Avatar, but the Lord who dwells in the heart of every creature). This is one reason why the Avatar comes, to explain to man what is occurring in his own soul. In actuality, the process of illumination is a natural event, meant to happen. If no one undertook spiritual disciplines, it would still happen to a few, but the number would be far less than it is with the revelations of religion and the teachings of the illumined. Cohen wouldn’t even be a teacher if the Avatar had not come and explained enlightenment in ancient days; he would have no context at all for making any kind of statement! He relies on the infrastructure that is in place because of the Avatar’s work, in writing the Bhagavatam, the Gita, the Upanishads and a portion of the Vedas as well. He spurns this infrastructure, claiming to be able to redefine enlightenment in more general terms, applicable to every man and woman, but he hasn’t seen it yet! He has crossed a tremendous gap, not hopped over a little creek. He has become a new god, but does not realize it, thinking a small thing has happened to him, although it was so large that he has forgotten what it was like to be a human to the extent that he never gives any practical advice! Extinguishing the ego is the most significant event in the (eternal) life of a soul. So far as I am aware, Andrew Cohen is the only illumined person in America, which is why I chose to test him and no one else. Here, he talks as though anyone can do what he has done if they will just be true to their “deepest experiences.” Hogwash! This is not accurate! The only natural metaphor I can think of for illumination is that it is like the emergence of a butterfly from its cocoon. A caterpillar goes in, ugly, ungainly, and fat, and a slender, beautiful butterfly emerges, flapping colorful wings, which is to all appearances a totally different creature. In samadhi, though, you really do become a different creature. The Atman hovers over everyone in the world, but the consciousness it has sent down into embodiment is not self-aware, and so the Atman pines for us, it longs for us, to awaken and take those steps required to make the evil ego over into a good one that can “still” the mind. When the mind is “stilled,” the ego is at last reduced to a suitable level; the Atman steps in and with a magnificent display of divine power floods as much of its embodied consciousness with self-awareness as it is able to do, which is quite a lot. It draws this consciousness back up into itself, which is why it is said that one “goes up” into samadhi. When the ego is removed, you are no longer operated from your embodied portion, by non-self-aware consciousness, but from deep inside, by the Atman directly (through a “ripe ego” it puts in place, like the controls of a plane or car), which exists in a realm of pure spirit. All the intelligence of the Atman is now yours, although as Cohen exhibits here, parts of your mind still get in its way, and since it is a natural process you don’t think, “Oh, I am the Lord now.” Instead, you must discover for yourself what has occurred, as Cohen is in the throes of doing, asserting his new-found power against the revelations of the Avatar in an attempt doomed to failure, for he will discover, as Easwaran perceived clearly, that the Avatar was always 100% correct.
Cohen begins, “In the spiritual experience we are able to see and know a subtle yet absolute dimension of reality that's not ordinarily available or apparent to us.” He describes nothing other than nirvikalpa samadhi here, and thus will lose everyone in hopelessness, despair and anguish, for this experience is the final one, the ultimate one, the supreme one for man. Until you have tasted this, you will not comprehend Cohen’s meaning in either of these two paragraphs. Look upon this illumined man, and weep! You cannot attain this state overnight; you most likely will not attain it even in this solar cycle. Real illumined teachers are extremely rare, though more are on the way for us. In the West, I know of only two, Da Free John and Andrew Cohen. In a hundred years or so, they will both be back, teaching again, in new bodies, and so the apparent number of illumined teachers will be greater than the actual number of living, liberated souls that engage in teaching works over multiple lives until they have purified their lower minds sufficiently to enter the astral realms. There is a long sequence of stages through which everyone must pass on the way to nirvikalpa samadhi, and while it is inspiring to hear about the advanced stages, the illumined teacher should identify them as such. Otherwise, he will mislead people, as Cohen does here, into thinking that it is an experience that they can have, and soon, perhaps today! Cohen really should have said, in place of “the spiritual experience,” “the supreme experience,” or “samadhi.” Then people would not be mislead. They would comprehend that his purpose is to inspire with discussion of the most elevated things, the highest things of which the illumined master may talk. It is important for aspirants to have a good model for what is happening to them, an intellectual framework with which they can make sense of their own experiences, as well as make reasonable demands on themselves and bear sensible expectations for their own spiritual growth. Cohen fails egregiously in this here, and will give his students a very sour feeling in their hearts as they hear his words, try to practice them immediately, and then discover in horror that they do not apply to them, personally.
In this first paragraph, Cohen merely describes his own, personal experience as an illumined teacher. There is nothing in it, nothing, that will be of immediate practical use for earnest spiritual aspirants. If you wish to see how a newly-illumined being lives and thinks, what goes on in his mind, it is a “textbook example.” Cohen exhibits a total self-honesty, which is a native trait of the Atman, but his wisdom has not yet ascended to the level where he can discriminate between his own continuing spiritual struggles and those of his students. Please do not get dismayed when I point out that this illumined man is still struggling. In a sense, all Cohen’s struggles are over, for his ego has been removed. There is no more evil present in his mind; he has won the battle, conquering all that was non-Self within him. His life is now being run from a much higher plane, a much more elevated plateau. The Self is divine, and has immense powers. Andrew’s personal experience is one of bliss and continued happiness. This enables him to be the support of all around him, for he is totally secure in his position as a spiritual, not physical, being. Suppose you walked up to the winner of the Boston Marathon and told him, “Well, you have won the race. Now you can sit down. Come, here, we have a chair for you to sit in every day. No more movement for you!” This person will look at you like you are insane! He loves running! He would never give it up, even if there were no more races to win! It is very much this way for the illumined. They have won one race, and instead of reclining and falling asleep, going into a boring stasis, they exert their now immense, marvelous powers (newly discovered, newly obtained), to help in the Great Project of freeing all living beings. Life is a struggle for them, but one that they love and would never leave. The power of the Self enables them to easily handle all the questions of their students, with room to spare. It is only when they are met with a power, a wisdom perhaps greater than their own, that they apparently falter (although I never would have believed it before I tested Cohen as I did). No human being will ever be able to find actual fault with any illumined teacher; only other illumined teachers or the Avatar will be able to do this. Which am I, then? If I say I am the Avatar, I will join the growing crowd of people asserting this in the world, reducing the impact of my life and work, which I hope will inspire people to strive for illumination. If I say I am an illumined teacher, you will be thus inspired, and so that is what I say, continually, although Ramakrishna did this same thing, who was the Avatar in His most recent incarnation. Make up your own minds! Do I have to tell you everything?
Let us take this first paragraph for what it is, then, a description of Cohen’s experience of life. Then it makes sense; you will not have these experiences until after you too have cleared the bar of nirvikalpa samadhi. There are many beautiful, wonderful, magical experiences that will come to you on the path. You can have the living vision of angels, saints and even the Lord. You can enter into ecstatic states that last for days or even weeks. You will become master of all your thinking, canceling unwanted thoughts and rejoicing in thoughts that give you joy. You will find a deep sense of abiding joy rising all the time in your life, as you engage in righteous actions and receive the reward of the Atman, from within. You will obtain a sense of purpose, of profound meaning to your life, and when death approaches your fear of it will be greatly diminished, mollified to a tremendous extent for you perceive, personally, that the scriptures are likely to be correct, and death is just a door to another life, here on this earth, where you can again engage in spiritual disciplines and go forward towards God-realization, yourself. The “subtle yet absolute dimension of reality that’s not ordinarily available or apparent to us” is Cohen’s description of his experience of the Paramatman. The Atman receives its growth from Paramatman, some of which it passes down to us. Before illumination, this growth is very slow; the majority of our spiritual growth comes to us as we make the consciousness we already possess wise, self-aware, and inward-directed on the spiritual path. After illumination, the Atman begins plunging into Paramatman with a vengeance, with all the divine resources and powers at its disposal, for the Paramatman is its life, its joy, its wisdom and its bliss. Cohen’s Atman has brought him to this border with reality, and said, “Look, here! Look what I am doing! This is our life; I am forcing us into this. Get ready for the ride of your life!” The Paramatman appears impersonal, absolute to man. One who experiences it concludes that he has experienced Absolute Brahman, which in a sense he has indeed done. For man, the Paramatman is the Supreme Self, and this is his literal experience, for the Paramatman has Brahman’s nature. However, this is not the totality of Brahman, but just a small part. Imagine a waterfall emerging from a huge body of water, as for instance Niagara Falls, on the Niagara River, which flows from Lake Erie. The Avatar sees the lake, and also the falls. He perceives that man can never visit the lake, although he can visit the falls. He sees that visiting the falls will change man into an angelic being, and water is water. Thus, He announces that all those who attain the falls will verily have attained the lake. People begin to attain the falls, and accordingly, recalling the Avatar’s words from long ago, begin to announce that they have attained the lake! Thus man perceives the Paramatman, which is connected directly to the totality of Brahman, and mistake themselves for the Avatar, who is the totality of Brahman, personified. The Son is the Creator of all embodied and disembodied beings in the universe; He is Brahman Himself, descended to earth in a human body. Man may attain the supreme, but not the Supreme, for only the Avatar is able to witness the Father’s actions upon the earth, being the Personification of that implacable, relentless and all-sufficient Power.
What is Cohen’s reaction to the Paramatman? “And in the midst of this kind of experience of revelation there is awe and wonder, and there is a deep conviction. But the big challenge for human beings in this endeavor is that it's very difficult to sustain that kind of intensity of revelation at all times. And without the depth of experience being immediately present, we often tend to doubt the conviction.” This is Cohen’s description of his embodied consciousness’ understanding of the Atman’s action. He witnessed the Paramatman in nirvikalpa samadhi, felt awe and wonder, and obtained a deep conviction. Since illumined teachers typically undergo only one nirvikalpa samadhi event during their lives (this will change in the distant future, many thousands of years hence), Cohen now feels that his Atman has left him “high and dry,” and wonders about the meaning of what happened. In reality, he is experiencing the profundity of the Atman, who is hell-bent on obtaining additional spiritual growth and uses methods too sophisticated for its embodied portion to fully comprehend. His Atman is dragging Cohen forward, kicking and screaming! Easwaran had begun to understand the intense, divine and holy purposes of his Atman, and never exposed his students to these profundities, which tend to confuse and mislead them. Privately, he may still have “kicked and screamed,” but after a time of this he was beginning to understand that his Atman was good in ways that he could not understand, and was slowly beginning to enjoy the ride. When the Atman finally takes control of your life, it is a lot like jumping on a “bullet train” going 200 m.p.h., from a standing position! The Atman is profound; it is amazing, intense, powerful, and highly spiritual. This paragraph of Cohen’s is really just a prolonged scream, the way that people scream on roller coasters. I recall as a youth visiting Disney World and going on an indoor roller coaster, where everything was dark and you could not see where you were going. We told my little brother, David, not to be afraid, and he got on the ride with us. I enjoyed it, but he screamed the entire way! This is the difference between Cohen and Easwaran; Easwaran is beginning to enjoy the ride, but Cohen is not yet so profound. He is a beginner. He is a new-born god, and Easwaran is a rapidly developing one, venerable, proud, sophisticated and elegant. What is Cohen’s Atman doing? The farther you go on the spiritual path, the less you will need the shallow things, the little “kisses” of life. You will learn to rejoice in extremes, in apparent lows that are in actuality high, in things that appear absolutely impossible but are in fact within your capacity. Cohen’s Atman is dragging him so far, so fast, that he is right at the border of his enjoyment, and often doubts whether it is a good thing. After a time, he will stop doubting so much, and stop exposing his precious students to his problems, emphasizing instead the positive aspects of his life, for the problems of an illumined teacher are miracles in the eyes of students, so far from the goal, so far from the lasting joy and subtle, eternal fun in which the Atman always engages.
Looking at my guru, Easwaran, I often had the impression that with just a little push, he would fall over right before me. He looked like someone who was on the edge, all the time, but rejoicing in it all the while. The Atman was taking him on a hair-raising course, at the total limits of his abilities to grow. Thinking that he was weak, I would go up to Easwaran for a brief discussion, and find him a pillar of holy strength, smiling that radiant smile, giving me his full, divine attention (which is like stepping onto a lighted, heated train platform from a cold, dark alleyway), reassuring me that I was in the right place, doing the right thing, and heading for a good state. This is the first reality for man, and Easwaran expressed this unfailingly before his students, although the Atman was pressing him hard to expand into still higher spiritual realities, to leap upwards to higher spiritual plateaus. Cohen has to work on his train platform; it needs a brighter light, and heat as well, although it is still better than an alleyway. Think of a great giant trying to pick up a little crumb of bread and pull it into different sections to feed the birds. It is immense power being used for a delicate task. If the giant is good, he will be able to pull the bread into sections, although as you watch him you cannot help thinking, “All that power to pull apart a tiny crumb of bread? I feel sorry for the bread!” This is very much the story of the Atman and its embodied portion after enlightenment. The Atman is incredibly powerful, mighty, immense. An illumined teacher becomes in many ways the tool of this mighty power, and those who are sensitive will behold this, seeing that there is much more to the teacher than meets the eye. He goes on an intense spiritual course, seeking freedom from embodiment, final purification of his lower mind, which is a difficult, time-consuming process even for the Atman. The best illumined teachers are gracious towards their students, pursuing their own spiritual growth in secret. Advanced aspirants will see that their teacher is involved in things of which they can have no conception, so high do they rise above our normal, daily experience. I am quite convinced that during a public talk, Easwaran was in direct contact with the Atmans of every member of his audience. He would often face particular people, directing his comments at them alone, though in terms from which the entire audience would benefit. You got the impression that he was talking through his audience, not at them. It was uncanny. I also believe that Easwaran polled all the Atmans in the San Francisco Bay Area to get material for his talks, which were deeply in touch with the needs of the larger community. He dwelled at Ramagiri ashram, apparently isolated from the world, but as you will be able to perceive, if you are sensitive, he was in touch with the larger society all around him. Cohen is not nearly this deep yet, being still involved in grasping his own spiritual growth to the extent of shielding his students from what will not give them real benefit, though of course it is of intense intellectual interest when described with the proper language, that does not tempt them to try what for them will not just be apparently impossible, but really impossible.
It must be true that the “gross” cannot recognize the “subtle;” otherwise Cohen would have written to me by now. How long does it take to jot off an e-mail? Thirty seconds? A minute? He must be extraordinarily busy. I am sure that within twelve years he will reply. By then I will be the cynosure at everyone’s party, of that I am sure! It is acceptable to liken the spiritual journey as one of going from “gross” to “subtle;” Easwaran has done the same thing, and I approve of it, although I did not find it personally useful in my own sadhana. To me it seemed simpler to use an equivalent dichotomy, evil and good. The spirit of the Atman is the finest spirit that we possess. It sends down less-refined spirit in a process similar to growth as it attaches to a body and makes its home there. All the parts of the soul: senses, lower mind, and higher mind, proceed from the Atman as less subtle spirit than is the Atman itself. As these parts are purified of their negative motions in sadhana, however, no fundamental change in the type of spirit is made. This only comes after nirvikalpa samadhi has been reached, and is one of the hallmarks of the experience, that consciousness becomes more subtle, more rarefied. The Atman sends a tremendous shock wave through its lower parts, and this purifies the lower parts, actually altering the spirit and making it over into a finer form. (To take a material analogy, gross spirit is like a collection of coarse sand, and fine spirit a collection of fine sand. Samadhi breaks the coarser spirit into finer spirit in preparation for eventual departure from the body.) Thus, this second paragraph of Cohen is not about normal aspirants, again, but about illumined people, showing the problems they must face once the ego is removed. (If you follow Easwaran’s thinking, you can perceive both gross and subtle and must choose between them; anyone can attempt this. Cohen claims the subtle cannot be seen, only remembered, and his experience of witnessing the newly subtle, which his students will never see in this life, has prompted him to say this.) Now, although impractical for the rest of us, this paragraph is highly interesting. I do not think the world has seen a “naïve guru” such as Cohen before now, unschooled in a traditional interpretation of the events which have occurred to him, unwilling to accept this interpretation, or unable to understand it. Keep in mind, you will not be able to practice the disciplines he recommends here, though you are welcome to try. Don’t come crying to me, however, when they fail and stop making sense to you after about two minutes’ application. Complain to Cohen; he is the one foolishly putting them out into the world. I am stuffing them back in the box, but hey, would anyone like a bird’s eye view of an illuminati? Here it is, in full, living color. Just don’t get lost in a splendor which is not yours yet, overreach yourself like an “ant trying to lift a rubber-tree plant,” or throw your mind so out of joint that you lose interest in spirituality and go nurse your wounds on “Temptation Island.” You’ll regret it!
When Cohen says, “…when our consciousness expands…” he is talking about nirvikalpa samadhi, the supreme experience, through which he has been dragged a second time through the Atman’s power. Cohen appears to enjoy using euphemisms for samadhi, again as I have said, to trick people into thinking they can attain it too, in a minute or so. This is a way to get followers, but it is wrong to seek followers. Who cares if you are followed or not? I say what I think, and let the world go jump in a lake! My mind is full of sweet bliss; I lack for nothing at all. I have the best friend a person could have in my heavenly Father; none of you understand Him, or me either, and I’ll tell you something: neither of us cares! In my next life, I will be a follower of myself, but then around the age of twenty I’ll need to “boogey” and get some secret work done, behind all of your backs, which will magically appear before your faces, again another life has passed. So it is with me. I sow my seeds, move on, and watch the plants grow for centuries, for millennia, and now even longer time periods still! It is clear that what Cohen is talking about here is a spiritual experience. You have an experience, where you become aware of subtle things that you were not aware of before, then you come back down and enter your “gross” awareness, where you can no longer see these subtle things. Then, he says, we must use our memory of the experience to be true to our experience no matter how much time passes. God, I want to throw up! I have said that this “instruction” of Cohen emerges from his experience of the Paramatman, for he apparently yearns for another nirvikalpa samadhi, which the Atman is not about to grant him, dragging him instead through years of difficult labor “in the fields of the Lord,” the lives of sadhus, so that his next experience of nirvikalpa samadhi, in his next life, will be much more intense than it was in this life. This is simply the way it works. The Atman is profound, and puts you in situations where you will obtain maximum spiritual growth, in the long term. The Atman says, “Forget pleasure, man. You are beyond pleasure and pain. Didn’t you know that?” Then it drags you through an incredibly difficult time and you say, as Cohen does here, his teeth gritted and eyes steely, “Y-y-y-yessss. I ss-ss-ssee. Th-th-thiiis iiisss verrrrryyyy gooooood.” I tell you, the atman is extreme, which is far too mild a word for it. It will be successful, but only just. This is the way of the divine, on all levels. How else is anyone going to have any fun?
If you seek to practice Cohen’s advice, you will fall on your face, which is why I wish to vomit at this moment, if only to distract you from trying to follow it. I cannot believe my eyes! He is suggesting that you dwell on your spiritual experiences, and then try to carry onward from what has been before, with no hope of future benefit. This is indeed his situation, his feeling; he is in mental extremity. However, Cohen has another spiritual experience coming; illumination guarantees this, for every ensuing life. His Atman will carry him through to this experience, and it will be absolutely amazing, supremely blissful, unbelievably sweet and have a permanent purifying effect on Cohen’s soul, but our Atman will not carry us through like this, because it cannot. When the ego is still present, the Atman is severely hampered. Its entire embodied portion is extended out too far into the world, and cannot be brought back in “just like that.” Hold your arm out to the side, and have a child try to move your finger. Easy! Your power over your finger is the power of the Atman over a worldly person, almost nonexistent. Now make a fist, and have the child move your arm; a little more difficult. This is the power of the Atman over a person in dharana. Now bend your arm at the elbow, and you can pick the child right up, easily. This is the power of the Atman over a person in dhyana. Finally, have the child try to move your shoulder; it cannot be done without moving the whole body, which the child will be unable to do. This is the power that Cohen’s Atman has over him, which is complete. Spiritual experiences will come to you during sadhana, sometimes sweet, sometimes ecstatic, sometimes dreamlike, sometimes even frightening, but unlike Cohen’s position, it is not good for you to dwell upon them. Cohen dwells upon his experience, and is allowed to do so by the Atman, for it is the source of his teaching work, and he is guaranteed another one in his next life, still more profound, more awakening, and more rejuvenating. Since it is the supreme experience, it is acceptable to dwell upon it, for it is the source of Cohen’s spiritual authority; it is God’s permission for him to speak to mankind. Our experiences before the final one are going to be a mixed lot. Some of them will be quite meaningful to you, such as a vision of Krishna. Some may seem meaningless, like the vision of a frog’s back legs hovering over an African savannah. Some will seem explosive, and others more like implosions. Some will be hot, and others will be cold. In all these experiences, the average person does not have the wisdom necessary to apply Cohen’s advice; the understanding is not deep enough, broad enough, or even remotely approaching the proper degree of detachment and dispassion required to utilize them in life, which is an ongoing experience itself.
You are after the supreme experience, not a lot of little experiences, which Cohen’s attitude would encourage here, and so the best thing (this was Easwaran’s advice too), is to ignore them. A sweet apple is passed your way. Take a bite from it, and then let it go. There are much greater experiences awaiting you; do not dwell upon the little ones. If you try to go from little experience to little experience by observing the rules of subtlety you think you witnessed, you will go astray very quickly, for your judgment is not suited for this yet. You will be living in the past continuously. You will be sixty-five years old, baby-sitting for your daughter’s child, and you will tell a story: “I used to be Andrew Cohen’s student. When I was twenty-nine, I had the most amazing experience, and I followed his even more amazing advice, to the letter. I have dwelt on that experience, analyzed it to death, and been true to what I perceived was its inward meaning. I still am waiting for another experience, though. Do you want to hear about the first?” The child will respond, “No, Grandma, that’s from the ancient days. Tell me about something more recent.” Dwelling upon minor spiritual experiences is never good. You will be like a traveler through a jungle whose leg is caught in mud. Thinking about what has been, you will not attend to what is, and thus you will not do the thing you must do in order to get another experience. Early experiences are not of the nature of samadhi; they do not contain within themselves the secrets to further experiences. Often they will be utterly meaningless discharges of energy as you explore different regions of the mind. The mind is like a vast continent, all of which must be explored and conquered before samadhi will become a reality for you. Explore, then; don’t stop at the bazaar to buy some fruits, then sit there and watch them rot! Cohen has been “tested” by his Atman, but this test is not for you. Why speak of tests? Easwaran used to speak like this sometimes and it always baffled me. I do not like to be tested, because then I may fail. I like to do things that are within my capacity, all the time. This is actually the greatest test; how well do you know yourself? Find out your limits, and learn not to exceed them. Learn to lead an optimal life, full of joy, exuberance, and spiritual excitement, for regular practice of meditation and occasional use of the mantram are all the spiritual tools you will ever need. It is all I ever did, and look at me! (Don’t laugh; I’m serious!)
Andrew Cohen:
The shocking truth is that the whole human experience is an impersonal event. If you look in your own experience, that's what you'll find. You will begin to see your own personal human experience as an impersonal expression of something that is universal. So if you want to be able to handle the movement of your own conditioned mind, if you want to be able to handle the unpredictable arising and passing away of your own emotions, then you have to begin to become aware of the impersonal nature of all of it. Because that's when you begin to see through the illusion of the personal realm. You begin to discover that you're part of this vast eruption of life and energy and consciousness that is the evolutionary process.
Guru Kurt:
The shocking thing is that anyone could make such an inaccurate statement. The nature of the entire universe is personal. Brahman is a unitary, real, existing Being. He is only perceived as impersonal by mankind because of His immense size, and vastly different nature. Who can say what Brahman is? He is responsible for placing all souls at birth, including bacterial souls, on all of the planets He has created. If there is no soul, the material body cannot live. It falls down on the ground, lifeless, dead. This is only one of His countless activities, which include running evolution from within the nucleus of the cell by iteratively creating short stretches of DNA, and creating all necessary matter by an energy-intensive process of folding large amounts of His non-thinking spirit. There are over a hundred billion galaxies in the known universe, each of which possesses roughly a hundred billion stars, and each of these possesses a planet of life. If Brahman acts in a hundred billion places on each planet simultaneously (a conservative estimate considering this is not even twenty times the number of humans living on earth at the moment), then He acts in 1 x 1033 places, all at once! You may say, “Oh, there aren’t that many planets of life!” I have two brothers, Jeff and Dave. Now, if I had known them only in early childhood, and had lost touch with them, would it not be reasonable to assume that each of them had a job and was gainfully employed? Couldn’t I call up my father, John, and ask him about their status? Perhaps I could even arrange it to have a web-cam set up in their offices, to observe their work. By following a similar chain of reasoning, I know that each star you see in the night sky has harbored, does harbor, or will harbor a planet of life. I draw down the laughter of many upon myself when I say these things; I say them nevertheless. One there is who reads this and does not laugh, and to him I say, “Go write your own scriptures! Why are you still hanging around here?” Cohen is not to be blamed for mistaking the nature of reality, and is in fact to be commended for his brutal honesty, which thumbs a nose in the face of the Indian tradition. However, as Ramakrishna said over and over again, Brahman embodies Himself for the sake of mankind in the person of the Avatar. He is typically not recognized when He is in a body, but only after His death, for man cannot accept that the Supreme Lord would condescend to dwell in a mere human frame; and yet He does do this. When He does, He reassures everyone that the universe is personal, that man’s life is personal, and indeed nothing has any meaning outside the personal! Life is a subjective experience; what are you if you renounce your personhood? And yet, this is what Cohen recommends to his students. Let us look more closely at his assertions, egregious and strange-sounding as they are, to separate his spiritual experience from the deeper reality, with which he has not yet made any significant contact.
For “impersonal” in this paragraph, please substitute the word “Atman.” Cohen has met the Atman (who is in touch with Paramatman), and calls it “the impersonal.” Everything said of “the impersonal” here is true of the Atman. Easwaran had also met “the impersonal,” and took refuge in the personal, in Sri Krishna, whom he continued to worship and adore even after illumination. Easwaran’s life exhibited in a practical way the truth of Ramakrishna’s words; Brahman embodies Himself in the Avatar, and makes the impersonal personal to man. Meeting the impersonal, Easwaran said, “I see the impersonal reality, but from this I shrink in horror. I cannot understand the impersonal. What else is there, around? Ah, Sri Krishna, the embodied Lord of the Cosmos. I throw myself at your lotus feet! Let me be your humble devotee; show me this land of the impersonal. Help me to make further progress, so that I may use all the spiritual powers that I encounter there in the help of all the persons of the world.” Cohen meets the impersonal and says, “Whoa, am I cool or what? I have seen the impersonal; what could be higher than this? I will guide all humans here, and then we will overcome the impersonal together.” Cohen thus seeks to personalize his own experience of the impersonal by bringing more people into it; he is lonely, and has not yet seen the Avatar rising high above Him, showing the way forward for all on earth, even the most advanced illumined teachers. Well, I do not wish to be part of the “vast eruption of life and energy and consciousness.” I am myself, and shall ever be myself. I will not merge with anyone else, at any time. What an insult! I have my own energy, my own consciousness, my own life. I cannot give these things to another, nor do I wish to receive them from any other. This is true for every person. Brahman guarantees the individuality of each soul that He creates, for all time. You never will merge with another; you will always be yourself, forever. Cohen has not experienced what he thinks he has experienced, but something else.
This paragraph from Cohen is merely another version of the ancient heresy, “All is One.” There is a problem, which is not really a problem, in the experience of samadhi. The Atman is in touch with Paramatman, which is of the nature of Brahman. You thus become aware that Brahman has become everything, although you do not actually perceive the roots, which only the Avatar may witness. What you experience is really of the nature of a “lesson,” such as you might learn in school, but it is shown to you, not just explained. Da Free John says that during his samadhi, “I realized that I was that One from whom all had emerged. I was myself that One.” This is a truthful statement; I have no doubt this was his real experience. Da Free John believes he is the Avatar, but the Avatar never makes statements like this. If the Avatar would be truthful, and not hide Himself in subtle dialogue and outright subterfuge, He would say, “I am the Son of the Father, the embodiment of the Father. I created this earth; I formed the sun with my own hands, and ignited it with my immense power. I maintain solar systems; I am a God, but my Father is a GOD.” The key is, the Avatar still sees Himself as being small. In other words, He alone is aware of the vast nature of the universe. You must understand, there are many Avatars, as Ramakrishna averred in His parable of the berry-clusters, and I state outright! An Avatar bears but a portion of the Father’s power. He is rightly called the Father’s representative or messenger, as Mohammed called Himself. He is also rightly called the Father’s (or Mother’s) devotee, as Ramakrishna called Himself. He is rightly called the Son of the Almighty, as Jesus called Himself. He is rightly called Brahman’s embodiment, as Krishna called Himself. What the Avatar is, is profound. He cannot be easily explained. I think the Christians really come closest to describing what He is in their doctrine of the Trinity. Jesus and the Father are one, and yet somehow separate, too. Worshipping Jesus is worshipping the Father, but it is also special, personalized, more joyous. I say that the Holy Spirit is not really a separate being, but the Father’s power as it expresses itself in the life of man. Yet, it can be thought of as separate from the Father, for the Father never reveals His personality to man through it, but remains behind the scenes, mysterious, unknown. As Jesus testified, and I “second,” the Father cannot be known by any except through the Son – and this includes the illumined as well.
You may find this paragraph of Cohen’s appealing. The reason is that there is a degree of truth in it. The Atman is of the nature of Brahman, and we all long to understand our source. We wish to know from where we come, to understand this vast universe, and this understanding is communicated to us in samadhi, for it is the Atman’s prerogative to know this. This is what it means to “attain unto knowledge.” You will know, not just intellectually but experientially, that you are immortal spirit, that has a similar source to all other living spirits around you. If discovering this means finding you are not a person, but impersonal, you will go there, for at least then you will know. Cohen seems to have emerged intact from his experience; perhaps you shall, too. It is funny that Cohen should seek to hold the “impersonal” so high all the time. Doesn’t he recognize that students are drawn to him because of his radiant, awake and aware personality? They will say, “Reality is impersonal, but Cohen, who has apprehended reality, is not impersonal, and I like him. What do I care about the details of his message?” I think that Cohen’s Atman has directed his sadhana in this life so that when his “fake ego” (an ego of knowledge, not ignorance, put in place by the Atman in Cohen’s youth in order to maximize the nirvikalpa samadhi event by undergoing a sadhana meant to enrich his teaching work), exploded in nirvikalpa samadhi, he was left with nothing but the impersonal, staring at his face. He witnessed everything that he thought was personal disappearing, and imagines it is gone completely. He cannot see himself; he does not see that a much deeper, richer, and more perfect personality immediately embraced him after his experience of the “impersonal.” The Atman, you see, is deeply personal, but on such a profound level that under certain circumstances, it too can appear impersonal. This was, and is, Cohen’s experience, but it was not Easwaran’s, who never made this mistake. Easwaran clearly knew that his students came to him because of his personality, and that they wished to have divine personalities just like his. Cohen does not see this yet.
All this writing, and I still have not dealt with his specific statements! Real personality, divine personality, is profound, so profound it can be thought to be impersonal, mistaken for the impersonal. With this understanding, Cohen’s assertions here make sense at last, which sound like the ravings of a madman otherwise. I will translate his whole paragraph here into my nomenclature, so that you can see how I understand his meaning, which is on a different level than he perhaps is capable of grasping. Of course, I could discuss it with Cohen, since he and I are alive at the same time, but then he would have to acknowledge my existence, which is apparently not to be the case! Here it is, “Cohenese” translated into “Guru Kurtenese:”
The shocking truth is that the whole human experience is an amazingly profound event, far deeper than we can sometimes conceive. If you look in your own experience, when you have witnessed your own profundity at any level, that's what you'll find. You will begin to see your human experience as a divine, and yet personal expression of something that is universal, something that is yours and no one else’s. So, if you want to be able to handle the movement of your own conditioned mind, if you want to be able to handle the unpredictable arising and passing away of your own emotions, then you have to begin to become aware of the utterly profound nature of all of it. That's when you begin to see through the illusion of the shallow, of the trivial, of the ego. You begin to discover that you're an integral, individual and discrete part of this vast eruption of life and energy and consciousness that is the evolutionary process.
There; I like this much better; don’t you?
Andrew Cohen:
From the spiritual perspective, evolution is the movement from a self-centered relationship to life to one that is based upon the direct apprehension of the inherently undivided nature of life itself. It is that knowledge alone, directly perceived and recognized, that will have the power to completely transform our relationship to what it actually means to be a citizen of our Earth. Our evolutionary potential is so extraordinary, and now everything hangs in the balance. It’s up to each and every one of us to do something about the situation that we’re all in. And we must do this not merely for our own sake, but for the salvation and evolution of life itself.
Guru Kurt:
This quotation illustrates the inherent goodness of the Atman, at the same time that it reveals the ignorance of the Atman about that which is higher than it. Easwaran used to take this same attitude, that we can all somehow join hands together and solve earth’s problems. Cohen would like every person to become illumined, and then there will be no more problem, right? What a Pollyanna! I am sorry, boys, but you haven’t perceived yet the real nature of the mass of humanity, which is low, low, low. Everyone has a long ways to go yet before they will have the “direct apprehension of the inherently undivided nature of life itself.” You, illumined men, do not even understand precisely what this means yet! How do you expect the masses to achieve what you have achieved? Are you idiots, or what? Fortunately for earth, the external Creator does exist. He is real, incarnates Himself in a human body from time to time, and has a plan to save the earth. Jesus Christ is the real Savior, and He will emerge to rescue the earth from its sorry fate of being crushed by overpopulation, made unlivable through pollution, and being stripped bare of the raw resources essential for a long civilized existence on its divinely created shores. This plan has been revealed in all the world’s scriptures, and lo, the plan is being put into operation as I write this. It is known as the “End Times,” the Armageddon, the Judgment Day. The Father is going to rise up in terrible wrath, and destroy over three-fourths of the world’s population, condemning them to hell until the next solar cycle, which is many billions of years in the future. 1 to 1.5 billion is the appropriate population for this planet. These 1.5 billion will be able to exist nicely, comfortably and with modern amenities, for the ten billion years we have left before the sun goes nova, but there is not enough for 2 billion. The Father is going to optimize the experience of those remaining on the earth, giving the maximum number of people the greatest possible existence. Hence, they are the “elect.” Those whose names are not “written in the Book of Life” will be banished from human existence. They will laugh at my words, thus proving that this human life is not where they belong! Those who hear my words and respond will be saved. If you value your humanity, then heed my warning: As at Passover the Angel of Death slew the firstborn child at all homes which did not have the blood of a lamb on the doorway, so that same Angel will spare all those who meditate every day for at least half an hour, and the children in homes where at least one parent meditates. The world which is coming will be a spiritual paradise, where all strive for enlightenment, some with greater intensity, some with less, but all with some minimum level of effort, as I state. The terrible End has come, and this is the means of it. The souls of the condemned shall be ripped from their bodies while they are still standing, still living, and their bodies shall fall to the ground in heaps. The stench of death will be everywhere, particularly in the big cities, which are offensive in God’s sight. No one will bury the dead, for all will fear for their own lives. Only my devoted children, who hear my words and respond out of their spiritual awareness, shall be spared. Mankind will become the good steward of this planet that he should have already made himself by now, or he will die. This is the Creator’s will, and so shall it be done!
The goodness of Cohen’s Atman shows in this paragraph which, although naïve and foolish, shows that he is doing the best that he can with what he knows. What more could he say? Like Easwaran, Cohen recognizes the unfair burden mankind places on the earth through his total disregard for ecology and the needs of future generations. Also like Easwaran, unfortunately, Cohen has no idea of the scope and severity of the problem. I will tell you how bad it is. Within a thousand years, if nothing is done to curb the fantastical and extravagant use of resources, there will be a monumental crash, as man is forced to go back to his caveman roots. The earth would then be able to support only a few hundred million people for the remainder of the solar cycle. Do the math: 1.5 billion for 10 billion years, or 10 billion for one thousand years, then 300 million for 10 billion years. Which is optimal with regards to human evolution, of which Cohen presumes to be sole caretaker? The car must go. In its place will reign the horse once more (and who will these horses be)? Will we be able to keep emergency vehicles and trucks for transport? I do not think so, although they will be essential during the interim period, just after Judgment Day, when the world is being reorganized along lines closer to what the Creator intends for man’s long-term habitation of His planet. The entire economy will have to be re-worked, because raw materials will no longer be available. An agency shall be put in place to monitor all use of raw materials, controlling their acquisition from the earth and their dispersal to those who need them most as a rate calculated to allow for all potential future generations who inhabit the earth to also have their share. The world economy will be utterly destroyed by this. The vast majority of people will lose their jobs, for the entire world economy is based on the conversion of raw materials into goods and their subsequent sale (and then rapid disposal into landfills). How does God view the current system? He sees a stream of raw materials emerging from the earth, being diverted for a time through households, then going straight into landfills in a now unusable form. This will not continue. The new economy will be sustainable and carefully planned. Farming will again be done by families, and not by corporations. Think of the world just before the invention of the car; it will be like that. Trains will still be allowed, but not buses, which only have a ten to fifteen year service life. No machine will be built that lasts less than a hundred years. Everywhere the motto will be “Conserve, Recycle, Reuse.” Items of everyday use will be passed down from generation to generation, no longer discarded, having been made sturdy and durable for just this reason. What human will submit to this? No human will, until the words I have written here begin to become a reality. The killings will come in waves, starting small at first, to give people a chance to think and choose, but the time for choice is fast drawing to a close. God has declared war on humanity, and who do you think will win? We shall see.
Cohen has everything confused here. There are really two stages to human spiritual evolution, pre-samadhi and post-samadhi, and both of these are subdivided into two stages. I seldom use the word “evolution” to describe spiritual growth, because physical evolution takes place at the Creator’s whim, who molds His creatures’ physical forms by manipulating DNA within the zygotic nucleus. Our spiritual growth does not coincide with earth’s physical evolutionary processes. Our true spirituality is held in latency as we go through all the lower animal stages before man arises on the scene. Mankind has always been at the forefront of physical evolution, occupying the most advanced bodies on the planet. If this population was small, then the most advanced spiritually occupied these bodies, with the less spiritually evolved occupying lower bodies. Each solar cycle, the earth grows a little larger as our Avatar’s spiritual strength increases. If this time earth can support 1.5 billion, last time it could support perhaps 1.3 or 1.4 billion. The vast majority of humans today, then, have not been human very long, only being allowed to enter the human situation for brief periods of population boom just preceding Judgment Day, which occurs every solar cycle in a mode similar to the way it shall happen here. They are granted a taste of human existence, but no more than this, and are thrown back again into the animal realm. The reality of creating planets and initiating life on them is that there is not room to bring everyone up; there just isn’t. Out of mercy, technology is fostered in such a way that large numbers of animals are allowed to get their heads out of the mire for at least one or two lives, before falling back again. Judgment Day is thus seen as the Creator’s kindness and benevolence, for otherwise these animals would not taste human existence for untold eons as they wait for enough of the illumined to ascend to the astral realms and make room for them on the planet of life they inhabit. (There is also a two-way flux amongst the best of the animals and the lowest of mankind, who can actually switch positions under certain circumstances, as when a recalcitrant evil streak arises in a human that is not present in an animal, who is thus given a straight shot at human existence while the other is forced back again.) Since we have all been through many solar cycles, the “elect” are highly spiritual evolved, and their spiritual good karma has been held in latency along with their rational capacities during earth’s physical evolution. This good karma is about to be released, prior to Judgment Day, so the elect may take to spiritual disciplines and prove their worth before their fellow men, so soon fated to be cast into hell or Hades, animal existence. It will manifest itself in a wave of spiritual experiences, worldwide, and a yearning to learn how to meditate. The Avatar shall arise at this point and give instructions, guiding many forward on the path. He shall be assisted by His angels, in human disguise, who are astral realm residents who have come on a secret mission to earth, to help Him in these trying times. Who is the first person in your neighborhood to point out the Avatar? This person is most likely the angel on your block!
The first stage of human spiritual evolution is an outward extension, for even to rise to rational thinking as regards the external world counts as spiritual growth. Their sensation of real growth is the reason why worldly people are satisfied with the world, and are deaf to the words of teachers like Cohen, or those of higher Beings like Christ. After tamas is surmounted, and at the culmination of its rajasic outward extension, the soul begins to turn inward, toward the source of its being. This is the second stage of pre-samadhi spiritual evolution, and it is this to which Cohen refers here. Once illumination is obtained, the soul must still purify its lower mind sufficiently to ascend to the astral realms, to fulltime disembodied existence. Once there, it begins a brand new course of spiritual evolution, the details of which I shall not divulge here as I believe they are a subject for my future appearances. There are thus three stages of evolution in embodied beings, who then ascend to a higher stage still. Cohen says, “From the spiritual perspective, evolution is the movement from a self-centered relationship to life to one that is based upon the direct apprehension of the inherently undivided nature of life itself.” This is an accurate description of the second stage, except the idea of an “inherently undivided nature of life itself” is flawed. You cannot see a place where divisions do not arise, Cohen; only the Avatar can witness this! You are separate, you are distinct, you are an individual, and no experience of yours can change this fundamental truth. The Creator has decreed that all should be separate, nor be able to see the zone whence all arise from Brahman, which is hidden in depths so deep that not even longtime astral realm residents may plumb them! What your Atman has given you in your nirvikalpa samadhi event is an experience reflecting this truth. You have been educated, not by being told, but by being shown. If you know you are the same as all, then what am I going to write next? You do not know, and so you perceive that life is indivisible, but you do not perceive this indivisibility directly! I know this distinction is probably too fine for your coarse mind, so new to samadhi, to accept, but I state it not so much for you as for those others who will come along in future generations who are a little more open minded that you, a little more perceptive, and a little more reflective as well.
Cohen next says, “It is that knowledge alone, directly perceived and recognized, that will have the power to completely transform our relationship to what it actually means to be a citizen of our Earth.” False, false, false, false, false, false, false! No! The occurrence of samadhi will remain an extraordinarily rare event, though not so rare in the future as it has been in the past. I think, Cohen, that your discrimination is not yet at that point where you can even recognize other illumined teachers! I would wager that more than 95% of those you think are illumined, are merely in advanced stages of dhyana. This would explain why your teaching work is so confusing and misleading to the rest of us! Easwaran once said that Gandhi was illumined; what idiots you all are! You have no standards! You wouldn’t recognize the difference between a lizard and a frog! Oh, illumination, oh, sour stomach, oh, intestinal flu, oh! Are you brain-dead? “I had a spiritual experience, oh my God! It was sooo spiritual.” Cohen replies, “Must’ve been samadhi, just like me. Keep at it, kid, and you’ll get followers too!” The people of earth will need another basis on which to become good citizens of earth. I will tell you the Creator’s plan, whether you like it or not, and whether you accept or not. I do not care; it is the plan that will be shoved down your throat even as you scream in agony, “All is One, and I am All!” The post-apocalyptic world will be modeled on India, with priests administering to the masses, and illumined teachers ministering to advanced devotees. All people will have reasonably easy access to illumined teachers, who will also maintain public branches of their teaching works. Anyone who wishes to meet an illumined teacher, will be able to do so. There will be an emergence of very large monasteries, which are really small cities, the residents of which will be followers of the Avatar. Illumination events will be infrequent at these monasteries, but when they occur the potential illumined person will be subjected to a rigorous series of tests and questions to determine the validity of the state. It will be possible to have one, two or even three illumined individuals in any given monastery. Illumination will be a celebrated event, not one that is openly ignored by even other illumined individuals, as you have so callously and thoughtlessly ignored me, and those who are illumined will be presumed to speak with the voice of God, though not with the Avatar’s Supreme Authority. Wandering sadhus shall also be present in large numbers, worldwide, spreading the highest spirituality everywhere they go. Having learned the dreadful consequences of slighting even God’s humblest devotee, the world’s population will accept the religious life, and war shall cease, as shall most violence. In the end, it will be the knowledge that to defy God means certain death and banishment into animal bodies that will transform most people into good citizens of earth, coupled of course with their new-found spiritual good karma, which puts them in a spiritual mood and a positive, life-affirming frame of mind, allowing the entire planet to exist in harmony and relative peace for the foreseeable future.
The rest of the paragraph shows Cohen’s girlish comprehension of world events, and his womanly stance to try to address those events. “Our evolutionary potential is so extraordinary,…” Definitions, please? I feel extraordinary most days; don’t you? “… and everything hangs in the balance.” Oh my, oh my! “It’s up to each and every one of us to do something…” I heard this from my kindergarten teacher! “…about the situation that we’re all in.” And we’re all the same, in a big shiny tub with our little rubber duckies! “And we must do this not merely for our own sake,…” Oooh, wow! Appeal to their selflessness in such a sophisticated manner! “…but for the salvation and evolution of life itself.” Now you make me angry; are you usurping Jesus’ role for yourself and the rest of your “buddies and pals?” Life will continue, with or without you, Andrew Cohen. There is a vast spiritual world above your head, with mighty spiritual Beings of whom you have no conception! You are a newbie! You are wet behind the ears! You are still unclear on first principles! Solve all the world’s problems from your little soapbox? I don’t think so. Ramakrishna’s attitude was best, and it is my attitude as well. Where the Father goes, I go too. Everything on earth happens according to the Father’s will. If He should will that we go back to the caveman days, I will go there gladly. If He wills it that the earth should prosper with a moderate population possessing advanced technologies until the end of the solar cycle, I will go there gladly, too. These things are all for humanity’s sake, anyway. I do not need a cell phone, a car, a television, or even a computer. I only need to hear my Father’s voice and to see His glorious work in evolution, creating all the different kinds of plants and animals with immense creativity and easy aplomb. The earth to me is still a sweet place, though I find your attempted destruction of it most unpleasant and unseemly. I know that I personally have had nothing to do with this destruction, tracing my lives back into antiquity. It is all your doing, and so I bear no responsibility for any evil that currently exists. There is only one thing that I know for certain; if the End Times predicted so strongly and vociferously in the Bible and other world religions do not occur within my lifetime, then they never shall occur. The same voice which made those predictions exists among us, today, and it says that I have interpreted the original meaning correctly. The Christians have a wrong take on it, thinking they will be raptured away when in reality the elect will inherit the earth while the sinners will be cast down. It was meant to be this way, so that my voice would be the only one stating the real way that things would “go down.” Without the End Times, the earth is lost to the demonic population that now holds sway, that holds her captive to its selfish greed. Will such things be allowed to occur on my Father’s worlds? I will even be interested to see, if they are!Cohen is like a person at a water park, standing in the
shallow “kiddie” pool. His disciples sit on the edge of the pool, watching
him in rapt attention. “Here, this is water, kids,” Cohen announces,
splashing a little on each of their faces. He is standing in the water, and does
not go into shore; he is truly illumined, and has gone beyond the human race.
His students admire him, but this is a water park! Behind Cohen’s back, in a
display of which he is totally unaware, there is a huge water slide, and a rope
where the “big kids” are playing. Look, there’s one going head-first down
the water slide! Scary! There’s another, doing flips off the rope into the
deep water. Thrilling! One of the kids, having just completed a somersault off
the high diving board, yells to Cohen, “Hey, Cohen. The deep water’s
over here!” Cohen hears this, and reassures his friends, “There’s no deep
water. There is only shallow water. Otherwise, I would see it.” His friends,
however, see the antics of the other kids, and wish that Cohen would join them.
Cohen cries for his “mommy,” but his mommy cannot help him, for he cannot
cling to the human shore any longer, but must discover the wide world of
spiritual friends that he can now call his own. What is the nature of this
friendship? It the relationship of one ego-less being to another ego-less being,
and hence profound beyond man’s reckoning. The mode in which beings lacking
egos approach one another is one of mutual respect, but higher than both reigns
truth. Each goes into the meeting thinking, “I am sure this sage is
better than I am. If he isn’t, at least he will be able to teach me something,
for the world is wide and his experience base is different from mine.” Then,
each gets out his “bag of tricks,” the spiritual knowledge and wisdom they
have each accumulated, and they contest with one another to serve that most
glorious of handmaidens, truth itself. Earth has never seen this type of
relationship before. Although there are records of such meetings recorded in the
Bhagavatam, these beings were all astral realm residents coming to earth in
disguises and pretending to be great sages for man’s benefit. Now that real
illumined men are arising, they don’t have a clue what to do! They spit
on the Bhagavatam, where the outlines of correct sage-to-sage behavior have been
given. Haven’t they gone beyond all need of scriptures? Every illumined person
wants his or her students to think he or she is the Avatar (though the Avatar never
appears as a woman). They steadfastly ignore the other illumined teachers, which
is not a mark of greatness, but the sign of a lack of spiritual
discrimination. They claim Avatarhood who are not even sophisticated and
mature enough to judge the genuineness of another’s claim to enlightenment!
Today’s illumined teachers do not even acknowledge one another. Each keeps his
head firmly buried in the sand, pretending that the others do not exist. Why did
Easwaran never mention Osho or Da Free John? Why does Sai Baba, that most
arrogant of rascals, not recognize Easwaran? Why has Da Free John cut himself
off from everyone in Fiji? Why does Cohen pretend that I do not exist?
It seems to have become my duty to reassert the truths of
the Bhagavatam to the world in a practical way, and Cohen is my dupe. He is
doing nothing right, and so I play the role of “raging sage” in an
effort to spark him back to life. Here are the ground rules, Cohen. In order to
further your own spiritual growth, you may teach others, but you should also be
prepared to learn, to interact with other sages. When you are approached by a
sage, no matter what he says, he should always be graciously and
courteously acknowledged. In my address to you, I have proven that you know
nothing about dispassionate dialogue. I claimed not to want acknowledgement, but
this was merely a test of your spiritual discrimination, which you
opprobriously, shamefully, failed. The second rule is that you should always
presume that you are wrong, and the other sage is right. In other words, should
a deeper truth come along, you should be prepared to drop whatever you have said
earlier in a heartbeat, to embrace this deeper truth. A sage will thus say, “I
see what you say, and it is good, but I still believe what I see is
better, and here is why.” Being right all the time is the province of
the Avatar alone, who is so right that He will pretend to be wrong
sometimes just so that the illumined men and women under His care preserve some
self-respect. The third rule is that between sages, the normal, egoic modes of
address are dropped. A sage can call another sage a “bounder” and get away
with it, because the other sage can look within himself and say, “No bounder
here, just another ever-free, blissful Atman like yours, you louse!” There is
no ego to pet, and so no petting is done, between sages. Their discussions can
look like arguments and fierce disputes to their respective students, but when
it is all done there is no anger or animosity on either side. Each will say,
“Oh, him? He’s my best friend! Why would you say otherwise?” Thus students
learn modes of dialogue that are free from egoic concerns. The fourth rule, and
this is one that no illumined teacher has yet even glimpsed, is that the
students are secondary. Your Atman, Cohen, is convinced that it needs
students to be successful in furthering your spiritual growth, and thus you
curry favor with them, lowering your spiritual principles in order to attract
slavish followers. The best sages stand forth, alone and independent. They
announce themselves, and let the students come crawling forth if they will! They
say, “I have realized the deathless Self. I am that One that had no beginning,
and will have no end. I am immersed in that great bliss that surges in mighty
tidal waves within my being, and have need of no material aid whatsoever. I will
share this knowledge with those who are tired of egocentricity, who yearn for
the infinite from the finite shores of mortal existence. Come with me, if you
dare, and we shall ply the seas of eternity together!”
I will not list any more rules, although there are many.
These are only the most important. Go to school, Cohen; read the Bhagavatam, and
you will emerge the wiser for it! It was written by the Avatar Himself, so long
ago, and is every bit as true today as it was back then. The best way for all,
unillumined and illumined alike, is to strive in the modes of unceasing
devotional service unto Brahman, the ultimate Godhead. You do not even
acknowledge Brahman’s existence, who will not admit His Avatar, His embodiment
on earth! You are lost in your own Self-brilliance! Look around a little. Those
tiny specks you see on the horizon are other Self-realized individuals, many of
whom are greater than you, if you will only look a little more closely. How do
we become great? It is by beholding greatness in others, for in the end all we
can really see is ourselves, our self-made conception of other beings. The
greater we can make this self-made conception, the more glory in others that we
can perceive, the greater we are ourselves, in reality! Humility is not just
casting yourself into dust; it is casting yourself into dust by comparison
with the glory you witness all around you. When you do this, you find that there
are also lesser beings than you who have become capable of perceiving your
glory, and so you share with them, as you are able to do. You have no ego,
and so when I see that you are unresponsive to my entreaties, I pour coals on
your head, where before I offered a glass of water. I bring dynamite, where I
would have brought you some new plumbing fixtures for your spiritual house. I
cast my divine awareness over at you like a gigantic fireball of dispassionate
observation, and as in the dueling Jedi in “Star Wars, Attack of the
Clones,” I await your responding fireballs. Where are they? When is an
illumined man not an illumined man? When he has forgotten to look up, as
you have clearly done. I look up at you, and what do I behold? A sage who has
turned his back on a fellow sage, and so I rage, unstoppable, relentless,
implacable. Such things cannot be, not in my universe, brother! Perhaps you are
indeed greater than I. You have learned the fundamental truth, “What you
don’t say cannot be held against you.” Yes, I will fall down on my face and
worship Cohen! He has attained unity with deep space, where never a word is
spoken! He has discovered his identity with matter, and disregards all spiritual
beings around him! He has found a safe refuge, with his head deeply buried in
sand. All hail, mighty Cohen!
Andrew Cohen:
What is the highest and most wholesome context for the aspiration for liberation? That context is for the sake of the whole. Why is it that you would want to be free with such passion and intensity? It's not merely for your own liberation. It's for the transformation of the whole world, for the enlightenment of the whole universe, for the evolution of consciousness itself.
Guru Kurt:
Cohen is again confusing his own, personal task as an illumined teacher with that of his students. He imagines that everyone who hears him is right where he is. His mind has not yet developed spiritual discrimination, which means the ability to recognize and clarify various states of consciousness. I doubt whether he even recognizes his own state as illumined; perhaps it is the prize he got in the bottom of a box of “Coco Puffs!” This advice is not appropriate for the unillumined, and will indeed get them into trouble. Easwaran used a similar concept, stating that we should all try to “put each other first.” Only after illumination are we fit to begin to attempt to liberate others. Before illumination, we should each tend to our own sadhana, above all else. There is really nothing you can accomplish if you decide to help the world spiritually; nothing at all! Even Cohen (though apparently he does not realize it yet) is after personal growth, which he shall receive in proportion to the amount that his teaching work gives in reality to the forlorn and haggard world of separateness to which he speaks. The highest thing, really, is not even to try to help; things get really profound, for instance, for the angels, who are as high above Cohen as man is above the ants. When an angel comes to earth in a body, as for instance Swami Vivekananda or my own teacher, Robert, his goal is not really to help by application of ideas. Rather, they try to share their awareness, to allow others who are prepared for it to lean upon their broad and mighty shoulders. Anything else is condescension, manipulation, and rivalry. The world is Brahman’s Great Project, and after illumination you are indeed allowed to lend a hand, as Cohen has been allowed to do, having received Brahman’s authority to teach. The best mode of helping is not what you think, however, but something much less obvious, more difficult, and closer to reality and truth.
Let me give you an example. My teacher, Robert, scarcely talked to me. We played tennis together once or twice a week, and during our matches he would shout at me like a coach, “Bend your knees,” or “Keep your eye on the ball!” There was nothing really of familiarity between us. What I mean by this, is that I was never aware of him stooping down to help me, not once. There was no manipulation, no condescension. Yet, he was the most profound teacher I have ever met (I believe he was likely the same being as Totapuri.) Robert was unrecognized by any save myself; I believe this is what he wanted. It is very important for people to know that students are not necessary for great teachers to continue their personal spiritual progress. The highest spiritual teaching is not done by making an attempt to teach. It is done by mere living, being true to the nature of the Paramatman, reality. The student himself does all the teaching that is required, who finds the teacher closest to his heart and clings to him, in order to learn detachment. If there are no students around who are fit to receive you, what concern is that of yours? Are you living the life, “la vida loca”? If so, Brahman will give you a full reward. There are various types of teaching works that are possible, but in all of them the words that you say are secondary to what you are. The best students key in on this, and if your words are helpful, listen with avidity, but otherwise (as is the case with Cohen), they may even ignore what you say! Yet, it is not proper to call this “teaching by example.” You must understand, the illumined, and in particular the angels, live in a different world than we do, even though they dwell in bodies just like us and seem to be one of us. The highest learning, the way of the highest student, is just to witness this and to let it impact upon your internal reality. The goal of sadhana is internal transformation. When this is all you want, your desires are correct and you will begin to make maximum progress. At this point, you will benefit most from a teacher just by watching him, and interacting with him whilst you display an attitude of reverence and utter veneration. The best student says, “My mind is a mess, but the mind of my teacher is godlike. If I can just remain near him, and watch him as he moves about and talks, how can this fail to be exceedingly good for my mind?” Arjuna had the proper attitude towards his teachers, exhibited when he said, “Tell me of the one who lives always in wisdom, ever aware of the Self, O Krishna. How does he talk? How sit? How move about?” It is not really the responsibility of the teacher to bring his students higher. It is the responsibility of students to catch onto his soaring feet, and thus to be brought up into the spiritual stratosphere.
Sometimes teachers engage in “handholding,” stooping very far down towards their students and comforting each and every woe. Easwaran was this kind of teacher. Brahman permits this type of teaching, but it is not the highest. The Self is fiercely independent. Only those who also wish to achieve this fierce independence are worthy of mighty gurus. “M,” a student of Ramakrishna, had this kind of attitude. He recorded that Ramakrishna “paced up and down the temple walk, like a fearsome lion.” Beholding this lion, a student thinks, “I wish I also could be leonine, independent, blissful in my own nature without currying favor or relying on others in any way.” Teachers that bend over to help their students are beggars. They have not learned the highest way, yet. Imagine that one from the angelic realm is like a mini-sun, shining in radiance always. What is the best mode for this sun to help those on earth? The answer is that it should continue its bright shining, unabated. Those will be drawn to it who feel the inner pull to become like this themselves. The teacher has something that we all want. We wish to see life from his perspective, which is free, blissful, and aware. If he condescends to us, we no longer see this in him, and lose to that degree that which we would have gained. I used to find that Robert could easily smash to bits every preconception that I had of him. I used to rejoice in this, for I felt waves of energy released as the frozen forms in my mind became loosened. For instance, I would think, “This is Robert, the high school substitute” (placing him in my category of “substitute teachers.”) Then I would see him, and his eyes, which sparkled, and his gaze, which was underlain by a powerful spiritual awareness, like the brightest searchlight, would shine into my consciousness and say, in a way more profound than words ever could, “No, I am not that. I am free!” Knowing Robert was like putting my head into a blast furnace; whatever my expectations were, they were shattered, but I found that I and my spiritual quest remained, that much the wiser and freer. He was ignored by all others at the ashram, but there is no doubt in my mind as to his identity. I was receptive to something that everyone else passed right by; it is their loss, not Robert’s or mine.
Obviously, there are superior and inferior students, and what is right with one student will not be right with all. The literal fact of the matter is, however, that teaching is not necessary for those who have attained illumination. It is only when the life around us accepts us as a teacher that a teaching work becomes appropriate. Everyone that knew Robert, except me, thought he was dissolute, unprepared, slovenly, but this is the appearance he wished to make before them. Had more of the Ramagiri residents noticed him, he would have been forced to teach alongside Easwaran. He made a show of being a nobody (which was surprisingly easy), and was ignored. He did the appropriate thing, and never tried to teach anyone except for his sole student, who also was disregarded and despised by those at the ashram, who thought we were a pair of idiots, going nowhere. Imagine an Olympic skier who obtains a job as a ski instructor. What are the methods of instruction available to him? He can take a class on the “bunny hill,” teaching those who have no experience in skiing whatsoever. He can take on a class of advanced skiers, lecturing a little and then “showing them the ropes” on more advanced slopes. He can also just continue skiing, and see if anyone is up to his level, whom he will take under his wing in a special way, allowing the person to ski beside him and observe him carefully. In life, priests usually take the first type of class, those who are very busy with worldly duties and have little time for spiritual disciplines. They need interpretation of scriptures in a very rudimentary way, in order to apply the basic truths of religion in their day-to-day existence. Illumined teachers take the second type of class, who are advanced spiritual aspirants requiring personalized, expert instruction and also some observation of an expert “skier.” Easwaran was this type of teacher. The third type of teacher is the highest, for he just continues his aggressive, intense skiing, but befriends one or a few skiers who think they might some day keep pace with him, sometimes making pertinent comments of instruction and criticism, often remaining silent. Robert was such a one, as was Totapuri. Teachers like this are aloof and very difficult to recognize. Their minds are so abstracted from the sense world, and they care so little for fame and attention, that they are easily passed by. They trample on fame with joy! They laugh at “reputation” and “status,” things which are of no eternal value. Imagine that Brahman is a towering column of light, extending infinitely high. If you watch closely along its length, you will see the angels emerging in glory and radiance, saying “Here I am; who is fit to behold me?” then disappearing again and reappearing in perhaps another life a much higher distance above their former location. Angels know how to make spiritual progress; they stop for no one who is not willing to fall at their feet, which is as it should be! Our job is not to lift others up, even after illumination, unless they are ready to go. An illumined person is friendly towards all, but if his students get wrapped up in themselves and forget their privilege and honor at being in his presence, he will leave them. I recall Robert relating to me a time at Ramagiri when things were in an uproar, with people arguing and fighting. At that time, Easwaran did threaten to leave, and go back to India, an action which shows that his spiritual discrimination is quite high. He is well on his way to sahaja samadhi; I doubt whether anyone will overtake him in this.
Which is the right type of teaching for you, after illumination? The answer is found in the life around you. Ramakrishna was God, and had some advanced students, and some less-than-advanced students. He did not teach like Totapuri and Robert, but was exposed to a great number of ordinary people, thus showing that life makes use of the best teachers. Ramakrishna was a better teacher than Totapuri, yet life chose to give Him a teaching work similar to Easwaran’s. The key from a teacher’s standpoint is to keep an attitude of firm, unrelenting mental renunciation, and noninterference except in the modes of friendliness and respectfulness. All that come near go away with what they can carry. The highest students will cultivate a relationship with such a teacher similar to the one between Totapuri and Ramakrishna, or Robert and myself. They will make no demands or impositions whatsoever, simply rejoicing at beholding the glory of the teacher in an attempt to achieve a maximum internal impact. Other students, who are less self-aware and more selfish, will make greater demands, but the teacher will steadfastly refuse to bend down and seek to manipulate, treating everyone with great respect. This is really what made my relationship with Robert magical, wonderful; though I felt he was high above me, at a spiritual plateau that I would never achieve, so long as I was gentle, respectful and careful in my speech, he always showed the greatest respect for my real potential. The best teachers see the real within their students, and ignore the dross. If you are not venerable, they see that one day you will become venerable, like them, and they respect this potential absolutely, artfully, beautifully. People at the ashram slighted and “slammed” Robert constantly, but he would just smile that devilish smile: “I may be nothing in your eyes, but I don’t think you see things quite so clearly as you should.” Embodied angels never forget the astral realms, their true home, and so find humans rather humorous, for they suppose they are the ones with power, authority and wisdom, when they lack for all of these things! I respected Robert to the full extent of my ability to do so, and found, to my surprise, that he also respected me, and thus did I recognize my dear teacher at last! This is really one of the hallmarks of a good teacher. No matter how slovenly, low and unfocussed you may feel inside, he or she will always see the core of your potential, which is to become godlike. Their real attitude is quite touching, actually rather tender. They wish to attain more divinity themselves, but in a sense they are a little lost in the divinity all around them. This was always startling about Easwaran. You might feel that you were a nobody, a nothing, but his attitude was always one of respect, as if to say, “Aha, I see another god in the making, here. Is there something I can do to help?” My feeling around Robert was similar, but I would quote Robert as saying, “Yes, looks like a god in the making, but one that needs to move.” Robert’s attitude was more profound and helpful to me, personally. I think Easwaran focused too much on his lower students, at the expense of the higher. His spiritual discrimination is still developing. Perhaps in another life or two he will follow more closely the standard set by Ramakrishna, who always put the welfare of his best students first, and also helped those who were lower as He could, time allowing. Remember, the lower students are always around, and will benefit immensely by watching the profound interactions between a teacher and his highest students, for these interactions are non-egoic, serving the ideal of spiritual perfection without any regard to the material realm, to the trappings of name, fame and pride.
Cohen thus has it all wrong; even the illumined should strive always for increased personal joy, wisdom and freedom, though they must learn the right ways of doing this. Why should you turn to religion? You should turn because you are unhappy, and wish to be made happy, you are insecure and wish to be made secure, you feel foolish and wish to become wise. Spiritual evolution is a strictly personal affair. Let the world go hang itself, as it probably will; see to the needs of your own soul, first. As Jesus said, “What will it profit a man if he should gain the whole world, but lose his soul?” Cohen’s statement here is thus a direct contravening of the Lord; how accurate can it be? In the end, it is not possible to obtain a sustained level of passion, intensity and enthusiasm unless your goal is a personal one. You can try Cohen’s advice, if you think it will work; just don’t come crying to me in a few days when you realize that the world is the world, and will not change just because you wish it. When those recently arisen from animals go a little higher, they will leave room for more who were recently animals. The lowly in spirit will always be with us, lacking in discrimination, confusing good and evil everywhere they turn, perhaps killing others, perhaps stealing, perhaps lying, but certainly sowing the seeds of delusion left and right. Please, leave the transformation of the whole world in Brahman, the Father’s hands. Do not assume responsibility for something that is not yours. Learn to find your place in Brahman’s Plan, and act within your capacity. Embodied angels like Robert, Totapuri and Vivekananda find a role to play, a part in this majestic sweep of “universal liberation.” Brahman will continue to play this game for eternity. Cohen here implies it is his belief that “consciousness itself” will one day break out of the regimen Brahman has imposed, but this will never be. How many animals do you suppose there are waiting to take your place and to try for illumination? There are countless mammals, and when these are through, countless reptiles, birds and amphibians, and when these are through, countless unicellular organisms, and when these are through Brahman will create more unicellular organisms. Cohen thinks he sees an end to this process, a goal for all life, an “enlightenment of the whole universe,” but this shall never occur. Cohen does not perceive Brahman, nor shall he ever do so except in the person of the Avatar, should he actually awaken from his slumber one day, for in refusing to respond to my e-mail Cohen has shown the whole world that illumined men slumber on; they are not awake as they claim. Buddha was awake; Jesus was awake; Ramakrishna was awake; Cohen is fast asleep! O man, when will you learn to look up? You think you know this whole universe, when you have only seen a small part, that which is revealed to you through Paramatman, that portion of Brahman’s spirit available for the illumined teachers’ spiritual expansion. To you, this is the impersonal Supreme Self, but above this rises the real Brahman, who is personified in the Avatar. Brahman is not the “Supreme Self.” Brahman is the Almighty! He is the Father of Jesus, who was His Personification. What do we care about your teachings, which are the mere spittle of babes, not even yet teethed? Yet, I persist in treating of Cohen’s works, if only for the benefit of others, that they be not so misled!
Andrew Cohen:
The true spiritual warrior, the evolutionary pioneer, boldly asserts wholeness. Shaky they may be, realizing they're taking a big risk but they boldly assert wholeness and then commit all the rest of their energy to proving its reality. How successful will they be? Well, there's no guarantee we have to find out. But what I'm saying, and I'm sure about this, is that it really is possible to be that whole if we want it more than anything else, and if we're willing to give up the ego's freedom to be divided. You see, the ego is deeply, profoundly invested in being divided. How many people want to be truly whole, truly free? Very few. Because to be truly free means going from the many to the one. That's what this leap is always about, from the many to the one, from having many choices to having one choice. For the ego, going from the many to the one feels like suffocation. But for the authentic self there is only one choice from the many to the one. The ego says, that's too much! Well, of course. Welcome home. That's what it is; it is too much. It always has been and always will be, but that's what the leap is all about from the many to the one.
Guru Kurt:
Of all of Cohen’s spiritual advice I’ve read so far, this is the most devoid of content that will be useful to actual people who are striving for enlightenment. Indeed, there is no being, enlightened or unenlightened, who will benefit from his words here. They are misguided, vague, unclear, unfocussed and unreal. I read some comments from some of Cohen’s students the other day, about experiences they had with him on retreat. It is no doubt that he is a bona fide illumined person, and that he has helped awaken the spiritual consciousness of many, but when it is time to actually find attitudes that work, on a daily basis, Cohen falls flat. Just being with an illumined person is a spiritual experience of its own, but unless he gives you good advice for daily thought and behavior, you will not be able to make much progress. Watching an illumined teacher, you get a feeling for the correct attitudes, and a glimpse of the goal, which is utter tranquility, bliss, wisdom and freedom. Still, when his discourse is devoid of all practical content, his effectiveness is greatly reduced. Cohen is making a valiant effort, and is learning, improving as he goes along. He possesses the Atman’s superintelligence, with which he gauges the effectiveness of his ongoing teaching work and makes continuous, daily adjustments. His vision is clouded, however, by his undistinguished and mediocre students, who are not very advanced themselves and merely parrot back to him whatever he tells them, without asking him the probing, searching questions that set advanced aspirants apart from the crowd. In this particular quotation, he essentially asks everyone to just immediately become illumined, like him, which is a moronic approach to spiritual instruction, one that lacks in the spiritual discrimination required to make distinctions between one’s different students, and even between one’s students and oneself, a reef or shoal upon which the oceangoing boat of Cohen’s teaching work is currently grounded. This “C’mon guys, just be like me” approach is a very immature, raw one that will not appeal to serious students, but to those who are still under the misapprehension that attaining illumination is easy and quickly accomplished. Serious students will see Cohen sitting on this reef, unaware that he is illumined and they are not, and they will turn the other way with a snicker if not an outright guffaw! It is like this: serious students read the words of an illumined teacher, and then immediately in the days and perhaps weeks to follow, try to put them into practice. Anyone trying to apply these words of Cohen will find himself or herself woefully stranded on his reef, stagnating, caught in that dream world of “I wish,” far from the real world of “I can.” Serious aspirants know what real progress feels like; there is a degree of mental heat and energy which is immediately generated, a feeling of expectancy, like things are getting better, and a feeling of mental expansion as awareness increases. Trying Cohen’s disciplines here they will find themselves feeling cold, lost and alone instead of on fire with excitement and the thrill of real spiritual living, in which that next big improvement is always just around the corner. Cohen’s close personal students will at last find this fire, but those who merely read his words will have to look elsewhere to find practical advice for going forward on the spiritual journey or high adventure, as it indeed becomes for those nearing samadhi’s shining gates of bliss, perfection and supreme fulfillment.
Cohen begins with a nice concept, “The true spiritual warrior, the evolutionary pioneer…” The subject of this sentence is very good; it is the predicate with which I find fault. It is a very good attitude to think of oneself as a spiritual warrior, fighting against the evil motions of the mind, perhaps by repeating the Name of God, wielded like an internal light saber (like Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars”). However, you will find that it is fruitless to think of yourself as a spiritual warrior, asserting wholeness! The feeling I get from this is the same as you might get, perhaps, watching a new U.S. Army commercial that boldly announces, “Be a warrior for your country! Learn to knit and crochet!” I just want to laugh out loud; in fact I did! To make serious spiritual progress, you need to learn what is evil and what is good within your mind, and then assert yourself against the evil while aligning yourself with the good. Those who learn to do this really do get the feeling of being a warrior in their daily lives, exerting themselves to a maximum level, fighting evil and winning the battle, time and time again. The deeper you go in meditation, the greater the foes you face, until you finally face the biggest foe of all, the ego. It is not right, however, to try to take on the ego directly, as Cohen continually recommends. You will never see the ego until the very last stages of sadhana. Every thought we have, both good and evil, is tied to the ego, to our sense of identity, who we are. You cannot really think, “This is ego and this is non-ego;” everything is ego, wherever you look, until the miraculous event of enlightenment or as the Buddha called it, nirvana, the extinguishing of the ego. Now, it is possible to begin to call your evil thoughts “egoic,” and your good thoughts “non-egoic,” but I think you will find it is more useful to try to build a “good ego,” throwing all your weight towards goodness. The good ego is easily removed in samadhi, and indeed is a prerequisite for all deeper states of consciousness, including those of dhyana and even dharana, such as they are.
I have no clue whatsoever what Cohen is trying to encourage when you “assert wholeness,” then think you are taking a “big risk.” What a risk-taker Cohen himself is, ignoring my importunate e-mail! What an inconsistent fellow, unwilling to do that thing which he commends to his students! How secure you are in your mansion, surrounded by your millions and your admiring throngs! It must be a big risk, getting up in front of a “big crowd” every day. They’re listening! You never know what they’ll think! I tell you what, bring Diane Sawyer, Stone Phillips, and all the world’s most famous newscasters, put them all in a room, and give me a live video feed to the entire world, with all its billions, and I’ll talk to them, for I have something to say! I am fully prepared to unite both East and West, answering any and all questions about their respective differences. I will defend the Way of Love I have presented to man against all comers. I can do these things without any preparation, simply out of the fullness of my being, an awareness of my identity. I am prepared to lead the entire world forward into its bright new future of spiritual awakening, and what is more, this is exactly what I am going to do! It’s in all the prophecies; if I knew what I was doing back then, how could I have forgotten it? I do not encourage my students to undertake to feel “risk,” which will make them insecure, frightened and uncertain. You cannot live like this, day in and day out, nor are you meant to live like this, nor will it be good for you if you do! What is Cohen really after when he asks you to “assert wholeness?” I have no clue. He gives us no examples. A mother sits with her child on her lap, rocking it gently. How does she “assert wholeness?” A father tosses a baseball back and forth with his son on a Saturday morning. How does he “assert wholeness?” A businessman carries a briefcase to work, every day, and spends eight hours in various transactions. How does he “assert wholeness?” A woman scientist goes to work each day and studies the ecological relationship between prairie dogs and red wolves. How does she “assert wholeness?” You see? Cohen’s advice is essentially content-less. There is nothing practical that a person can do, or think, to follow his advice. You would experience a similar effect if a guru were to advise people to “just bag it up.” “Be a spiritual warrior: just bag it!” Over and over he tells people, in every situation, “just bag it!” Everyone smiles, and since he is a bona fide illumined person they have certain experiences, and tell everyone around them to “just bag it!” However, when the loving housewife, the good husband, the hardworking businessman and the clever scientist hear this advice, having never met the guru in question, they roll their eyes and look elsewhere for real advice that works. Cohen has really guaranteed that he will be forgotten and even loathed by future generations, giving advice of this poor quality. There is no way anyone can follow his advice, if they are sane, rational people not bending over backwards to “cut him some slack,” as his slavish and unaware students continually do. I think it is through the grace of his students that Cohen continues to teach, instead of through the grace of the teacher that his students continue to learn; this quotation is that bad!
Cohen’s ideas are so miniscule, so tiny, that I am having difficulty even seeing them. I get out my “mental microscope,” and look at this idea of inducing a feeling of “risk” within oneself, and I can barely make it out! It is a bad idea. It is a very small idea. It will have almost no effect upon the ego; it may even strengthen the ego! You will think, “Look at me, I am a risk-taker!” and thus the ego gains the upper hand! I am serious; Cohen’s conceptual apparatus is so tiny that I can hardly see that his idea is to “go along with others” to the extent of feeling like you are “risking it.” I think that really he is trying to encourage his students to remain with him, instead of wising up and looking elsewhere. They see a few others sitting at Cohen’s feet, and Cohen, wishing to have more students and to keep the ones he does have, tells them to “assert the whole,” i.e. go along with these obviously spiritual people, even though it is not mainstream religion but a fringe, “cult-like” experience. I really think this is his idea; I can make no sense of it outside of this conception. Be with Cohen, and you will be with the “whole,” a “risk-taker.” Leave him, and you will be separate, divided. What a craven teacher, begging for students like a dog begs for “doggie treats!” My own attitude is that if there are no students on earth worthy of me, wishing to share my vision of immortality and freedom, then I will teach no one (and so far I’ve successfully avoided getting tied down by students!) Inducing a feeling of risk within yourself will not help you to make spiritual progress. The reason for this is that the true goal is not, as Cohen foolishly and idiotically asserts, to go “from the many to the one,” but to come to spiritual fruition in and of yourself. You are not seeking to merge with some kind of public, shared identity, but to become venerable and capable within your own unique individuality. I cannot find words strong enough to contravene Cohen in this regard; you do not lose anything on the spiritual journey, except all your negative thinking, which is what is draining all your mental energy and preventing the Atman from asserting its divine authority and real power in your life, transforming you from a human being into a little god, as Cohen himself is, though he has become exceedingly confused here. If you follow the Way of Love that I give to man, your experience should be one of increasing joy, from day one of your practice, though samadhi may be a long ways off indeed. You will not feel insecure, but more secure. You will not feel like you are sticking your neck out, but like you are exercising your spiritual muscles in a safe environment, like a gym or health club. There really is no inherent value in feeling unsafe – how will you think? How will you perform intense actions? How will you learn to love others? How will you learn to feel and express compassion and generosity? Every good thing in human personality requires a degree of internal security to come into full flower; if you seek a continuous sense of “risk,” your personality will become warped into a self-centered mode that is not sensitive to the suffering of other living beings around you, that never feels kind and considerate, that never really enjoys life at all! Life is about joyousness; do you think that our Maker lives in a continuous sense of “risk,” and does not enjoy Himself? Eternal life is not meant to be lived in danger, but in safety, warmth, and goodness, as the tender morning glory does best when well-watered, in rich soil, and receiving plenty of sunshine.
I want you all to witness something here, that is profound. Cohen’s Atman asserts itself against his embodied portion, showing that although the ego has been removed, traces of personal desire yet remain that conscript and enslave the Atman’s ability to give the teaching it could perhaps otherwise give. Cohen is free, but the Atman is still working with his misconceptions, which are deeply buried and difficult to discern. Read the paragraph carefully a few times, and perhaps you will see it. Do you? Beware; I take you somewhere that no human has formerly gone, and break a few unwritten rules doing it. To my mind it is more important that people not be mislead by Cohen: if you look closely, you will see that his Atman agrees with me! The area that concerns me is when he says, “How successful will they be? Well, there's no guarantee we have to find out. But what I'm saying, and I'm sure about this…” Now do you see? Cohen asks, “How successful will they be?” His Atman forces him to say the next phrase: “Well, there's no guarantee we have to find out.” Do you see? No one can follow his advice, and the Atman knows it! No one is going to find out, because no one can “assert wholeness,” a concept devoid of practical content! Then, Cohen asserts himself against the Atman again, saying, “But what I'm saying, and I'm sure about this…” Cohen’s internal perception here is one of having been corrected by the Atman. He has gotten an internal signal, “That was not right.” He moves on, then, responding externally to this internal signal, saying, “Yes, perhaps that is not the best, but this I know.” You can see the interplay here between the Atman and its embodied portion, which is still impure, still lacking in the concepts it needs for an effective teaching work, although learning all the time. I have revealed this for the good of man. I know it makes Cohen looks like a fool, but never forget that Cohen is immersed in a bliss that does not end, that his teachings are superintelligent (though for some reason I seem to envelop them), and that sorrow has come to an end for him. Illumination is the supreme state for man, and Cohen has achieved this. The flaws of a “baby god” like Cohen, in the last analysis, are not flaws at all, but lower degrees of perfection than he will experience a few lives down the road. He speaks with honesty about his real heavenly experience as an illumined person; the effectiveness of his teaching methods and ideas is an entirely separate question from the validity of his attainment, which is beyond question.
Well, what of this that area where Cohen feels “certainty?” He says,
But what I'm saying, and I'm sure about this, is that it really is possible to be that whole if we want it more than anything else, and if we're willing to give up the ego's freedom to be divided. You see, the ego is deeply, profoundly invested in being divided.
This is nonsense. It is not possible to “be that whole.” What possible earthly meaning could this statement have? Who would want to “merge with everything?” If you wish this, then perhaps Cohen is the teacher for you. I am looking for people who wish to perceive their eternal roots, to know they are immortal, a part of Brahman, but who nevertheless retain all their individuality, no matter how intense and severe the experience of nirvikalpa samadhi they may have. The Atman sits in a secure place, guaranteed for eternity. It will never merge again with Brahman, but grows and develops to become like Brahman in a little way, with divine powers, divine intelligence, divine discrimination and divine wit as well. I do not care how hard you throw yourself against the “rock of Brahman,” into “wholeness;” you will fall back from that rock as yourself, not as another. You may not like this idea (Cohen apparently does not), but in eternity you will, because life will become very sweet to you indeed, once you take off your “mad hatter’s” mercury-imbued bonnet and begin to understand that illumination, and all dynamic and subtle states leading to illumination, should be on a firm, secure foundation, never on the shaky one for which Cohen stupidly argues in this instance. Cohen goes on,
How many people want to be truly whole, truly free? Very few.
Now he is engaging in self-contradiction, though the whole problem is with the preceding sentence, where he says that we must be willing to give up the “ego’s freedom to be divided.” What sloppy use of language! What arrogant glosses over reality! What a departure from sanity! First of all, the ego is not really divided. It is the Self that is divided, into two parts, separate ego and divine Atman. The separate ego is composed of non-self-aware consciousness which is all the Atman is capable of sending down into the body. The Atman is self-aware. Spiritual growth is a process of making the non-self-aware embodied consciousness self-aware, of the Atman’s nature, though a veil remains until nirvikalpa samadhi between this partially self-aware consciousness, still tied to the ego, and the real self-aware consciousness of the Atman. When the veil falls, when the ego is extinguished or blown out, then large regions of our higher minds, and some portion of our lower minds as well, are flooding with divine light and awareness. It is not right to say that the ego has “freedom” of any kind, unless you specify that this is a provisional, false freedom attached to materialistic thinking. It is not right to say that the ego is divided, although our non-self-aware consciousness is further divided as we splay our awareness all over the external world in our mad pursuit of happiness there, which is the only place we can conceive of our joy arising. So again, Cohen is using language in a practically content-less fashion, that will confuse the whole world! He should seek to “be that whole,” in other words to address his comments to the mass of mankind, who will be able to appreciate clear thinking and consistent use of terms above all. The ego is a unitary idea that we continually feed with attention, and which guides all our thoughts and actions as well. It is as close a thing that we have, until illumination, of an undivided entity. The ego is not divided, but the consciousness that it directs is divided. After incorrectly defining “ego,” and abusing the word “freedom” (which is a real concept, worthy of our highest efforts), and stating that we should want to “be that whole,” a meaningless phrase, Cohen challenges us by asking us, “How many people want to be truly whole, truly free? Very few.” This is a good challenge, one that all spiritual teachers should give to their students, showing that Cohen really is “awake;” his Atman is on the job, though struggling with the impure portions of Cohen’s higher mind and lower mind that remain even after two consecutive lives in which nirvikalpa samadhi events occurred. Then he gets bogged down again:
Because to be truly free means going from the many to the one. That's what this leap is always about, from the many to the one, from having many choices to having one choice.
This is ridiculous, blasphemous, misleading and idiotic! The number of choices which you have will increase as your individuality increases, as your spiritual consciousness and awareness grow. This is what it means to have superintelligence; you see the choices. More choices become available to you. I tell you, I witness my own life as a vast confluence of millions of possible choices, any one of which influences all the others. It is a great game for me. If I do a certain thing a certain way, this will increase my freedom at another time, although it will decrease my freedom at a later time. If I do a different thing in a particular way, then I will optimize my teaching career, but my personal happiness may suffer a little; should I make the trade-off, or not? If I insist on eating vegetarian food all the time, I will alienate all meat-eaters, although I will set a bold standard for the future. What do I do? When I am with meat-eaters, I eat meat, but when with vegetarians (and as is my preference), I avoid meat. Humans are more important to me than animals, so this guides my actions; but never say I had no choice! Going from the “many to the one,” in terms of choices, feels like suffocation because it is suffocation! Cohen recommends self-suffocation for his students! Proclaim it from the hilltops! No! Wisdom means seeing all the choices, and making an attempt on the basis of your knowledge and experience to choose the best one under your particular circumstances. As your wisdom grows more and more profound, your choices will change as you see the deep interconnections between your choices and your life as a whole. This is indeed a “whole” worth striving for; make your whole life a work of art, by exercising your discriminative faculty and making the best choices of which you are capable at the moment, even though you know that were you just a little bit wiser, you might choose differently! For the “authentic Self” there are myriad choices. Life is not black and white, up and down, though at times it may seem this way. It is a vast, colorful canvas. The modes of goodness are many and varied; variety is in goodness. Life becomes amazing, fantastic, broadening and expanding in all directions around you once you ascend above evil and find the Good. How many ways can you help mankind? If you can think of a hundred, I can think of a hundred and one!
Cohen goes far astray from his Atman once more in this short paragraph; it must have been a “bad day” for him. After making this egregiously foolish statement that for the authentic Self there is but one path, Cohen says:
The ego says, that's too much! Well, of course. Welcome home. That's what it is; it is too much. It always has been and always will be, but that's what the leap is all about from the many to the one.
Cohen’s Atman has said, “That’s too much,” and Cohen reports it to his audience! It would seem that Cohen is still somewhat divided against himself, though he has gone beyond evil. Do you see now that there is a lot of momentum in a personality, which is not extinguished with an event that takes a mere two days, no matter how intense this may be? Cohen has been alive for trillions of years, ascending from single-celled organism to multicellular organism (rotifer), to lizard, snake, frog, skunk, goat, baboon and finally man. All this is not extinguished in a moment, but requires many lives of succeeding illumination events to sufficiently purify before a soul may leave the body and ascend to the astral realms, where it begins fulltime disembodied life. The confusion Cohen feels at this moment is trumpeted loudly in the next few phrases, which make no sense at all unless you adhere to my interpretation of his mental events. “Well, of course there is some trace of the force that gave rise to the ego, however, welcome home, Andrew. We will together extinguish this force once and for all.” Cohen’s confusion here even confuses me! The leap from the “many to the one” is indeed the leap of nirvikalpa samadhi, but not in the sense that Cohen means, of a reduction in choices, but in a pulling away from the many materialistic channels in which the ego invests. It is not “too much,” either. When Cohen says, “too much!” here it is his Atman screaming for him to stop; “Better beware,” the Atman says, “Guru Kurt will come along and knock your intellectual block off!” He tries to get Cohen to stop talking, but with no success. He makes one last foolish remark, and then the quote is cut off, thankfully, leaving us all with a sense of peace and quiet now that the imposter has ungallantly slunk away in inglorious shame from the stage. It is not true that nirvikalpa samadhi always has been and always will be “too much.” Cohen did it, Easwaran did it, and Da Free John did it; Osho, Meher Baba, Sai Baba, and Mother Teresa of Calcutta too, all did it. Cohen still does not appreciate that nirvikalpa samadhi is a permanent, life-changing event, one that transforms you utterly from human to divine. One day you are a man, the next day you are the Lord, although as I endeavor to show in these pages, not the perfect Lord, the Avatar, but a god indeed, although naïve at first. It is like going over a waterfall. One minute you are splashing around, playing with your friends, when suddenly you disappear over the falls! How will you ever get back up there again? Cohen still believes he is at the top of the falls. His students, eager to go over the falls (in safety, if possible), gather at the edge of the falls and can hardly make him out, so far below. “Just be me!” Cohen shouts. “Go over the falls. What’s the problem?” His students answer, “There seems to be some mysterious barrier; we cannot get over it! Although it appears that there is only a few feet for us to go, we find that these few feet require thousands if not millions of lives to traverse.” Cohen responds, “There is no barrier; just jump!” Some of the students try jumping, and hit the barrier, breaking their nose (knows too, their understanding) and thus losing valuable time that could be spent making a right effort, with the right attitude and the right enthusiasm, along the proven course recommended by the Avatar in His various Incarnations upon our blessed earth.
Andrew Cohen (posted 6/2/03):
The goal of enlightenment is to win liberation from self-image, to transcend self-image altogether. That's why when we speak about enlightenment, we can say that the goal is zero. Because the idea is that the attention in the self shifts from the separate ego personality to the deeper authentic self and beyond. And there is no face there. There is a certain quality there but it doesn't have a personal face. It is an impersonal quality. And ultimately the goal is that when your attention is liberated from the fears and desires of the ego, and begins to identify more with the authentic self and the deeper self beyond that, then your personality and your physical human face will become an emanation and expression of that deeper authentic self or soul and the unmanifest self beneath that. It's a complete shift from the personal to the impersonal. And then you may actually become a beautiful person rather than being an ugly, self-centered egomaniac. You begin to emanate and express the qualities of beauty. But it's not a personal thing. It's coming from deep within, from your own deeper authenticity. And the important thing is that your attention at that point is not on the personal. Your attention has shifted from identifying with the personal ego self to the deeper self. So then you become liberated from the domination and control of the human personality, and the human personality begins to ultimately express that deeper self.
Guru Kurt:
I find that my heart grows tired of pounding on this poor guru. I have given up all hope for him, and can only conclude that earth holds no students worthy of my spiritual might. What will you do, Father? Has the world no more need of me, then? Am I free to go and dance among the lilies? Can I sing with the nightingales, since no human wishes to hear my voice? Can I recline in fragrant bowers, far from the hurly burly world, and reflect upon my immortality in peace at last? Is there no one who wishes to hear my message of love and hope? Are there none fit for the Kingdom of Heaven which I openly proclaim, at long last? If I am free from obligation to humanity, then I am free indeed! I sing a joyful song, and make a loud cry of freedom in righteous exultation! Good-bye, humanity, and good riddance! You are a troublesome lot, in any case, with your wars, violence, discrimination, and quite insane social systems that value money above human happiness. I allow you to fall into the pit you have dug, and throw in the shovel, along with a good measure of spit, on top of you! What is your epitaph? Let me see if I can make it out: “Here lies humanity, parted from God. Throw them back! I prefer cod!” Why did God give you a brain, when you cannot use it to think? I doubt whether any of you is even capable of reading what I write. I think you just stare at it and scowl, then go have noisome sex. Instead of speaking to man, I will just speak to the fishes. I will go to the lakeshore and pronounce in a loud voice, words that will be better heard there than by any human ear. The fishes at least swim about, now turning this way and now that. You all just turn your backs! Oh, yes, I love looking at your pretty backsides! I look up to the sky, and behold the moon. I look to humanity, and behold many moons! I understand at last why Jesus said, “for him who has ears to hear.” There are no humans to hear; only I have ears to hear Jesus, and only I retain the ears that will hear my own message, down the ages! You are all as deaf as stones! You are as responsive as dead fish, smelling just as disgusting with all your “spirituality,” which is so much old women’s prattle! I vomit when I read your ideas! I throw up when you talk about the “Self” as though you had ever seen it! I tell you something, when an illumined person like Andrew Cohen has a closed mind, then it is that I pack up my things and make ready to go! Behold, I leave! I walk away and wash my hands of this mess! Only the Father may be able to sway my mind, and even He seems to be asleep! I say, “Father, the world will be destroyed in 100 years as its resources are exhausted. What shall we do?” Would you like to know His response? Would you like to hear my Father, Brahman’s response to my importunate and serious cries? My Father says, “Kurt, let’s find you a nice wife so you can be like Ramakrishna. How will the world’s people make any progress if you don’t have a wife?” I get very angry, and retort, “Father, you have said that you will slay 4.5 billion people, and you wish to talk of marriage for me? At this late date? When the hour is at hand? Are you insane?” He makes no response to this, but I tell you, I would rather slit my own throat than get married at this stage, so filled with wrath and righteous indignation am I! No more talk of love for me: I bring war! No more talk of sweetness; I bring sorrow! This world must know my Father’s power! This is my mission, none other than this! Ramakrishna is the last! Never more will I appear like that weakling, cringing and serving some vile bitch who doesn’t know her own ass from a hole in the ground! Beware, world, for your hour of reckoning is due! Laugh if you want, yes, laugh! Laugh all the way into the grave that even now my Father prepares for the masses! I will have my rainforests back! I will preserve my metals! I will keep my precious petroleum and use it wisely, frugally! I will have these things, though they come in a great ocean of human blood, as my Father tears the souls from the bodies of those who will not heed my words!
Well, what does baby Cohen have for us today? Ah, I see, more garbled imagery, vague truisms, and inaccurate perceptions. The “goal of enlightenment,” eh? Asshole. Enlightenment is the goal, or hadn’t you noticed! When are you going to start helping these poor people, instead of throwing your illumination around like Dracula hissing and wielding his black cloak at midnight? Let us see, Cohen. Look around the room; how many illumined people do you see? None! Cohen, there are none! You are the only illumined teacher on the American continent! You are! Wake up, wake up, wake up! These people are not going to be joining you anytime soon; why don’t you apprehend where they are, and meet them there, instead of pretending they are where you are? Why do you seek to turn enlightenment into a path? Why do you think I gave you those things, so long ago? Enlightenment is the goal, Cohen, the goal! You cannot make up your own religion; you are not qualified! This you must leave to the Expert, should He ever decide to make His appearance at this God-forsaken juncture in human history! Who do you suppose was responsible for founding the religions? Perhaps it was a fairy, such as yourself, or an egotist like Da Free John! Be that as it may, you should have used a different word or phrase in your first sentence other than “enlightenment,” such as “sadhana,” “the spiritual journey,” “the spiritual struggle,” or even your favorite, “spiritual evolution.” Then your sentence would have meaning, instead of being a mere random stringing together of impressive-sounding terminology! Before enlightenment, you are unenlightened. After enlightenment, you are Brahman’s son or daughter, although as you are demonstrating clearly to the world, you have a long ways to go yet before you even understand what has happened to you! Aren’t you embarrassed, saying things like this? Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? What if a professor of nuclear physics got up and started class by saying, “The goal of an atomic explosion is a chain reaction?” He would hide his head in shame, burning up in embarrassment before his educated, sophisticated students! Are you burning up? No, because you don’t even know you are making a mistake! What an idiot you are! What a moron! How is it you are able to draw any students, speaking loosely like this, as though you did not even know English? These students must themselves be of the poorest quality, unable to critically analyze their teacher’s words, accepting them as sheep will sometimes eat thorn bushes instead of fresh grass when they are led to the wrong field, cutting their lips and damaging their stomach linings. I had originally wanted to meet you and your crowd, but now I don’t! I’d rather go to a barn, and preach to the pigs and goats! Your heads must all be so buried in slime that I doubt you would even respond to my words! I will say, “The goal of spiritual life is to extinguish the ego,” and you will respond, “Oink, oink,” or “Bray, bray.” Are you even down there, somewhere? I can’t see you, you are so tiny, so small-minded, so lacking in vision, so devoid of motivation, so far from desiring the radical freedom that is illumination! What a barnyard scene you must have over there in Massachusetts! There’s your best student, Cohen, rolling around in the mud! Get over there quick, and start rolling with him! Are you not the teacher?
Well, all right. I will accept “self-image” as a euphemism for “ego.” The ego is who we think we are, based on our sensory experiences, and not a real awareness of our inherent divinity, that is only revealed in samadhi. I will not accept, however, that the goal is “zero!” When you say, so arrogantly and smugly, that “we” say that the goal is zero, speak for yourself! Do not seek to increase your authority by drawing in the other illumined teachers, and perhaps the Avatar as well! How insecure you are! Look at the way you use language: “We” say this, not “I” say this! The goal is not zero! The goal is unlimited freedom, unstoppable bliss, divine awareness and ever-increasing wisdom (there is plenty of room for your wisdom to expand, Cohen!) Don’t talk about “zero” to me, or to my precious aspirants! Yes, they are dear to me! Your students, Cohen, are far dearer to me than they are to you, who slap them in the face every day by flouting your illumination in their face, and not speaking to them with compassion in your heart, understanding their unfortunate position, locked in mortal combat with their egoism! All those who strive for Self-realization are my dear ones, and I will not throw obstacles in their path, which is already strewn with great difficulties and struggle. What are you telling them, to make themselves into “zeros?” How the hell is anyone going to do this? You are completely out of touch with the life around you! You have forgotten what egoic living is like! To all those who read my words I announce, Do not seek to make yourself into a “zero.” Instead, strive to cultivate the “good ego,” as Ramakrishna also advised to man. Think, “I am a lover of God,” or “I am the one who performs good actions,” or “I am a sincere spiritual aspirant” or “I am the one who contributes to my family, community and world.” The ego fears goodness alone; it does not fear this “zeroness,” which you will discover is an attitude that is devoid of real content and completely impractical for daily living. The “good ego” is conquered easily by the Self in samadhi. The “ego striving for zeroness” will make its sadhana into a meaningless joke, remaining very shallow and making little or no progress, playing mental games of no consequence. The world is real; suffering is real; pain is real. You cannot attain illumination until you develop a heart of compassion, that witnesses the real world and responds as Brahman Himself would respond to it, and that is with kindness, consideration, gentleness, warmth and love. Go with Cohen and play your little mind games if you desire; I am for those who have open eyes, who see the real world, and learn to respond to it with a growing divine awareness that is real, living spirituality and not a retreat into a Cohenesque solipsism. Well, where is my gentleness, and where is my love? I tell you, people, when you see a child sitting in a smelly swamp neck-deep in mud, with a circle of other children gathered around buried up to their noses, almost drowning in mud, wouldn’t you wish to drag this whole bunch out of the bog, where they are convinced their happiness is to be found, out onto dry land? That is my goal; whether I succeed or not is not my concern. All I can do is use the only tool in my possession, language, to try to shock people out of their dreamland and show them the real world. If I succeed, they will wake up, notice they are neck deep or worse in fetid mud, and strive for freedom. If I fail, I am not affected, for no mud dweller am I!
The rest of Cohen’s teaching here is inaccurate. I get the feeling, reading it, that it is a long string of “mixed metaphors,” as in “A bird in the hand saves nine” and “A stitch in time beats two in the bush.” If you try to find reality in this paragraph, you will not be successful, for it is not there! Cohen is unbelievably confused at times, which is a product of his remaining ego-force, those portions of his higher and lower minds that were not flooded with self-awareness during his nirvikalpa samadhi event. Do you think that the tendencies of trillions of lives in animal bodies can be undone in a single event taking just two days? The ego idea is eliminated, but this existed in the higher mind. The lower mind, which is responsible for maintaining and operating our bodies, is hardly affected until the fourth or fifth samadhi event (in subsequent lives). The human being can only endure one or at most two nirvikalpa samadhi events in any one lifetime, otherwise he would die, so intense is the purification process. What you see in Cohen is an overlay of knowledge upon a vast mountain of ignorance that still remains, far below the level where the ego used to exist, but which originally gave rise to the ego when conscious thought arose long ago in our evolution. Thus, sometimes his teachings are good, but sometimes the underlying ego-causing forces that are still present manipulate his words, twisting the meaning of the Atman out of all recognition, as occurs in this fetid, foolish paragraph of his. Let all who think that enlightenment means full union with Brahman read these words of Cohen, so far from the Avatar’s truth, and weep tears of woe and grief! Human beings can experience Brahman, but only that region of Brahman that is available to them, the Paramatman, which is experienced as the impersonal, Supreme Self (which Cohen does describe, though it has no practical significance for the unenlightened). Brahman maintains a thinking region that is separate from His universes and outside them (actually a region that is much larger than many universes), and enters His universes with localized organs of thought and action, as well as having become all matter and spiritual entities (where He exists as consciousness, not active thought). This is the Brahman that the Avatar embodies for man, the Almighty, whom the Avatar witnesses as “Father” but who remains forever impersonal for man, who can only ever perceive limitless, absolute, impersonal Spirit. Brahman embodies Himself in the Avatar, a truth that Cohen does not see or appreciate in any way, shape or form! None can attain the Avatar’s state, who is a true God, like the Father, having many powers of creation and destruction at his disposal, though the Avatar lowers his coattails so that lower spiritual beings may make progress into Paramatman, holding the vision of Brahman’s Personification ever before them, in the case of illumined beings by ceaseless repetition of the Lord’s name in the deepest recesses of consciousness (known as ajapajapam in the Hindu tradition). The Avatar descends to lead His creatures upward. All fall down before Him in awe and worship, even the most advanced members of the astral realms. If they fail in this, they fail in their spiritual progress, and though the Avatar is unaffected by their failure, His compassion causes Him to engage in a variety of teaching works, sometimes expressing affection, sometimes expressing anger, sometimes expressing indifference, all to wake man up to the real spiritual situation that exists in the universe. What is this spiritual situation? The Father rises high above all, though He is known by His Sons, and knows them in return, as Jesus said. Below the Avatar there is a tremendous gap, for the Avatar is the Creator, and the next lowest being is a creature, a being that was made by forces which the Avatar wields. Yet, these beings are gods in their own right, venerable and powerful, known as angels in the West and Devas in the East. Not a lot has been revealed to man about the hierarchy of the astral realms, or the “Kingdom of Heaven” as Jesus referred to it, because it is not man’s main concern. Earth is a “training planet” for much higher things. After illumination, you are guaranteed astral realm ascension sometime during the current solar cycle, and then you will learn more about what occurs there, though as the millennia roll by the Avatar will reveal more to satisfy man’s curiosity. Illumination is the start of real spiritual life, not its end. “Zero” indeed! Illumination is the dawn of divine life, the beginning of your godhood. Attain to this, and although your first teaching works may be idiotic, solipsistic, closed-minded and vain, like Cohen’s, what do you really care? Cohen is free, and even as I write this learns rapidly better ways to communicate with people, better ways to inspire those who need inspiration, and will learn that instead of seeking to rework revealed religion, a much better approach is that of Sai Baba or Easwaran, each of whom clings tightly to the Avatar’s truth making smaller forays into practical application to daily living, thus emerging with far superior teaching works, scarcely distinguishable from the Avatar Himself!
The central problem with Cohen’s paragraph here is that he seeks to make enlightenment into the path. Thus, he pretends you can take an enlightened attitude towards your ego and gradually go beyond it. You can shift your attention slowly from the ego to the Self, he says, a Self that is impersonal, and then you will be a beautiful person because you will manifest the unmanifest in your life. It is a very nice theory, which is more or less eloquently stated, although he repeats the same thing over and over, emphasizing that the experience is impersonal. I look at this paragraph with my “sadhana eyes,” the eyes I used during my years of spiritual struggle, and I see a beautiful description of something to which I cannot at all relate, in fact one that scares me a good deal. I do not wish to lose my personal attributes; I wish for my personality to flower, and I don’t see how this can be accomplished by abandoning the personal. In those days I did a lot of reading, and reading this, I would have fled in the opposite direction! Perhaps you have a different reaction than I to these words. Perhaps you can truly be inspired to find something that “lacks a personal face” in order to optimize your personality. If so, then become Cohen’s lackey, his slavish follower. You will be in good company, as he is quite popular, or so I hear! The Paramatman, where Cohen sees no face, has a face. It is the face of the Avatar, the face of Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, Chaitanya, and Rama. If Cohen can bring himself to admit the Avatar’s existence (currently he will not even admit the possibility that the Avatar could be real, and imagines he supplies man with his own little religion; hence I call him closed-minded), then he will be able to begin the process of ajapajapam, which my mighty guru, Eknath Easwaran, used to penetrate deeply into Paramatman. I am not looking for the impersonal; I want a Friend. I am not looking to allow some impersonal force to express itself in me, and if one should, I would fight against it tooth and nail! Cohen speaks of experiencing two selves here, the “deeper authentic self” and the “unmanifest self,” and so you see he has experienced both Atman and Paramatman, as I declare! However, the Atman is personal, as Easwaran discovered, though the Paramatman is not experienced as personal by man. People cling to Cohen, and why? They wish to have magnificent, radiant personalities such as he has, that is always secure in itself and full of wise-sounding talk, although not always talk that is truly wise. Cohen’s personality is the personality of the Atman, to whom he is transparent. When Cohen’s students feel affection for him, they are really loving their own Self, and to the degree they are able to feel love for him they will progress rapidly in their spiritual awareness. He really slaps them in the face, then, telling them to expect the impersonal, when all they really want is the personal! Loving the Avatar is the best way for all to make progress, including illumined teachers. I advise people to love the Avatar as the external Lord, and the illumined teacher as the Self, the proximate Lord. Am I not encouraging “slavish following?” Well, slavishness is all right, if you have nothing better within yourself. If there are any followers of Cohen reading this (if you can read), awaken your spirit of enquiry and ask him why he seems not to have lost his personality; exactly why does an encounter with the impersonal result in a flowering of personality? The answer is that the Atman is personal, and is shocked into deeper awareness, bliss, joy and freedom by Paramatman, which is Brahman’s living spirit. If you read his paragraph carefully, you will see that he never answers this question; he just goes around and around in circles, but where is the mechanism, if what I state is not true?
Are you tired of reading, yet? Too bad, I’m not tired of writing! I’m having too much fun. Cohen is such a raw, undeveloped and totally clueless new illumined guru that I cannot resist looking closely at all that he says; it is quite humorous to me. He sounds so deep, but he doesn’t really say anything useful to ordinary men and women! How can anyone say so much, but never once tread upon practical ground? He is so high in the sky; when do you suppose he will touch back down to earth again? This is all right; the only thing that bothers me is that his mind appears to be closed to higher realities than those of which he might have been made aware in his life prior to the present moment. I keep coming back and back to this point, I know, but you must realize this is very fascinating to me. Cohen is the highest of human beings, the most magnificent, and what is his response to me? He ignores me! “Guru Kurt will go away, if I just stick my head in the sand and pretend he doesn’t exist!” So Cohen thinks, but why shouldn’t I take a great interest in this bird who has stuck his head deep in sand? What if I kick it? Will it respond? If I hit it with a bat, will it quiver? If I jump up and down on the sand around its head, will it think there’s an earthquake and come up for air? I just can’t believe it; an illumined teacher, with a closed mind! Is all humanity a joke, then? I suppose so, but what can I do about it? Read the letter I sent Cohen. What was wrong with it? Did I fail in offering proofs of my illumination? Granted, I obliterated one of his little “teachings,” but shouldn’t I be allowed my fun? Where is the camaraderie? C’mon, Cohen, you’re illumined, I’m illumined, let’s get together and have a pow-wow (utter silence in response). So my life goes on; nothing changes. I can even play Cohen’s part: “Guru Kurt, you scare me with your bold talk. I can talk boldly to my disciples, but I don’t really mean those things. I am just filling up the empty air with sound. They’re watching me, aren’t they? If I didn’t talk, then they would talk, and am I supposed to learn from them?” I don’t know; what could Cohen’s problem be? Perhaps it is because he lives on the East Coast of the United States, and I am a lowly Midwesterner. Sure, that’s it. Cohen is prejudiced against Wisconsin, the dairy state! Really, I think his problem is that I have no students. Have you heard that song by Pink Floyd that goes, “How can you have your pudding if you don’t eat any meat?” Cohen sings, “How can you be illumined, if you don’t have any students?” It’s “The Wall.” “All in all (Cohen), you’re just another brick in the wall!”
Well let’s look at this nasty piece of “reasoning” line by line, though I’ll try to shoot it down quickly so you can all go do something more interesting, like watch grass grow or listen to the wind howl through the leafless trees of winter (both of which will take you farther forward along the spiritual path than following Cohen’s non-advice here).
The goal of enlightenment is to win liberation from self-image, to transcend self-image altogether.
It is true that the goal of sadhana is to win liberation from self-image, to transcend self-image altogether, when self-image is recognized to represent the ego, our intractable surface identity.
That's why when we speak about enlightenment, we can say that the goal is zero.
The ego is reduced to zero, but only in nirvikalpa samadhi, which is a purification event that overtakes you once you have worked through and conquered all the ego’s poor attendants, which in the end are all various forms of greed, that “I should have some of this” (meaning various material objects and the attention of other physical beings), and the responses when we do not, or may not get this (anger or fear). These attendants are not fully conquered until you reach the stage of dhyana, although the Holy Name will allow you to defeat them temporarily (and sap their strength) at any stage. It is not wise to take your goal to be “zero.” Is Cohen zero? He most certainly is not, but Cohen is your goal! The goal is illumination, enlightenment; we seek to become like the glorious men and women who have attained the end-state of human spiritual evolution.
Because the idea is that the attention in the self shifts from the separate ego personality to the deeper authentic self and beyond.
This is a description of nirvikalpa samadhi, not something you can do through personal effort. Until you undergo this blessed event, you will not see the “deeper authentic self” or “beyond,” the Atman and Paramatman, at all! You can experience the joy of the Atman if you act in right ways each day, which means working hard at selfless tasks, meditating deeply, and repeating the Name of God from time to time with love and devotion in your heart. If you try to “feel” around inside yourself for the “deeper authentic self,” you will only discover more ego, who loves these kinds of games. You do not need to take my word for it; just try it! Then come to me tomorrow, and tell me how long your feeling of “authenticity” lasted! You will almost invariably go in a wrong direction, for before illumination the human being is a vast web of confusing and contradictory impulses. No deeper self will appear before you when you merely look, although if you repeat God’s Name frequently you call upon the Self, who will answer in profound ways, though the Self will appear to be a separate entity within you, which is why the scriptures refer to it as the “Lord within the heart.”
And there is no face there. There is a certain quality there but it doesn't have a personal face. It is an impersonal quality.
Cohen describes nothing but the Paramatman, which he has clearly seen. As I say, he has not yet reached the stage where an illumined teacher understands that the Avatar (and all those in the astral realm as well) rises high above him and is worthy of worship and entreaty even in his advanced stage. Brahman is made personal, manifested, in the Avatar. Calling upon His Name constantly, one is able to open the closed, impersonal door of Paramatman and make significant progress, for ultimately everything is personal, though Brahman is far too large and magnificent to be seen as anything but impersonal by man, even in a direct encounter with a portion of His Spirit, as occurs in nirvikalpa samadhi.
And ultimately the goal is that when your attention is liberated from the fears and desires of the ego, and begins to identify more with the authentic self and the deeper self beyond that, then your personality and your physical human face will become an emanation and expression of that deeper authentic self or soul and the unmanifest self beneath that.
Here is where Cohen will most mislead you, for it sounds like what he is suggesting will work. Rationally, it makes some sense, if you can find this authentic self within yourself; but you can’t! No human being can do this, except for the illumined! If you wish to try this, be my guest. There is no harm in experimenting with different disciplines to see what works for you. I get a picture of ballerinas gallivanting around across a stage, now flowing this way, now that, following their “authentic selves.” What will you encounter if you try this? You will just see some old, crusty desires that are different from the ones in which you are immersed. It may feel “liberating” for a while to follow different desires from the ones to which you are accustomed, but in the end this is all they are: just different desires, not the “authentic self,” which hides itself from man behind a veil of ignorance that cannot be broached save in nirvikalpa samadhi! After illumination, Cohen’s words here will be true for you, so for my students who may happen to be reading this, look again: this is a beautiful description of what you will experience after samadhi, but then this is true of most of Cohen’s sayings. Use them as goads to strive for the goal; the personal experience he describes will be yours too, one day, though you will not get there by traveling on his “road,” which is a more or less complex set of mental games or tricks that result in no real progress, although you may feel something in accord with the Gita’s maxim, “Action is better than inaction.”
It's a complete shift from the personal to the impersonal.
This is an incorrect perception on Cohen’s part. It is patently false. It is wishful thinking; he wishes he could have made a “complete” shift to the Paramatman, but his nirvikalpa samadhi event is long over, and he will need to wait until his next life for another one, when he shall again taste the Paramatman, purify his lower mind to a greater extent, and come one step closer to the total purification required for sahaja samadhi and ascension to the astral realms, which he will undoubtedly reach long before solar cycle’s end, thus making him the envy of the whole human race!
And then you may actually become a beautiful person rather than being an ugly, self-centered egomaniac.
This is what everyone wants, to become a beautiful person. I suggest that people learn to excel in the modes of goodness, which will transform them into beautiful people right now, with every act of compassion, kindness, mercy, generosity, fellow-feeling, and righteousness! Follow Cohen, and look for your “authentic self,” or follow me, and find the joy that always follows good actions on your part! You may say that we are agreed, but where does Cohen say this? Nowhere. You see, if he was saying that goodness will help you to overcome your egocentricity, my job would be difficult, because he would be right. As it is, he has made it very easy by never mentioning good and evil!
You begin to emanate and express the qualities of beauty. But it's not a personal thing. It's coming from deep within, from your own deeper authenticity.
If you can find your “impersonal personality” emerging by following Cohen’s advice, as I say, please be my guest! Far be it from me to dissuade people from a course that works for them. I am merely stating that during my days of sadhana, I would have found speech like this confusing, disheartening, and frightening. My life is not a “personal thing?” What is it, then? What will I discover in my heart that is “impersonal?” Why would I wish to discover such a thing, which fills my soul with horror and fear? This was not my experience in samadhi, and it is not my experience today. Let me assure everyone, you will discover the supreme personality within yourself in nirvikalpa samadhi. Cohen has this, but he misleads everyone by pointing to the highest thing his supreme personality has found, and that is impersonal Paramatman. What is the relationship between your supreme, divine personality, and the surrounding region of Brahman’s spirit into which you must expand? This is the really interesting question.
And the important thing is that your attention at that point is not on the personal.
Here is where Cohen’s reasoning starts going in circles. Didn’t he just say this two sentences before? Well, since this is a speech, I think we can forgive him. I probably will be guilty of this a few times in my life, as well, if I ever get a chance to talk to anyone! Writing is much easier, in any case. Who knows if I can even talk? Perhaps I shall be like Meher Baba, only writing and refraining from all speech. It does have certain advantages…
Your attention has shifted from identifying with the personal ego self to the deeper self.
This is a description of the result of nirvikalpa samadhi, and thus Cohen misleads his students. You see, there is a good deal of spiritual discrimination which Cohen does not yet possess, discrimination that would tell him the proper way to phrase this thought is, “After nirvikalpa samadhi, the supreme experience for man, your attention will be fully shifted from identifying with the ego (which has been obliterated by the divine fire of the Atman), to the radiant, pure, self-luminous Self.”
So then you become liberated from the domination and control of the human personality, and the human personality begins to ultimately express that deeper self.
This is a very confusing sentence that doesn’t meet the minimum standards of English grammar. How can you be liberated from something, when that something remains? “Cut him some slack,” you say. “In the first part of the sentence, by ‘human personality’ he means ego, and in the second part of the sentence, he means ‘non-ego.’” Well, all right, but this is not what he said! We do not wish to be liberated from the human personality; we wish to bring the human personality to a beautiful flowering, that we begin the first day we set our feet to the spiritual path. Pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi are greater and greater degrees of flowering. Thus, the second part of the sentence I agree with entirely. The awakened spiritual consciousness of those who travel along the spiritual path is of the nature of the Atman. It is self-aware, but not Self-aware, that is, it is aware enough to realize there is a goal and to wish to struggle for that goal, but it has not realized that goal yet. I wish you luck, if you search for something deep within yourself that is impersonal in an effort to transform your personality. My students I would tell to learn to express yourself in the modes of goodness, and thus begin your flowering directly! I recall the students of Easwaran’s ashram, Ramagiri, living this out on a daily basis, for they were unfailingly kind, always friendly, ever-generous, and warm-hearted to boot. I would fear Cohen’s students as I would fear the golem, that impersonal monster with no soul that stalks the world in the dead of night!
Andrew Cohen (posted 6/9/03):
If it's going to really count for something, being free has to mean that in the face of enormous emotional and psychological challenges we don't lose our perspective, we don't lose our presence of mind, we don't lose touch with the impersonal, absolute context in which all experience arises. It means that we don't lose the plot and we remain true, no matter what, to our own deepest recognition of the truth. We don't waver, even in the face of tumult and confusion; we remain steady.
Now if we can do that, then when the storms subside, as they always will, what we find is that because we didn't move, we didn't betray ourself, and we didn't betray the truth. And there's a kind of self-confidence that we can develop that's unlike anything else, because we know we can handle our own mind, we know we can handle our own emotions without wavering, without betraying ourself. That's how real strength of character and real authenticity is developed.
Guru Kurt:
The one thing that’s really nice about Cohen is that he truly is illumined, so that his tripe and trumpery is ever-fresh, never-boring, each saying more idiotic and immature than the last. If he were a preacher, or a pretender like Ken Wilbur, I would scarcely be able to read what he says, let alone comment upon it. As it is, I can clearly see the validity of Cohen’s experience, though his practical side has not yet emerged. I read a dialog yesterday between Andrew Cohen and Ken Wilbur in “What is Enlightenment?,” Cohen’s little mag, and when I was reading Wilbur’s side I needed to stand on my head to keep from screaming in agony, but then when I read Cohen’s side I could again sit right side up. Wilbur thought Cohen was “just like him,” who is verily an illumined sage, and wet-behind-the-ears Cohen foolishly agreed with him. Wilbur has an intellectual understanding of spirituality, but his experiences have not been deep or abiding. I suspect that he is still in pratyahara, far from engaging in a serious spiritual quest, too lost in his own still-emerging rational power of thinking to admit that what he talks about, he has yet to do. I asked my Father, “What are all these ‘memes?’ What is the ‘green meme?’ What is ‘boomeritis?’ Does pluralism really entrap one in the ego?” He answered, “Son, this is just a sociologist. He studies man, and makes up theories. They aren’t bad, at that!” I replied, “Yet he gainsays my Christian fundamentalists. What is wrong with having total faith in Jesus, even in the teeth of science? At least this is superior to following an ignoramus like Wilbur!” Wilbur has a very skewed view of spiritual reality in the modern world, for he has only applied his intellect to the situation, and does not see with the heart of an awakened being as he purports to do in an egregious and slimy manner. I say, “Those Christians are flying right by you, buddy boy, for they follow the teachings of the Master Himself. Christ may not have told man where he is going, but did He ever tell him how to get there!” The spirituality of the fundamentalist Christians is profound, for they cling closely to the path which the Lord laid before them. They fear other religions, but this is because they have not yet heard the voice of the Master calling them away. As Jesus said, He is the good shepherd, and His sheep will hear His voice. Morality and righteousness are indeed the path, and the fundamentalists make as much or more progress than the Hindus, though those who meditate with good techniques in any tradition go faster still. All the world’s people are going forward, Wilbur, though you may think otherwise with your blasphemous “theories” which second-guess the Lord Himself. Your concern for the “boomers” is ill-placed; your main concern should be with yourself, for as I have revealed elsewhere there is major negative karma associated with false claims to enlightenment, as you appear to make. Who am I to say such things? A person who has lost enough hair, already, without needing to tear out more reading gibberish about “memes” and “boomers!”
Wilbur and Cohen appear to think that since the “pluralist” or “postmodernist” accepts equality in all things, and wishes to refrain from judging others, he will not accept the judgment that his spirituality is lower than, say, Cohen or Wilbur. Wilbur even foolishly stated that pluralism is a “hierarchical judgment” to decide not to make hierarchical judgments, thus containing a “performative self-contradiction,” condemning the very process giving it existence, which is nonsense. You cannot cut off a valid line of reasoning by mere wordplay such as this. It is a valid position to say, “It is not good to make judgments,” and the basis of this is not one of hierarchical judgment, but merely of personal witness and assessment. Judgment, loosely speaking, is labeling a certain thing as good or evil, right or wrong. Saying “it is wrong to judge” is indeed a judgment, but it is not a hierarchical one; it is a “judgment to end all judgments,” to which a person is rationally and with validity reduced if he wishes to take this stance. For instance, you may point out to me that oranges are orange, and apples are red. I can respond, “I am a pluralist. It is not correct to make comparisons like this. Both of them certainly have color, but now you have insulted both apples and oranges!” The judgment which a pluralist makes is thus really a different kind of thing than the judgments he condemns. It is really better characterized as a decision to refrain from making assessments about different categories of things in the world, comparing one to the next. One who says “I refuse to compare,” does not really engage in the act of comparing at this moment, but exerts a force of restraint upon the very tendency to compare. Thus, to say “I refuse to make any comparisons in the world,” is a valid position, not one which is logically inconsistent, unless you get caught up in the words which are used, ignoring the meanings, nuances and intentions behind them. Does the pluralist condemn all judgments, and thus engage in that behavior she deplores? I suppose if she were to attack those who judge, this would be true, because then she would be dividing the world into “those who judge,” and “those who do not judge,” then judging those who judge as wrong, and those who do not judge as right. Yet, even here there is a strong position of intellectual validity, for this judgment is one step removed from the world, and is a judgment of a different type from that which it condemns. It is a fundamental decision about human decisions, a judgment about judgments, a comparison about comparisons, and obtains intellectual validity once you realize that were you to disallow such a position, the person would be cut off from the world and unable to communicate his ideas. It is a judgment about human judging behavior, which is not inconsistent because it says, “Say, let’s not do this; this isn’t right for us as humans to engage in behaviors like this.” Pluralists do not cancel themselves out; their judging about not judging would need to be afforded a special class, one that must be allowed so that their position may be communicated to other sentient beings. Since there are apparently a lot of pluralists around, what I say must be true. Think about it. I take the position that “all judgments are wrong.” I also take the position that my idea is right, and that others’ ideas are wrong. Now, being thoughtful, I next think, “Am I not judging when I think that my position is right, and others wrong?” I then immediately see, “Not to allow myself to make this decision would indeed be a valid position, but if I take it then who will know what my thinking has been? I must communicate my ideas, or of what value are they to the larger world? Who knows? There may be others who will think as I do.” You see, communicating our ideas and values to others is always an intellectually valid position; there is no idea which should not be allowed discussion and consideration, and so it is Wilbur who has an invalid, careless and sloppy position when he says the pluralists cannot logically condemn those who are not pluralists. They can, they do, and there is nothing inherently illogical about such thought, for thinking about thinking, even when this thinking is value-based, is a special class of thought that has inherent validity, as any child should be able to see, though perhaps not any philosopher/false mystic.
The trouble with both Cohen and Wilbur is that they seem to wish to force religion down man’s throat, which is a boneheaded approach. I assert my identity, I assert my freedom, I assert my spirituality, and then let man gawk, scoff, guffaw or follow, as he chooses. I do not say that pluralists are lower than I. If I meet a pluralist, my first instinct will be to assume he is higher than I! I always look at everyone this way. If they remain quiet, how will I know any different? Even of those who may be lower than I, there is so much that I may learn, and so I always keep an attitude of the utmost respect for all. “Why do I slam Cohen and now Wilbur?” you ask. The reason is they have taken positions that are far from truth. I do not slam these individuals; I slam their positions. Were I to meet either one, I am sure that we could find common ground, and have a nice discussion. Since I am ignored, I just muse and muster to my heart’s content. How do I know anyone will even read this document? Why should I even care? This is how it is; learn it well, gentlemen! I say I have attained nirvikalpa samadhi, in two experiences each lasting a week in duration. I have reached the goal declared in the scriptures, and now live in continuous bliss, unending freedom, supernal delight and righteous truth. Since I cannot give anyone my experience, I just have to hope that there are students somewhere worthy of me. If there are none (as appears to be the case), then what is it to me? It is not my job to fix your lousy civilization! It is not my job to pull your heads out of the slime in which they are ever-buried. Let the boomers and the pluralists go jump in the creek, for all I care! I declare the Way for man, and should any care to hearken to my cry of adventure, freedom, and joy, they will find me their dearest friend. If they wish to sit and consider pluralist doctrines for a few thousand lives (or doctrines about pluralist doctrines), then this is their prerogative. It is a free world, and all may do as they like herein. I say there is negative karma for evil actions, but no one needs to believe me! Go ahead, commit some evil and then find out for yourself! I say that good actions will bring joy, but it is not my concern that anyone do good; if people want joy that lasts and does not leave within a fortnight, they will try to put my words into practice and make this discovery for themselves. Are the “boomers” trapped by their pluralism into thinking that since there are no better states or worse states, they should not strive? If they are Christians, or the followers of any of the world’s other major religions, then they are not trapped, but go forward. You do not have to think, “Gotta get my ego,” in order to make spiritual progress, my little ducklings. You just gotta be good, for in the end it is only goodness which the ego fears, nothing other than this! Be kind, be gentle, be generous, be loving, and you will go forward, whatever your belief system may be. “Oh, but Guru Kurt, you are not gentle with us,” the babies whine. Well, come and apologize then; stop misleading my friends, and I will cease from my antagonism. Wilbur, stop insinuating you are enlightened; all your musings are acceptable, if you will only do this. Cohen, admit I exist instead of burying your head in the sand of solipsism where it currently resides. I have a gentle side, but also a terrible side. Observe the proper forms of spirituality, and I am all friendship. Mislead the world, my world, and find your bitterest opponent! What is more, the pluralists who practice what Jesus preached, doing onto others as they would be done unto and loving their neighbors as themselves, also go forward. Meditation is not required for ego-reduction. As Jesus said, all those who do His commandments are justified, saved; there is no belief requirement except for what the Christians have falsely tacked on, as an afterthought to the Master’s real teaching work. Do not worry about the pluralists; worry about yourselves, for I spy some flaws, and you just have to ask yourselves one question: Does this person have a log in his eye, or is his log removed, thus qualifying him to be our righteous (though merciful, in the end) Judge?
You see, spirituality cannot be assigned to us from outside. It must come from within. I say I want no students. A student who sees my position, and wants it for himself, will reply, “Too bad, Jack, I’m your student.” I will say, “Go away!” and he will respond, “Don’t say that; I need you! How can I attain enlightenment, how can I continue to go forward, without you? I do not understand why, but I see something in your eyes that I too desire: freedom, bliss, awareness and wisdom. Tell me to go away, if you wish, but you will need to use violence, for I will not be dissuaded!” At this point, what can I do? I knuckle under, and accept a real student. I can only hiss, like a snake, acting as though I am angry; I cannot bite. There is no real anger behind my words, and someone who calls my bluff can overcome my resistance, who am just a doorperson before the glorious entranceway to the Self. This is how it is with me. I do not kowtow to students; I bluster and prevaricate, and allow them to trap me when I see that this is in the world’s best interests. I do not need them; if they should feel a need for me, then my Father has found my place. If none should ever feel a need for my guidance, then what is this to me? Do I not already possess everything I could ever want? This, my fickle and false friends, is the proper teacher-student relationship. The student “catches” the teacher, who teaches detachment and renunciation. Thus as you will see, should I ever obtain students, I do not make demands upon them. My only job is to present the means and modalities of spiritual growth, no more than this. Good students will practice what I recommend, and thus verify the truth of what I say in their personal lives. Those who lack enthusiasm will be able to catch fire at the sound of my voice. Those who lack drive will find what they need beneath my sheltering awareness. What is it that I promise? I am not so foolish as Cohen, who promises enlightenment, acting as though we can all take an “enlightened attitude” and make progress. Why do you suppose your students get so enraged with you, Cohen? It is because you promise too much, and deliver too little. Spiritual living is not about major experiences, or I should say, it is about learning to enter into major experiences every morning and every evening in meditation. My promise is that my Way of Love is optimal for man. All those who traverse its merry path and gentle slopes will discover their basal level of joyousness gradually increasing, as well as, when they enter deeper stages of meditation, having those spiritual experiences which Cohen seeks to use as the basis for his whole teaching work. I say, “Do you want more joy than you have now, today? If so, then follow my advice!” Cohen says, “I see you’ve had a spiritual experience. Stay with me, and if you’re lucky perhaps you will have another, or even two, before you die.” No wonder they get so angry with you!
One of your problems, Cohen, is that you seek to separate spirituality from daily life. Everyone is already on the spiritual path, only they may not know it yet. A person who sees a nice toy in a shop window, one that his child will love, who then buys it out of the goodness of his heart and a desire to see a smile on that child’s face, makes a spiritual decision and goes forward. A wife who refrains from tempting other men, remaining utterly faithful to her dear husband, makes a very spiritual decision and goes forward. A man who is faithful to his wife, despite perhaps temptations at work, is a good sadhu, making spiritual progress. Life is sadhana; sadhana is life. Spirituality is not necessarily about deep experiences, though these too shall come, but about gaining a little more joy today than we had yesterday. Live each day like this, a little more joy, a little more joy, and by the end of the year, guess what? You will have a lot more joy. Religion leads man to happiness, and keeps him out of misery. People need to start out right from where they are. If you make them yearn for spiritual experiences which may never materialize in their current life, they will be disappointed, and rightly angry with you! What does anyone really want in this world, if it is not a joyous disposition? Doesn’t everyone wish to be happy always, no matter what life may bring them (including death)? This is the promise which I make. You may still experience sorrow as past karma comes visiting or life decides to teach you a painful lesson, but if you diligently follow my Seven-fold Way of Love, the blow will not hurt very much. If you are ill or nearing death, my Way of Love will strengthen you and support you from within, at very deep levels. If life has treated you poorly, perhaps casting you into utter poverty, my Way will still open up a bright future for you of radiant spiritual awareness. If you have killed a man, or raped a woman, and you feel great repentance and anguish, my Way offers salvation, a way out of hell for you. Justice must be served, but mercy is granted to those who make atonement for their sins in order to prove to the Father they shall not commit those sins ever again. All those who strive with enthusiasm and dedication on my Way will begin, slowly, to feel the truth declared in the scriptures, that death is not the end for us, but merely a portal to another life of joyous striving on the highways of goodness, purity, joy and sweet love for all living creatures, without any exception at all.
Well, on to the solipsist’s argument of the day. I will include the first paragraph here again for the sake of easy reference:
If it's going to really count for something, being free has to mean that in the face of enormous emotional and psychological challenges we don't lose our perspective, we don't lose our presence of mind, we don't lose touch with the impersonal, absolute context in which all experience arises. It means that we don't lose the plot and we remain true, no matter what, to our own deepest recognition of the truth. We don't waver, even in the face of tumult and confusion; we remain steady.
Cohen is wrong to appeal to our need to “count for something,” which is an egoic need. Here he is, trumpeting freedom from the ego, yet appealing to the egos of his audience! Our spiritual awareness, our spiritual growth, is not intended to transform the world. The point of spiritual growth, the point of sadhana, is to attain the supreme goal of human life, nirvikalpa samadhi, for ourselves, for our own joy and our own fulfillment. You will say, “Guru Kurt, that is egoic; no egos for us!” and I will respond, “Real joy only comes to you when you defy the ego, directly or indirectly, and religion teaches the routes to joy.” It is wrong to seek to transform others; many have stumbled by making this erroneous assumption, gaining a little knowledge and then seeking fame through it. As far as I’m concerned, if there is nothing in it for me, why should I meditate, why should I perform spiritual disciplines, why should I do anything at all? You see, “me” is not equivalent to ego, because there is a real “me” beneath the ego. A religious aspirant adopts a “me,” an “I,” that is not very far from the Atman’s “I,” and thus overcomes the ego, which is very far indeed from the real “I.” You say, “Guru Kurt, in the state of nirvikalpa samadhi all sense of ‘I’ disappears; how do you explain this?” I respond, “The ‘I’ of the Atman is profound, and outward-looking. It is so secure within itself, that it never turns inward to look at itself, and so in nirvikalpa samadhi your feeling is not of ‘I,’ but of Paramatman, the spiritual region which surrounds the Atman, although especially in the first experience you are shown your real Self, being completely shocked that it does not appear to think ‘I.’” Your real “I,” your real identity, is granted to you forever by the Creator; it cannot be lost, not by any number of nirvikalpa samadhi events. People arise out of Brahman like leaves on a tree, living leaves that do not fall off in death’s autumn, but remain forever. After nirvikalpa samadhi, instead of a leaf you become a permanent flower, exploding in resplendence and majesty upon the world scene, and then alone is it appropriate for you to begin to take on the world’s troubles, although Cohen misses in his efforts here, for his lower mind is not sufficiently purified for him to see that the measure of the success of our spiritual disciplines is in the impact we have on ourselves, not the impact which we have on the outside world. If you seek to transform the world, you are nothing but a rajasic expander, still increasing in your application of reason towards external manipulation, like Wilbur or Chopra.
Well, let’s suppose that Cohen is not completely out of touch, and that by “count for something” here he means something personal, as I suggest, making a major internal impact upon our subjective experience of life, rising above the mundane into the spiritual plane. As I read his description here, I am reminded why I find him pleasant to read, although reading Wilbur is like dragging tacks across the chalkboard of my mind. There is no doubt, as I keep saying, that he is illumined, and this is a brilliant, fresh description of the experience of an illumined person. My major point here would be that he should clearly identify it as such for the sake of his students, who will be with him until he says, “…we don’t lose touch with the impersonal, absolute context in which all experience arises.” Cohen, to whom do you think you are speaking? Is there anything more useless to mankind than an illumined teacher who does not recognize his own illumination? You are in a strange land, Cohen, in between this world and the next, a land where you do disservice to earnest aspirants, who are looking for practical advice, at the same time as you do speak with sincerity and honesty about your undoubtedly real experiences. What would it take for you to understand at last your real situation? Oh, I dunno. Maybe you could meet the Avatar, and take His word for it! Failing this, perhaps you could study the Upanishads and the Gita a little more closely, where these things are described, although perhaps we failed in the specifics. But plow your own furrow, going where none have gone before? You will discover, and do discover every time you have “trouble with the disciples,” that there is a reason the others have gone that way: it is the true way, and yours is false, misleading, and confusing as hell!
Cohen has not defined freedom in the best way, I feel. He says, “…being free has to mean that in the face of enormous emotional and psychological challenges we don't lose our perspective, we don't lose our presence of mind, we don't lose touch with the impersonal, absolute context in which all experience arises.” In my opinion, freedom means an utter disconnect with all causes in the material world, none of which pulls us or pushes us somewhere other than where we always are, secure within ourselves. Oops! It appears our definitions are not so different as I thought; Cohen is indeed free, and so gives an accurate description. The critical thing, though, is that the sense world no longer causes attraction or aversion in us. We witness the sense world from a secure position outside the sense world, like watching a movie that we thoroughly enjoy, or a play in which from time to time the actors ask the audience to step up beside them and also play a part. Sure, I’ll come talk to you “bound souls” if you like. I perceive that it is a play indeed, while you think it is real life. You are convinced your joy is found in the play, and nowhere else. I have my eternal joy from a secure source, outside the play, and so I can join in the play, or refrain from joining in, as I choose. It is not my way to frighten people with scary statements such as Cohen gives here, when he speaks of enormous emotional and psychological challenges. My challenges are not your challenges; why should I bother you about them? Life is easy for me, like falling off a log. Why should I act otherwise? Won’t this just upset you all? Two expert skiers met some novices in the chalet for dinner. One of the experts said, “Well, that run wasn’t bad, we caught some major air, and blasted some gnarly moguls. How have you been doing, down on the intermediate slopes? I saw you both, and you are really improving!” The other expert, wild-eyed, said, “You wouldn’t believe this guy! He skis like a madman! He goes too fast, skirts too close to the trees, and goes right up to the cliff’s edge! I almost killed myself trying to keep up with him!” If you were an intermediate skier, which one would inspire you more to improve your own skiing? When the challenges come in sadhana, you will be fully prepared to meet them, and will do so with grace and aplomb as you learn to master those things that daunt you now, and overcome “impossible” obstacles that do have secret means of accomplishment. Do people stop playing video games when they reach “impossible” levels? No, they just dig in and keep trying, falling again and again, and eventually mastering them, with all the accompanying feelings of accomplishment and glory that come along with such mastery, though in the case of sadhus these feelings are real, and last a lifetime.
In saying you don’t lose perspective, presence of mind, and your awareness of the impersonal, absolute context “in which all experience arises” Cohen refers to his experience of Paramatman in nirvikalpa samadhi. Thus, this is a bad thing to say to spiritual aspirants, unless it is qualified by first stating, “After nirvikalpa samadhi…” You really can have no experience of the impersonal until nirvikalpa samadhi, though you may convince yourself otherwise, as Cohen’s students perhaps do. The ego shields us from both Atman and Paramatman until this blessed event. No matter how you try, you cannot perceive Paramatman until the ego is removed. It is simply not possible. All that you think and perceive, until this point, even in so-called “deep” spiritual experiences (barring savikalpa samadhi), is connected to ego. The ego may indeed be weakened, but you cannot see beyond it until samadhi. I am very sorry to point out these facts to Cohen, whose imagination is perhaps sufficient for the new religion he seeks to form of “evolutionary enlightenment.” I hope he succeeds! I hope you all follow him! Yes, follow Cohen, and go beyond your egos just by thinking that you can! I think you all look like people standing in a parking lot, holding onto your bootstraps, and seeking to pull yourselves up to heaven by this route! If you think you have seen beyond the ego before samadhi, this is merely a deeper form of ego; it really is! The way you can prove this to yourself is that this idea of Cohen’s will not work for you: “we don't lose the plot and we remain true, no matter what, to our own deepest recognition of the truth. We don't waver, even in the face of tumult and confusion; we remain steady.” This is true only of illumined persons. If you find that it is true for you, then bravo! You have gone beyond the need for religion, and do not require the ministrations of either Cohen or myself. Otherwise, you see, this is a very egoic mode of approaching life. If you try to practice it earnestly, you will find yourself reduced to tears in a matter of a few days. You will discover that these things just are not true about you; you cannot remain constant, true to your “deepest recognition of the truth.” We are not even aware of any plot; everything is just massive confusion, random, unrelated. We waver constantly, though we try our hardest not to waver. Tumult and confusion leave us in tumult, and confused! Don’t take my word for it; go ahead and try it! At the same time, it is good advice to “be true to yourself,” which means following those deeper drives you recognize within yourself as being closest to what is real and actual. This is a more fluid thing, however, and does not result in perfect action, merely the best action of which you are capable at the moment, and it is amenable to continuous improvement. Cohen just needs to think a little more, and he will be giving people good advice at long last, instead of merely recounting his own personal experience of living. Cohen is like a person who has jumped into a bucket of blue paint. Everyone sees him, and wishes they also could be blue. Inquiring of him, they receive this response: “Think blueness. Be the blue. Be true to the blue. Don’t waver from the blue; remain steady. Don’t lose touch with the blue; it is absolute blueness!” Another person comes by and says what everyone is aching to hear: “See that big jar of blue paint over there? Go and jump in, and you will be blue, too! You will think blueness, be the blue, be true to the blue, and you will never waver from or lose touch with the blue, for you will no longer be your ordinary, plain color, but blue!”
Here is Cohen’s second paragraph, again for reference:
Now if we can do that, then when the storms subside, as they always will, what we find is that because we didn't move, we didn't betray ourself, and we didn't betray the truth. And there's a kind of self-confidence that we can develop that's unlike anything else, because we know we can handle our own mind, we know we can handle our own emotions without wavering, without betraying ourself. That's how real strength of character and real authenticity is developed.
What storms is Cohen talking about here? He is a little bit lost in the world; as I said, he has some remaining impurities in his lower mind that force him to believe there is something which he still needs to accomplish in the world, besides showing others the way to freedom. I do not see any storms external to myself; I see the normal human mess, with which I am not concerned. I perceive the entire world as being under my Father’s thumb, under His control, and I strive to do His will, though at times it appears hard and inscrutable. Whatever happens in your world, His world is always calm, peaceful, sweet and mirthful. He has recently been sharing His sense of humor with me. Here I am, working two jobs and struggling to find the time required to meet “the Cohenator” head on and also finish another book I am writing, and He pretends that He is hard-engaged in finding a wife for me! I say, “A woman would only get in my way. I have too much I wish to accomplish, and there is no woman who would even appreciate in a small way what my work may mean to this world. She will want to be hugged, and babied, and cared for in various ways, refusing to respect my time and asserting her time to be of absolutely equal value to mine, although she can barely lisp truisms she has heard a thousand times before from others. She will say, “Kurt, have you taken out the trash yet?”, “Kurt, help me wash the dishes! I cooked, so this is the least you can do!”, “Kurt, hold me. I’m so homesick! I miss my friends so much!”, “Kurt, when are you going to fix the windows?” and other obnoxious things that demonstrate absolute ignorance, lack of compassion for the world, and humongous egoism! I do not assert that my time is more valuable than another’s, but I do assert my freedom of choice. Is this not the modern world? Cannot I choose my own life-situation? I do not intend to get married or even have girlfriends; it’s the single life for me, for now and forever (at least until the next solar cycle, where I perceive another trap is laid for this quick-witted fox)! I serve the Father, and the Father alone, letting the unimportant details of my personal life fall by the wayside. What do you think? Should I be forced to take a wife, against my dearest wishes? Would you worship a God who forced a son of His to marry, or would you think He was anachronistic, dictatorial, inflexible, obsessive and cruel? I stand by my Father’s side, and hope He gets over His obsession with women quickly; there are so many more interesting topics in this wide world of ours! I perceive that His apparent “obsession” is merely His flaming sword of truth, with which I am guarded and protected from any selfish thought; may it burn long and strongly, heating up the night of my discontentedness, the gadfly who stings the horse of humanity until the welt is huge, the horse insensitive to all pain, obsessed itself with the external appearance of things, losing track of all spiritual values and morality in the hedonistic excess of modern materialistic conquest of the entire globe.
The farther you go in spirituality, the less you will perceive the events of the world as “storms.” Vivekananda did not have this experience, who was an embodied angel. Easwaran did not report this experience, who was the earth’s premier illumined man. The worldly are lost, and the spiritual are found. Illumination will grant you freedom from the mental ups and downs of all the people around you. Cohen is a little free, though this freedom is real. Easwaran was much more free, and was the full support of all his students. Vivekananda was absolutely free, although even this was continually increasing in him. How can there be something greater than “absolute?” After you have been disembodied for a few solar cycles, you too will be “absolutely free” from material contagion. Yet, spiritual growth does not stop! The term “absolute” is thus properly used in a relative sense. What else can we say? If you get out of a pool and dry yourself in the sun, and a person comes and asks if you are “absolutely dry,” you will say, “Yes, of course.” They will then point out that in the folds of your skin there are a few drops of water remaining. You stand up and towel off vigorously, announcing you are absolutely dry. The person points out that you are still sweating, and so your skin is always damp, and can never be fully dried! Then you say, “Well, after death I will be totally dry,” and at last you are accurate, but won’t you still remember what it was like to be wet? Lose the memory, and then you will be absolutely dry. But do you remember remembering to be wet? On and on you go, redefining “absolute” over and over again, each time meaningfully, but each time inadequately, for there is a higher degree of “absolute” which may be discovered.
Thus, Cohen’s statements here are an odd admixture of things which are true for him but will not remain true for him as his illumination events deepen, and a misleading teaching work which will not help anyone on a practical basis. When you have gone far enough, you will no longer experience the human scene as “storms,” because you will be truly free, detached from the whole thing. All your actions will be based on compassion and concern, not upon any motivation to transform the world, which you at last recognize as not being your proper concern. The world must transform itself; your only job is to show people the way to accomplish this. It really is true that if the world ceased to feel a spiritual longing, the illumined teachers would be out of a job. Were this to occur, they would receive their full growth without needing to work for it; they really would! The nature of illumination is utter freedom, utter independence, and utter joyousness. Your growth is never dependent upon the growth of another, at any time. Why then do I accuse Cohen of an inferior teaching, and assert that my own teacher, Eknath Easwaran, will receive a greater portion of growth? The reason is that Easwaran was truer to the real nature of enlightenment, which is to say, not getting involved in the world’s problems except to the extent of describing as accurately as he could the way for individuals who cared to follow him to go beyond these problems. The best teachers, therefore, merely understand their own attainment to a greater and greater degree, and speak out of their full knowledge. They know themselves better, and express this in a teaching work. It does not matter whether one hears them, or many, whether one makes progress due to their words, or many. It is in the process of teaching that illumined teachers grow more proficient in their own spiritual quest; it is in describing their states to others that illumined teachers grow to understand themselves more, and this understanding is the key ingredient in assuring a deep, powerful, more purifying experience in the next nirvikalpa samadhi event. If no one will listen, they merely follow any of a limitless number of alternative routes for further self-discovery. Illumination is knowledge; greater knowledge leads to deeper experiences, and to more knowledge. The teacher-student relationship is thus the original win-win situation, for the teacher searches deeper within himself for more truth, and the students benefit from the knowledge which he uncovers there. You know, we cannot really see another. All we can see is the impressions in our mind which we form of the other. This is true even after illumination, although then we see the ego as well as the Self. The sophistication of these images reflects our own self-understanding, and their greater perfection corresponds to our increasing self-knowledge. I perhaps go too profound for people here. The important thing is that illumined teachers do not need students to go forward, though students need illumined teachers, and that desperately, to personify the goal for them, to enliven their spiritual quest, to spur them on to greater effort, and to help them when they stumble and fall.
The experience of growth which Cohen describes here, that he gets self-confidence because he didn’t move, he didn’t betray himself, and he didn’t betray the truth, is far from the experience of advanced teachers like Easwaran, who have a far greater detachment from the worldly scene. If a madman sat in the seat in front of me (in a Culver’s™ restaurant), and started screaming at the top of his lungs, continuing for ten minutes before finally leaving the restaurant spinning in little circles, I suppose you could call this a “storm.” I would merely think, “More human shenanigans. What can I do?” My confidence would be neither increased nor decreased. Really, I would probably blame my Father. I would say, “Father, please get your humans under better control! This is really too much!” He would respond, “This chap just read your latest writings; do you blame him?” “Point well taken,” I would respond. “I’ll see if I can do better.” Do you see? I do not worry about handling my own mind, handling my emotions without wavering, or betraying myself, for some strange reason that I cannot quite discern. It’s probably because I have been my Father’s lackey for far too long. Rubbing shoulders with a Giant, perhaps some of His detachment has rubbed off on His little, woebegone and forgotten slave. That, my friend Cohen, is the actual way that strength of character and real authenticity are developed. You must learn to look up, even though you are already higher than anyone you perceive around you. In order to look up, dude, you will need to remove your head from the sand bank in which it is firmly entrenched, don’t you think? Then maybe you will see that the vast astral world, and the Avatar, have more of those things you crave, and that by mingling with them, by befriending them, by venerating them, you will emerge with a little of their glory by proxy, as your mind finds that refreshing feeling one gets when one perceives a greater portion of goodness than one even conceived could exist in a living being, whether embodied, like the Son, or disembodied, like the angels. Then the word “awake,” which I thought should be applied to all illumined persons, would actually apply to you, instead of the more appropriate phrase, “still dreaming.”
Andrew Cohen (posted 6/16/03):
The experience of autonomy or perfect independence would be when you feel utterly yourself, ecstatically experiencing your own authenticity spontaneously manifesting itself. So there is a fullness of self in which there's no self-consciousness, there's no self-doubt, there's no fear, there's no self-concern. There's radical autonomy and simultaneously there's nothing preventing you from perfect communion, which means that there is nothing between you and the other. So in a perfect possibility the experience of communion would in no way negate the potential for the experience of perfect autonomy. In the ordinary non-enlightened world and consciousness, autonomy usually negates the possibility of communion, and the experience of communion usually negates the possibility of autonomy. That's more or less the way things work. But in a perfect possibility one would not negate the other. That would be the expression of true non-duality. When autonomy and communion become one experience then that is non-duality manifest as the human experience in the manifest realm. It's not just an inner experience. It's spontaneously an inner revelation and a spontaneous response from that experience of revelation. So at that point there's no difference between the inner experience of enlightened mind and acting from that enlightened mind. For it to be true non-duality there has to be a seamless non-difference between what you're seeing and knowing and how you're being and responding. Then there's no duality and your response is only coming from awakened consciousness.
Guru Kurt:
Well, here is some real talk; this is no Ken Wilbur, but a sage indeed! None of this makes any sense to a person who still retains the ego, although to an enlightened being it is all a simple, straightforward description of the way it is. It is refreshing and interesting for me to read Cohen, because I see the power of the Self, the superintelligence of the Self, in action, although this Self still has a ways to go before it approaches a practical teaching for man. Why not just start out describing your perceptions, your experiences, and let the people’s mouths drool a little? Tantalize them; make it seem like enlightenment is just a step away for each of them. There is actually something going on here with which I perhaps should not interfere, and that is Cohen acquiring his eternal friends, those who will be with him for life after life, as his teachings get more practical and they begin to make serious progress. I insert myself between jealous lovers when I badmouth Cohen and his students both, for perhaps they are in the “honeymoon” stage of having just met and are learning the ropes on both sides, preparing for the serious relationships which are going to develop down the millennia. None of Cohen’s students really care what he says; they only care about what he is, what he represents, which is their ultimate freedom, too, from the world of cause and effect, from all materialistic drives and expeditions into false glory. I have read that Cohen’s students get angry with him from time to time, that they rage when their expectations are not met, and so I hope that my discourse here may be useful to other new teachers, other newborn gods, if not to Cohen himself (since he is clearly far too busy to read my writings, which are getting far too lengthy already!) If you experience rage from your students, directed at yourself, this is a sign that their Atmans are not pleased with you, that you are failing them in some way. It is not likely that such a person will leave, because he or she will still recognize the validity of your experience, but I think this is how new students and teachers get to know one another a little better: by bickering and quarreling! As for myself, should a student ever express rage at me, I would have only one response: “Go!” My time on this earth is too short to waste upon those who fail to respect the authority of a guru to the extent of expressing anger openly. I have kicked people out of my ashrams in the past, and I will not hesitate to do so again! You cannot make progress by getting angry at your guru; you can only make progress by following Jesus’ advice, to hate the negative motions in your own soul in the presence of a master. Yet, when the master raises unfair expectations of instant enlightenment or deep spiritual experiences, it is only right that the student express anger about it, so I do not impugn Cohen’s raging students, but both he and they, who appear to be working out the details of the teacher-student relationship in a personal, intimate way. If a student does not like me personally, I say, “The world is wide, and I am obviously not the teacher for you. Leave my presence, and make your way out there; surely you can find someone other than I, with whom you get along!” Why does Cohen cling to his students? It is well within his authority to kick them out when they express anger; it is his right! He does not need to put up with behavior like this. Perhaps if he would do this a few times, the rest of his students would get the idea that he is serious, and his attainment is real, something far above them, something they can only attain after perhaps quite a large number of lifetimes. I think what is going on is that Cohen recognizes that there is truth in his students’ rage, with which he is learning to cope. As an enlightened guru, he does not return anger for anger, but love instead. I too can return love for hatred, but why should I? I would rather express truth, and that is this: “It is an independent world, and you are under no obligation to remain with me. Your anger clearly shows you have forgotten that leaving me is an option. A person who forgets his freedom to this extent, who is not profound enough to understand the true nature of the relationship of guru and disciple, which is one parallel to God and His devotees, is not a person I wish to have in my company. I take your anger as a direct request to leave me, and go to find another teacher, and I now assert my authority in commanding you to do this thing, to follow where your own heart directs, as anyone (except perhaps your ignorant self) can see.” This may seem like a very hard line, but I am a very hard teacher. It will not be easy for any student to remain with me. I accept only the highest as my personal students, only those who know what it means to be a disciple, which in the end is not that much: a closed mouth, an eager ear, and an awakening enthusiasm for spiritual living!
Disciples are the clay and the guru is the potter. It is not a two-way relationship, but a one-way relationship, for the guru beholds God. The transmission of information and inspiration comes from Paramatman, which the guru beholds, through his awakened Atman, to the students. A student who thinks he or she is in a position to argue with a guru is no student, but a worldly scoundrel, who belongs in the world, perhaps married so they have a partner to quarrel with constantly! There is nothing wrong with asking serious, probing questions, but in the end the guru’s word is final. If you disagree with it, you have not found the right teacher, or you have not understood the real nature of enlightenment! The nature of the guru’s teaching is revelation from the supernal plane of existence which he has achieved. This plane stands above the plane of the egoic individual, transcending it completely, so that the guru’s words always cut to the depths of life itself, astounding those who have ears to hear with continuously profound exclamations and admonitions. The guru is a human no longer, but a god with respect to us, and he deserves our deepest veneration and respect if we too wish to achieve his state one day. If you would argue with a god, then you betray your ignorance, and deserve to be cast away from his presence! Cohen’s central problem, I believe, is that he has not yet recognized that he has become a different type of being from his students. He tries to speak with them as equals, which he wrongly perceives as being “open-minded.” Nirvikalpa samadhi is really the end state, the ultimate state, the supreme state for man. It comes upon a man like a tsunami, a tidal wave, and suddenly where before there was a craven, cringing, frightened human being, there is a newborn god, a Cohen, an Osho. This transformation is radical, because the ego which was present before has been utterly removed. The space between just before nirvikalpa samadhi and nirvikalpa samadhi is not gradual. You do not traverse this distance slowly. It happens all at once, like a lightening strike. There is no being half aspirant/half Lord. You are either aspirant, or Lord! Cohen is the Lord (though still a little sleepy), and his students are aspirants (though still a little worldly). Cohen’s students cannot become like him except through a long, long process of sadhana extending over many lifetimes. Easwaran’s best student, Sumner, was in deep dhyana all the time, in other words having daily experiences that transcend the best that Cohen’s students achieve on an irregular basis, yet this one will be very fortunate to obtain even savikalpa samadhi within a thousand years! Spiritual evolution is a slow thing. Not everyone who sits down to meditate can enter dhyana, much less attain enlightenment! It is better to focus on those things we can achieve, every one of us: greater vision, increasing joyfulness, more energy, and a growing sense of meaning to our lives. Big experiences come to those who put their best into daily effort, but why wait for these experiences to rejoice? Learn to feel that radiant joy that comes with all righteous effort; bask in it, revel in it, and be happy where and when you are. Let the big experiences sneak up on you from behind, as they certainly will, more and more, as you do the real mental work required to transform your personality at the level that you are able to do so. Each takes the joy he or she can hold, and feels fulfilled by this. When your longings get a little larger, so too will be the joy that comes flooding into your heart as you learn the right attitudes to apply to your daily life, your meditation, and your spiritual teacher, too.
I think the wrath which I express at Cohen is just a mirror of his students’ own anger, for he makes enlightenment sound too easy. There are at least two problems with his approach. First, it raises expectations too high. When he asks people to do what he does from his enlightened perspective, they just fail, fail, fail, fail! His descriptions of what they should be experiencing in their sadhana do not match up with their real experiences, and so they become very frustrated and annoyed. Second, such an approach cheapens the goal, and hence cheapens human life, reducing our dignity substantially and making it feel as though we are adrift in a sea with no absolutes, no “started and finished,” no “struggle and goal.” It is better, while we still have egos, to think of the end-state as a goal, rather than as a process. When you reach this goal, all your struggles, all your problems, all your difficulties, cease instantly, all at once, for the false ego’s reign over your life is through, and the Lord of Love establishes his righteous, eternal reign over your total experience. Enlightenment is rightly called “the end of sorrow,” because you will never be truly sad again, for you will have ceased from trying to satisfy the ego, which is only an idea. It is rightly called “going beyond death” because only after you attain this experience do you witness your personal immortality, rising up from the very depths of your being. It is also rightly called “the beginning of godhood,” for after a certain number of teaching lives, the lower mind is sufficiently purified so that one enters sahaja samadhi, the prelude to astral ascension, entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven Jesus proclaimed. If you watch your illumined teacher carefully, and listen to his words with an open mind and heart, you will indeed observe that he is a different type of being from you. He is an angel-in-the-making, and you are a mere mortal, a bumbling, stumbling, woebegone and sometimes massively confused human. The illumined men and women on earth are Brahman’s sons and daughters, who speak in His stead, with His full stamp of authority. If you see an illumined person, you see the supreme state for man, the highest thing that you may achieve, and once this is achieved you too will be a man no longer, but kith and kin with the Supreme Being, the Absolute. Brahman also maintains a higher manifestation, the Son, who is the Lord even of the angels. As Ramakrishna demonstrated, the Son now takes on the disguise of an illumined one, to help mankind to go forward, so pay attention to your teacher; you never know where the Avatar will turn up next, and would you argue with your very Creator, the one who made you? Is there any creature lower than the one who would express anger openly before the very one who made this earth, and enabled its creatures to be born here as well? The Creator would certainly repulse such a person from His company, and with laughter! The world is indeed full of idiots and fools, and there is no fool so great as the one who disrespects divinity at any level: Avatar, angel, and illumined guru as well.
I find that this quotation of Cohen’s is so long that I had better list his sentences separately, and comment as I am able. It is a very intricate piece of reasoning, the product of the Atman’s superintelligence, but if I try to comment on the whole thing I will just lose everyone. What is my teaching on “autonomy and communion?” My teaching subtends Cohen’s by a very great ways. I see life with entirely different eyes than does this newly illumined one. With full autonomy, there is no need for communion any more. One becomes so utterly free, within one’s self, within one’s own being, that communion with others is never required. One is totally stable, totally secure within oneself. One engages in communion for sport, for fun and play, and for no other reason than this! Fruitful interactions with other spirits is one of the ways that our souls grow, but the nature of this interaction is always by choice, never by desire, or perhaps I should say, never because of attraction. Two independent beings meet, and do not become attached. In many ways such interactions are like boxing matches, with the two verbally sparring with one another, pushing one another deeper into their respective beings. Above all else, in personal relationships there should be no clinging, no insistence upon retaining the other in one’s presence. All are free, and may do as they wish. The joy which they receive as they go about, engaging in those activities they wish to pursue as perhaps leading to their greater happiness, causes joy within one’s soul as well. Since Cohen still clings to his students, his teaching regarding “autonomy and communion” is an inferior one. He speaks from an illumined perspective, but as I have tried to show elsewhere only a portion of the higher mind is purified in the initial nirvikalpa samadhi events. The ego is indeed gone, but the force which gave rise to the ego remains, for perhaps hundreds of lives or more. Do you really think you can cause cessation to the forces of personality which have been acting over trillions of lives in a single experience lasting just two days? It cannot be done. The illumined teachers come back again and again, entering into more powerful purification events in each ensuing life after the first nirvikalpa samadhi occurs. They are liberated, because the first nirvikalpa samadhi guarantees another one in each ensuing life, but their teachings begin slowly, and become more profound as their purification continues. In the current instance, Cohen is detached, but his drive for attention and fame, which is non-egoic but nevertheless real, struggles against his Atman, who nevertheless comes across with an authoritative teaching work, asserting its complete power over his soul in the end. Illumined teachers operate in the zone of the higher mind which is pure, and sometimes go close to the region which is impure. Cohen appears to be in the impure zone all the time! This is because the part of his higher mind that is pure is small, and he does not have much “elbow room” yet. Eknath Easwaran was a teacher far superior to Cohen, who had a very wide range in his higher mind through which he could roam at will, seldom approaching the “impure zone” where students are somewhat mislead, although in the end the words of an illumined teacher always shine forth with truths that benefit people, even if the benefit is not given or received in an optimal manner.
The experience of autonomy or perfect independence would be when you feel utterly yourself, ecstatically experiencing your own authenticity spontaneously manifesting itself.
I can find no fault with this sentence. It is a perfect expression of the experience of independence which an illumined person possesses, every day.
So there is a fullness of self in which there's no self-consciousness, there's no self-doubt, there's no fear, there's no self-concern.
Again, this is a beautiful, precise statement of the experience of an illumined individual. All of these problems, which are egoically based, have been surmounted with the ego’s passing.
There's radical autonomy and simultaneously there's nothing preventing you from perfect communion, which means that there is nothing between you and the other.
Here Cohen and I part company, and I state that he has not understood the nature of his experience clearly. People are created as separate beings, from the moment Brahman parcels them off from his own Spirit, in the region of Paramatman. Thus, there is always something between you and the other, and that is your unique identity, and theirs! Otherwise, there is no possibility for interesting interaction, a word I vastly prefer to “communion.” I interact with others; I do not “commune” with them. Relationships are best expressed in differences. As Blake wrote, “Thy friendship oft has made my heart to ache; do be my enemy, for friendship’s sake!” Advanced devotees always feel great love, for this whole universe and for each other too; what is interesting about this? The interesting thing is to feel this love, but still to ply our own unique and different course through intellectual and spiritual terrain. As your spiritual awareness increases, you will become less like others, not more like them. The spiritual path amounts to a flowering of individuality, not a commingling or merging of personalities. Cohen’s teaching does not have sufficient weight, even within his own experience, for his students express rage at him – there is something between them, after all! When you begin to see things like this in a teacher, you realize that he is not the highest. Here, Cohen’s words do not match his observable experience, and so the greatest students, the most advanced devotees, will steer a wide path around him and look for a teacher whose words match his life more closely, such as Eknath Easwaran, or perhaps one of Easwaran’s lowly students.
So in a perfect possibility the experience of communion would in no way negate the potential for the experience of perfect autonomy.
“A perfect possibility” is Cohen’s way of stating, “As one Atman to another,” that is, as one enlightened being to a potentially enlightened being. Were your ego not in the way, were you not a student of Cohen’s, a “perfect possibility” for both total autonomy, and interesting, stimulating interaction would exist between you and he. Since you are a student, his words are not very meaningful for you, though they will be inspiring and enthralling to hear. Now, Cohen expresses the truth here; this sentence is very good, and shows the real profundity of this teacher. If you are Cohen’s student, consider yourself lucky; his self-honesty and almost brutal candor mark him as an up-and-coming star in the world of spiritual discourse. If you remain his student for a lifetime, it is virtually guaranteed that you will be rejoined with him in your next life, to continue your sadhana. This is the way it works. Relationships of great love, trust, and devotion develop between a teacher and his students, and the students continue to “chase” the teacher, even as he retreats deeper and deeper into the solid, secure rock of his being, until they too join him on enlightenment’s halcyon and salubrious shores. By and large, people are drawn to the “right” teacher for them, and although I assert that it is likely Easwaran’s students were higher than Cohen’s, these things are quite flexible and gurus who are behind can sometimes overtake those who are ahead, which is again a matter of individuality. Cohen may indeed have a superior “angle,” by which Easwaran may be overtaken in three or four lifetimes. He is not likely to be successful, however, until he begins, like Easwaran, to look up to the huge array of spiritual beings that are above him, including the angels, both embodied and disembodied, and the Avatar Himself, who does take on a human body from time to time, though He likes to disguise Himself and act like He is undergoing great trials and tribulations, which are merely His way of having a good time on this earth!
In the ordinary non-enlightened world and consciousness, autonomy usually negates the possibility of communion, and the experience of communion usually negates the possibility of autonomy. That's more or less the way things work.
Here Cohen really shows his cramped area of freedom within his higher mind. This is his “observation” of the non-enlightened people around him. Autonomy and communion, as experienced by the non-enlightened, are not the same as the experiences of the enlightened. Cohen here implies that the difference is one of degree, when it is really one of kind. He does his students a real disservice here, really confusing the issue, blurring the distinction between non-enlightened and enlightened, to no good purpose. Do you see what he has done? Autonomy is really something you only attain with enlightenment, and spiritual interaction similarly is something that is only understood after enlightenment. However, he pretends that his students experience inferior aspects of these two qualities, when in reality the difference between the enlightened and the unenlightened is one of white vs. black, light vs. darkness, and day vs. night. He pretends that you can experience autonomy, or “communion,” but not both at once, when the fact of the matter is that you can experience neither, at least from an enlightened perspective. The teaching that he gives here is thus fundamentally false and misleading, since it supposes people have had a taste of real autonomy, or real “communion,” when they shall not get a taste of these things until after nirvikalpa samadhi, perhaps thousands or millions of lives hence! You may argue with me and say, “Guru Kurt, we do experience these things, and so we do know what he is talking about,” and I reply, “Then you are with the right teacher. My students shall never hear such talk from me! There is a fundamental, qualitative difference between the daily experience of the unenlightened and the enlightened, which is so great that even in your imagination you can have no conception of what it is like to be enlightened. You may feel a little independence, but it is not independence. You may feel a little interaction, but it is not interaction. The experience of the illumined is really far above ours, so far that we cannot follow him or her. The illumined travel in a trackless land, deep within the spirit, and their experiences are similar to ours in name only. In reality, one should develop a whole new language to describe the experiences of the illumined, for these are all radically different from those of the unillumined, but perhaps you do not wish for a quantitative, radical, thorough change, but will be satisfied with a merely supplemental increase in your capacities, a heightening of degree rather than a change in kind. As I say, Cohen is just the teacher for you! What I promise, in the end, is far more radical, far more revolutionary, far more transcendental, than this little fellow, whom I must pat on the head now and again so that he does not lose heart entirely!”
But in a perfect possibility one would not negate the other.
A “perfect possibility,” I believe, only occurs when two illumined individuals meet, or an illumined one and an angel, or an illumined one and the Avatar. Then there is the perfected autonomy of the egoless being on each side, and a joyful interaction between them. If either party still retains the ego, then instead of saying “either autonomy or ‘communion’ must be lost,” the correct thing to say is that “neither true autonomy nor true ‘communion’ has been found.” As I say, Cohen’s notion here is fundamentally flawed. Those with egos experience neither perfect autonomy, nor perfect interaction, while those without egos automatically experience both. Shed your ego, and then only will you know “perfect possibility.” Now, there is an incremental improvement in both independence and interaction as you progress on the spiritual path, up until the late stages of dhyana, but at samadhi you fall off a cliff, or I should say, you are shot in a rocket to the moon. You are sucked out of the material world completely for a day or two, and this is the only way to discover what autonomy really means. If you are always present in the material world, how can you realize your complete independence from it? Nirvikalpa samadhi lifts us out of the sensory world into the realm of pure spirit, and then alone do we attain true autonomy, total freedom from karma, from all cause and effect in the material realm. Out of this autonomy comes true interaction, which always respects autonomy, and indeed, continues to deepen autonomy, ad infinitum.
That would be the expression of true non-duality.
Cohen here slips into the subjective experience of every illumined person, though those who are more advanced learn to interpret it differently. During nirvikalpa samadhi one gets an experience of unity, as though all “duality” had ceased entirely. What this is, in actual fact, is a complete pulling away from the sense world into the realm of the Atman, which is an immaterial, spiritual realm. Here, one experiences the sense world no longer, and has a supreme feeling of peace, of “oneness,” of “wholeness,” of perfect bliss, awareness, and understanding. However, this is not the eternal state of man. Those in samadhi come back down from samadhi, and again experience the “dual,” subject and object, seer and seen, knower and known, beholder and the thing which is beheld. Nirvikalpa is a purification event, of great intensity, accomplished with divine power and force. The Atman does not destroy any of its lower, embodied portion, the higher mind, lower mind and senses, in this event. It simply shines the light of awareness down as far as it possibly can in an explosive event in consciousness, though in the first three or four samadhis (in consecutive lives) the lower mind is not even broached! When a person ascends to the astral realms, after sahaja samadhi, the higher mind remains the organ of thought, the lower mind the organ of sense data organization, and the senses the channels of this sense data, though these things are all purified and capable of functioning in the disembodied condition. One also gains new powers of sense perception, though these begin to come into play even before nirvikalpa samadhi is attained, and are well documented in other places. In the angels, the Atman’s power expresses itself perfectly in the soul’s lower portions, and so there is no need to withdraw into its immaterial realm (which is still higher than the astral realms, which are composed of spirit more dense than the Atman, but less dense than matter). At any moment, the Atman can send awareness of immortality, perfect bliss, and supernal wisdom, flooding through all the lower parts of the soul. In Cohen, on the other hand, the Atman is blocked when it reaches a certain portion of his higher mind. Below this, the non-self-aware consciousness which he still retains (after only two nirvikalpa samadhi events in subsequent lives), says, “Stop! Go no further! I still believe that I need these students, so I must put up with their anger! How else will I continue my progress?” The Atman answers, “You do not need them; you only need me. Let them go! Let them all go, and you and I shall have some fun!” Cohen is at war with himself, though the Atman will win out in the end. Understand, this is not a fight between Atman and ego, but between Atman and remaining ego-producing force, which the Atman is busy overcoming with the superintelligence, divine power and supernatural skill which come after enlightenment. The angels therefore typically do not describe a “non-dual” state (unless they do so to inspire man), for this is not their experience. Their experience is much closer to reality, witnessing a seemingly limitless number of unique, separate spiritual beings all around them, among whom they make their way, in perfect autonomy and righteous communion as well!
When autonomy and communion become one experience then that is non-duality manifest as the human experience in the manifest realm.
When I say, “the discovery of your utter independence from all material objects and all people too becomes the solid basis for fruitful interactions with others,” I hope that my meaning is harmonious with Cohen’s statement that “autonomy and communion become one experience.” In my current life I shy away from “all is one” type of language, which doesn’t really communicate any useful information, but appears mainly designed to be “feel good” talk. My talk is “see reality” talk, not “feel good” talk. Reality is sweet, once you discover the Self which underlies the ego. The ego is what makes our experience of life sour. Even when we feel we are very happy, there is typically an undercurrent of dissatisfaction running through our lives, through our very veins, all the time. Where is the one who is truly happy? You will never find such a one, unless you go looking at monasteries and convents, which are marts of joy for the advanced sadhus ensconced there. Cohen uses poor English here. I may be accused of this same thing, for my paragraphs are long and difficult to read, and some of my sentences are so long that one could probably make two or three interpretations out of them! How else can I have any fun, if it is not by returning and making sense out of myself for you all, revealing the truth of what I was thinking in those “ancient” days? Cohen’s double use of the word “manifest” is inelegant in this instance, with which I suppose he might agree. Non-duality become “manifest” in the “manifest realm.” This is very confusing talk, but by the second “manifest” I would hope that he means what I do when I say, the “material realm,” meaning all the world we perceive with the senses. The first “manifest” thus means the entrance of “non-dual” experience into the material realm, as experienced by humans. There are three things wrong with this sentence. First, since only the enlightened have “non-dual” experience, the sentence misleads people into thinking it is something they can experience themselves, tomorrow or at most the day after that. Second, the “non-dual” enters the experience of enlightened ones in a hundred other ways besides just this one, of “autonomy and communion (interaction),” and so the sentence is constructed inelegantly, implying that if you want the “non-dual” experience, then “autonomy and communion” must become one. Third and perhaps most obviously, autonomy and communion (interaction) can never become one experience. One finds autonomy, then interacts, if one is wise, in ways that increase autonomy. It is not really helpful, from either an intellectual or spiritual standpoint, to “lump” different phenomena into single categories; it is distracting, misleading, and betrays a gross ignorance on the part of the speaker of the subtle nuances of spiritual experience and discourse both.
It's not just an inner experience. It's spontaneously an inner revelation and a spontaneous response from that experience of revelation.
Here Cohen defines what it means to be “awake,” for since the ego is gone you no longer, properly speaking, have spiritual “experiences,” but live in a spiritual experience your entire life, becoming a conduit for the Atman’s wisdom, skill in living, and enlightened teachings. Another way to say this is that the character of nirvikalpa samadhi is transformative, meaning that you are no longer the separate one who seeks experiences, but the profound experiencer who acts naturally out of his or her experience of deep spiritual reality. Easwaran used to say that to know the Atman is to act, is to love, is to share divine wisdom with all around. Nirvikalpa samadhi is like an explosion in consciousness, but it is not destructive. It is very constructive, very fruitful, very helpful. In it, you become a whole person, dropping the illusion that you are a separate entity locked in a body with no deeper spiritual roots. In samadhi, you see your eternal roots, and those roots say, “I am joy; come deeper! I am love: come deeper! There is no end to my infinite nature. The deeper you go, the more your hands shall be full of riches to share with the world. Throw everything away which I give you, and you shall find your hands full once more!” After samadhi you become like that proverbial man who found a wallet that he could not empty. The more you give to the world, the more you shall have to give, not just shallow ideas, not just speculation, not just worldly truisms, but a glimpse of the reality underlying life, a vision of immortal joy, wisdom, freedom and bliss.
So at that point there's no difference between the inner experience of enlightened mind and acting from that enlightened mind.
Actually, there is a difference, although Cohen has not seen it yet. The angels are always delving deeper into Paramatman, similar to the way fish continually obtain oxygen through their gills. The fish breathes, and he also swims. The angels experience Paramatman, and they also act, either in their world, the Kingdom of Heaven, or in ours, the fiefdom of earth. Cohen has only really had one experience of Paramatman, and that was during his nirvikalpa samadhi event. His Atman is busy positioning him for another profound experience, perhaps even in this very life. Since he does not have continuous experience of Paramatman as do the angels, he observes his single experience, and the tremendous fruit that has come from that experience, and draws the conclusion that he does here, that there is a unity between experience and action. There is a unity, but there is also a difference. The wisdom of Brahman is contained in Paramatman, and the deeper one goes, the more wisdom one brings forth. The nature of the Atman is such that all new knowledge is immediately transferred to action. There is no hesitancy or vacillation, such as one finds around the ego. Cohen is thus right, and his teaching is profound, although some of the subtleties as yet escape him. He will come around! Just give him a few lives, and we shall see!
For it to be true non-duality there has to be a seamless non-difference between what you're seeing and knowing and how you're being and responding.
Here you find Cohen contradicting himself; he admits my case! He admits that “true non-duality” has special characteristics, which most people will admit, from his description, do not fit those who lead an egoic life. This is indeed the wisdom of the Atman, coming through the somewhat shadowy and veiled remaining ego-producing force in Cohen’s lower and higher minds. Do you see? He is slowly coming around to my point of view, that those who have attained samadhi are a different class of humanity; they are superhuman, bordering on angelic. They are the masters, and we are the students. They are the gurus, and we are the aspirants. They are God, and we are the seekers of God. They are the enlightened ones, and we are still shrouded in darkness. As I have said many times, Cohen’s teaching work is good; it just needs some improvement. He is truly enlightened, but he has yet to learn what this means. He will inspire all those with whom he comes into contact, but will they be able to go forward themselves on the basis of his teachings, rather than just upon his personal example? I say “No,” although Cohen’s students may feel otherwise. That is all right with me. It is better to be the student of an illumined guru than to ignore the illumined in pursuit of the phantasms and eccentricities of egoic life. Only advanced aspirants develop a sense of their progress, and any such will avoid Cohen like the plague, because while they may try his disciplines for few days or a week, they will have the same experience as one who sucks on a hot dry stone in the desert: no water! Finding a better teaching, such as the one given by Easwaran or one of his students, one immediately discovers the living waters of the spirit flowing into one’s life from below. The best aspirants naturally seek out the best teachers, although it is difficult for the unenlightened to discriminate from one to the next. After all, I could be all wet, and Cohen could be my superior! I only know that in my next life I shall know good advice when I see it, and give Cohen a wide berth as I continue in my quest for the real.
Then there's no duality and your response is only coming from awakened consciousness.
Again, Cohen brings in that bugbear from the newly illumined, the “non-dual.” This is the experience of nirvikalpa samadhi, but it does not need to be interpreted in this way. More sophisticated teachers will arise, who see that truth of what I say, that in illumination the Atman draws its embodied consciousness up into itself, as a woman crossing a mud puddle draws up her skirt, and during this time the material world is witnessed no longer. One beholds only the radiant Self within, and from the second nirvikalpa samadhi event onward, the Paramatman too, the impersonal Brahman, which is a region of spirit that surrounds the human soul on every side. His statement here is equivalent to saying, “The ego does not get in the way of an outward expression of the deep inner truths which you experience in your spirit, and which flow outwards naturally, seamlessly, into action, almost as though Paramatman itself acts, in an impersonal way, in the external world.” This is indeed perhaps Cohen’s experience; why else would he focus so much on the impersonal aspect of reality, if he had not seriously beheld and contemplated Paramatman, and witnessed his ever-aware, ever-awake Atman transmitting the truths witnessed deep inside Brahman into his daily life, into his thoughts, speech, and actions? Cohen is indeed awake, but he has not reached the plateau of “communion” with saints and sages who may be greater than him. One of the sad consequences of the “non-dual” experience is that one believes, for a time, that no distinctions are possible between illumined sages, that “all are one.” I tell you, there are many different sizes of sages. As in a story which Ramakrishna used to tell, sages are like ants at a sugar hill. Big sages, like Sukadeva, carry away six whole grains of sugar. Little sages, like Ramakrishna and myself, stagger when we have only half a grain, while the rest of the ants look on in laughter and merriment! Only, Ramakrishna wasn’t an ant at all, but the Creator of ants. Why would he steal from our sugar pile, when the whole universe is His, who made it?Andrew Cohen:
Q: You've spoken about the next level of evolution as the emergence of a new world, a new level of consciousness, even literally a "new being." And it seems to me that for the individuals involved, this emergence will create a perfect trust in life.
A: No, it doesn't work that way. The new being emerges as a response to your own perfect trust in life. That's what you have to offer to life, your perfect trust in the process itself. And as a result, this new being emerges. It doesn't happen the other way around. That's the hard part, that's the price you have to pay. Your perfect trust is what opens the door in you for that new level of consciousness, that new being, to come through. Without that perfect trust it doesn't happen. This is the big challenge for almost everybody, to get to the point where they trust that much. Because trusting that much equals ego death.
Guru Kurt:
What is this “next level of evolution?” What is this “emergence of a new world?” Cohen seems to have usurped my role here; I wonder what Father will say about it? Do you know what I would like? A world where people recognized one another. You could come and say, “By the way, I am so-and-so,” and everybody would believe you, you would lay down your teaching, everyone would accept it, and then you’d be on your way, doing more interesting things! Then I guess it wouldn’t be earth, would it? As it is, I come and say a certain thing, Cohen says a certain thing, and the world’s spiritual aspirants, who most need help from both of us, emerge with massive migraine headaches from trying to discern reality from their unfortunately still egoic perspective. The problem that we have here, is that Cohen is in a certain place, and I am in a certain place, so that we have very different perspectives. I find his ideas stimulating and interesting, but bizarre, as they say, “as all get-out.” Similarly, should he deign to read my writings (for he is a very busy man!) he would probably say the same thing about me! The last time I knew, my Father was in charge of evolution on planet earth, both spiritual and physical. He told me nothing about any “next level,” or an “emergence of a new world,” which tells me that Cohen has dreamed these things up, out of thin air! “Why would an illumined teacher dream things up?” I asked myself, but this is a question I cannot answer at this time. There are some events of which I have been told, which match these phrases, although I am sure the concepts behind them are entirely different from Cohen’s teachings. First, earth’s people are about to receive their good spiritual karma, accumulated from the last solar cycle. This will occur in waves of spiritual experiences, spanning the globe. This is nothing new to them, however. It is not a “next level” of evolution, but is the result of the accumulated work they have done in ages past. There will be several waves of such awakenings, at approximately thousand year intervals, until everyone has received their good karma and can proceed onward towards the goal of nirvikalpa samadhi. This good karma was not released in primitive days because the spiritual aspirant is guileless, innocent, and trusting, and these traits are not helpful during mankind’s infancy, which is brutal and difficult. It cannot all be released at once without causing spiritual harm to the individuals receiving it. This karma is released by the Father’s power, which man knows as the Holy Spirit, for He retains a living connection to all souls, whereby they are, for instance, taken at death to the place of recuperation and reenergizing, and then brought to their next birth. This is similar to the power He exercises at the end of the solar cycle, holding those souls back who would have attained illumination, but would not have sufficient time to reach sahaja samadhi and astral ascension. Cohen was one of these souls, and as seems to be the case in most of the others (Osho, Da Free John, Sai Baba), Cohen is understandably a little irked for having been held back, now taking it upon himself to rewrite religion according to his own ideas. Wouldn’t you be angry, too, if you had been forced to endure billions of years in animal bodies, instead of taking your place by the angels, simply owing to a timing problem at solar cycle’s end?
These spiritual experiences will not be “enlightenment,” or anything close to it; they will be experiences of dharana and dhyana. To a person who has never experienced dharana, an experience of dharana will seem profound beyond imagining. To one who has never experienced dhyana, again the experience will be beyond words. There will not be a wave of enlightenments, but a wave of lesser experiences. Real enlightenment events will continue to be rare upon this earth, for a long, long time. People have no clue how vast the mind is, and how long it takes to purify it once you begin the process in earnest, as so few in the modern world are even doing! It is a long journey from the awakening of spiritual consciousness, at the end of the soul’s outward rajasic expansion, to samadhi, one that typically takes multiple solar cycles’ worth of human births. This is why I am so consternated with Cohen’s teaching; he seems to have no concept of the scale of the achievement that is enlightenment. He seems to think that merely by “redefining” enlightenment, somehow it will begin to happen more quickly. It never will. One does not become enlightened by thinking one is enlightened. One becomes enlightened after a long course of steady, unflagging, daily effort. Cohen’s own teacher, Poonjaji, was not even enlightened, but a dhyana-guru, if that! Cohen thought that Krishnamurti was enlightened, when he was merely a philosopher, and a bad one at that! It is so strange to me to see a person who is not only enlightened, but seeks to take it upon himself to rewrite religion, at the same time that he lacks the basic spiritual discrimination required to detect another enlightened being! There is such a contrast here of arrogance and ineptitude that I stand back in amazement! I suppose Cohen even thinks Wilbur is enlightened, when he is even worse than Krishnamurti! Well, enlightenment is a real state, and following Cohen, even if the whole world should claim enlightenment, my Father would not be impressed. The angels would almost expire in a laughing fit! There they are, the citizens of earth, all having declared themselves enlightened, but not one doing the real work required to purify the mind and ascend to the astral realms! Well, I guess that we will have a solar cycle of dearth, with few reaching the Kingdom of Heaven. I will have to hang my head in shame, but what can I do, with gurus like Cohen running around undoing all my earlier hard work defining enlightenment? My Father will pardon me, I am sure. There are ups and down in spiritual evolution, and perhaps this just isn’t earth’s time for hard work, and the real spiritual experiences that such work brings about. There are thousands if not millions of deep spiritual experiences that come to a person before enlightenment. At Easwaran’s ashram, some of the students went into deep experiences every morning and every night in meditation, making Cohen’s crowd look like losers indeed, with their intermittent “quasi-enlightenment” events. Cohen, Cohen, Cohen. Stop calling everything “enlightenment,” and stop trying to get your students to “haul themselves in” through dhyana. It will never work. Do you think this hasn’t been tried before? You are not the first, nor shall you be the last. Your idea is not particularly clever, but what always outrages me is that the students “buy it.” They believe you, that if they will just “be true” to their spiritual experiences, they will have more! No. They must sit down morning and night, meditating with good techniques (not your passive and strange ones), learn to repeat the Name of God, that king among spiritual disciplines, and also learn to make a selfless contribution to life. I see that you offer “guided meditations,” and I want to explode in rage! How will they ever learn to meditate if you seek to do everything for them? Each must travel this path by himself or herself, making all the effort, making all the discoveries, and experiencing all the joy as well. There is no shortcut to enlightenment, even if your guru’s name is Cohen!
The new world which emerges is that predicted by Jesus, Isaiah and others in various religious traditions. Whether this comes through the wave of spiritual experiences I have described, Judgment Day, where many are thrown into hell (which is being forced back into animal bodies), or both, is still an open question in my mind. When I first started writing, I was convinced that the Father was serious about making Judgment Day a reality, but the slow start to my teaching work has forced me to reconsider this, and to take an easier route for myself, and perhaps for those who might care to listen to me. Reasoning about it, it is not difficult to see that if there could be any rational purpose to a Judgment Day, it would be to stop the destruction of planet earth, as man ever hastens to do. Thus, I am able to tell people that if Judgment Day does not occur during my lifetime, it never will occur, for it will be too late to save the earth’s resources for the ten billion years we have left on this planet, and it will be clear that the Father lacks the power to pull souls from bodies while they are still living, chooses not to use this power and to allow mankind to suffer want and privation near solar cycle’s end, or chooses not to use this power and has a different plan. I cannot continue to shout from the rooftops about coming planet-wide devastation, when my Father seems incapable of finding me some food to eat! I am not sure what has gone wrong; He seems to be sleeping, dreaming, somnambulant, like He no longer cares. He treats me like I am a joke, and so I hold the ancient prophecies at a distance, and point out what any child should be able to observe: if they do not happen soon, they never will occur. I have plenty of other things to talk about, and when I began my sadhana I had no idea about these things whatsoever! I find that I cannot describe this new world to you, for all my hypotheses about how this new world could come about are quickly being proven false, as my Father refuses to use even the smallest amount of spiritual power, except, as He seems to enjoy, to cause me trouble, grief, and real harm. He acts like an insane person, and so I pretend that I do not know Him, although I also perceive there is nothing I can do about it. As they say, “Like Father, like Son;” I suppose I am from the same mold, and am just as crazy as He! Perhaps the craziest thing about me is that I would like to see a little reason exercised on this planet, which I have never yet beheld. I would rather be a crazy so-and-so than a so-called “sane” human; you don’t even know where you go when you die, but I know this, and so much more than this. If any of you cared, perhaps you might ask me; but I perceive that I am no longer needed, as you seem to have full control over the whole life-and-death situation! Go ahead, jump off into that black pit of nothingness, with glib smiles on your faces: there may be a surprise waiting for you, yet!
Cohen’s questioner is correct, however, that a “new being” is coming, which is a good description of nirvikalpa samadhi. Enlightened people are indeed different types of beings than the unenlightened. The unenlightened are inside the world, trapped by karma to continued rebirths in ignorance. The enlightened are outside the world, acting upon the world in total freedom from karma. The enlightened are “angels in the making,” who still retain non-self-aware consciousness in their lower minds that they are fast purifying. Once their entire being is pure, they may be said to exist in sahaja samadhi, and astral ascension is not far away for them. There is no one on earth in sahaja samadhi as I write this, nor will there be any for over a thousand years, although Cohen (perish the thought!) will be one of the first to enter it, assuming he gets over his solipsism and starts repeating the Holy Name in the depths of his being, ajapajapam, which only the illumined may accomplish. Ajapajapam is the key to unlocking the impersonal Paramatman, for Paramatman is part of Brahman, and recognizes when the Name of one of Brahman’s Incarnations is being repeated. The questioner’s remark (assuming he or she were brought up to speed), that after nirvikalpa samadhi one has a “perfect trust” in life is a typical egoic move to avoid work, to claim “enlightened experience” for itself, which Cohen even seeks to foster! The entire purpose of evolution is to make people venerable, which means cognizant of the problems of the world and capable of confronting them. During spiritual evolution, you will become a realist, meaning you perceive what is real, and abandon what is false. Reality is sweet, but only after the ego is long gone! Reality, on planet earth, includes death, murder, rape, child abuse, hatred, all types of violence, anger, greed, and a host of other evils. You cannot talk about “perfect trust” when you confront this reality! The world is deceptive, beguiling, difficult, dangerous, rude, obnoxious and vile. You cannot perceive these evils as being good until nirvikalpa samadhi, when you see that what you are, in your essence, is something that cannot be touched by any external agency. You are ever-free, ever-pure, unstained, beautiful, secure, unviolated, and blissful. The Atman is powerful, aware, awake, vigilant, crafty, skillful, elegant and practical. When the awakened Atman meets the world, it does not speak of “perfect trust,” but holds forth its powerful arms for all around to lean upon. It holds open the door to freedom for all, for it perceives that all do not see life as it does, and suffer grievously in their ignorance. Everything is maya, illusion, but to those enwrapped in illusion, entrapped by maya, it can be terrible indeed, although at other times it can seem sweet, giving rise, perhaps, to glib and childish attempts to characterize illumination as “perfect trust.”
Here you see where Cohen and I have different angles. Whether his angle, or mine, is more correct only time will tell, for those who speak greater degrees of truth are remembered, while those who speak lesser degrees are forgotten, in accordance with the Father’s will for religion on this planet. Cohen actually encourages this person to feel “perfect trust,” thus setting him or her up for perhaps terrible grief as they interact with the worldly, who will take advantage of such an attitude in a heartbeat! Those who go about in the world with an attitude of “perfect trust” are sure to be hurt; I would never give advice like this! Now, Cohen should point out here that “perfect trust” placed in the guru is well-placed. This person should have “perfect trust” in Cohen, who perhaps perceives that this person will not encounter evil because of this advice, which others who read these words and try to practice them in his absence may indeed experience. Ramakrishna used to praise the guilelessness of His devotees, but it must be remembered that they were in His presence at the time, and that He always encouraged perspicacity and care around the worldly. However, this is not Cohen’s point, but something else yet again, which proves to be another sample of his “advice-that-will-not-work.” He asks this person to have “perfect trust” in life, in “the process itself,” promising that a “new being” will emerge. This advice is so bad that I can scarcely comprehend it! Is this really a discipline that he is recommending here, that people walk around feeling “perfect trust” in life? This is one of the goofiest things I have ever read! Well, go ahead and try it. Like all spiritual disciplines, “the proof is in the pudding.” Perhaps this advice may even help some people; I know that when I was a sadhu I would have dismissed it after about a minute’s attempt at trying it. Here, I’ll try it right now! O.K., I now have “perfect trust” in life. Oh, wait, I am supposed to act here; I am the important one, not the “life process.” What is a “life process,” anyway? I find that if I try to trust the “life process” within me, I forget to keep on living! As soon as I focus on “trust,” the process becomes something else, something less than what it was before. I want to live; I don’t want to think about living! What is more, you are this life process, and if you still have an ego, the life process is not to be trusted! Until nirvikalpa samadhi, the ego is still present, warping and twisting every single one of our thoughts and impressions. It is not possible to have a non-egoic thought until after nirvikalpa samadhi. Those in dhyana get a “good ego,” one that is similar to the Atman in many respects, and allows for deep, synergistic spiritual experiences on a regular basis, but the ego is still there, twisting everything to shreds! When the ego is gone, you get the “I” of the Atman, which is better translated as an “I am,” for the Atman does not dwell upon itself. Secure in its own being, it looks outward, and does not really think “I” except for the purposes of moving about in the world and communicating with others.
Now, there is a spiritual discipline similar to what Cohen recommends here that does work, and that is the one recommended by Socrates: “Above all else, to thine own self be true.” We may be locked in mortal combat with the ego, unaware of the Self, but the Self always calls to us in a “still, small voice,” barely audible above the din. As Da Free John correctly describes it, the Self says, “I am the heart, come to me!” The Self is love, the Self is joy, and the Self is freedom. It calls to us continually. One should always live in harmony with one’s deepest perception of what is right to do and to think. However, this is not best expressed as a “perfect trust” in one’s deepest sense, because although the Atman calls to us, we can never get a “perfect reception” of its message until the ego at last dies in nirvikalpa samadhi. Thus there is no special value to trying to achieve “perfect trust,” because our perception of the Self’s call will continue to be fraught with inaccuracies and misconceptions. I would say the best advice is to identify major things in your life that you think are right, and to be true to those, such as beginning and maintaining daily practice of meditation, and engaging in selfless work. Those who remain near Cohen and follow the disciplines he recommends (such as they are) are being true to themselves in the sense that Socrates recommended, and now they just need to exert themselves mightily along the path in order to make progress on it, in order to become just like Cohen one day, for although I find nothing attractive in him, apparently I am the only one in the world with this opinion! It is no good trying to follow your inner sense “perfectly,” because although the Atman is perfect, we perceive it through the thick cloud of ignorance that surrounds the ego. If you seek to have “perfect trust” in something within yourself, you will find that your trust is misplaced and you will go astray. It is necessary to be awake, not to be in tune with something you perceive as being awake, which is mostly egoic attempts to slumber on. It is very tempting to think, “I will just do this simple, easy thing, and then I will be awake,” when the actual awakening that is spirituality is much deeper than this, much more abiding than this, and much more real than this. You will find, in the long run, that it is better to drop all artificial, surface attempts to “feign” illumination in favor of approaching life with a more relaxed, natural and enjoyable attitude, for this is the attitude of those that are truly awake, as well. Trying to go around with an attitude of “perfect trust” in the “life process,” you will discover, is an artificial, surface mental structure that is difficult to maintain, makes thinking and acting awkward and ungainly, and fails to deepen your meditation in the way the more mature disciplines, like repeating God’s Name, which is also easy, are able to do. Those who repeat the Name of God silently, within the mind, during daily activities practice what Krishna recommended in the Gita, making all their actions offerings to the Lord. Such action generates heat, “tapas,” within the mind, purifying it and warming the heart with joy, as well. If you wish to practice “Cohenesque” mind games, then be my guest. I will put you on my list of “probably won’t attain angelhood this solar cycle,” although I will agree it is likely you will reach by next cycle!
Cohen, unbelievably, seeks to turn “perfect trust” into an entire sadhana! I say that it won’t even take you one step forward along the path, although it might take you half a step, and he says it can take you all the way! I fear the gap between these two teachers is too vast to be bridged! Andrew is the “perfect trust” teacher. Kurt is the “good old-fashioned sadhana teacher.” There is a reason why particular disciplines have been introduced to the world in ancient days: they work! I have never heard this particular one before! I would not say that “perfect trust” will open any doors, for anyone. Cohen, I apologize for what I must now say. I wouldn’t say it, if I didn’t know you were egoless and could fall back upon your Self, whatever occurs in the world. I needed to look twice at this doctrine of yours, because it is so small that I can hardly make it out. I don’t need a magnifying glass to see it; I need a microscope. Standing erect, I notice that an ant at my feet has moved a feeler; or has he? I recall watching a video of Christopher Reeve, after his accident, the first time that he found he could move a finger. A big crowd was gathered around, and a cheer went up! This is, unfortunately, exactly the mood that reading this teaching of yours puts into my mind, which is one of great pity and compassion. I now see why you did not respond to my letter; your mind is too small to have a rational response to another purportedly illumined being. You can only see Cohen, people less than Cohen, and people about the same size as Cohen. I am off your radar screen entirely. You move a finger in telling your students to have “perfect trust” in the “life process,” but assuming someone listens to me, before I grow tired of attempting to communicate with man, and turn my attention elsewhere, I will bring the kirtan to the West, in a new way. Rock and roll music is a gift from God to man, in my opinion, and spiritual aspirants can make use of it to generate spiritual heat within their minds and hearts, by dancing while repeating the Holy Name deep within their consciousness. In this manner, one begins to actually burn through samskaras, for the movement of the dancing combined with the deep psychological impact of the Name and the powerful sounds of drum and electric guitar waken the sleeper inside, and give rise to feelings of ecstatic love, enchanting rapture, and wild delight. Not all rock music is appropriate for a kirtan; the song “I Like Big Butts” is an example of one that is not appropriate, as are all songs with offensive and obscene lyrics. If I were to lead a kirtan, I would probably start it off with that beautiful song by Harvest King, “Dancin’ in the Moonlight,” which really captures the spiritual mood of the kirtan very well, although it is not overtly intended for this purpose. I include most of the lyrics here, since it shows one the attitude of the kirtan most appropriately!
We get it on most every night
When that old moon gets so big and bright
It's a supernatural delight
Everybody was dancin' in the moonlightEverybody here is out of sight
They don't bark, and they don't bite
They keep things loose, they keep things light
Everybody was dancin' in the moonlightDancin' in the moonlight
Everybody's feelin' warm and right
It's such a fine and natural sight
Everybody's dancin' in the moonlightWe like our fun and we never fight
You can't dance and stay uptight
It's a supernatural delight
Everybody was dancin' in the moonlight
Every time I hear this song, from the opening keyboard salvo, it sends me into a spiritual mood straight away! There are many rock songs that are appropriate for a kirtan, which can bring on spiritual ecstasy, such as “Take On Me” by A1, “You Can Call Me Al” by Paul Simon, “The Story in Your Eyes” by the Moody Blues, “The Finer Things” by Steve Winwood, “Africa” by Toto, “I Love A Rainy Night” by Eddie Rabbit, “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves, and even my current theme song, “No More Mr. Nice Guy” as recorded by Megadeath. There are many more modern tunes as well, for instance the entire new album by Rush, “Vapor Trails.” There is one song in particular on this album that is highly spiritual, and reflects earth’s story of illumination, “Earthshine,” about the earth’s reflected light onto the moon. The sun illumines the moon brightly, but the earth also illumines it, dimly. Here are a few of the lyrics:
Earthshine
A beacon in the night
I can raise my eyes to
Earthshine
Earthshine
A jewel out of reach
For a dream to rise to
Earthshine
The meaning of these words is that while the Creator, who is like the sun, visits man, earth shines with its own natural light in the illumined men and women. They are a “beacon in the night,” for when the Avatar is absent, or far away, they are near to us and can be thought of as the proximate Lord, the “little Lord.” Illumination is a “jewel out of reach” because it is difficult to attain, yet humanity’s dreams can still rise to it, for all will attain illumination in the end, however many lives it may take. The “new being” does not come to you when you have “perfected your trust,” but when your sadhana is complete, the vast field of the mind stands cleared of all the boulders and stumps of selfishness with which it now is littered, and the Self comes up from behind you and taps you on the shoulder, saying, “Your turn, friend. How long I have waited for this moment! You are a God, as Guru Kurt used to say, and now you will discover it!” Develop the good ego, the ego that says, “I am a devotee of God,” or “I am God’s servant,” for this ego is very like the Atman, and is easily overcome by profound spiritual experiences, as well as by nirvikalpa samadhi. The Atman says, “Oh ho! This is just like me! Let me take it under my wing and we’ll go flying high into the spiritual sky, leaving the earth, this worldly maya, far behind us as we go!” If you try Cohen’s method here, you will be like a ballerina standing on a dark stage with no audience, holding one hand on the tip of your nose! Try the kirtan that I recommend instead, and you will be like the Dallas Cowboys or the San Francisco Forty-niners, playing hard in the Super Bowl, to win! “Perfect trust” will take you nowhere; action is the thing! We must learn to act selflessly, for then only do we face the ego directly and generate the heat required to melt all the frozen mind forms that stand between us and the radiant, supreme glory of the Self. If you want to have “perfect trust,” then have perfect faith in the Avatar’s words, faith which can be borne out, in our modern, rational age, in the crucible of our own lives, as we test His words and find out for ourselves whether in following this best of all spiritual teachers’ advice our lives are not immediately lifted up to a higher plateau, where we feel greater joy in daily living, more hope that death is not the end for us, and great feelings of satisfaction, as well, that our lives have been well-spent, lived optimally, and that we have pleased our very Maker, whose blessings we shall receive, and continue to receive, eternally.
Andrew Cohen:
Q: What is it that you want to manifest through your work?
A: Nothing less than a total revolution in human consciousness. And I am completely committed to that revolution. So more and more, in recent talks, I've been speaking about the awakening of consciousness in the light of the world crisis and putting it in an evolutionary perspective. Because there's a desperate need for evolution to take place, and I'm trying to help the individual to see that their own spiritual interests in that light. If one is interested in awakening, then that awakening has to embrace the context in which that interest is occurring. What is that context? It is the fact that at this point our survival as a race depends upon the evolution of consciousness itself. If consciousness itself does not evolve in a significant minority of human beings in the near future it's unlikely that we're going to survive as a race. So this crisis desperately needs to be responded to, and what this crisis really needs more than anything else is the evolution of consciousness. In other words, the individuals who are going to be in a position to make a real change, are going to be those who are willing to make the effort to evolve on an individual level to a much higher level of consciousness, and a much bigger perspective, so that they'll be in a position to respond to this crisis with a bigger perspective than has ever happened before.
Guru Kurt:
Let me first answer this question for myself, for Cohen and I are both gurus, he with a worldwide audience, I with only my Father furtively glancing over my shoulder, commenting on my words, sometimes pleased, and sometimes editing things out that are not appropriate at this point in man’s development. I wish to manifest through my work the truth of God before man in the fullest way that I can, given the current cultural climate, man’s present spiritual understanding, and the limitations upon my time and energy. At the moment, this means uniting East and West under the banner of the Son of God, who has started all the major religions in a display of divine intelligence meant to encourage diversity, freedom and truth to a maximum extent upon a primitive, developing planet. To the Christians, I wish to prove that there is a spiritual goal towards which they strive, though they know it not. To the Hindus, I wish to prove that they cannot become Krishna, though they can become like Krishna in many significant ways. I wish to foster a new spiritual climate in the world, in which spiritual teachers interact with one another and develop the spiritual discrimination necessary to discern the various real states of their students and other world teachers. I bring a new type of monastic living, which is as high as sannyasa although community based, where more practical goods are allowed, although they are held in common. I wish to establish that nirvikalpa samadhi is a step-change for man, which happens all at once, and that only those who have been through this experience possess Brahman’s authority to teach others, having become His righteous sons and daughters. I wish to establish that there are a raft of millions of spiritual experiences that come to a person before nirvikalpa samadhi, and that these should be placed “under one’s wing,” as it were, as one continues in the correct efforts that will bring more, and more meaningful, experiences one’s way. I wish to establish that enlightenment may be the end for man, but it is the beginning of godhood, the real start of the most profound spiritual life imaginable. I wish for the whole world to become enraptured, enthralled with the possibility of personal enlightenment for themselves, at the amazing glory and wondrous power that comes along with it, at the same time as I wish for them to bear realistic expectations within themselves for what they can accomplish in any given day, focusing on the increase in personal joy and happiness that comes to all who exert themselves along the spiritual path. I want to see the entire population of earth moving Godward through conscious effort, by whatever path they may choose: devotion, work, knowledge, concentration, or a combination of all of these. Life is sadhana, and sadhana is joy. This is my message, in a nutshell, though if you ask me this same question in a year or two, you will find that I have moved on and am plowing fresh pasture. How can I stay in one place? There is so much to do, so much to say, and so much to enjoy! Isn’t life wonderful, under the Father’s loving and supportive gaze? Wake up into ecstatic reality, though you may move slowly at first; all may take what joy, freedom, and wisdom they can carry from daily spiritual disciplines, which are intended for man’s eternal happiness, lasting satisfaction, and supernal excitement. Advanced devotees become powerhouses of spiritual energy, dynamos of spiritual potency. Lesser devotees too shine their light in the lives of all around them, spreading the joy of the Atman in good measure in the streets and houses of this entire globe of ours, so forlorn in its materialism, so miserable in its excesses, and so destitute in its profligacy.
Now that we have seen what Guru Kurt wants to manifest in his work (which is the short list), let us see how Cohen answers this same question. He wants a “total revolution” in human consciousness. He wants “the awakening of consciousness in the light of the world crisis and putting it in an evolutionary perspective.” He wants a “significant minority” of people to “evolve on an individual level to a much higher level of consciousness,” so that they can “respond to this crisis.” He wants these people to have a “bigger perspective” so they will be in a position to respond to the “crisis.” Well, what is this crisis? Cohen never tells us, although I assume that this forms part of the vast body of his work, which I shall make it a point never to find time to read! There is no way that we can fail to survive as a race. In the worst case scenario, the planet would be wiped out in a nuclear Armageddon, with only cockroaches surviving. In this case, our souls would remain intact and it is likely we could come up again through evolution all the way to humanity before solar cycle’s end; we would have a much better start than the first time, when it was from single cells! Cohen thus shows his absolute ignorance of scriptural truths, which I suppose happens to gurus who attempt to redefine religion for man when they are by no means qualified to do so! The soul cannot be destroyed by anything that happens in the material realm; I would have thought Cohen would recognize this simple truth by now. He should spend more time reading the Gita, and less time writing his “false Gitas,” the books which he publishes, and I hope no one reads! Well, there is no way nuclear Armageddon is going to happen either; the time for this danger is well past, as most will admit, even if they will not admit my hypothesis that the Father would never allow this to occur, exerting His power over the relevant individuals through the Holy Spirit. What is the next worse thing that can happen? We will run out of resources, such as fossil fuels and metals, the population will plummet due to an inadequate food supply and civilization’s infrastructure will collapse because it will no longer be supported by the high flux of raw materials to useable goods. Then, we will go back to living as we did in perhaps the stone ages, though for a long time we shall be able to reuse metals and at least maintain bronze- or iron-age standards. Thus, in no way will we fail to survive as a race! Cohen’s basic idea here is false, as though he lacks the very ability to think with a rational mind! I am astounded that he would threaten annihilation of the race, for whatever psychological purpose he may have; it cannot happen, it will not happen, not even under the worst imaginable circumstances! I am drawing near to the point where I give up on Cohen; anyone whose thinking and discourse is so sloppy as this is not worth my precious time! At some point, one must be held responsible for making accurate statements, if one is to qualify as a world teacher. Cohen’s statements here are just so wildly inaccurate that I all but abandon him. I am going to comment on just one more quotation of his, the one for next week, and then move on to greener pastures, and fresher meadows. He does not realize it, but Cohen damns his entire teaching work by making slapdash, imprecise statements such as these. He is in a dead end cul-de-sac, and runs around in circles, finding no way out, and his readers in the future will perceive this clearly, moving on themselves to teachers who are not so blatantly manipulative and false in their teaching works.
Yes, Cohen is blatantly manipulative here. He has this crazy hypothesis that all of a sudden, due to his efforts, the world’s overall rate of spiritual progress is going to increase phenomenally, resulting in the “salvation of the race.” This rate is more or less constant, although as I have said when people receive their good karma, accumulated from the last solar cycle, they will begin to strive more mightily than they currently do, and will achieve a correspondingly greater amount of progress. Cohen’s basic argument here is, “Follow me into revolution, or we will all die!” which is spiritual manipulation, pure and simple. This attitude, while it may influence a few, will be a major “turn-off” before the masses, and will not stand the test of time, for future generations will see it for what it is, an ugly attempt to force others forwards. No one will take to meditation because they see a spiritual teacher, on the street corner, shouting about desperation and despair! People will steer a wide path around such a one, as indeed they should! Cohen stumbles here because he will not give up his simplistic and out-of-touch notion that enlightenment, or some portion of enlightenment, is possible for everybody. This just isn’t the case at all. Enlightenment is a very rare event upon this earth, though lesser spiritual experiences are rife. Enlightenment marks a fundamental transformative event in which the ego is lost completely. Before this miraculous, powerful, and sudden event, the ego remains, no matter how profound the experience may appear to be. Before this event, one is not qualified to teach man. After this event, one is qualified, although as Cohen manifestly reveals, the tendency to manipulate and to want to have a “big impact” still remains, though it is generally well-hidden by the Atman’s overriding power. Thus, Cohen attempts to “drive the cattle” through the gates of enlightenment by appealing to their deepest fears: “Evolve or we perish!” Unfortunately, spiritual evolution does not proceed in this manner. It is a personal thing. Everyone wants abiding joy, unending bliss, supernal wisdom and divine power, for themselves, which is the highest motivation, and the only motivation that actually works in the long run. Cohen may get a few to stand up and say, “O.K., Mr. guru, I’m ready to ‘evolve’ in order to help my race survive. Count me in, in your ‘minority’” but they will quickly discover that Cohen does not give good techniques, good advice, or practical truth. He is a careless, slipshod speaker who does not think very clearly or well. His ideas are not well-formed, but are, as they say, “half-baked.” Thinking, “I am ready to evolve in response to the desperate calling of my race,” does not amount to a spiritual discipline. Even if such an attitude throws one into true disciplines, ones that work (unlike those of Cohen), one discovers that this motivation will fade into the background, far from primacy, for all that anyone truly desires is personal happiness, which is the promise of religion, though not the promise of Cohen. One entering into this type of motivation will find his mind distraught, confused, and disorderly, making spiritual progress very difficult. Cohen thus throws a roadblock before spiritual aspirants here, one that will cause many to stop, many to stumble, and all those unfortunate enough to read him to at least slow down! The important thing for everyone to realize is that our true happiness cannot come from the unhappiness of another, and that we were all meant to be happy at once. If the whole world knew this and observed it, there would be no “crisis.” No troubles would ever arise, planet-wide.
Cohen’s central hypothesis is: “If one is interested in awakening, then that awakening has to embrace the context in which that interest is occurring.” The first problem with this hypothesis is that, as I say, true awakening is not possible, i.e. enlightenment, except for a precious few on our planet in any given era. The second problem is that if one is truly interested in awakening, in going rapidly through the more gradual transitions of dharana and dhyana leading up to the step-change of samadhi, then this interest must be devoid of external context. I am completely opposed to Cohen on this point. I think he is dead wrong, and what is more I think he is an idiot for propounding ideas like this. His website heralds him as a “profound philosopher” and a “modern visionary,” and so I say, “Go ahead, Cohen, sink to their level! Become a mere philosopher, not a son of Brahman. Become a ‘visionary’ who sees today, but forgets eternity.” A true desire for liberation must express itself in life after life, for perhaps millions of lives, and so no matter what our societal context, this desire must emerge. Societal changes have nothing to do with one’s personal religious quest. Augustine attained savikalpa samadhi in fourth century Africa, and one reading his works finds they still apply completely to today’s situation. Cohen is lost in the external world, showing that although his enlightenment is true, it is not yet very deep. His position here shows the extreme immaturity of a spiritual babe. The human experience never really changes, though society appears quite different from ancient days and will mislead those who lack the spiritual depth to perceive that the actual humans living today are not any different than they were back then. Were you to exchange an ancient Egyptian with a modern New Yorker shortly after birth, you would find a well-adjusted ancient Egyptian, and a well-adjusted modern New Yorker! What is the central human experience? The central human experience is not our technological trappings, which are a mere veneer upon life’s surface. The human experience is meeting other humans, talking to other humans, getting to know other humans, and learning to get along with other humans, as well as diving deep into knowledge and experience of our own soul. These things do not change. Those who base their spiritual strivings on a firm foundation of right acting with respect to all the others in the world whom they encounter on a daily basis, and follow true and effective inward disciplines, find themselves exploding in a spirituality that flowers no matter what the external circumstances may be. In every birth, from now until enlightenment, they will live a relatively carefree childhood, begin to yearn for God-realization and Godward effort in their teens or early twenties, then take to spiritual disciplines, regardless of whether or not they also have cell phones, machines to operate, and rock and roll music to which they can listen. Do you want to know something that I think is really funny? It is my belief that people spend just as much time washing clothes today as they ever did. In the old days, you would wear a shirt for a number of days, perhaps a whole week, before washing it. Today, it is “wear it once, then wash it!” as though our bodies were inherently dirty, although we wash them once a day as well! This wears out our clothing faster, at the same time as it demonstrates that laundry machines have not saved time; they have merely increased the frequency with which we clean our clothing! In my opinion, we should wash dirty clothes, and keep wearing clean clothes until they truly need to be washed, but who listens to what I say? Certainly not Andrew Cohen!
Cohen has put his neck into a “spiritual guillotine” here with this raucous and disharmonious paragraph. The rate of spiritual evolution will not respond to a societal problem, for it is inherently a personal phenomenon. The only reason, to my mind, for pursuing the spiritual life is because it will bring us greater personal happiness. When our spiritual consciousness at last awakens, at the end of our rajasic outward unfolding, we finally admit that what we thought would bring us happiness brings us some small serving of temporary pleasure, with a large helping of misery at the end of it. Religion gives man the true means to personal happiness; why else would anyone follow it? You cannot make the elevation of the external world your goal, because this will turn to bitter ashes in your mouth very quickly. The external world will not change; it is the very nature of spiritual evolution to be slow, careful, and thorough. The only place you will be able to perceive a real inner change, the only place you may be able to induce rapid change, is within your own being, your own personality. Do not concern yourself with humanity as a whole; this is Brahman’s job. If you wish to be like Brahman, then act within your power to increase the universal pool of human happiness, though not with expectation of reward, unless it be the personal increase of joy that such action engenders within yourself. You cannot really lift the whole mass, though Brahman may accomplish it. All you may do is make a contribution, perhaps small, perhaps large, to the joy of the world, and when you do so you find your own joy multiplied many times; this is one of the fundamental laws of life. It is not even necessary to be successful at it; all that is required is that you are potentially successful, and use all your powers of thinking and acting towards the goal or effort you have selected. Then the Atman showers joy upon you from deep within your being, unfailingly, in an experience that you can learn to feel every single night, after a hard day’s selfless work. Nurses, doctors, and others who work in health care already receive this joy, if they work hard and are not lazy, although they do not yet recognize that the joy is spiritual in nature! Those who work hard at jobs helping the poor, who are poorly paid themselves, also experience this joy, which becomes like a tonic or even an addiction with them. What a beautiful addiction, to be “hooked” on increasing the world’s joy, and your own in the bargain, far more than you could through almost any other means!
The world may be in a “crisis;” is this your fault? You may play a role, but in society-wide problems one cannot be held personally accountable, if one’s heart is in the right place. I believe most of the world’s spiritual aspirants would be very responsive to a plea to reduce their resource usage to a reasonable level, but they find they cannot without sacrificing their livelihoods, their very survival on this planet, in the midst of a huge mass of people who would laugh at such suggestions. Cohen’s idea is that a “key minority” of “forward thinkers” will be able to transform the rest, but this is thinking as a “social strategist,” like Gandhi, not as a spiritual teacher! Easwaran used to speak in this same manner, which is noble and altruistic, but far from true spirituality. You cannot “force” spiritual evolution down people’s throats like this. People go at their own natural rate, pretty much oblivious of anything you may say to them. Cohen thinks that by dragging a few up “really fast” they will be able to lead the rest forward, but this idea will never work, because it is a shear impossibility. Cohen is a dreamer, not a visionary. If Cohen succeeds (as any sensible person would wish for him), it will not be because people have advanced spiritually to the point of accepting more social responsibility; it will be because, like Gandhi, he engenders social change, not spiritual change. I tell you, the human being is affected very little by the larger societal movements that occur around him or her, inwardly speaking, in the nature of the mind, in the growth of the soul. The soul goes at its own pace, and the highest aspirants learn to ignore external circumstance almost completely so that they can optimize their life-to-life progress, emerging time and time again to find their contribution to make, and their sadhana to perform. Sumner, Easwaran’s foremost student, who was always in deep dhyana, immersed in a sea of joy, worked in the book bindery. In a former life, he probably worked in an ashram, perhaps gardening or at some other task favorable to community life. In his next life, he shall find some similar, humble task that benefits others, and also himself in both the short and the long run. It will be the same Sumner, from life to life, though technology may advance and the specific circumstances may alter. Unless you rise high above society, to the level of deep spiritual consideration of your soul and its relationship to all the other souls of earth, including your spiritual teacher and your co-aspirants, you will never make much spiritual progress, but will get distracted and mired in the peculiarities of the day, which are all very trivial, ultimately speaking.
Cohen has thus not clearly defined his own role here. He is part-instigator for societal change, and part-spiritual teacher, doing two tasks instead of one, and neither very well. The minute you begin to blur the line between your spiritual teaching and the society around you, you throw your entire basis of spiritual authority into serious question, because your success or failure at the task of social transformation will be the standard by which you are judged by future generations. If you succeed, like Gandhi did for the most part, they will call you a saint. If you fail, as Cohen sets himself up here, they will call you a fool. The success of a true spiritual teacher is measured in the personal lives of those who follow him, nowhere else than this. If you wish to know the success of Jesus Christ, for instance, ask any Christian whether or not they are happier being Christians than before they were Christians, and they will universally respond, “Of course we are!” The Lord is the Supreme Spiritual Teacher for all mankind, including the illumined gurus, though their eyes at this point in history are dazzled by their own internal brilliance and innate spiritual light; they forget that there may be those who are higher still! The Lord teaches even the angels, who have been in the disembodied condition for countless solar cycles. The reason He is able to do this is that He draws His Being from an entirely different source than man; the Avatar is a direct, personal extension from Brahman Himself, and thus embodies the Creator for all created beings, including the angels or astral realm residents. Spiritual growth is not actually measured in “spiritual experiences” per se, although Christians too have their share of these things, calling them “born again experiences.” It really just comes down to being happier in life than you were before; we can all make ourselves truly happier than we once were, by following the tenets of religion, which is all the soul really wants in the end. If we are happy, then what do we lack? If we are not happy, then what do we have? The best spiritual teachers seek to impart greater real happiness to their students, and nothing else. Cohen could perhaps argue that he tries to do this, for if the “race does not survive” then no one will be happy, but as I have shown the race will survive, no matter what. What is more, if there is a population crash it shall be the spiritual that remain, the unspiritual being consigned once more to the animal realms. Cohen’s message to his personal students, therefore, should be: “Why worry about the current crisis? Those who hear my words with an earnest heart have nothing to fear; this earth is made for spiritual progress, and if they merely attend to this, all will be well with them.” Instead, Cohen seeks to force spiritual growth, as though he were desperate, panic-stricken, which is not the way of established, profound, serene and careful teachers, but those who have very little personal depth, and are moved by the society they wish to move as much as they move it! The word “guru,” as I recall, means one who is heavy, one who is not moved by external events. Cohen is a spiritual lightweight, being blown hither and thither by any wind that comes by, scaring his students into foolish actions that disregard their true spiritual good, for the sake of the whole mass of people, whom no human can ever possibly hope to move in a spiritual sense, although you may indeed succeed in changing their surface thinking, about what is “acceptable, civilized behavior” and what is not, though this be at your own soul’s dear cost! Reading this paragraph from Cohen, one gets the idea that we had better “evolve ourselves quickly” or there will be hell to pay; however, personal spiritual evolution is never experienced as an “evolving action.” It is experienced as greater joy, greater wisdom, greater freedom and greater power over our thinking. I would never tell students to “evolve or perish,” for this would demonstrate that I did not even understand the meaning of the word “evolution,” in a spiritual sense, that it is a slow, gradual process, requiring, like the growth of plants, tender, nourishing care to be successful, not “guerilla tactics” or threats of a lack of survival combined with a promise of personal power to come later, once they have their “bigger perspective.” I do not tell my students to “evolve” at all; I tell them to “be themselves,” to enjoy life while they observe ahimsa and practice such spiritual disciplines as they are able to do. “Evolution” is a name for this process; it is not the process itself. Life is itself the process, so the best advice is to tell people to live, and to live well. He who enjoys himself the most in life, while not harming others, makes the most spiritual progress. This is an immutable law!
Right after my illumination, until very recently, I had terrible visions of the “end times” prophesied by Isaiah, Jesus, Mohammed and others becoming a reality during my lifetime. I beheld huge crowds of people all falling to the ground in a kind of wave, as the Holy Spirit passed through and ripped their souls from their bodies. I beheld piles of dead bodies littering the streets and rotting, for no one cared to bury them, so afraid were they for their own lives. I beheld men and women “running from God,” to the far corners of the earth, thinking they could escape His righteous retribution, only to find to their dismay that He is omnipresent and omniscient, coming for them anyway. I beheld babies crying in the streets over their dead mothers, no one coming to their aid. I beheld men taking up arms and killing one another in a rage at having lost their loved ones, thus making the Holy Spirit’s task that much the easier. I beheld the Son of God ushered into prison during the first “wave” of deaths, then being escorted out again and honored once it was seen that they continued, with His followers untouched and unsmitten. I saw the Son of God, ensconced in power with a small but growing array of followers, being assaulted by the U. S. Army in full battle array, with tanks, aircraft, and battleships. Certain they would be victorious, just as the order was about to fall to attack, the Holy Spirit killed them all, except those few who were among the chosen, and laid down their arms. I perceived that even now the Holy Spirit arranges the chosen in critical, key positions in, for instance, the nuclear power industry, so that these facilities may be shut down safely if required. I saw the Son of God speaking to vast crowds, in football stadiums, hosting a radio call-in show, and making numerous television appearances. I beheld the children of the United States rushing out in a worldwide effort to obtain repentance, for the last days were finally at hand. I beheld men coming up to the Son of God with guns, thinking to kill Him, then laying down their guns once they beheld the unconquerable love in His eyes. The feeling that these visions gave to me was that these events would happen swiftly, but time has not borne out this expectation, and so I take a calmer, more rational line. I cannot control my Father. I cannot say, “Father, do this,” or “Father, do that,” for He will just look at me with those omnipotent, shining, opalescent and smiling eyes and say, “I don’t think so, my child. I have an even better idea!” It is for Him to tell me what to do, not the other way around! Unlike Cohen, I realize that the spiritual people of earth are in no danger; it is the unspiritual who are in deep trouble, should the end times become a reality or should we merely run out of resources and have a population crash, going back to the stone ages! The Father will keep the best here, and leave the rest, regardless of the chosen method, the Holy Spirit’s actions or man’s natural tendencies. I do not seek to change the world. I only wish to relate my vision of life to any who may care to call themselves my friends, in this age and in all ages to come. Samadhi is waiting for you; why do you tarry? Eternal bliss can be yours; why do you wait? I have given man an optimal path, my Way of Love. Those who strive earnestly upon it will find the same path waiting for them in their next life, and in many more to come, for it is a Perfected Path, meant for all time here on earth. There will be many more revelations, and many more improvements in detail, but my Way stands as an Eternal Doorway that opens for all, from the least committed to the most, from the greatest aspirant to the least, and from the wisest to the most foolish. As Jesus said, he who thinks himself least will perhaps be shocked to find that he is of all those on earth greatest, for such is spiritual truth that those who see themselves, miss life, and those who see life, forget themselves in ecstatic awareness of reality.
Andrew Cohen:
When you really embrace a passion for evolution, two things happen. Firstly, you discover a confidence in the human experience and a passion to participate, the likes of which you've never known before. And the experience of that passion itself is liberation. But at the same time, you actually take on an evolutionary burden, because you begin to see the future. You hear its call. The future is calling you, and then you start to manifest it. And other people recognize that, and they feel the thrill of it. And then what happens? The status quo starts shaking, because the old has to make way for the new. Now what happens when the old has to make way for the new? It always resists, and usually violently. These are the forces at work, both individually and collectively. But if you see all of this objectively it won't frighten you – in fact, it will fascinate you. You will experience insight, which is liberating because you understand the forces at work. Instead of experiencing yourself as being a victim of these forces, you actually understand what's happening and it gives you a lot of courage. And then life itself becomes infinitely more exciting.
Guru Kurt:
I am about to part company with Cohen’s teachings, for as they say, I have “had enough, and more than enough.” It is not really my task to right the wrongs of others, to set straight what others make crooked. I have engaged in this writing merely as an intellectual exercise, nothing more, although I originally thought Cohen, or at least one of Cohen’s crowd, would take some type of interest in the writings on my website and come up with more of a response than I receive from the wall in front of me, or from the stones in the street, or from the dog who yaps at me as I walk to work (this dog at least notices me, which is more than I can say for this group!) I still just can’t get over it; an illumined teacher, with a closed mind! This world never ceases to amaze me. I thought I understood the process of enlightenment; I thought that enlightened beings should begin by now to have been able to recognize other enlightened, or spiritual, beings, but I see now that I was wrong in this supposition. There is still a huge gap between Cohen and myself, which I cannot bridge. He will continue to talk, on and on, and I will continue to write, on and on, each of us in our different, unique and apparently non-overlapping spheres. It is with a certain sadness that I “lay down my pen,” that a living illumined one should not live up to the expectations to which all the spiritually poor people in this world who also crave illumination would hold him, were there someone to give a voice to their concerns. There is still hope for man, however, for human life on this planet is yet young, and I am perhaps pressing things far too hard, far more than the system can bear. Your illumined teachers are good, and not evil. They really can be trusted, though not to the uttermost extent with which you can trust the Avatar, should you discern His hidden presence among them. Cohen has Brahman’s authority to teach, and his teaching work is beneficial for all who read it and are not illumined, although others in the spiritual realm may have their quarrels with it. What a sad and lonely day for mankind! You are going to try to make it on your own, without the Creator by your side! You will assert yourselves, and ignore the very One who gave you being! Yet, it is my belief that the Father’s will is not that it should be so; I believe He has other plans than this, and has peopled this planet with hidden angels in your midst, who will rise up when the real Avatar makes Himself known, dragging the humans alongside of them, who are always eager to go where they see a crowd gathered! The illumined gurus have failed, and the embodied angels must now shoulder the task that would have been entrusted to these angels-in-the-making, who are too far from reality and too lost in their own new-found inner glory and splendor. Good-bye, Cohen, and fare thee well! It is a long road ahead of you before astral ascension, but none who attains illumination in a given solar cycle ever fails to ascend within that cycle. My best advice to you, to which your Atman is undoubtedly also calling you, is to begin repeating the Name of God continuously, in the depths of your being, of which you are now capable. This practice of ajapajapam will personalize the impersonal for you, making the Paramatman, which you call the “deeper spirit,” responsive and open to your persistent inquiries and forays into reality. You are indeed still evolving, as you perceive, but you are on a plane high above your students, and your “problems” are not theirs, just as your “solutions” are not theirs either. Learn to help them to lose their egos, which is a different problem from circumventing the ego-producing force, sans ego, as is your constant endeavor. The better you are able to do this, the better you will have known yourself; the better you have known yourself, the deeper will be your next experience of nirvikalpa samadhi, and the better will be your teaching work, and so on, until at last your lower mind is fully purified and then you will be in sahaja samadhi, preparing for your final ascension from embodied to fulltime disembodied existence in the astral realms, the Kingdom of Heaven, for which all humanity yearns, and which many indeed shall attain before our time on this earth is through, and the Avatar, by the Father’s side, begins work on the next earth, the one which will follow ours.
Cohen has stated this week’s teaching in an offhanded, colloquial way which is all right for speaking, but which is a little confusing to read. Let me try to summarize his argument. When you “embrace a passion for evolution,” you will discover a confidence in the human experience and a liberating passion to participate, but you will also take on an “evolutionary burden,” for you will perceive the future. You will start to manifest this vision of the future, and others will recognize it and feel the thrill of it. Then the “status quo starts shaking,” as the old makes way for the new, resisting it violently. You will witness both individual and collective forces for the new and for the old, but you will not be frightened, only fascinated because you will have insight, and understand these forces. You will not be a victim like everyone else, but you will comprehend what is occurring and thereby have courage, finding life exciting at last. I think that I have paraphrased Cohen’s statements adequately here, and who is there to argue with me? Surely neither Cohen nor any of his crowd, so sure that they are right and I am wrong that they do not even bother to read what I write, but dismiss me as a madman or lunatic of some variety. It is only the angels who have ears to hear what I have to say, in any life, although the humans come along for the ride once they see what appears to be humans like them getting on board. We take this world by storm, and mankind never suspects that a ploy has been used, a divine trick! “There are no embodied angels,” humanity says. The angels even join them in this, but then they begin their real work, and show the humans were to look, and to whom they should listen carefully! Well, what is this “passion for evolution?” I wish I knew! When I underwent sadhana, I had no “passion for evolution,” and so Cohen speaks to a different crowd here than the one that I know, a crowd of people who are far indeed from my way of thinking. What did I want? I wanted God-realization. I wanted to know that I was immortal. I wanted to be the friend of Krishna, so forlorn and friendless in this world! I wanted to undo the wrong that had tied Jesus to the Cross of Cavalry. I wanted to stand in the crowd that thought Isaiah, Jeremiah, Shankara, and Buddha were “cool,” not Aurobindo, Krishnamurti, and Ram Dass. I wanted to become like my guru, able to present the spiritual life in colorful, inspiring language to all those around me. I wanted to fly with the eagles, and dare with the tigers. I wanted to know freedom, joy, and wisdom. I didn’t want to live a common, ordinary life, but an uncommon, extraordinary one. I was successful, but not once did I ever think that I wanted to “embrace evolution,” nor do I yet think this way, even today!
“Embracing a passion for evolution” is thus, I believe, Cohen’s personal attitude, which he has not yet separated from the attitudes required for people who still have egos. He has perceived that he is still evolving, and his response to this is to seek to embrace it. His own personal experience has knocked him so far off his feet that he cannot yet see clearly the needs of the egoic world around him. This whole paragraph is really Cohen’s description of his own, personal experience, and if you find it inspiring, then go ahead and try to follow it. It leaves me cold. I cannot relate to it at all. Far be it from me, however, to stand in anyone’s way. If something works for you, by all means do that thing, and do it with gusto; this is spiritual evolution in a nutshell. The trouble with trying to “embrace a passion for evolution” is that one has to first perceive one’s spiritual evolution, and this can never be done while one still has an ego. If you think you can feel your own evolution, then your ego is playing tricks with your mind. Until the ego is gone, the way we can tell we are making progress is that our daily happiness will slowly increase, as will our ability to concentrate and think clearly. I have not seen where Cohen has defined the “feeling of evolution;” if you will accept my definition, then by all means embrace a passion for it! Nothing but good can come out of such a passion. You may even get a “confidence in the human experience,” and a redoubled “passion to participate” in the life around you. Your feeling of liberation and freedom will indeed increase, along with your joy, so it is correct to call this passion “liberating.” However, in my way there is no burden, nor do you begin to perceive the future. Life is meant to be fun, not a burden. Enlightenment is a joyous romp; it is not an onerous task! The future comes, day after day, just as it always has, and always will. Sometimes intense spiritual experiences will come your way, and sometimes they will not; you cannot predict these things! I really have no idea what Cohen means here when he says, “The future is calling you, and then you start to manifest it.” You’d think after all this time I would have some insight into the illumined teachers, but Cohen is so far out on a limb here that I scarcely can comprehend his meaning. I think what he is perceiving is the fact that all people will eventually attain enlightenment, and that he will be participating in this process in a significant way, helping others to attain in real, important, vital ways. This is thus only a personal observation, and does not apply to those who still retain egos, whose one job is to shed this obstruction to the glory of the Self within! Cohen perceives the Atman within himself pointing to all the other people around, and showing him that there is good work to be done here, although he has stepped outside the boundaries of humanity and can now call himself a minor deity, a lord, a god. He is finding out about Brahman’s Great Project of freeing all living beings, and sees at last his part in it, and he finds it exciting, thrilling, as he should. He has become one of Brahman’s loyal, trustworthy sons, and now sees the “duties” (later he will not call them duties, but privileges) of sonship. Other people see this in him, and they too get thrilled, as he reports dutifully to us here. They would get even more thrilled if Cohen understood what was happening to him in more detail. He should instead say, “When I first became illumined, I realized that there was a great, eternal task in which I could engage, in freeing all living beings who were still bound, a task that is exciting, thrilling beyond your imaginations, because it is real, vital, and divine.” At least, I would have responded more to such a message, which is far more profound than the confused teaching he gives us here, which is merely a raw description of his personal perceptions!
What does Cohen mean when he says “the status quo starts shaking?” He means that he perceives that those with egos, would like to keep those egos. The old must give way to the new, which means that the spirit, the living Atman, will triumph over the ego in the end. The ego resists the Atman, and so man is cut in half, sometimes making a righteous effort at sadhana, sometimes falling from yoga and pursuing things of the world. Cohen sees this, individually and collectively, but is not frightened, for by the Atman’s grace all fear has died within him. Although there is still fear in the deeper levels of his unconscious mind, the Atman shields this from him powerfully, so that he is not aware of it. The Atman is heavily engaged in throwing lights on in Andrew’s unconscious mind, tapping all the fear, anger, and greed that still remain there and amount to the obstacle to sahaja samadhi. None of these things ever enter his conscious awareness, however, due to the Atman’s strength and the fact that Cohen’s ego has been destroyed utterly in nirvikalpa samadhi, which is one of the defining characteristics of the illumined versus those merely in deep dhyana; all evil has gone from their higher minds, the seat of embodied consciousness, never rising even to the level of consideration, much less of action. Cohen sees these things in his students, and is not repulsed, but rolls up his sleeves and gets to work helping everyone around him, although I thank God I was not his student, instead finding a superior guru in Eknath Easwaran. What a confusion there must exist at Cohen’s ashram! Everyone is running around pretending to be illumined! “Think like an illumined person,” Cohen says, “and can illumination be far away for you?” but the ego loves these kinds of games. The ego can put on all kinds of disguises, all kinds of masks, even of quasi-illumination, false enlightenment. It does this with a kind of gleefulness, a mysterious joviality, for it knows that if you keep thinking, “I am enlightened, I am enlightened,” you will never do the real work that is required to get rid of that ego and truly become enlightened! It is necessary to cultivate the “good ego,” the “ego of righteousness,” before you will make serious inroads against your negative conditioning dragged along from ages past, when you were an animal and a tamasic or rajasic human. First, we must go from being evil to being good. Then, when we are good, we discover that the Atman, who is also good, can easily overwhelm our egos with intense spiritual experiences so that we make maximum, optimal progress. You will not be able to understand the forces at work around you until the ego has been shed; everything is just a big mystery until this point. While you still have the ego, the best thing to do is to engage in serious spiritual practices every day that you find work for you, increasing your basal level of joy although not necessarily your deep comprehension of the forces of life arrayed around you. I have given man what I consider an optimal path in my Seven-fold Way of Love; Cohen also gives a path, which perhaps some will follow, although I found I could not even read it fully, so full of falseness and trivial ideas is it; it made my hairs to stand on end, my teeth to grind, and the veins in my temples to protrude! It is possible to live in a state of continuous spiritual excitement, once you find the right disciplines for you. The secret is to engage in them with intensity and enthusiasm, for our nature is such that the more energy we spend selflessly, non-egoically, the more we receive from the inward coffers, which are endless. Energy is ecstasy; energy is eternal delight. Rejoice in living, without causing harm to any other at all. This is the way, with which Cohen, I would hope, would agree, although there is no saying since he and I appear destined never to meet, exchange views, or engage in a little exciting debate, such as the world has never yet seen in all its long history (which is not really that long, considering the things yet to come). When egoless beings collide, truth is produced, as energy is produced when certain particles collide. So I say, although I shall apparently need to wait for another life to prove this to anyone else!
Well, I tire of this game. I feel like a person who has been changing the same dirty diaper for several months! If I keep writing about Cohen, you will get the impression that I like him, when I do not! Cohen speaks against established religion, thus making himself the enemy of truth, light, and the real wisdom of the Avatar. I picked up a piece of ordure that was lying on the ground for some reason, chewed on it awhile, and now spit it out in contempt and disgust! No one will make any serious progress following Cohen! I danced on the head of a sleeping dwarf for a few months, and the dwarf sleeps on, oblivious to my movements! I want you to know that writing these things has been very easy for me, like stealing candy from a baby, which is in fact what Cohen is, a spiritual toddler. If I continue to steal his candy, you will call me cruel and sadistic, and so I cease from all comment upon his works at this point, which are about as valuable to the world as one of those balls, that dung beetles in Africa make. He has his followers, but I spit upon them as well! I embrace the followers of the Avatar, in all the world’s major religions, for these are the true spiritual people of the world. My fundamentalist Christians make more progress in an hour than Cohen’s students do in a week of “guided meditations.” My Moslem friends make more progress in a day than Cohen’s lackeys do in a month. Those who are true to the Buddha run circles around Cohen’s crowd, who like machines or stones look for the impersonal, denying their own personalities! Cohen, you will never define what enlightenment is for this world; only the Avatar can do this, who is the embodiment of the Creator and was there at the beginning! You will never start a religion, which is the province of God in a body, the sweet One, the Avatar, eternal Lord of man! Remain in your little fetid swamp of solipsism; it is where you belong! Take your little crew into the dark and damp realm of your personal thinking, standing against that very One who made you! Ignore the bright realms above you; stay away from the angels, who join me in pouring contempt and contumely upon your arrogant and blasphemous head! Refuse to breathe the sweet, fresh air of recognition of the Avatar, by which alone you may begin to make serious progress into Paramatman, that “underlying” impersonal spirit you have discerned in nirvikalpa samadhi. Don’t even think about beginning ajapajapam, continuous repetition in the depths of your consciousness of the Name of the living Avatar, through which alone you can attain sahaja samadhi and join the angelic crowd. No, you just keep on in your bullheaded, obstinate, and deceptive paths, ignoring the Avatar’s and angel’s revealed truths of antiquity, dragging as many of earth’s good people off as you can into the wretched swamp that you seem to have discovered, where you make enlightenment, the supreme state for man, into a “path,” and reject the living Lord in favor of a drive into nothingness, the impersonal, which may motivate machines but will fill real people with despair, hopelessness, and anguish. I give up all hope for you, in this life! You call yourself enlightened, “awakened,” but you are “asleep at the wheel,” incompetent, moronic, solipsistic and an errant fool. I do not call you a narcissist, as I do Da Free John, for at least you make no claim to Avatarhood! Perhaps we shall meet in a future life, when you have finally gotten your “baby teeth,” but in this life, I think not. You just keep chewing with your toothless gums, for I have more important things to consider than your weak, lame, and vile teachings. “Yoga Vasishtha” calls onto me, as does Shankara’s “Crest Jewel of Discrimination.” I leave you now for nobler, sweeter paths, where truth and not lies resides, where reality and not unreality rules, and where my real friends and lovers, down the ages, will find their bliss, their hope, their joy and their freedom, too.
(7/16/03). I try to throw Cohen down, but it seems the “game is afoot,” and I cannot rest just yet. This little one may have more to him than meets the eye, at first glance. His crew is having a “celebration” for 18 years of teaching, which “coincidentally” began the week after I threw him down. I am not a believer in coincidences, but think all things on earth happen according to the Father’s will, and so I pick him up again, for at least an eighteen days’ consideration. I am going to keep my comments much briefer than I have, since my job has recently shifted, becoming more difficult, and I have other writing projects. I was fascinated to see Cohen reporting he and his students having experiences that have been reported nowhere else on earth, except by the direct disciples of Jesus Christ. In Acts 2, it is written:
1. WHEN THE day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. 4. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Here are Cohen & crew’s reported experiences (taken from http://www.wie.org/j21/gurupandit3.asp)
AC: There is one other aspect to all of this that I wanted to go into. Several months ago, an extraordinary event occurred a number of times among a group of my students. They witnessed and directly experienced the spontaneous descent of a cosmic power - a powerful conscious presence within and without that was instantly enlightening. In other words, each individual experienced, in their own consciousness, inherent liberation and the unlimited potential that the liberated heart and mind feels as the living universe calls for our unconditional participation in the process of its own unfolding. These are excerpts from some of the letters they wrote to me describing the event.
"Last night we literally reached a critical mass and exploded. Revelation after revelation as a living understanding of the sweetest perfection is being unraveled in front of our eyes. The emerging presence is a mystery that can never be known - all it recognizes is One, and it's on a seek-and-destroy mission against all separation. We were on our knees before this miraculous phenomenon: impersonal enlightenment. None of us has any idea where we are going, but we are being consumed in the white heat of perfect communion."
"I finally understood that this is actually enlightenment manifesting between us. It is unheard of that a group of unenlightened people, who are willing to leave self-concern behind, start to experience the enlightened vision and BE it. It is amazing how easy it felt, really like a natural state ... I see now why you call it Evolution!"
"This tremendous explosion has unalterably shifted our attention to a vast and unfathomable presence - it is as if this new cosmic Being speaks as us, through us, manifesting the bigger view that It alone perceives."
AC: It seems that it was both the collective nature of the event and the willingness of the participating individuals to bear witness to what was unfolding that made the emergence of this consciousness possible. This thing has happened a few times, among different groups of my students, and I realized that this expression of enlightenment beyond the personal was really the target that my teaching has been heading toward for the past sixteen years. I had never heard of anything else that sounded similar until I read about Sri Aurobindo's descent of the "supermind,"* which sounded very much like what my students were experiencing. I was wondering if it sounded similar to you?
Of course, Andrew Cohen and his students have not met the Lord yet; if they had, I would surely have known about it! My interpretation of this “unprecedented” group experience is different from that of Cohen. It is my belief that Jesus’ disciples were not all human; among them were mixed “EABs,” embodied angelic beings. The experience of Pentecost was the excitement of the angels’ Atmans, at being close to the Lord, at being allowed to be His direct representatives before mankind. It is not really a “communal” experience, to the extent that their “being” is shared. It is a simultaneous “flaring out” of the Atman of each one of them, for being a direct disciple of the Lord is one of the highest privileges, and guarantees stupendous spiritual growth for the angels involved in it! The Atman just gets really, really excited at the chance to interact directly with the Supreme Lord, and explodes in the consciousness of the angel, experiencing some of the righteous expansion that will occur as a result of contact with the Son of God. I asked my Father about this occurrence. He sat me down, and He talked to me. He looked me straight in the eye. He said, the Apostles of Jesus remembered being with the Lord, but Cohen and His crowd are anticipating meeting the Lord. What this would mean, is that a certain proportion of Cohen’s crowd are EABs (although not necessarily all of them; the Atmans of humans can catch fire in a group experience like this, too). What this also means, is that I may have to retract the spit I hurled on them a week or so ago! My spit is harmless in any case. I love all creatures, no matter what they have done, no matter what they do, no matter what they are going to do. Dearest to me, however, are those who also love me, for these are my true friends. How can I fail to help them to go forward? Cohen looks for the impersonal, and yet I think this guru is half-cooked, half-baked. I think he needs to go through another nirvikalpa samadhi event, so that the world understands the tremendous transformative power of true enlightenment. The face of the impersonal is made personal by the personal God, the true Son of the Father, earth’s Avatar, eternal Lord. Were Cohen to witness this One, in some significant fashion (perhaps reading His writing), I think it would be sufficient to trigger a second samadhi, and the world will see a new teacher emerge from this experience, far superior to the old one in many ways, with a better, truer, and purer message. Look upon nirvikalpa samadhi, man, and understand! It is not the end, but a new beginning, the start of real life, the intensification of everything spiritual. Look hard enough into the impersonal, and you will be surprised to see the face of the personal God coming to your rescue. Didn’t Jesus say, “Seek, and ye shall find?” Cohen and his crowd have sought, and may soon obtain the object of their search, though it was not what they expected, but something richer, grander, and more illustrious than any could have imagined. So I say, but who am I? My Father takes care of all these things. I am His little servant, or as I like to think, His little slave. One who is a slave of this One is free indeed, and so I shout in jubilation: “He is here! He is here! That One for whom you seek is but a ‘stone’s throw,’ or an e-mail message, away.” Where I work, in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, is only a bowshot away from Lake Michigan. I remember that both Rama and Krishna were excellent shots with a bow. I wonder if I got a bow, and shot an arrow into the lake, whether anyone would hear it. Would it make a tiny “splash,” or would it be like the opening salvo of the American Revolution, a “shot heard ‘round the world?” I wonder about things like this, for no reason in particular. I am here; I might as well think something!
Here is Cohen’s first quotation from the group of “eighteen in eighteen days,” which I received in my inbox 7/13/03.
This, I feel, must be the end of all that has come before in this record of one man's journey home. It will be the end of that, and then there will be the beginning of the outcome of all that has occurred at the feet of my Master. What will take place from this moment on will no longer be from my own will or desire.... Andrew's life, in a sense, has now come to an end.... He is empty now and is free to be of help...
Journal entry
May 7, 1986
Lucknow, India
Guru Kurt:
Strangely enough, Cohen’s “Master” was not even illumined, but a dhyana-guru! Cohen does not recognize that he has gone far beyond his guru of yore, who should have become his student, once he attained. Enlightenment is not cheap or easy. It comes only to a very few. No one at Ramagiri ashram, my teacher’s place, will attain this life, or even, I believe, during the next thousand years or so. Spiritual evolution is a slow, gradual process. It doesn’t happen quickly! Does the gardener grumble, and shout to his roses, “Grow, damn it, grow!”? No, he plays them some soothing music, perhaps Beethoven or Mozart. Roses grow at their own pace, although the guru is like fertilizer, hastening a natural process, though never circumventing it. It is the nature of a planet’s initial real illuminations that the Masters arise spontaneously, as it were, without the benefit of bona fide instruction. Where would they get such instruction, when they are the first through the “hoop” for that solar cycle? This may indeed be part of Da Free John’s narcissism; he just plain hasn’t seen anyone else! I wonder about Cohen’s training. I do not train alone; I have my Father to guide me, which He does unerringly. Not a day goes by that an extreme event does not occur in my life. The nature of these events is difficult to describe, for they are personal, impacting on my particular consciousness alone; they would not have the same effect on a human. Every day I think, “Surely I will make it through this day, without extremity,” but then it hits me, in the morning, afternoon, or night, and sometimes all three! (For instance, I can put down my computer, go away for a long time, and come back, picking up the thread exactly where I left it, as though there is a stream of data arising from deep within me, and I am merely an aware and knowing instrument of a much larger intelligence.) I am certain my life will continue on in this way, until death. I am starting to enjoy it, for the effect of these things is highly beneficial. It is my Father saying, “Look awake, there! Look alive! Who are you, anyway? Surely you can do this!” I have never felt like my life was coming to an end, however, or that I would be beginning something new. My response, upon illumination, was to think, “Cool!” I rejoice to do the Father’s will. I had nothing else planned, in any case! I am like a teenager, hanging around on a Saturday afternoon on the street corner, looking for something to do. Along comes the ice cream truck, and “Yeah, I’ll have some ice cream.” Along comes my coach, who wants me to start running laps in order to get ready for the state track meet next year, and “Yeah, I’m up for that!” What is my life without Him, if it is not endless “hanging around?” How could I possibly think of something more interesting to do with my life, than He could dream up? I do not seek to help another, although strangely enough it seems that all on earth do not share my vision, or my understanding of life, and so I write a little, and may indeed talk a little before long. What concern are these things of mine? Someday, perhaps, He will not longer need me for these purposes, and on that day I’ll dance and sing, merrily!
Andrew Cohen:
The heart is my home and not knowing is my refuge. The only teacher I know is the unknown. That place where there is no memory and no fear and no desire and no expectations and no thought and no time – that place is my teacher. That is the face of my guru.
January 5, 1987
Devon, U.K.
Guru Kurt:
Well, here we have honesty, at any rate, which is one of Cohen’s most noble traits. He is brutally honest, unflinchingly candid, unknowingly open. As he begins to get more profound, he will learn to hide his personal efforts from his students, and help them to deal with their egos, above all else. Here, however, he has made quite a beautiful remark, that would fit in well with any teacher’s work except mine, who take the Father as guru. My own home is not on this earth, but somewhere else. My refuge is my Father, and my deeper self. That place where ecstasy is found, love, righteous joy, happiness and eternal glory – that place is my teacher. My Father has many faces, presenting each in turn in order to exercise His overwhelming love and power over all life. Do you know which face I like the best? I like it, when I have had a really hard day, where life has given me no quarter in which to rest. At the end of such a day, when I am exhausted and need sleep, my Father comes and says, “Get to work, you lazy bum!” Ah, yes, I love to hear this! He knows me, and I know Him. What is the meaning of my life, if I do not have a mutual project with Him? What is the value of my life, if it is not spent in cool, awesome divine effort? Meaning appears and disappears for me with my Father’s face. Although there was a time when I doubted, I now clearly see that I did not understand the fell nature of service on earth, nor did I understand His righteous generosity, freeing me from obstructions that had been in my way, and liberating me both from man’s persecution and the need to feign particular affection for the female sex, in this and all my future lives. I took my medicine, and am cured at last! Why do I need a “girl on my arm,” like Ramakrishna? Why do I need to endure more humility, degradation, and suffering, as Jesus, Socrates and one other have endured? These things have come to an end for me. The Father is good! I say, “Jai, Jai YHWH!” “Victory to Thee, O Father!” Ramakrishna was the “spoonful of sugar” that helped the medicine go down, in the “most delightful way,” as Mary Poppins sang! Now I sing, as in that wondrous song by Ray Gilbert,
Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah
Zip-A-Dee-A
My oh my, what a wonderful day!
Plenty of sunshine heading my way!
Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah
Zip-A-Dee-A
Mister bluebird’s on my
shoulder.
It's the truth,
It's factual:
Everything is satisfactual!
Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah
Zip-A-Dee-A
Wonderful feeling,
Wonderful day!
I have a bluebird on my shoulder, blue because of my past suffering, but how sweetly he sings today! I perceive nothing but sunshine headed my direction, for the Father is good, and not evil, and has put an end to my sorrow at mankind’s hands, which I undertook willingly through compassion and mercy. I didn’t think that it was fair; but now I don’t care! It’s a wonderful feeling, and every day is a wonderful day!
Andrew Cohen:
For those who are serious, a change is being sought. This change is evolutionary. This change is evolution itself. Evolution is what prayer and meditation and the whole process of seeking is all about. The desire to enter into and tread the spiritual path is the expression of the evolutionary impulse within an individual. Different experiences that people may have along the way are beside the point. When light or bliss or joy do not bring about very radical and profound changes in the way the personality expresses itself, then those experiences have had no value. This realization should result in a fully human being, in the end of self-centered and aggressive behavior. It is when self-centered and aggressive behavior comes to an end that the next step in evolution is realized. Enlightenment is that next step. It is very simple. Something happens to the whole organism, even to the very cells themselves.
January 10, 1988
Amsterdam
Guru Kurt:
I think I have made myself clear in these pages that I disagree strongly with Cohen over many points, several of which appear in this paragraph. First, I have described the cause of the majority of spiritual experiences which happen to a person prior to enlightenment, as being those of “dhyana,” the stilling of the mind. In these experiences, an evil thought is encountered by a person’s superior mental willpower, and silenced, as the person draws the power trapped in that thought, and the space in the “chitta” or mind-stuff which it occupied, from the side of darkness and falsehood to the side of light and truth. Thus, all these experiences are valuable, meaningful and necessary. Second, all experiences less than enlightenment do not have the inherently informative and spiritually aggressive character of samadhi, and so are generally not useful in gaining further experiences. They are a result of effort, and a goad to further effort, but they do not contain within themselves the seeds for further experiences, as does samadhi. A person is best served by enjoying them while they last, then immediately turning the attention back towards serious spiritual disciplines in order to get more experiences like them. Third, people should not expect immediate enlightenment, but this also should not dissuade them from great effort. Enlightenment is the supreme attainment for the human being, made more regal and blessed because of its difficulty. It is not cheap; for a human being, it is the most expensive thing, although we cannot buy it even with our deaths; it only comes as the result of effort. God does not expect us to “die” for Him; He expects us to live for Him, every day, every hour, every minute. The path that I have given man, the Sevenfold Way of Love, does not promise spiritual experiences, though these will come most quickly to those who follow its tenets “religiously,” every day; it promises an immediate increase, and a steady growth, in one’s basal feeling of joyousness and meaning in life. Enlightenment is indeed very simple, like falling off a log. It comes to us only through the grace of the Self within. However, we can spend millions of lives or more going from the center of this log, to a place from which we can “fall off!” Enlightenment is a specific event that happens at a definite time to a person at the end of the road of spiritual evolution, insofar as embodied beings are concerned. It is the final passage from embodiment to disembodiment, which is achieved during the solar cycle in which enlightenment has been attained. It is better to let it take you by surprise, than to continually look for it. A bullet fired from a gun travels a long distance before finally striking the target. A man going on a long journey is better served enjoying the journey, than continually asking, “Are we there yet?” It is not easy to ascend to the Kingdom of Heaven; enlightenment is your passport, and your visa too. Only great saints enter the profound depths of meditation and prowl around samadhi’s hidden door, but who is to say where such saints may be born? The greatest are typically born into difficult circumstances, for it is in fighting their way out of entanglements that their virtue is proven and increased. No matter where you are on the spiritual path, daily meditation, selfless work, and frequent recollection or repetition of the Lord’s Holy Name will give you the spiritual joy for which you are prepared, and will soften the blow that must inevitably come, on that final day, when you breathe your last and think, “I have done well. I have faith in Guru Kurt, and in my own Self, too, that I go to a better place.”
Andrew Cohen (posted 7/16/03):
Living the holy life is a very delicate matter. There's an
unbelievably delicate balance that needs to be realized, discovered, and
maintained - an excruciatingly delicate balance between here and there. Between
wherever here is, and wherever there is. It doesn't matter where they are, but
it's between them. And the longer I teach, the more I've begun to recognize that
realizing that balance and maintaining that balance takes tremendous commitment.
But there's a great power in that. And I started to realize that this is what
the holy life is. It's exactly the place you're afraid of falling into, with all
the terror and the danger and everything that's to be lost. But that's what it
is. That's what it's always been, throughout history, and it's what it always
will be.
October 14, 1989
Corte Madera, CA
Guru Kurt:
Andrew Cohen (posted 7/17/03):
It's one thing to have the experience of enlightenment, but
it's another thing to realize the significance of it. That's the key - the significance
is the whole thing. If you realize the significance, that's when you have to
become absolutely responsible, because that significance is absolute. The
significance of it is something that I'm imprisoned by, that's why I'm teaching.
Because for me the significance of it is all important.
If you realize the significance of it, you'll say, "Oh
my God, this is it. This is the end of everything. The significance of
this is the holy life itself. Everything depends on this. I have to be so
careful, and not waste my life away. Every move I make is so important."
So the significance of enlightenment is the whole thing.
It's the ultimate solution. It's the key, that mysterious key that unlocks all
the secrets. BE ATTACHED to that significance. Oh yes, be attached to it.
March 16, 1990
Boulder, CO
Guru Kurt:
Andrew Cohen (posted 7/18/03):
If a group of people can do this together, it's literally
the end of everything that's wrong with this world. It's the destruction of the
corrupt and confused and insane world and conditioning that we've come out of
and it's the expression of the very opposite of it. If it's one person alone it
really doesn't mean as much, even if it's a very profound event. But the minute
there's two people involved, the whole momentum of karma on a large scale, way
beyond the individual, is suddenly grinding to a halt. It's a very, very big
happening. It's cosmic. And then if you get three, four or even more people
simultaneously it's quite extraordinary. Then there's a collective destruction
of karma and out of that a collective expression of a completely different
possibility. This is what I call a revolution - it's a revolutionary possibility
that has never happened yet.
October 11, 1991
Seattle, WA
Guru Kurt:
Nor, will it happen! I see quotations like this and I throw
up my hands! When will you people ever learn? Spiritual evolution is never, ever
collective; it is completely individual. I know, you haven’t been told the
precise nature of the soul, nor can you apprehend these things yourselves, and
so you imagine that you have all arisen together somehow out of an agglomerate
consciousness, a model of evolution that fortunately for you is far from
accurate! If I were part of an agglomerate consciousness, I would do my best to
avoid spirituality, and go where I could be an individual! I would say, “You
all go find your unity; I’ll make a disunity, over here!” The precise nature
of egoic human consciousness is indeed not fully known by me, or at least, not
fully revealed by my deeper self. I used to have three hypotheses. First, you
have insufficient mental strength. Second, you may really arise from an
agglomerate consciousness, being supported by one or more of the galaxy’s
inner sphere of suns. Third, Brahman, seeing that not all could arise, might
have had compassion and stripped you of your sense of real identity. It may be
that none of these are true, and it may be that all three are true. What do I
know about it? I only gaze in wonder and amazement at people who do not care
where they go when they die. This one question, simplest and most basic of all,
should rule the lives of everyone, for it is indeed possible to go beyond death.
The absence of this simple, rational thought within you gave rise to my
hypotheses. I cannot speak for another. I only describe my internal reality,
what I have discovered about myself and what the Father has revealed to me. You
all face “eternal death” with such “courage” and “valor.” “Are you
afraid of death?” I ask, and the universal response is, “We most certainly
are not!” I was afraid of death in my early life, and through spiritual effort
I have gone beyond death. I do not fear it any more, for I perceive clearly that
it is a portal to another interesting and even exciting life in the Father’s
royal service. What kind of rational creature can contemplate its own demise and
feel no horror, dismay, grief and woe? The human creature can, and so my
hypothesis is that for some reason, you are not rational, at least as you are!
Through spiritual disciplines, you can get the mental strength required to
overcome the evil which is in your mind. You can discover that you are not part
of an agglomerate (though this may motivate your ego at present, for
God-only-knows what reason!), but that although you do arise from the same being
as others, the Paramatman, you are still made unique, like a specific branch
that has grown on the tree of God (though with real separation in the
unseen depths). You will discover Brahman’s wonderful plan to free all living
creatures, and how to make yourself a living part of this plan, engaging in the
great and mighty work inherent in the very nature of Creation. I do not speak as
a revolutionary. I see the vast masses of mankind, having jobs and families to
support, and do not seek to overthrow society. Religious effort is unlikely to
be successful and fruitful unless it is based on a solid context of continuing
support and confidence. As Ramakrishna said, Householders fight the good fight
from a fort. If I foolishly speak as a revolutionary, as Cohen does here, I
threaten to take away this fort, which is something that I would never do. Cohen
understands clearly that if all were illumined, there would be an end to
“everything that’s wrong with this world.” Unfortunately, he is
out-of-touch with reality. There will be no “mass enlightenments,” not now,
not ever. There will be massive waves of spiritual experiences to come, sent by
the Father who releases mankind’s good karma from ages past, but these will be
of the character of dharana and dhyana, not samadhi. Samadhi is for “the few,
the proud, and the brave.” It is not for everyone, but only the most advanced
spiritual people on earth. Life on earth is really a spiritual pyramid, with the
sages, fewest in number, at the very top, and the majority of mankind much lower
than this indeed. You cannot drag everyone up by getting excited, like a
kindergartner, as Cohen does in this instance. I find it hard to read this
paragraph without wincing, since it is so lacking in maturity and spiritual
discrimination! Although I promised to keep my comments upon this “eighteen
days of horror” unleashed upon the world by Cohen’s crowd brief, I find I am
compelled to start another paragraph; there is simply too much error here to be
dealt with in an offhanded, unconcerned manner! All God’s devotees will cry
and begin to drown once again in the storm-tossed sea of the world, if I relent!
If Cohen had half a brain, he would recall that the
greatest impact upon humanity occurs when the Lord visits earth. Jesus, for
example, has had an impact that dwarfs Cohen into absolute insignificance. Now,
the Lord has never taken the attitude which Cohen takes here, which should give
him a clue that not only is it uninspiring, but it is impractical. It will not
work! It is not helpful to call the world “corrupt and confused and insane.”
The reason for this, is that there are many who are on the spiritual path, and
are not corrupt, who make an effort to be good and noble. You have to realize
that the ego is capable of being good, and must in fact become good before
serious spiritual progress will be possible. All the followers of the world’s
major religions seek to avoid corruption, although occasionally they slip from
their high ideals. There are people, who are in the lowest region of the
spiritual pyramid, who are indeed corrupt, confused, and insane, but these
people are not going to be the audience of a spiritual teacher. They shun
religion, and plow their ugly furrows of fear and grief far from the safety of
goodness, following the dangerous course of evil actions and words. Flouting the
law of ahimsa, they pay with their very souls, which may be cast into animal
bodies once more for many billions of years as others are given a chance in
their stead. One should always speak about the evil in the world in a fashion
that makes it clear that the reader of your writing is not condemned, but
counseled to increase in the modes of goodness. In my own case, I do this in two
ways, first by making outrageous statements that are obviously not literally
true but are merely meant to shock people into awareness, as for instance when
Jesus called His generation a “brood of vipers.” People still love Jesus;
they still respond to Him, and do not take His remarks personally, understanding
them in just the light which I present, as being radical incitement unto
goodness. The second method which I use is to speak about the lowest among
mankind, though even here I try to do so in such a way that if such a one picks
up one of my books, he or she will still be encouraged. Even great sinners may
be spiritual; they will know this is so if they feel great compunction and
remorse over the evil they have done. Sin is sometimes a fall from yoga, and may
be sufficiently atoned and recompensed so that one avoids animal births in the
future. Cohen’s language here is just too brutal and insensitive for my
tastes. “Corrupt and confused and insane,” indeed! They are confused, and
need your help, Cohen, which should be extended with compassion and
understanding. They are insane from the spiritual vantage point only; from the
world’s standpoint, they are quite sane, and you cannot open their eyes by
tearing at their guts in this way. Spirituality is indeed true sanity, for the
good of one’s own soul should come first, always, and the material life
second, instead of the other way around. This can only happen, however, when we
begin to experience the joy of spiritual living. Who will leave the world, if it
means endless pain and suffering? Do not emphasize “destruction,” but
instead emphasize the splendid phoenix which will inevitably arise from the
ashes of the ego. What is the “very opposite” of corruption, confusion,
insanity and past conditioning? You should tell us, here, elucidating the
positive aspects of spiritual living, which a good spiritual teacher would do,
unfailingly, and as you will learn to do once you have a little more compassion
and tender feeling towards your students, so sorely lacking in this instance.
In your next sentence, you are just plain blasphemous! I
strike this sentence out, with a thunderbolt! You say, “If it's one person
alone it really doesn't mean as much, even if it's a very profound event.”
Cohen, you have never been more wrong than in this instance. Why do you
continually seek to draw meaning from the external world? It is because the
ego-producing force is still strong in you; you haven’t seen your stature
clearly yet. There is nothing more important than the profound events
that happen to individuals. Each student lives in a subjective world, aware of
his or her impressions and ideas only. Are you trying to tell us that to you, as
a spiritual teacher, this subjective, personal world is not important? To me,
the subjective world of each of my students, even if they only read my
writings, is the one important thing. It is not my job to lift the whole mass of
humanity. My only task is to meet people where they are, and enliven their
inward spiritual feelings and righteous efforts so that they can go forward
towards the supreme goal, for them, nirvikalpa samadhi. What is more, I
cannot do this task directly, through manipulation. I can only stand where I am,
in freedom, joyously proclaiming my liberation, and let those who have ears to
hear me, hear. I experience life as continuous ecstasy, delight, fascination and
interest. If there are any who wish to share this vision of life with me, then I
welcome them as “students” of mine. As a matter of fact, my Father intends
for my current life to be the quintessential refutation of your statement here.
I have been utterly alone for the last twelve years, in terms of
spiritual comfort, guidance and practice. I attained samadhi by myself, alone,
with no other around. I went into savikalpa samadhi in the house of my greatest
enemy (with whom I still occasionally share bread). For over a year I have
spoken, and written, to various people who should have been responsive, but were
not. I appear absolutely powerless and ineffectual. I have been at this very low
place long enough to write about it, and explain to the world my attitude. If my
Father leaves me in this anonymous condition, I could not be happier! What is it
that the world could ever give to me? Perhaps I am indeed done, and the world
has no more need of me; if so, I have a raft of other, even more interesting,
plans! My bicycle, which flies like the wind, sits idle in my garage. My kayak
is used seldom these days, so intense am I upon writing. Why, O Father, do you
hold me down in the midst of these mealy men? When, O when, can I go free from
even the need to communicate with them? You, yourself, Cohen, have done your
part in ignoring me! You seek to fight against me, and thus declare yourself, in
absentia, the enemy of both I and my Father, too! “No one will listen to
this lunatic,” you think, and perhaps you are right. It is not my concern. We
shall indeed see who is right in this instance. I declare that there is no
“group goal,” and that all that matters is that each person, one at a time,
attain samadhi by himself or herself. You declare that samadhi is irrelevant if
it only occurs to one person. We are diametrically opposed, and who will win
this battle? You appear to be the winner, for the time being, but I have seen
the result of my Father’s work in many more lives than this one, and let me
tell you, brother – it doesn’t look good at all, for Andrew Cohen!
Andrew Cohen:
Somebody has to demonstrate, through their own being, that it's possible to be the living expression of the opposite of the fundamental condition that most people are still lost in. At least a few human beings have to realize a perspective that is truly transcendent. And what I mean by that is really a bird's eye view of the whole picture, where nothing important is left out. When you have realized that bird's eye view, that perspective that is all inclusive, you will know for yourself how we got into this mess, how to get out of this mess, and how to actually be the manifestation and expression of the opposite of this mess. But as long as you haven't realized that bird's eye view that I'm speaking about, you could devote your whole life to the welfare of others, and during that time maybe help and alleviate the suffering of thousands of people, but you still would fundamentally be a part of the mess. It's demanding to look at it this way, but I'm trying to get people to realize a perspective that is fundamentally and profoundly out of what I call the swamp - the swamp of the human condition.
May 27, 1992
Santa Barbara, CA
Guru Kurt:
It is not, in fact, the case that “somebody has to demonstrate” these things. It would have been possible for Brahman, the Father, to have made creatures who never could get out of “the swamp of the human condition.” Brahman has both cast us into this swamp, and also provided a way out of the swamp. Cohen has realized the Atman, the part of his soul which exists outside the material realm, and has emerged out onto dry land. He has a “bird’s eye view” of what is below; he still has not looked over his head, to see what is higher than he is. A grackle may fly high, but the eagle flies higher, still. It is unsophisticated to call the human condition “a mess.” There are many more profound ways to describe the status of the egoic human being, which require a little more refinement of mind than Cohen has at present, having only recently (within two or three lives) emerged from “the mess.” In a few lives he will be saying, “out of the mire of selfishness, greed, fear and anger that is the sum of our animal conditioning.” Cohen is one of the first really human illumined teachers. The ancient sages of India were almost invariably EABs, embodied angelic beings, taking on the role of illumination in order to “prime the pumps” for earth’s first humans to come “through the chute” (sorry about the mixed metaphor; it didn’t seem appropriate to say that the illumined teachers come “squirting out the hose.”) The world has not been explicitly told about EABs before this time, although Ramakrishna often spoke about the “ever-free,” as being of the class above the “liberated,” or illumined teachers. There was an important reason for this. The angels’ mission has been to act completely human, but to give correct teachings urging mankind forward. The first actually human illuminati are recognized because their teachings are far inferior to those given in ancient days. They seek to make a mockery of the ancient revelations, without realizing they are treading on the toes of the Ascended Masters of many solar cycles past, who deigned to visit earth and bring the good news of the spirit in early revelations. On earth at present, we have this odd mix of ancient teachings which were accurate, while the society was undeveloped, and modern teachings which are inaccurate, while the society is developed! History will bear out my assertions. The ancient Upanishads, Vasishtha, Sukadeva, and the other sages of yore, said it right. Cohen and his cohorts, Da Free John, Osho, Sai Baba, and Eknath Easwaran say it wrong, although they are improving, and the word of a bona fide illumined person always surpasses the word of an unillumined person in its relevancy and spirituality. The baton has been passed, from the angels, to the humans, who are angels-in-the-making. It is my opinion that Cohen should relax more. He should come to understand that he is no longer like the ones that he teaches. His ego has been removed, and he has become a different kind of being entirely, almost an embodied angel, who will become an embodied angel in a few thousand years as he ascends to sahaja samadhi. Waking, sleeping, or dreaming, Cohen has no ego, and so he will never find himself at a loss among egoic beings. Whatever he says, morning, noon, or night, will help them in their quest to also shed their egos. My position is not that Cohen is wrong, but that of all the degrees of right, his is one of the lowest. Egoic beings are always helped along their path to freedom by contact with non-egoic beings; it’s just that non-egoic beings have got to learn that there is still an “up” for them, a direction of growth, although now that the ego is gone this direction is pursued with divine power and force, and does not feel much like effort, instead being a more natural and easy phenomenon, like the blossoming of the lotus flower. All evil has been extinguished from Cohen’s mind (at least the higher part of his mind, of which he is aware), and so he experiences no bifurcation, no division. Sadhana is a lot like a fireworks show. The projectile is hurled upwards on its trajectory by a rocket, whose trail in fire and smoke one also sees. At the apex, the rocket explodes in a brilliant display of pyrotechnics. All the audience says “Ooh,” and “Aah.” Here is where the gurus of today sit, enjoying their own inner brilliance after the great internal explosion that is nirvikalpa samadhi. One of my tasks in this life is to alert them that they are merely at “stage 1.” They will not fall down, they cannot fall down, from their attainment. Before samadhi, you can fall, but after samadhi there is no more falling for you, although as these witty gents, foolishly asserting themselves to be Avatars, prove, it is possible to just sit there awhile and bask in your own glory! I would like to light a fire under Cohen and Da Free John and tell them, “Yes, you are glorious; you are divine, and the world worships you as gods. Now, learn the truth about what has happened, and open the doorway wide for the rest! Even the Avatar does not arrogantly assert that His state cannot be attained, as Da Free John has done, but pretends to be illumined for the sake of mankind. Even the Avatar does not presume (as does Cohen) that egoic beings will know what enlightenment is like, and that they can experience a “sort of,” “kind of” enlightenment, when all they can experience, in dharana and dhyana, is egoic, although perhaps somewhat spiritual in nature, as the forms in the mind arising from ego are conquered by the sattvic or good will, as a prelude to battle with the ego itself, the “devil himself.” What you must see, Cohen, is that people cannot “realize a perspective” outside the swamp as you ask them to do, until they attain Self-realization. Before this, while the states you have attained should be described for inspirational purposes, you should make it clear that the ego will be present in all for a long, long time, whatever apparently profound experiences they may have. Have compassion on them, and work with them. The project you begin now, with your loyal students, is going to extend over many lifetimes for you and they both. Right now, you are in the “blathering” stage, where you just really have no clue what has happened to you, although you are enormously excited by it, and by the divinity you see arising within yourself, the chance to act with godlike force and power in the world of men. Deepen your understanding, and you will cease from blathering. Your students forgive this of you, and they share your excitement. They know what you are, and do not really care if you blather on and on, for awhile, spouting off against organized religion and the ancient teachers, who rise so high above your head you cannot even see their lotus feet! You will go on and on, getting better and better. You are illumined, man! Or, I should say, You are illumined, you little godling! Although it was said in ancient days that the Self is divine, the world is only now beginning to taste what this truly means, as it goes mad over Sai Baba, Da Free John, and Cohen, believing these beings to be Brahman Himself! Brahman shows up, as the Avatar, and says, “Yes, this is what I wanted to happen! These creatures I have made truly are divine! Look at them, reveling in their glory! And their students feel within themselves a pull towards this same divinity! Look at them, reveling in their teachers’ glory!” Brahman sees these things, and smiles, for all is proceeding according to His divine Plan, who made all creatures, and who made all creatures divine in their core. In the first part of a soul’s life, its attention is forced outward, into the world, in ignorance of its own nature. In the second part, this attention is drawn inward and true divinity is realized. After this, guess what? It is your turn to act in a godlike fashion, with godlike powers and abilities, to help those who are still immersed in the “swamp of the human condition” to emerge from it, as you have done. This is the Great Project of Brahman, to free all living beings from their bondage. Cohen is a new son of God, and is he ever excited about it! It is exciting, it is thrilling, and he is just at the dawn of his true spiritual growth, which he shall discover, in amazement, is limitless, endless, infinite. Brahman has Sons, and He has sons. The sons arise from the creatures and become angels. The Sons arise direct from Brahman and act as His right arm(s). Even the angels pay homage to the Son, the true Avatar, who is like the Father, and who is indistinguishable from the Father except that unlike the Father, the Son appears to man in a personal form, to which man can relate, and which man and angel both can seek to emulate. The spiritual Power of the Son is unimaginable. His soul spans our solar system, and it is His awesome Might that ignited our sun at the solar system’s inception. Yet, even the Son does not exert His power over man, seeking to manipulate. It is for all to recognize the Son’s stature, and to discover that worshipping the Son, seeking to become as much like the Son as possible, is the optimal Way of spiritual growth for all lesser beings. I only state the facts with accuracy. Let the one who has ears to hear, hear.
Andrew Cohen:
The power of universal Love never has been and never could be separate from who and what you are, because it's part and parcel of life itself and consciousness itself. But it's up to you, the individual, to remove any and all obstacles to the perfect realization of that fact. And when you are successful in that endeavor then you'll realize there's nothing outside you. None of this exists outside of you; it never has and never could.
This is why there is no one else that can save you. Even the experience of grace is not the act of some kind of cosmic entity. It's up to you. It's simply up to you to remove all the obstacles to the perfect realization of what's absolutely True. Then all of the icons fall off the shelf with a crash. And all that's left is you. Then it becomes a very simple matter. It's extraordinary, but simultaneously it's very simple. It's simple because there's nothing outside of you. And it's extraordinary because of the ongoing realization of the incredible mystery inherent in being aware that one's alive. One is aware how absolutely simple life is, and yet at the same time aware that what's animating this whole event is vast beyond understanding, so meaningful and so significant.
So you have to find a way to liberate yourself from all false and wrong views, to remove all the obstacles, so that you're able to bear all this without becoming strange, or mad, or proud. You have to find a way to bear all this and be able to manifest extraordinary simplicity.
May 21, 1993
Corte Madera, CA
Guru Kurt:
Error, error, error, incongruity, more error, and balderdash! I can see right now that untangling this mess of half-truths and partial revelations is going to take some time. Cohen is all over the map, here. One piece of advice I would give him is that when speaking and writing, the mind should be directed at a single focal point, and this should be covered from a number of angles, approached from a number of avenues. Truth is not really a mountain, but a mountain range. Pick your peak, then travel up the various slopes with your readers or listeners, instead of hopping from peak to peak, as you do in this instance! The only way I can deal with this is to take it sentence by sentence, and I dread to imagine what will occur should I ever be required to talk with you! You will talk about twelve distinct, separate things at once, and I, who am truly simple, will be lost! You will discover, however, that I am not lost and can make you look like an idiot in short order, should your mind hop about during a debate as much as it does in this short passage. Let me go through the sentences one by one. Cohen may hate me for slowing down (assuming he ever bothers to visit my website, which I doubt!), but upon seeing a quartz, a diamond, a ruby and a pearl, I must examine each in turn for quality. It is not useful to make general statements about all these gems, unless they are very far away and indistinguishable. When they are up close you say, “Aha! A quartz, very regular and polished. A diamond, nicely cut! A ruby, with no internal flaw! A pearl, natural and not seeded!” There is a certain quality in what Cohen says, but as I have frequently shown in this writing, his point of view and mine are not the same. Well, let us proceed:
The power of universal Love never has been and never could be separate from who and what you are, because it's part and parcel of life itself and consciousness itself.
No, no, no. First of all, I think that Cohen means something else here besides what I mean when I say that those traveling by my Sevenfold Way of Love should cultivate an attitude of universal love for all creatures, without any exception or distinction. This feeling, which is unique and individual to each soul, begins small, and becomes large. It is not a “given,” but a developing emotion. Now, it is true that the Atman has this love in abundance. Indeed, it could be said that the Atman’s “nature is love,” as my own teacher used to say. From a practical standpoint, though, the egoic individual must cultivate this feeling, which is of all feelings sweetest on earth. Everything that we are comes from the Atman, but before Self-realization the consciousness which is in the body is of a type that is not aware of its source. It is like the shoot of a seed, composed of tissues differing from the seed itself. In a sense, when we begin to cultivate the feeling of universal love, we tap into the Atman’s power, but in another sense we do not, and develop it on our own, apart from the Atman. The real, practical experience that you will have is that it is from your outer self, from who and what you are at the moment, for none may see the Atman until samadhi and neither is there a direct connection until the ego is removed. At the initial awakening of spiritual consciousness which occurs at the end of a soul’s rajasic outward expansion, non-self-aware consciousness becomes a little self-aware, of the nature of the Atman, although a long series of veils still remain between it and the Atman proper. The things that this slightly self-aware consciousness develops are new to the soul, however, and although ultimately arising in the Atman amount to actual growth of the whole soul. It is the soul’s growth that gives us joy, and those who engage in earnest sadhana reap this joy every single day. While Cohen is correct from an ultimate perspective, since there is no real division in the soul, but only a practical one, since the nature of consciousness in the body and above the body differ, yet I think sadhus should know that they tread fresh ground in sadhana, and the joy they experience arising from the Atman is real joy, and evidence of the soul’s real growth. This is excellent Brahma vidya, spiritual science, personal proof of the existence of the Atman, that spiritual effort should bring real, lasting joy that only seems to deepen and extend itself further into your being the longer you continue in your practice. Life is sadhana, and sadhana is joy. Follow a right path, and your joy in living will be optimized. I would say that it is better advice to tell sadhus to look for new things within themselves, the arising of new love, new joy, and new experiences, than to tell them that the experience they will get in samadhi is non-different from their current experience, which is the thrust of Cohen’s meaning here. Yet, there is a certain value of talking about the glory of the Atman, and so we see that Cohen emerges with an acceptable and probably helpful teaching, as he always does.
But it's up to you, the individual, to remove any and all obstacles to the perfect realization of that fact.
This is where Cohen and I continually part company. His idea is that people can start with the goal of “daily enlightenment,” as though with each obstacle removed they come closer to a “perfect realization,” existing before this time in “imperfect realization.” This is far from the actual situation. Realization is like a diamond hidden beneath a huge pile of dung. A good teacher will tell you, “I know that dung smells awful, but just look at me! I am a diamond, glittering in the night of your unawareness! You too can uncover your diamond. Come on, stop up your nose and take the shovel of God’s Name, using it to throw dung left and right. You will not find the diamond until the dung is mostly removed (whence it will arise magically out of what is left of its own volition), but there are little pearls scattered here and there that you will begin to find shortly after you begin looking.” Cohen’s approach, which he thinks is “radical” but which is merely unsophisticated and raw, is to say, “Come on, think ‘diamond, diamond, diamond’ and keep digging.” He doesn’t even hand his students a shovel, but foolishly seeks to do their work for them by offering “guided meditations!” Tell them the whole truth, Cohen. They may have to dig for millions of lives to find this diamond! Who will want to dig for so long, without a little relief, without a little comfort and reassurance? I know that I would not! We do not go from “imperfect realization” to “perfect realization,” but from “no realization” to “perfect realization” in nirvikalpa samadhi, although by this time our “no realization” is the profound state of dhyana, in which one is ever awash in a sea of righteous joy, though one is still bound to goodness through the ego. There are many spiritual states to be attained before samadhi; it is inelegant and wrong to call these states “imperfect realizations” because this sets up unrealistic expectations in people’s minds. True Self-realization is indeed radical, high above the state of dhyana. Cohen needs some spiritual discrimination, so that he sees his students are not “partly” at his state, but in an entirely different “room” of existence. They are mundane, and he is divine. They have egos, and he has none. The expectation, after reading this sentence, is that “I will be able to remove an obstacle, and then experience more perfect realization,” but this is not the actual event which occurs, nor the actual experience of people. Even to those in deep dhyana, far superior to the worldly man or woman, the experience of samadhi comes like a bolt out of the blue, totally unexpected, radically different from anything experienced before (which they thought was already profound). The joy of one in samadhi is a thousand times the joy of one in dhyana, because he beholds the deathless Self and Paramatman, the source of his life, experiencing unending bliss. Do you see the problem with Cohen’s presentation? How can you say, “Remove obstacles so you become a more perfect god,” when they are not god yet, but ordinary men and women? I take issue with everything, it seems, but I am having an uneventful Sunday afternoon, and this is a good way to while away the hours. I find it interesting, even if no one else ever does!
And when you are successful in that endeavor then you'll realize there's nothing outside you. None of this exists outside of you; it never has and never could.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, boy! This may indeed be your perception, upon witnessing Paramatman, but luckily for the rest of us this is only your perception, and not reality! So, there’s “nothing” that exists outside you? Then I won’t be able to call you an ass and a jackanape, will I? But, I just did! Are you calling yourself names? What a contradictory fellow! Get it straight! Seriously, when Cohen says “successful in that endeavor” he again sleights the incredible amount of spiritual effort which is required to attain nirvikalpa samadhi. As his spiritual teaching work increases in profundity, he will begin to say things like, “At the conclusion of the long, dusty trail of sadhana, you will at last drive your herd of cattle into Cheyenne city, where you will receive just payment, and head to the nearest saloon to whoop it up!” It is not correct that you “realize there’s nothing outside you,” and again, it is correct. The external world is indeed real, and does exist outside you. It always has, and it always will! In nirvikalpa samadhi, you will see that you arise from Paramatman, which is the source of your spiritual growth. You will also perceive that all other creatures also arise from Paramatman. You may even be shown that matter arises from a similar source, although Paramatman is higher than the portion of Brahman’s Spirit whence matter arises, and which was not given a name in Sanskrit (a deviation I aim to correct in a future life, if not in this one). These perceptions of nirvikalpa samadhi, I believe, are the source of Andrew’s assertions here. Where I go next, he has not yet been. While the external world is indeed real, those who have obtained the profoundest realization see that all we can ever truly perceive is our own internal representation of the external world. All that we can ever encounter, is our own mind and spirit. You cannot touch the mind of another or the spirit of another directly, and even if you could, you would still encounter “otherness” there, with which you do not mingle. I say that this is a profound realization, for once you see this you immediately also perceive that in order to grow, you must look up to a greater spiritual being than yourself. Otherwise, you are locked inside a consideration of your own being. If you are the highest thing around, as the illumined teachers of today find themselves, you will just sit there, taking a solipsistic or narcissistic attitude as do Cohen and Da Free John. In order to grow spiritually after illumination, the illumined being in question must conceive of that which is not in himself, in order to become more than what he is, in himself. Thus, on all the planets that I know about, at any rate, the illuminati always begin ajapajapam, ceaseless repetition of the Name of God, in the depths of their being. This practice goes on continually, at the perceived interface between Atman and Paramatman. It is not an unthinking practice, but one fraught with intelligence and meaning, for in order to go beyond themselves, the illuminati seek to become like the Supreme Lord, the Avatar, following the best ideas they can generate within themselves about this. Keith Green, who was an EAB, meant by the Father to mimic John the Baptist’s role in Jesus’ time, wrote and sang a beautiful song celebrating this attitude and this practice, in which even the angels continually engage. He sings, “I want to, I need to, be more like Jesus. I want to, I need to, be more like Him!” Only Eknath Easwaran has attained ajapajapam on earth, at the time of this writing, for although the other illumined teachers have this capacity, they do not yet understand why it is important, reveling as they do in their newfound inner light. Easwaran’s Atman perceived the necessity for ajapajapam clearly, although his embodied portion did not seem fully cognizant of the rational basis of the practice, which went on incessantly in the depths of his spirit, although normally outside the range of his conscious perception. His Atman said, “Look, you just attend to your teaching work; I have my own work to do, deep inside your consciousness. Leave me be!” Easwaran’s ajapajapam ensured that his discourse never became stale over the forty or so years of his teaching work, but always moved into fresh territory, into pastures green and meadows new.
This is why there is no one else that can save you. Even the experience of grace is not the act of some kind of cosmic entity.
On the Way of Knowledge, which is what Cohen essentially seems to recommend, although his teaching is nowhere very clear or distinct, one does indeed feel that one does all the work. Yet, even here one relies upon the power of the Self for divine aid and rescue, so that it is absolutely wrong to rule out the action of grace, which is essential for all types of sadhana. It is indeed the act of some kind of “cosmic entity,” which is the nature of your own Atman! Each person, in his or her core, is indeed a cosmic entity, and the discovery of this entity is the goal of sadhana! On the Way of Knowledge, one picks up “crosses,” choosing the real over the unreal in thinking and acting. It is not possible to travel a long ways on this path without experiencing some ongoing righteous reward, which in the case of the jnana yogis is apprehension of a little more of the glory of the Self, which I point out is an act of grace. No one is going to go forward, on any path, if they do not have some experience of increasing light, goodness and joy, and this all comes from the “cosmic entity,” God within the heart. The Self calls us forward, and we take action, experiencing more joy arising from the Self. Now, Cohen is right to point out that “no one else can save you,” except that from our egoic point of view, the Self is indeed a type of “Savior,” which is one of the fundamental tenets of Christianity, though they know it not! Jesus is not the “Savior” of mankind, at least in the way that the Christians conceive Him being, as taking all their sins upon His back and really obviating them, although the Avatar does take a certain amount of grief from man and thus help man to overcome his burden of “sin,” which is negative past conditioning from our animal and tamasic human days. Yet, the Father is responsible for the Christian religion, and before throwing it out we should point out that those Christians who think of Jesus as being “Savior” do indeed find the internal “Savior,” in their own Atman. Jesus gave man all four of the paths of Hinduism, although He never spoke of the end state except in veiled terminology. He gave man bhakti yoga when He commanded (Matthew 22:37), “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” He gave man karma yoga when He said that as a man did unto the least among other men, so did they unto Him, and said a man should do unto others as he would have these others do also to him. He gave man jnana yoga when He commanded man to take up his cross daily, and follow Him. He gave man raja yoga when He told man to pray to the Father in secret. Jesus personifies the Self for man, and He personifies Paramatman for the illuminati and angels. Those who follow Jesus, are really looking for their own Self, as history would show if the Lord were to actually show up and assert His identity, also giving proofs, and be “despised and rejected” yet again. Christians really have no clue about the second coming of Christ. It just never dawns on them that Christ will need to come in another human body, and He will not be named “Jesus.” They really don’t think about these things at all, proving my case that Jesus is not the object of their search, which is their own Atmans indeed, though they are not aware of this, and would never admit it, even under intense questioning!
It's up to you. It's simply up to you to remove all the obstacles to the perfect realization of what's absolutely True.
It is true that sadhana is a wholly personal effort. Although the Self enters into it through grace, you will feel like you do all the work yourself. You are split into two beings, God and devotee, or God and one who aspires after knowledge of God. We have to do all the work from our limited perspective, and cannot rely upon the Atman’s power in the same way that we rely upon what powers we seem to wield from our egoic perspective. Good jnana yogis learn how to obtain the Self’s grace, coming to know their own minds in great detail. Bhakti yogis obtain the Self’s grace, merely by asking for it, perhaps by repeating the Name of the Lord with their lips or in their heart, with love and devotion. They do not worry about the detailed functioning of their minds, but turn their attention to developing a feeling of universal love instead, which cures the problems of the mind naturally as the attention which is unconsciously holding these problems in place is withdrawn into feelings of ecstatic love and delightful rapture. All that we are arises from the Atman, but the Atman cannot do our work, because it is extended out very far and appears weak. If you hold your arm out to your side, you will be unable to lift the heavy weights you could if you were to hold the arm close in. Similarly, our consciousness is extended out into embodiment, and must help itself in order to retrace the path it has taken, all these many trillions of lives, as it sought satisfaction in the external world, a pursuit doomed to failure from the start, although attended by a seeming kind of success as we obtained real growth, though this was in ignorance, of non-self-aware consciousness. Again, Cohen here omits the necessary steps in his description of the path. It is like saying to the builder of a skyscraper, “All you need to do is fabricate the structure, then polish the glass carefully.” The real engineer, or person who must build the structure, will look at you with consternation. He will say, “What a dreamer you are! Of how many skyscrapers have you overseen the building? Look, buddy, we start with the foundation. That alone will take a month or more, for we need to sink some deep shafts so the whole thing will be earthquake-proof. Next, we build the superstructure with steel I-beams, and put in the walls. Then, all the electrical and plumbing work needs to be done. Just before we’re through, we’ll put in the glass windows and polish them to a high sheen!” Well, what type of spiritual teacher do you want, one who talks about the end-state like you will be there tomorrow all the time, or one who talks it up and shows you the real glory you too will attain, although it may take a while? One who makes samadhi sound easy cheapens the goal, and devalues it as well. One who points out the supremacy of attainment and the fundamental change in being which does occur describes the situation accurately, and I hope, helps people to go forward to a greater extent.
Then all of the icons fall off the shelf with a crash.
Yes, they do, but now it is time to put one of them, that of the Avatar, back on the shelf! As I have explained, it is not possible to make much progress after illumination until you begin to perceive the angels and their Lord, the Avatar, rising high above your head. Unless you can do this, you will be lost in consideration of yourself alone, which I believe is Cohen’s actual state. Why else would he ignore my e-mail message, sent so long ago, now? Surely, he must have given instructions to his students, those receiving e-mails, on what to do when an illumined individual seeks to contact him. You did do this, didn’t you, Andrew? Wasn’t this a responsibility? You didn’t leave a channel of communication to yourself fully in the hands of egoic individuals, did you? Oh, well, perhaps I shall never know!
And all that's left is you. Then it becomes a very simple matter. It's extraordinary, but simultaneously it's very simple. It's simple because there's nothing outside of you. And it's extraordinary because of the ongoing realization of the incredible mystery inherent in being aware that one's alive. One is aware how absolutely simple life is, and yet at the same time aware that what's animating this whole event is vast beyond understanding, so meaningful and so significant.
After illumination, things are simple, for the mind is unified. Before illumination, things are complex, because the mind is divided. It doesn’t really help people to tell them that their internal experience should be simple, when it is anything but this! The ego generates countless thoughts every hour; won’t you fill people with dismay by speaking to them in this way? Well, as I think anyone would agree after reading what I have said about you, I at least am outside of you, Cohen! See, this is why I call you solipsistic, because of statements like this one: “It's simple because there's nothing outside of you.” God damn it, Cohen! I am outside you, as you will discover, if not in this life, then perhaps in some future life when your spiritual teeth have been “cut.” You will respond, “No, Guru Kurt, you too are within me. Your realization has not proceeded far enough, yet.” To this I will respond, “Brother, I do not think so! I would certainly do a much better job teaching than you do at present, and would immediately begin telling people what is real instead of what is unreal, what is true instead of what is false, and what is helpful instead of what is merely raw observation. If I am in you, why do I not emerge and straighten out this ‘royal mess of Cohen,’ which is royal, because you are illumined, and a mess, because you are only just!? You are not in me, nor am I in you. We are separate and distinct, perhaps both able to contact Paramatman, but far apart in our real spirituality, in the real dimensions of our souls.” Cohen’s experience of “simplicity” is owing to the fact that all division in his mind has disappeared. It is not due to obtaining “unity” with everything. He is “united” with all in the sense of being harmonious with all, but let me tell you, it stops there! Any person who claims identity with me (excepting, naturally, myself in future births), will face my wrath! As for that one who is really me, relax! Don’t push yourself too hard in sadhana; your Father is all around. Learn to see Him, and start having some fun for a change! Only, keep your wits about you, being very wary about the egoic individuals with which you are surrounded; they will malign, back-stab, and even kill you, if you let them!
So you have to find a way to liberate yourself from all false and wrong views, to remove all the obstacles, so that you're able to bear all this without becoming strange, or mad, or proud. You have to find a way to bear all this and be able to manifest extraordinary simplicity.
People “have to find a way,” but as a spiritual teacher, Cohen should suggest some avenues (although I know that he attempts to do this, in other places). However, these sentences comprise one of the most peculiar pieces of mish-mash I have ever yet beheld! What on earth could Cohen be talking about here when he says, “so that you’re able to bear all this?” I too counsel people to remove “all false and wrong views, to remove all the obstacles,” which is indeed the process of sadhana, but since the purpose of sadhana is liberation, why tell people that they will be suffering, that they will have a tough time “bearing” it? This is not my experience at all. It was not my guru’s experience, either. What could Cohen mean by “all this?” I don’t see a list of things that would be difficult to bear. He talks about universal love, which is the sweetest feeling available, and not “tough to bear.” He talks about “perfect realization,” which is a change in one’s state of being, and once you’re there, it is not something to “bear;” it is what you are! Then he talks about the experience of grace, perhaps admitting that it might enter into sadhana in some fashion. Would grace be hard to bear, when it is a gift from the Self to us? Then he talks about “extraordinary simplicity.” It would indeed be hard to bear, if everything were contained within me, especially Cohen! I would say, “Get thee outside me, Satan!” He talks about the “incredible mystery inherent in being aware that one's alive;” this is glory. It cannot be hard to bear! Then, he talks about “what's animating this whole event is vast beyond understanding, so meaningful and so significant.” That doesn’t sound hard to bear, either, and so we have an apparently meaningless utterance coming from this guru. What is hard to bear, besides needing to torture ourselves through your contorted logic as you skip, little girl fashion, through the tulips that have sprouted up in your mind? What is this “becoming strange, or mad, or proud?” Cohen, I repeat it: you need to relax more! You cannot lose your stature; your ego is gone, and you are an enlightened being. You cannot have a fall; you cannot become “strange, or mad, or proud.” You worry too much! Just relax, and speak from your being, although your understanding will indeed need to increase as you begin to see at last that life is beautiful because of its complexity, that each person is totally unique, and that your major task is to continue to “renounce and enjoy,” leaving ideas that no longer seem true to you for better ones as your spiritual wisdom continues to increase, over the next twenty or so lives before your astral ascension, and then in the astral realms, for the eternity that awaits you, and every other human being as well.
Andrew Cohen (posted 7/21/03):
It's the depth of the individual's willingness to respond
to revelation that determines how far that individual will go in this very brief
human life. And of course, the individuals throughout history who have gone the
farthest are those individuals who felt they had no choice but to respond
unconditionally to that which they had realized or that which they had
discovered. And so what I see as one of the most important aspects of the
spiritual life is cultivating that willingness and ultimately that
choicelessness within ourselves.
January 5, 1994
Bodhgaya, India
Guru Kurt:
Andrew Cohen (posted 7/22/03):
The recognition of unity reveals a thrilling evolutionary potential. It calls each and every one of us who is aware of it to leave behind any and all obstructions to that unity so that the fact of oneness can become manifest in this world, not only as inner knowing by one but as objective fact by many. Indeed, it seems that heaven could become manifest on earth if only a few were willing.
Too often the experience of mystical union remains only a revelation of the extraordinary evolutionary potential inherent in the human condition. When the shadow normally cast by the ego temporarily dissolves, the light of the living Truth unobscured reveals not only the glorious and inherent perfection of life, but even more importantly the way that that perfection can become manifest in a seemingly imperfect world. When the way is revealed, all things become possible. But that possibility is rarely actualized, and when it is, it usually remains limited to one individual alone. Unless the spiritual vision is able to manifest itself beyond the individual, the profound evolutionary potential inherent in that vision cannot truly unfold.
From An Unconditional Relationship to Life (1995)
Guru Kurt:
Why, Oh why, Andrew Cohen, does the concept of “heaven” come creeping into your discourse here? You have stated in many places your “theories” of how everything has mysteriously arisen, out of itself. Why do you fall back upon the Master, Jesus, in this particular instance, if it is not because your unconscious mind, that portion which is still in the possession of the ego-producing force, still pays Him homage? In fact, you do not know what heaven is, nor do you define it here, so that people know what you might mean! It merely “appears” or “crops up” and you take unconscious advantage of the Master’s authority, at the same time that you abuse Him publicly by failing to acknowledge Him who is the Son of God! I must apologize to my readers. I had hoped to keep my comments upon the eighteen horrible quotes from this demon brief, but the quotes are so long, and so full of error and blasphemy, that I find I must write longer on some of them, dealing with them sentence by sentence, part by part.
The recognition of unity reveals a thrilling evolutionary potential.
Are people really excited by the chance to “evolve?” To my mind, this brings up an image of a long, slow, corporeal process, something that could never take place in a noticeable fashion within a single lifetime. In other words, talk about “personal evolution” turns me off, as it were. “Come to me, and I will help you evolve,” says Cohen. I respond, “Talk to the salamander about becoming a lizard, or talk to the bunny rabbit about becoming a barnyard animal, but don’t talk to me about evolving. I am sure that I will ‘evolve,’ as you say, with or without your help! Where is my ecstasy? Where is my joy in living? I want to learn the principles of right living, so that my life is pleasing to God; can you teach me those?” I am not thrilled at the idea of “evolving,” although I am thrilled at the opportunity to increase the rate of my spiritual growth. I don’t want to become something other than myself; I want to discover the true nature of “myself,” to find reality and discern whether this is indeed sweet, as Ramakrishna and the Avatar in His other Incarnations has declared, or whether it is sour. “Evolution” is one name for the process of spiritual growth, but its main connotation is not as an action which we can perform, but as an objective description of what occurs, often speaking about large numbers instead of about people on an individual basis. I say, “I want to grow, and then go ahead and call it what you will. I may indeed one of the ones who ‘evolved,’ but don’t call it this to my face. Personalize it! Let me know that it is my own efforts that take me forward, not an impersonal force within me that asserts itself continually, forcing me to expand.” Spiritual growth requires individual initiative, and it is my opinion that asking people to “evolve” kills this initiative; but, this is just my mind. Perhaps the world really will respond to a command to “evolve” instead of to a command to do unto others as they would have these others do unto them. What do I know about such things?
It calls each and every one of us who is aware of it to leave behind any and all obstructions to that unity so that the fact of oneness can become manifest in this world, not only as inner knowing by one but as objective fact by many.
Cohen makes the foolish mistake here of seeking to include everyone within the circle of enlightenment! I can scarcely believe my eyes! “[Unity] calls each and every one of us who is aware of it…” Cohen’s error is fundamental and gross. He presumes that everyone who has a spiritual experience of one kind or another is more or less “aware of unity,” when this is far from the case. Only the enlightened are “aware of unity.” Before this, a person is invested in the effort of self-purification, of expunging all evil thoughts in the mind and replacing them with good thoughts. The meaning of “unity,” so poorly defined by Cohen and by today’s illumined teachers in general, is that one realizes Brahman’s first law, that all creatures are meant to live in simultaneous happiness, never harming another, finding oneself totally incapable of going against this law even in one’s thinking. While the ego yet remains, you feel that you might be able to abrogate this law and still find happiness, so that only the truly enlightened are constantly “aware of unity,” which is one of the reasons they are called “awake.” It is wrong to treat those who are not enlightened as though they are partially enlightened. Cohen is too eager, and his first efforts are attempts to bring his students to his level, immediately, which he shall discover cannot be done! He will meet them for life after life, and finally notice, “Say, I recognize these people! They are just where they were in their last life; they look the same, although I have changed so much! Perhaps they are not evolving so rapidly as I thought.” This is really sloppy writing. I wonder if Cohen rereads what he has written, or if he just writes! Even I, with my busy life, having a fulltime job during the day, would not say as he does here, “the fact of oneness… can be known as objective fact by many.” He has used the word “fact” twice, which is a very inelegant use of language. There should be new information introduced, instead of repetition, although if he were speaking this would perhaps be excusable. Well, the “fact of oneness” is no fact! The world is not united, which is the whole problem! Oneness is a “fact” only for the illumined, and for no one else, so that Cohen’s statements here are tremendously obfuscated and very confusing to read. First of all, “each and every one of us who is aware of it” rules out all Cohen’s potential listeners, except for the illumined! Let us presume that he means instead, “each and every one of us who desires unity,” for this would indeed include all spiritual aspirants. Then he says they should “leave behind any and all obstructions to that unity,” which is a good sentiment, and good advice for sadhus as well. Then, he brings in the “fact of oneness,” which is no fact, but a fiction, a dream, except in the illumined! War proves that there is no “fact of oneness.” The Atman of all may agree to oneness, but not the lower parts of people’s souls, the non-self-aware embodied consciousness. Cohen should thus clarify this by stating, “the fact of oneness which is the Atman’s nature, though we are unaware of it.” Then his argument becomes very ugly, for he seeks to force a round peg into a square hole. This is indeed specious reasoning, a conclusion reached through faulty premises! He says, “…not only as inner knowing by one but as objective fact by many.” What is it called in logic, when you presume your conclusion in your premise? This is exactly what Cohen has done here! (I believe this is called “begging the question.”) First, he presumes that unity may be known by many, then he states that unity should be known by many, instead of just by one! His wrong premise is that many can know unity, and his conclusion simply carries this premise through. The argument goes around in circles. Here is the proper and accurate way to state it: “Our drive for unity and peace among man calls those who feel it to leave behind all their inhibitions and evil motions, so that the glory of God may become visible in this world, as those who are less advanced follow our example of noble living, righteous action, and right meditation.” This, of course, is what the world’s religious people have been doing from time immemorial! Cohen doesn’t realize what a potent force for peace the world’s monasteries and convents truly are; he thinks he can outdo them in, say, a generation! Well, good luck to thee, Andrew Cohen! I am not against peace, although I think it will be horribly confusing to people to make them think they are “partially enlightened,” when enlightenment is the perfect end-state towards which man strives, the glorious goal, and the supreme attainment, that comes as the righteous reward to all those who make their best effort, perhaps over the course of many lives, but an effort which is nevertheless richly rewarded by the Self with lasting joy and happiness, a sense of meaning, and a deeper understanding of truth, for all.
Indeed, it seems that heaven could become manifest on earth if only a few were willing.
What a dreamer you are, Cohen! I tell you, spirituality is reality. You should face the real, and not retreat into some kind of sheltered realm of your own. I think this quotation comes from a person who has been ensconced in ashram life for quite some time, which is one reason I’m glad to be far from any ashram! The people with whom I am surrounded now would laugh out loud at Cohen, and everything Cohen says! They would also laugh at me, but this tells me that my ideas about there being a spiritual pyramid on earth, with the spiritually elite being few in number, are accurate. I also harbor no illusions that the world can be transformed if only “a few were willing,” because there are many who are willing. There are millions of monks, nuns, and priests the world over, and they have their effect, but the inertia of the worldly mind is such that there will be no heaven on earth, without the Father’s Power being used. Who will voluntarily give up their SUV? Cohen, you probably have an SUV! I do not like cars. I never did like cars. In my opinion they are a gross insult to the Power that created the earth, for they are a flagrant waste of resources. How many more feel as I do? I know that at Ramagiri, Eknath Easwaran’s ashram, the people were as attached to their cars as anyone else, and so I wonder by what mental model Cohen envisions the transformation of society? It is a model of unreality, an idea that may be inspiring to a few, but which will never work. It might be wise for you to spend more time in public places, Cohen; then you would see the worldly mind indeed, and not fall into such false dreams as this!
Too often the experience of mystical union remains only a revelation of the extraordinary evolutionary potential inherent in the human condition.
Definitions, my friend! “Mystical union” is savikalpa or nirvikalpa samadhi, a state you alone have attained, I would guess, out of all those you have yet met in your life! Although I suspect you have angels lurking in your midst, waiting for the Lord to appear, I do not think you are among them. Be careful; if they perceive the Lord, they might not wish to wait for you, but may foment an exodus from your facility! This is another sentence that strikes horror in my soul, because of its utter disregard for spiritual reality and truth. Were your eyes closed when you typed this sentence, or were they open? Surely you do not still think it is a good sentence? Sentences should have meaning, Cohen, and not be hodge-podges of idle ideas chasing one another in circles! “Too often the experience of mystical union…” Too often? Who the hell are you talking about? You are the only enlightened one in your vicinity! I think you need to go back to school! This sentence can be fixed by substituting “deep experiences in dhyana” for “mystical union.” I would accept the whole sentence if you will make this simple substitution; otherwise it shows a shocking lack of spiritual discrimination, a person who has no clue about the actual path to enlightenment along which everyone must travel! So, everybody at your ashram is experiencing “mystical union,” eh? As if! Look a little closer, Cohen, and you will perceive that none of them is even in divine madness yet, the state that comes upon a person after savikalpa samadhi. Easwaran at least knew much better than to make foolish statements like this. You appear to be telling everyone that they have attained your state, only that they are not being true to that state, when this is not the case. You have no ego, and they retain their egos. You are a divine being, and they are still human beings. How did you ever get so far away from truth? At least you are honest; this much I indeed grant, but I never would have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes: an illumined person, who thinks he is merely an advanced sadhu, an enlightened being who does not recognize his own stature, what has happened to him. You will find that I am right, Andrew, even if it takes a few lives. Those ones you think are right beside you are far, far below you, and will not join you for perhaps thousands of years. You will see them again, for life after life, and they will still get angry, while you feel no anger, only love. They will still be greedy, while you feel no greed, only generosity. They will still be fearful, and you will have no fear, knowing that your life will never end. So I say, though at this point I wonder why; no one listens to me, in any case!
When the shadow normally cast by the ego temporarily dissolves, the light of the living Truth unobscured reveals not only the glorious and inherent perfection of life, but even more importantly the way that that perfection can become manifest in a seemingly imperfect world.
Cohen speaks about savikalpa samadhi here, an experience which I assert none of his students has yet had. With this understanding, the quotation is quite glorious, and true, demonstrating that although I do not like him very much, Cohen is indeed enlightened.
When the way is revealed, all things become possible.
Cohen goes up, then he goes down. What is this, “…all things become possible?” On what planet were you born, sir? On my planet, earth, only possible things are possible. Those things which are not possible, your “all,” are not possible! The New Testament is full of language like this. I read it, and my head spins! Paul says, “With God all things are possible.” I say, “All things that are possible with God, but impossible without God, become possible once you have attained enlightenment.” There is more than one way, in any case. There is always more than one way, no matter how high your attainment. How else are you going to have any fun, if it is not by making choices that continually ascend in their profundity, effectiveness, and meaningfulness? Cohen’s mind may be narrower than mine. He may see one way, where I see a million! Yet, I go my way, and he goes his. A million possible ways become a single realized way, once you travel through it. I do not wish to do “all things,” however. I only wish to do those things which I wish to do. Would you please tell me, who could possibly be motivated by being told “all things will become possible?” How much more vague can you possibly be? Is this all humanity really wants from its gurus? If so, I can turn over a new leaf, the leaf of simplicity. “Hear ye, hear ye, Guru Kurt is now the guru of simplicity, following Cohen’s lead: All things will become possible! Those things which were not doable, will become doable. You will know the infinite. You will become the sublime. You will ascend to the heights, and grow out of the depths. The bad will become good. Ugh! Ugh! Ugh!” We can all gather around campfires, and tell tales of the mastodons we have conquered. “Me Kurt. Him Cohen. We teach um spiritual students. Teach um good. Teach um many things. Be very good!”
But that possibility is rarely actualized, and when it is, it usually remains limited to one individual alone.
Oh, I look back and see that “that possibility” is the way that the perfection realized in savikalpa samadhi can become manifest in a seemingly imperfect world. After savikalpa samadhi, one does indeed see the way in which one must travel to reach nirvikalpa samadhi. Your eyes clear, and you become very good at distinguishing Atman from non-Atman. You do not actually rise to perfection until after nirvikalpa samadhi, but you at least see that perfection is possible and you strive mightily to attain it, in ways that are much more effective than before savikalpa samadhi. When it is said that you see “the way that that perfection can become manifest in a seemingly imperfect world” it is meant that you behold at last that nirvikalpa samadhi, godhood, is a possibility for you. At least, this would be my interpretation of this line, although Cohen may have other ideas. This does not mean that you see a single route to this attainment, but that you see the one goal towards which you strive clearly at last, and are also familiar with the means of attainment as well. You know, I’ll bet Cohen’s students would eat me alive for stating that none of them are in savikalpa samadhi yet. I have not met them, but I know that Brahman situates students with the guru appropriate for them, and since Eknath Easwaran had no one even near savikalpa samadhi, I presume the same of Cohen. The angels lurking in the midst of his crowd are another story. They will hear my words and say, “Of course, Kurt, we are really just nobodies, standing around doing nothing.” Secretly, the angels are likely laughing at Cohen; it’s hard to keep a straight face, reading his egregious errors and faux pas. Here, Cohen’s Atman at last forces him to say something right, although his embodied portion is incapable of comprehending it. He talks about nothing other than nirvikalpa samadhi here, real enlightenment, of whom he is the only living example for miles around! Yes, Cohen, it is indeed rare, and it is always limited to one individual, alone, although as you probably would see, reading this document (assuming you can read and it is not like water off a seal’s back, or communicating with a piece of wood), there are other enlightened individuals in the world. Say, are you talking about group enlightenment here? Are you insane? Cohen wants to hold hands with his whole crowd, and go into “mass enlightenment!” Well, the best of luck to you! In this entire universe, not once has such a thing ever occurred. If it had, my Father would have told me about it! It is always one at a time, and that one is usually alone, though occasionally he may have the acquaintance of one or two other enlightened individuals. The glory of enlightenment is that it is an individual attainment, that each person does by himself, or by herself. This was the Creator’s intent. You may have other ideas, and seek to match wits with Brahman Himself: Go ahead! I’ll just sit back and watch the sorry show as you alienate the entire population of earth, telling them lies like this! Mass enlightenment, indeed! Well, the world is full of lies, and no one seems to be bothered about it except me! Such, indeed, is my life!
Unless the spiritual vision is able to manifest itself beyond the individual, the profound evolutionary potential inherent in that vision cannot truly unfold.
I think I see your problem now, Cohen! You are still seeking to manipulate the world! You want to “spread” your enlightenment around, like peanut butter, so that others can evolve! Oh, man, slow down and think! You have not apprehended reality, yet. Your spiritual progress is not linked to the spiritual progress of your students, not at all! My spiritual vision manifests itself in Kurt Jxxxxxx, thank-you very much, and nowhere else at all! Hang the world! What do I care? Yet, I perceive that should there be those who would like to hear my voice, out of my compassion and love I would speak to them. I am paid for my compassion, not for my results. Whether my sharing of my view of reality brings about a profound evolutionary event is out of my hands; that is for those who hear me, and thus may make an effort to become more like me some day. I see this world, and the world sees me, but where is the connection if it is not in the minds and hearts of those who long to experience some portion of my ecstasy, my joy, my wisdom and my freedom? I am a fountain of love that plays constantly; does the fountain feel sorry for itself if no one shows up to watch? It just continues in its endless play, as indeed I shall do should no students show up. Brahman will look at me, and say, “Yes, my child, you are right; that should have worked. Your skill is improving!” I get my reward whether man responds to me or not; I do! If the entire earth is worldly, and I alone am spiritual, this is my gain, and their loss! Spirituality is joy; I have found joy, and proclaim its source. If there are none who want joy in this age, if all are satisfied with the pleasures of the senses and with material gain, what concern is this of mine? I am extremely against all forms of manipulation. All are independent, fiercely so, so that my teaching always respects this. Whether the people wish to evolve and grow is their own concern; I have a certain amount of divine knowledge, perhaps even less than the “majestic Cohen,” which I will share because I feel sorry for all of you, lost as you are in materialism, far from the truth of the spirit within you. Unlike Cohen, my “vision” is not conscripted to the effects my teaching works have upon the world. It stands free, alone and aloof. There may or may not be “profound evolutionary potential inherent” in my vision. I don’t really care, because I am selfish. I want Kurt to grow, above all else. It just happens I also know that the more compassion I can feel, the greater my joy, and the easier I act out of my compassion, the greater my feeling of righteousness. You and I come from different worlds, Cohen. You see the potential effect your teaching work may have on the egoic people here, and immediately get attached to it, making “doom and gloom,” negative statements such as this one: “Oh, it will be so bad if my little vision doesn’t manifest itself outside of me; won’t someone else also see this, and get evolving right away?” I see the world, and I see my teaching, yet I see no effect of this teaching; none whatsoever! That, you see, is the job of the human community entirely. They are free to take my words and run, or drop my words and cling to yours instead. What do I have to do with these things? I cannot think for another, or act for another. I can only control my own thinking and acting. Perhaps I am wrong; perhaps the joy that I feel is not of interest to anyone. How would I even know? I go my way, and the world goes its way. This has always been the manner of it, and it always shall be the manner of it, because my soul is free, and so also is the soul of every man, woman and child on this planet.
Andrew Cohen (posted 7/23/03)
When we speak about Enlightenment, when we speak about a Liberation that is profound, we are pointing to the discovery of no limitation. No limitation means everything. It's indescribable. It's absolute. It's unthinkable. It's so big, it's so glorious and it means so much that you can say it means everything. And the point is, in order to allow the glorious and liberating fact of no limitation in fully, to allow THAT MUCH in, then all of the cynicism has to go. It has to go.
We began our journey by allowing everything to be as it is. We ceased to make distinctions in order to find our true self. Upon finding our true self, we returned once again to the world of differences, the world of distinctions. But everything is very different because now we know who we are, and the fact that we know who we are is what makes it possible for us to make distinctions without in any way losing touch with the absolute nature of life. And that's the whole point, you see. That's the whole point. That's the whole picture. And that is the great challenge. It's the great challenge of Enlightenment – how to make distinctions without in any way losing touch with the absolute nature of life.
From The Challenge of Enlightenment (1996)
Guru Kurt:
Cohen’s fundamental approach to teaching is in error. Easwaran faced a similar obstacle, or lack of understanding, in presuming that all the evil with which a person must deal, is the evil with which that person is faced every day. “If you can just eliminate the cynicism that you see,” Cohen argues, “then you will experience the glorious and liberating fact of no limitation.” This faulty teaching of his emerges from a shallow understanding of the nature of the soul, and within the soul, the mind. Everyone has a conscious mind, a subconscious mind, and an unconscious mind. We conquer the conscious mind, and some of the subconscious mind, in dharana. In dhyana we begin to enter the unconscious mind, which is vast beyond description, containing millions of ancient memories, tendencies, and selfish drives. It takes a long time to work through the unconscious mind, although the person doing so is amply rewarded for time spent, as spiritual joy and freedom begin to increase in daily life. Cohen’s spiritual admonition here, to get rid of cynicism, can only take you to the culmination of dharana. To go farther, you will need to examine the ancient and recalcitrant roots of your cynicism, which currently are below the threshold of consciousness. Selfishness is primeval, visceral, “from the gut.” It is not intellectual or rational, but stands against reason. In sadhana, reason fights unreason. Cohen is only looking at the surface of his students’ minds, because he himself is only at the surface level of understanding, with just a tiny portion of his higher mind purified after nirvikalpa samadhi, and with a vast region yet remaining of unconsciousness, although this is shielded from his view by the Atman’s power. You cannot undo the conditioning of trillions of animal births in an experience lasting a few days, or even a few weeks, no matter how intense. In the initial nirvikalpa samadhi events, the Atman overpowers a small region of the higher mind only, although it establishes absolute dominion there, and uses this stand as a fortress from whence to conquer the remaining unconscious selfishness of a person. Since the ego is gone (the false idea of identity), the Atman is able to prosecute this task with all the divine resources at its command. It’s teaching work is a process of self-discovery as much as it is a process of disseminating knowledge and information. A spiritual teacher teaches out of who he is, which is also the limitation of his knowledge. Cohen says he experiences “no limit,” but as I have shown over and over, his skill in talking and writing has a definite boundary, of which he is not currently aware. A better teacher would not speak of “no limitation,” which smacks of arrogance, but instead speak about “infinite possibilities” or “unending expansion.” Cohen is limited to that shallow region of the mind where the Atman first establishes a safe refuge. No student can see this process occurring, although it is of course visible to certain other illuminati, the angels, and the Lord. Out of this region, he talks a great game, but encountering those greater than himself, he will find that there are degrees of right, degrees of perfection, and degrees of truth. Everything Cohen says is true, because he is illumined; it is just that there is greater truth available. Here, he states that “cynicism must go” before you can experience the “fact of no limitation.” This is true. However, it is much better to say, “cynicism and all its roots must be removed by spiritual practice, and finally through the grace of the Lord within in samadhi. Then, you will discover that you have no limitation, meaning that infinite growth is yours, an infinite increase in depth and profundity.” Whatever Cohen has seen as being “indescribable, absolute, unthinkable, big, glorious, and meaning everything,” the fact of no limitation means that he still can be blown away by what is yet more indescribable, more absolute, more unthinkable, bigger, more glorious, and meaning more than the “everything” he currently conceives, just as in mathematics you can have “thicker” or “thinner” infinite series, depending on the space between consecutive numbers. The THAT MUCH which he has allowed in, is infinite, so that this THAT MUCH will mean THAT MUCH more to him, in his next life (or perhaps in this one, though perhaps I expect too much), as he undergoes another nirvikalpa samadhi purification event. To me, liberation is not equivalent to “no limitation.” I think of liberation as being detachment from all material pursuit and consideration. All these bodies move around in the world, and I am not physically attracted to any of them – that is real liberation, the freedom of the soul. I don’t want a pile of gold. I don’t want a yacht or a Leer jet. I want food, but only such food as is conducive to optimal health. I want to enjoy the earth that God has made, but only as He made it, not bending it towards any selfish purpose. I want to sit at the Father’s knee, and learn what profound truths He may care to unveil before my awestruck, moonstruck, and bedazzled eyes. I am happy as I am, and do you know one of the key indications of growth? It is in the capacity to feel joyousness! Thus, I don’t think about going beyond my limitations very much. I like to think about remaining within my limitations, doing what I can with what intellectual and physical skills I possess, but maximizing my enjoyment of all this action. I may indeed transcend limitations, but I do not experience it as such. My only experience is an increasing feeling of ecstatic joy, love and devotion to my Father’s lotus feet. What else would I want? What else could anybody want? The way to transcend limitations is to become very good at that thing of which you are capable. Do not extend yourself outward, into the world, but sink deep within your own being and there remain. Do that which is close to your heart, and become proficient at it. You know, between the greatest sages, a new kind of competition is born. The great ones do not get any joy by besting another, by harming another, by overcoming another. In fact, they get the reverse of joy from these things, being cast into great anguish. The great sages vie with one another in the amount of joy they are able to experience, for this is the true good of the soul. A great sage will say, “Forsooth, I am happier than thou!” Another sage will reply, “Nay, my joy be the greatest! Let me describe it to thee…” Self-conquest is the only real conquest, and the profound depths of spiritual joy can never be plumbed. Joy goes on increasing, infinitely. The ego is the major obstacle to joy. Cohen has his joy, which is most evident in this first paragraph of his here. Once he discovers he is on a road extending into infinity, he will cease from speaking in such absolutes, and will begin speaking in relative terms once more. To a newly illumined person, everything appears in absolutes, because the ego is gone and it appears that only glory, radiance, wisdom and joy remain. After a time, the person apprehends that what he first perceived as absolutes are becoming more; then at last does he become truly profound, and learn to angle himself, to position himself, in such a way that he remains on the track to increases in all of these things. Easwaran had learned this, to a great extent, but Cohen and Da Free John have not, and their teaching works stagnate because of it. The motto of the illumined teachers should indeed be that of Buzz Lightyear, from “Toy Story:” “To infinity… and beyond!”
I get a very unpleasant feeling reading Cohen’s second paragraph here; it looks like he sought to take his students through a “mock enlightenment,” all the while reassuring them that, reading his books, it was a real enlightenment! This is why you will never find me reading one of Cohen’s books. I can think of few fates more terrible than this! One cannot get enlightenment by reading books, although good books can induce a spiritual feeling within the reader and inspire him or her to make an effort in daily living. Now, “allowing everything to be as it is,” while a description of an enlightened being’s experience, is not a method that people can use to make progress. Until your Atman comes along and pulls the lower, embodied portion of the soul’s consciousness a little ways out of embodiment, into the Atman’s immaterial realm, “allowing everything to be as it is” will be a mere phrase in your mind, not an actual experience. The Atman is not powerful enough to grant us enlightenment, until we have sufficiently weakened the ego through sadhana. The ego is weakened by making it into a good ego, which is like the Atman, either the ego of devotion cultivated by the bhakti yogis, or the ego of discrimination cultivated by the jnana yogis. If you just sit down in your chair and think, “O.K., in accord with ‘majestic Cohen’s’ advice, I will think of everything being as it is. There. I’m ready, Atman, come and get me!” the Atman will sit down, too, pull up a chair beside you, and start whistling “Dixie!” Brother (or sister), you have got to work to make this thing happen, and not just a little bit, but a lot, for a long time, perhaps many lives. The Atman comes to those who are already making themselves like the Atman – mentally energetic and powerful, good at heart, and full of enthusiasm for living. Cohen’s teaching here is so mixed up, that I think I will just rewrite his paragraph using accurate terminology, preserving his real, valid perceptions where I can, although calling them by their right names. Here it is then, “Cohen à la Kurt!”
After enlightenment, after nirvikalpa samadhi, you will be pulled free from the material world, and will appreciate the beauty of that world as it is, not as you would have it be. Finding your true Self, you have finally ceased to make distinctions, no longer seeking to draw some parts of the world towards yourself, nor to push other parts away. After nirvikalpa samadhi, you begin to make a new kind of distinction, based on your emergent and growing spiritual discrimination. You do not cling to this world, but move about in freedom, and with knowledge; you are free to act, and are beginning to know the most spiritual modes of action, those which are most in accord with the deepest laws of life. This, gloriously, is not the whole point, because even after enlightenment the greatest challenge is to continue your own, personal spiritual growth, while at the same time sharing your wisdom and outlook with others, still suffering through egoic life. You are free from karma, but act in the world as a being of pure joy, growing in your ability to respond with compassion to those in need, which is one of the most significant traits of the gods. Should none respond to you, you are unaffected, for your freedom is real and not tied to this world in any way, shape or form.
I hope that you do not mind that I do not in this instance go through Cohen’s argument laboriously, line by line. I find his ideas so paltry, so picayune, that I scarce can read them without undergoing great sensations of unpleasantness. I suppose it is my spiritual discrimination which makes me aversive to his writings, which appear to be even worse than his speech. You will say, “Guru Kurt is not free; he is still attached to the pleasant, such as Ramakrishna’s writings, and averse to the unpleasant, such as Andrew Cohen’s writings.” Well, I suppose if you put it that way, all spiritual teachers should put their heads in a bucket of sewage morning and night! I choose not to put my head in a bucket of sewage, but instead drink the sweet nectar and honey that come from the mouth of the Son of God. When what is false becomes unpleasant to you, and what is true becomes pleasant, you will have attained a state beyond what the scriptures call “alike in heat and cold, pleasure and pain.” Reason then rules your life, reason in tune with reality. I love what is real, and hate what is false. I go through unpleasantness when reason requires it; I’ve gone this far through Cohen’s quotations, have I not? What happens in my mind when I read Cohen is a great aversive reaction; my mind shrieks in agony, saying, “Not this, not this! This is not the way! Follow this one, and you will end up in great pain, far from the shining truth, in a dark land of ‘Cohenism,’ whence none ever returns alive!” Thus, the unpleasant sensation I get reading him is a reflection of my understanding of myself, knowing what is spiritually beneficial from what is spiritually detrimental. I never have this experience reading any of the Avatar’s works, such as “The Imitation of Christ,” which is why I am able to readily identify them. I read “The Imitation of Christ,” and think, “Yes, yes, yes, yes… this all looks good. I’d follow these precepts, because they lead upwards, and they lead upwards fast!” I read Cohen and I think, “No, no, no, no! These precepts are black, erroneous, and will cause many to stumble or to slow down in their spiritual progress. Who is this Cohen, anyway?” I can clearly discern that Cohen is a second or third time illuminati, who has purified only a small portion of his lower mind, and so is internally constantly at war with the vast realm of the unconscious. He has no ego, and so he speaks truly, although this truth is of a very low order. The Atman rules in the light, but the ego-producing force still lurks in the background, ruling in the remaining darkness. The Atman teaches out of its secure position, but the ego-producing force keeps asserting itself, leading to great confusion and misapplied principles. I was astounded that when an interviewer asked Cohen whether at any time he doubted his enlightenment, he responded in the affirmative! This shows a very low level of attainment, indeed! If anyone ever asks me whether I doubt my identity, I shall laugh! I move around in this world like the living among the dead; everyone seems to be sleeping and dreaming, even the illumined men, Cohen and Da Free John! Perhaps at some point I shall meet an angel, and then alone will I be happy. Like me, the angels hate what is false, and love what is true. After nirvikalpa samadhi, you will indeed be unmoved by “heat and cold, pleasure and pain,” but you will find out that this means you are not attracted to the sense world, or repulsed by it, as a collection of material objects. In the world of ideas, where truth is represented, you will find it is a different story entirely, for spirituality is rationality, the ultimate triumph of reason over unreason. You too will be unable to read Aurobindo, without feeling disgusted. You too shall be unable to read Wilbur without feeling nauseated. You will read Cohen, and compare him with the Avatar, putting each on one pan of a scale, and find the Avatar so heavy that Cohen goes shooting off the other pan like a rocket! I only speak the truth here. My Father, at any rate agrees with me; why don’t any of you?
Andrew Cohen (posted 7/24/03):
The only way for this miserable world to truly change is when the individual is willing to go beyond the personal in a way that is nothing less than heroic. Anything less will allow us to remain in a condition of always wanting only for ourselves. Like a beggar we will live a tortured existence in a perpetual state of need. This is the way most of us are willing to live our lives.
In order to be able to live up to the liberating idealism that many of us have experienced clearly at one time or another, we have to be ready to assume a great burden, and that burden is the evolution of the whole. Because to succeed, we must be prepared to do battle with the powerful conditioning, conscious and unconscious, of the whole race. That means we have to come out from behind the shadows and be seen. Like Atlas, we have to be willing to hold up the whole world on our own shoulders. It's an awesome task.
From Freedom Has No History (1997)
Guru Kurt:
Where is this “miserable world?” I thought you had banished all cynicism, Andrew! If people were really miserable, they would do something about it. Most people are miserable some of the time, but generally “happy,” or so they suppose, the rest. The whole trouble with worldly people is that they do get a small measure of real joy in their lives, although they do not know its source, and cannot tap into it at will. Real joy comes to us as our souls grow. Before the awakening of spiritual consciousness at the end of the soul’s rajasic outward expansion, we appear to obtain joy by interacting with the world, although the real source of this joy is our soul’s delight at having gained some amount of mastery over the embodied consciousness as it applies to externals. We have learned to manipulate the world in ways which we could not have done before, and since our power has grown we rejoice. It is only after the soul has finished its rajasic expansion that we see that the nature of this joy is deceptive; we think it comes from outside us, but it really comes from within. Thus, for awhile we keep on looking outside us for the joy which has been coming from within, which no longer comes since we have maximized our ability to manipulate the things and events around us in the material realm. This is when misery sets in, and a person turns to meditation in search of the real, the actual source of joy, which is internal. Oh, that worldly people could all know this misery! If they did, we would have a society of meditators, and not only meditators, but happy meditators since they have found one of the tools for mining in the depths of the spirit. The soul grows in its ability to manipulate the internal world, to control thinking and actions, and thus its flow of joy is restored! The world is a pleasure palace for some, and a death trap for others. As spiritual consciousness grows, you begin to see the nature of worldly satisfactions, which are all based upon a falsehood, a wrong idea. After nirvikalpa samadhi you see clearly and always that there is no inherent connection between the external world and your joy, that soul and matter are two separate kingdoms or types of things, yet long before this you begin to understand the problem with egoic thinking. Driven by a desire to make itself happy, a desire which remains even in the angels, the discriminating intellect of a worldly person, bound in ignorance, thinks, “I feel a need to find happiness, but what am I, except a material being in a material world? I must search for my happiness somewhere outside myself; where else could it be? Aha! I see an object! Let us go obtain it!” Thus, we make a decision to go after some object. Upon obtaining this object, the intellect thinks, “I have attained the object for which I conceived a desire. Let the happiness flow! Come on, now, happiness should theoretically be here; where is it?” Worldly happiness is an idea (the ego) “satisfied” by another idea (that something has been done outside). There is no joy inherent in such a process, which is purely an intellectual venture. Real joy only comes when there is concomitant soul growth, as when the ability to manipulate the world increases, or when the ability to manipulate the mind increases. If there were no upper limit, no stopping place for the soul’s outward extension, spirituality would never arise. The fact that there are millions of people meditating all over the world shows us that there is indeed an apex of outward growth, and that those who meditate, whether they are aware of this or not, have passed beyond this apex. They were once the wealthy executives, cutthroat businessmen, and investment bankers, and have gone beyond these things, beginning the inward journey into reality, away from what is false, and towards what is true. The ego is doomed because it is false, and cannot stand in the way of the real life process of an individual forever. You keep thinking, “That should have worked, but it didn’t, that should have worked, but it didn’t,” until at last you see that it could never work. We force the external world to give us satisfaction, because all our hopes are pinned on it; we cannot conceive of any other source for joy than what we perceive with the senses. The soul can never be satisfied with what is material, for matter is the lowest form of spirit that is around. Wouldn’t you think a person who carried around his own stools, clinging to them, getting them out and sniffing them, was insane? Yet, were his mind comported in such a way that he could only perceive stools, and nothing else, we could understand why he might look at them anxiously, and seek to experience them in many ways. The rest of us look at him in amazement and say, “Friend, there is a wonderful rose growing over there. It is so beautiful, and so fragrant. Why don’t you sniff that instead, and take a cutting to place upon your dining room table?” He will reply, “I see no rose; there is no rose! “Rose” is a figment of your imagination! There is only stool: stool, stool, and more stool! It’s actually not bad, once you’re used to it!” Similarly, the sage says to us, “That material world you cling to so desperately, as the only possible source of your joy, is not worthy of your spirit. You are meant for better things. Come away from there! Your own soul gives off the sweetest fragrance imaginable. Learn to find this fragrance, and you will perceive the fragrance coming from the souls of those around you as well. You will learn transcendental pastimes, far beyond the world of the senses, and discover the radiant joy of the spirit, which is immortal, immutable, and forever young!”
Well, Cohen certainly is pointed in a definite direction! His stance is unified, and although I say it is not the best, he passes the test of illumination with ease and honor. A person studying Cohen (if he could stand it) would discover that there is a unity to his writings, that he has a deep viewpoint that remains more or less constant through it all, and what is more, this viewpoint is unique to Andrew Cohen, and will not be seen in any other illumined teacher. This is a mark of the Atman’s direct influence over a person’s life. Cohen is a lotus flower that is blooming, although only a few petals are open as yet, and the smell, although sweet, is very faint. It is only after the ego is removed by the purification event of nirvikalpa samadhi that we can develop a “firm persuasion,” as Blake used to say. Before this, we are hither and yon, all over the map, as a person reading Wayne Dyer will immediately discern. If you want to see the ego in action, read Wayne Dyer. I can only withstand a few pages at a time, myself, and then I throw up my hands! I feel like I am going around in circles, like a dog chasing its tail, or like a person at a smorgasbord affair with a thousand dishes, of which one is allowed to eat only a tenth of a gram of each. There is not enough to get any taste, and it is so much effort to collect everything that you starve before you get to eat! He has his audience, mostly composed of people who are of a somewhat lower spiritual stature than he is. Those who are higher dismiss him without a second thought! Now that I have said something nice about Cohen, I find I shall have to turn his teaching work on its head again, if anyone on this planet is ever to go forward, and not drive themselves into the ground of his solipsism! I think the best way to approach this is again to go line by line. I apologize to whoever may be reading this, but I have promised myself that after the “eighteen horrible quotes” are through, I will cease and desist from harassing this guru, who evidently has problems enough on his own. I can picture Cohen and his crew once this “celebration of eighteen years of teaching” is over, circling around an eerie bonfire at midnight, dancing in strange rhythms and making awkward twirling motions, their hands and faces smeared with chicken grease, their foreheads painted black with charcoal, with Cohen, the ringmaster, seated by the fire, a demonic gaze in his eyes, contemplating which of the Lord’s Incarnations he shall next seek to toss into the sacrificial pyre! Seriously, this whole episode of my writing was indeed presaged by Keith Green’s song, “Cut the Devil Down,” for although Cohen is not the devil, but an angel-in-the-making, much of the ego-producing force remains in his unconscious mind, which a real angel like Keith would immediately discern. (All these things are planned well in advance, for the Lord meets with the angels who will accompany Him in Heaven before they come.) Keith sings, “Cut the devil down, so-and-so, cut the devil down! Swing your sword around, so-and-so, and cut the devil down! The devil knows who’s boss, he surely knows who’s boss, cause you beat him at the [something], so-and-so, the devil knows who’s boss!” Ah, Keith, what a wonderful voice you had, and what a sweet temperament! The world has seen many embodied angels, but will you tell me, when will they hear your voice again? Let it be sooner, rather than later!
The only way for this miserable world to truly change is when the individual is willing to go beyond the personal in a way that is nothing less than heroic.
I hope that most people will agree with me that they are not miserable, at least all the time! Spiritual growth is a process of perceiving more and more reality, so that what worldly people call pleasure will become misery as their awareness deepens. Then, they will naturally eschew those things which are unspiritual, and cling to those things which bring lasting joy. Strangely enough, external renunciation is not what is required, but internal renunciation, so that the best advice for all is to begin spiritual disciplines like meditation, repetition of the Holy Name, and some amount of selfless work, perhaps volunteerism or at least doing more for your family than you would ordinarily have done. If you seek to throw the world out before you are ready to let go of it, it will come flying back in your face, and with a vengeance! Renunciants, monks and nuns, are typically already renounced, internally, before they make their external vows of renunciation. They perceive the joy of the spirit, and view the objects in the world as obstacles, impediments to a clear perception of higher things. They are becoming mature, and venerable, in their attitudes towards life. Now, assuming that we agree the world is not so black as Cohen paints it here, there is of course a need for a change. The main areas for change, as I see them, are to decrease both pollution and resource use, but since these are not currently causes of misery, but of pleasure for many, I have to assume Cohen does not include them in his meaning here. The change required, then, is that people continue to move in a spiritual direction, walking forwards on the spiritual path. Those who are worldly should become spiritual. Those who are spiritual should become divine. However, Cohen should take a grander view of this whole setup; when some move forward, more animals will be brought in from below, so that there is a kind of equilibrium, a steady-state that is achieved on every planet of life. The rate of illuminations increases at a very slow rate, but all in all things are fairly stable and everyone achieves the growth he or she is meant to achieve in life provided they make the effort which they are capable of making. A better way to state what Cohen says here in the initial part of this sentence would be, “In order for a person to go beyond the misery which lurks behind the pleasures of this world,” for this encourages people to make an effort, and states the spiritual situation accurately. It does not take a negative view, nor does it make unfair demands upon the reader. Cohen next “whacks out,” going into a dark realm where I have never been, and down a dismal road which I have never traveled! There he sits, enlightened, with a magnificent personality (why else would I call him “majestic Cohen?,”) telling his students to leave their personalities behind! Even jnana yogis, seeking impersonal Brahman, develop majestic personalities. They have interesting ideas, and are gentle, kind, thoughtful, and patient with others. It is not really the “impersonal,” per se, which the jnana yogi seeks, but that which is of the Self, as opposed to non-Self. The Self is not impersonal, whereas Paramatman, the portion of Brahman humans may experience, is impersonal. One finds the impersonal on the Way of Knowledge, but day-to-day sadhana remains highly personal. You get to know your mind intimately, learning to discriminate between the true and the false, the real and the unreal. Looking for the “impersonal” does not tell you what is real; you are liable to hurt yourself, if you do this! Here is a likely thought scenario, taken from the life of one of Cohen’s followers: “Should I talk to people at lunch, or remain silent? Talk is personal; I shall try to avoid it. Should I develop a preference for certain types of Indian music? That is personal; Muzak® (elevator music) for me!” I only know that I would never, under any circumstances, make a decision in my own mind based on whether one or the other choice was more or less personal. Although Paramatman is impersonal, this does not equate to “real.” Cohen has picked out an attribute, and called it the whole thing! The goal, really, is to face the impersonal Paramatman with a splendid personality, which is the nature of a Self-realized soul. Become acquainted with the impersonal, if you wish, but never say this of yourself! It will be even better for you if you personalize Paramatman by repeating the Name of God in the depths of your consciousness; then, your growth attains a maximum rate, for your personality seeks another personality, that of the Lord, into whose likeness you wish to be transformed. This is one of Cohen’s blackest sentences, one of his worst ideas, that will help no one, but will confuse many. Please, O please, cling to your personality! Develop your personality; this it is that makes you beautiful and beloved of God! Those who are most advanced on the spiritual path have the sweetest personalities of any on earth. To face these people, as Cohen does, and throw such lies and hypocrisy in their faces is blasphemy indeed, statements against all that is holy and divine! I say “hypocrisy” because Cohen is a living example of a perfected personality, which comes as the ego is annihilated and the Self reigns in its stead! Well, you all go ahead and become followers of Cohen. Yes, go ahead! Throw yourselves into a brick wall, and see if it doesn’t hurt!
Anything less will allow us to remain in a condition of always wanting only for ourselves.
The desire for happiness exists in all creatures, and it cannot be extinguished, not by nirvikalpa samadhi, astral ascension, or anything else! Thus, Cohen seeks to go against what is real within the human soul! The desire for personal happiness is not the problem; the problem is our ignorant belief that we can be made happy, not along with all the others in the world, but despite them, and sometimes even at their expense. This is all the difference between a sage and a worldly person, a distance that is easily stated but not easily crossed! I always exist in a condition of wanting only for myself: I want more joy, more love, more intelligence, more of everything good and spiritual. The rest of you have nothing whatsoever to do with my personal search for an optimal condition. Alone, and free, I find myself in a world that I share with others. Since my heart is loving, I feel love for these others, although I see their egos and so love the Self within them, in order to avoid being harmed by them. The angels I love openly, and they love me openly. What need is there to hide our affections? If you read the Gospel of Ramakrishna, this was everywhere evident in the Master’s life, in all His interactions with His disciples, who were embodied angels indeed. I want less ignorance, and more knowledge, so that I strive continually in order to increase in the modes of true freedom from physicality and sensuality. No matter how high you go, you can always go a little higher. I see the whole world spinning beneath my feet, and yet I feel no desire to manipulate anyone here. I want all to be happy, as I am happy. You see, when you see the soul with the eyes of wisdom, instead of ignorance, you see that what brings you maximum joy is what is in tune with Brahman’s all-pervasive spiritual laws. You can never become happy, at another’s expense. You can never be happy, without continuous action, mental or physical. Even samadhi is a type of action, an action of the Atman, of divine power! Cohen’s argument here is just a less-sophisticated version of Easwaran’s argument that we should “put others first, and ourselves last.” Well, I want to know when I am going to be paid. When do I get my joy? How may I find bliss? These are all that matter to me in the end. These men have the root of a right idea, although the plant which grows from this root is ghastly in appearance, like the bunga bangkai, the “corpse flower,” from Indonesia, which generates such an overpowering smell that people have been known to pass out from taking too close a whiff! Instead of putting ourselves last, we need to learn to want to be joyful along with all the others on this wide earth of ours. The joy on another’s face should bring us joy as well; when we feel like this, then we understand that there is absolutely nothing wrong in wanting joy for ourselves; absolutely nothing!
Like a beggar we will live a tortured existence in a perpetual state of need. This is the way most of us are willing to live our lives.
When you want those things that are right and true, then you find your drive for happiness and growth fully satisfied. I do not seek to go beyond the personal, but to glorify the personal. I am always in a condition of wanting something for myself. Yet, my existence is not tortured! How can I get more of that which I crave – bliss, ecstasy, joy – if I do not desire it? Beware, for when you step into my world, you step into a world of fire, not a world of ice, of action and not inaction. A happy king can wish to be a happier king still. A glorious angel can wish for even more glory, and still rejoice as he is. Indeed, he will rejoice all the more, for he is like an arrow headed straight up, under its own power, into more and more divinity! The only problem, is thinking our innate drive for happiness can be satisfied in the material realm. The very nature of matter is such that it cannot satisfy the soul, which is composed of much finer and nobler spirit. Disconnect your “need” from the material realm in samadhi, and you will know the radiant, effervescent, eternal joy which is your birthright. Cohen has begun with the “solution,” which is incorrect, going “beyond the personal,” and upon this incorrect premise worked his way back to the problem, which is also inelegantly stated, although as an illuminati we at last see his valid and real point. Worldly existence is indeed a type of torture, for the discriminating intellect never sees that it should look within, but continually comes up with new hypotheses about how we may obtain the joy for which we yearn in the external world. Cohen does have some weight, after all, though I compare him both to the devil and to the corpse flower! We can indeed sit like a beggar at Brahman’s door, demanding more of those good things that bring us real joy, more wisdom and greater freedom. Say, “Father, behold, I sit at Thy door, having turned my back upon this world, and turned my face to heaven. Here I sit, until Thou dost show Thy face to me at last! What do I have to do with this world? It is a burden on my shoulders! Take this burden, and reveal to me Thy glorious Bounty, Thy radiant Beauty. I have no other desire than this!” This is what people do when they repeat the Name of God’s Incarnation in the depths of their spirits. He who calls upon the Avatar, verily calls upon Brahman, for these two are one and the same!
In order to be able to live up to the liberating idealism that many of us have experienced clearly at one time or another, we have to be ready to assume a great burden, and that burden is the evolution of the whole.
O, blackness of heart! O, ignorance with a thin veil of knowledge! O, arrogance with a dime, matching wits with billionaires! Spirituality is no burden. It is the world which is a burden! Spirituality lessens our burden, so that we feel free and light, all the time, in every situation. As your meditation begins to deepen, more and more of your mind comes under your control, so that you are able to think rationally and clearly, ordering your life into right priorities that maximize your feeling of joyousness. Spiritual beings like the EABs, the Embodied Angelic Beings, really feel like they are “living flames of love,” divine torches that move around in total freedom from all material attachment. They experience no burden, and would laugh uproariously at Cohen’s argument here! He seeks to get everyone attached to a result, the result of the “evolution of the whole.” The trick is to learn to act in ways that are theoretically optimal, no matter what the actual consequence. We learn to do what should work, and then don’t worry about whether it will or will not succeed. It is attachment to the results of action which causes misery, and thus Cohen here gives a counsel that will increase people’s misery, rather than lessening it, which he purportedly set out to do! People following his advice will think, “How is the evolution of the whole going? Did I do my part?” If the “evolution of the whole” is going well they will be pleased, and if it is going poorly they will be upset and distraught! This is indeed Cohen’s unconscious ego-producing force asserting itself, raising its dark, demonic face against the bright light of the Avatar’s teaching. Didn’t Jesus say, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light?” Cohen speaks against the Lord here, and how can he be correct? It is Cohen’s attachment to the “evolution of the whole” that gives him his feeling of burden, which he unfortunately shares with his listeners. I can hear his Atman groaning as he utters these words, watching helplessly while the impurities that yet remain beneath the threshold of Cohen’s awareness, like demons, assert themselves, foisting yet another form of attachment in the guise of religion upon those unfortunate enough to hear it. Please, do not make the “evolution of the whole” your burden. This is the burden of Brahman, and His Son, the Avatar, and is He complaining? Ramakrishna sees this burden that is placed on His shoulders, and what does He tell man? He tells him that He has come to the garden to eat mangoes! The only burden of individual man is his own, personal evolution, or as I prefer to say, spiritual growth. Cohen is indeed being asked to share Brahman’s load, for His has become a son of Brahman, yet he does not understand the nature of service with the utmost clarity. Only action which is not attached to results avails us spiritually, and strangely enough, is most successful and effective. Cohen sees the result of which he has recently become capable, contributing to the “evolution of the whole,” and immediately gets overwhelmed, thinking that if the whole ceases to evolve, he will be at fault! If I didn’t know better, I would swear these are the utterances of one who still retains the ego, so tied are they to the result. Cohen needs to learn to think and work with more detachment, which his Atman does succeed in doing most of the time, although it fights a continuous battle against the remaining ego-producing force that is still readily apparent in Cohen’s mind. He is “only just” illumined. Those who are more profound see the potential results of their actions, which do indeed contribute to the “evolution of the whole” and say, “Well, ‘whole,’ it’s about time you started evolving! I’m going where I am going to go: follow me, if you dare!” Thus, the greatest sages pay most heed to their own spiritual advancement, knowing that good students will perceive this, and their total lack of interest in manipulating the situation surrounding them, and want to grow so they can stand by the side of their teacher, in utter freedom, supernal bliss, and godlike wisdom as well.
Because to succeed, we must be prepared to do battle with the powerful conditioning, conscious and unconscious, of the whole race.
Must every line of Cohen’s be black? I see why Keith likened him to the devil, indeed! I think it would be very difficult to come up with a statement which is less accurate than this one (although I haven’t seen Cohen’s remaining quotes)! This remark is the absolute antithesis of true spirituality! Is Cohen, then, the antichrist? I doubt it; he is merely misguided, and suffering from incomplete and insufficient concepts. You absolutely, positively, do not need to take on the evil in others. It is only your own evil that you must conquer. Forget Cohen. Blow him out of your nose, like mucus or snot. If you pay attention to other people’s sadhanas, you will become a busybody, and fail to do that thing which you are placed here to do, conquer the negative motions of your own mind. We must overcome ourselves, by ourselves. The rest of the world has no connection whatsoever to our efforts, which go to our benefit alone. When you die, the good things you have done remain with you, for you will have engendered righteousness within yourself. The good things you have thought will come to greet you, like eager, welcome friends in your next life. If you have gone to a spiritual teacher, you will be even more likely to go to one the next time around. If you have meditated sincerely, every day, you will be likely to begin at an even earlier age, and make even more progress. Spiritual growth accelerates. As we get closer to the Self, the connection between righteous effort and joy becomes more and more clear, so that at the end, as we near nirvikalpa samadhi, our efforts near perfection, almost always resulting in an explosion of joy in our consciousness. Those who are spiritually advanced see truly, with clear eyes. They see the potential for action and thought, and the actual effects which will occur in their internal experience as a result of this action and thought, and what is more, they care about nothing else! I tell you, if compassion did not bring me joy, I would never feel it. If kindness did not give me a warm glow inside, I would never do it. Brahman has made His creatures so that when they act as He would act, in any given situation, their joy is optimized. He is a good Creator, and those who become like Him begin to experience life as He experiences it, full of bliss, full of love, and full of the mystical charm that floods our universe, for the one who develops eyes with which to see it.
That means we have to come out from behind the shadows and be seen.
Now, my friends, we see the power of the Atman indeed! Do you see it? Cohen has been speaking blasphemously all along, flouting religion, going against all the real principles of spiritual growth, but the Atman is still in control. Here is what the Atman is saying: “Cohen, you are a pip! I am struggling mightily with your ego-producing force, but I am a god, and I am going to win! Just keep on talking, and I will bring you out of the shadows where you currently dwell. Things said in public, from our status of illumination, will help to awaken your sleeping unconscious mind. Throw your ideas out, left and right, I care not! Good will come out of it, for we prepare for another nirvikalpa samadhi event, in your next life if not sooner, and we will get some of the profundity which you now lack.” I see all this in a little sentence; amazing, eh? Yet, I know the Atman, and I know the ego. Cohen has no ego, and his Atman reigns supreme, winning all battles in the end, battles which Cohen does not even know he fights! Do you see? Cohen spouts and spouts, then the Atman reaches down with divine power and reminds him what they are doing: “Come on, Cohen. Now, let us come out from behind the shadows and be seen. With each wrong statement you make, as you perceive my correction, your self-knowledge will grow, and with this growth in self-knowledge, our next nirvikalpa samadhi event excels in profundity.” The consciousness which exists in Cohen’s body is not aware of the evil that still lurks within, for this would not be helpful. The Atman is aware of this evil, and thinks those thoughts, and does those deeds, through the embodied consciousness, which will optimize its next purification event, for nirvikalpa samadhi is by far the most powerful tool at the Atman’s disposal, even after illumination. The embodied consciousness of a recently illumined person is thus a war between the god which has asserted itself, and the remaining ego-producing force, so hard to dispel. In the angels, there is no ego-producing force remaining, which is why the teachings of the ancient sages, who were almost invariably embodied angels, exceed the teachings of today’s illumined men by such a great extent. Read Osho, and you will see a mind still consumed with interest in sex. Read Da Free John, and you will see one concerned with establishing his personal glory. Read Cohen, and you see the teenager’s rebellion against authority, although that authority is right! Read the Upanishads, and you see – reality. Read the Yoga Vasishtha and you see – accuracy. Read the words of Vivekananda, and you see utter, complete detachment. So I say, but are there any more who can see this world with my eyes? I seriously doubt it!
Like Atlas, we have to be willing to hold up the whole world on our own shoulders. It's an awesome task.
This is nice imagery, but it is the Avatar who holds the whole world on His shoulders, who exerts the power of gravity over the sun and all the planets, too. It is the Father who has “the whole world in His hands,” who has the power of manipulating DNA in order to foster evolution. Leave the world in the capable hands of these Divine Beings, and see to your own sadhana; this is the best advice. When you are like Cohen, enlightened, you will see that you now have a divine role to play in helping the whole world and, like Cohen, you will probably initially misinterpret the precise nature of your role, and the exact meaning of service. Brahman has given man intelligence, and so the major mode of service is to show people the free, blissful, secure and benevolent life by example. It is for them to take the actions they must take in order to stand beside you. Anything else amounts to manipulation and abrogation of free will, that all-important characteristic of all created beings. Cohen may seek to hold the whole world on his shoulders, but I can hear the angels laughing, and I laugh myself! If the world is on his shoulders as he seems foolishly and arrogantly to believe, we are all in trouble of the worst variety! Stumbling around in the dark, we see Cohen who is like the sparks thrown off by a firestone, intermittent, dim, and unpredictable. When we look at the Avatar, at Jesus or at Ramakrishna, then indeed do we behold the glorious sun, and step into the light of day, making our spiritual progress swift, certain, and sure. My own guru, Eknath Easwaran, was indeed a “Little Lamp,” as he called his quarterly journal. I would rather follow this one, who was at least four times illumined, than this Cohen rascal. If he seeks to compare himself with Atlas, he will need to explain about this other “Atlas,” to whose brilliance he cannot hold a candle, and to whose shoulders his head does not even rise. The task of the illumined teachers, to contribute to the world’s spiritual unfolding, is indeed an awesome one. Yet, they will not prosecute this task with effectiveness until they gain a clear understanding of what they are, what the real steps are that people must take along the spiritual path, and what the real means are of making progress. Easwaran was much farther along in all three of these areas than Cohen, who seeks to do too much, with too few resources! It is better to take an attitude of humility, and say, “I am one individual. Some people seem to be listening to me, as though they wish to attain my state one day. How interesting! Well, I’d better settle in, and give them an accurate portrayal of my state, the states they will attain along the path, and the means of attainment.” What Cohen has to realize, is that he is not being asked to hold the world on his shoulders. As an illumined individual, he does hold the world on his shoulders (figuratively speaking, naturally). He must learn that he can shoulder this “burden” from an attitude of detachment, of utter freedom from attachment to the results of his labors. The nature of the burden which the illumined bear is to shine brightly, to show the world the meaning of the “end of sorrow,” and the beginning of eternal bliss. The world, for its part, will pack up its bags and follow. At least, that’s the way I’ve always heard it should be; how could I have heard wrong?
Andrew Cohen (posted 7/25/03):
The heart of the spiritual life ultimately consists of two fundamental experiences: meditation and contemplation.
In the experience of deep meditation, we discover who we are beyond the mind. And it is in that discovery that we find the answer to the question, Who am I? Through simply letting everything be as it is, we will experience SPACE - a vast, expansive emptiness where there is deep, deep peace. This is a place where nothing ever happened, a place before the universe was born. When we experience that miraculous depth inside our own self, we recognize who we really are. In this state of deep and profound peace, we experience our True Self.
In the practice of contemplation, we deliberately use the mind to find the answer to the question, How shall I live? When we ask the question, How shall I live?, we want to know how to be true to our True Self, how to be true to the peace, joy, bliss and perfect contentment that we found in the experience of deep meditation. If we are sincere, we want there to be no contradiction between the Self that we experience in meditation and the self that we are as an individual human being who acts and reacts in the world of time and space. In a liberated individual these two different experiences of self merge and become one.
Spiritual practice done in earnest can bring us to a place where the life that we live, the very human life that we live, is free from fundamental contradiction, a place where our own personality becomes a clear expression of that perfect peace that lies deep within us.
From Who Am I & How Shall I Live? (1998)
Guru Kurt:
I will start right off with a portion of today’s quotation:
The heart of the spiritual life ultimately consists of two fundamental experiences: meditation and contemplation.
I must apologize today, as I am still in the throes of an ecstatic experience. It started in the wee hours of the morning, while I was still resting at home, in my bed. I suddenly felt like I was immersed in a honey cake, or as though I had been packed in a box of Belgian chocolates. I could scarcely move. I felt as though I were under the most enchanting spell, as wave after wave of ecstatic awareness leaped throughout my being. I was awash in a sea of sat-chit-ananda, being, consciousness, and bliss, losing touch completely with physical reality, apprehending only spirit. In every direction around me, all I could see was bright light. Evidently, my hypothesis that I need no students is correct! Only, now I am having trouble coming back down, into the sense world once more. I read Cohen’s speech and I think, “La, la, la. How wonderful! Here is a being who can speak! La, la, la!” Now I notice that he has said things with which I cannot agree, but my mind just says, “La, la, la! Who cares? Let him go. Let them all go!” I feel like a drunkard, hardly able to stand or walk, let alone think clearly. Well, I shall do the best I can, under the circumstances. Otherwise, I will never get through the “horrible eighteen quotations.” I see that just as I have divided sadhana up into pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi, with Patanjali, so has Cohen divided sadhana up… wait, no, he hasn’t! What a surprise! He has divided up his personal experience into two categories, leaving his students out in the cold, dark, and wet. However, before we go into what he says, I want you to know that I perceive a good teaching from his Atman struggling to get out, which I would like to address first, before I lose consciousness of the mundane world again. As an auxiliary to meditation, one can indeed use contemplation, or I would say a better word would be reflection, upon one’s experience and thus come up with applications to one’s personal life. You make new discoveries in meditation, which even for those just starting out amount to a daily change in being, albeit slow at first. Thus, your daily life will evolve in parallel with your spiritual practice. You will start to feel joy when others are joyful, and so your overall mood and attitude towards life will both shift from being negative to being positive. You will begin to enjoy peace in your life, and will cease from all tendency to quarrel and bicker. Indeed, upon seeing others quarreling, you will reflect upon how animal-like they appear, and will rejoice that you no longer fight like an animal with those who are near and dear to you! You will learn to rejoice in action, instead of inaction, perceiving that once internal inertia is reduced, you are a being meant to operate continuously, only pausing once a day for refreshment in sleep. The quality of your sleep will also improve, for as your head hits the pillow at night, you will feel full of meaning, as though you have done something that was real, important, and even glorious. I recall Easwaran telling us that we should stop and reflect now and again over our past, but I found that this was too much for me. I was too eager for samadhi, and never stopped to think. While it is sage advice, therefore, to tell people to meditate and to then apply their newly discovered insights to daily life through reflection, I think practically speaking reflection is not necessary. All these things will happen naturally, whether you think about them or not, which is the magic of meditation. It is transformative, which means you emerge a slightly different person after a meditation period, than you were when you sat down. If you are a reflective person, then reflect. If you are not a reflective person, as I was not, then just watch in wonder as your desires are transformed from evil into good, and from good into divine. You can see how my mind operates here; the minute Cohen spoke about meditating, and then contemplating about life, here is what I thought he meant! However, I read on and I see that this is not the case at all, that what he means is something that will only make sense, and will only perhaps be applicable, to those who are illumined. Even here, it is not accurate, so that Cohen cannot back out and say, “Yes, Guru Kurt. I am a teacher’s teacher!” A teacher who follows Cohen will get wrapped around his solipsism, which makes this whole quotation reek to high heaven. Cohen looks at his own mind, and forgets that his students, who still retain egos, will not be able to follow his heady discourse, especially since he seems to take for granted that they are illumined and will know what he means!
In the experience of deep meditation, we discover who we are beyond the mind.
Right away we see here, that Cohen does not admit his own enlightened condition, but seeks to draw his students up by coming down to their level. “I am merely a deep meditator,” he seems to think, “and here is what I have discovered. When you meditate deeply, say today or tomorrow, you too will discover this.” When you ignore the fundamental change in being which has occurred in nirvikalpa samadhi, you introduce errors into your teaching work, confusing everyone. They are searching for enlightenment, an event in which they will go from being human to being divine, a reward for all their hard work in sadhana, and then a goofball like Cohen comes along, seemingly telling them that there is no payment at the end of the road, there is no pie waiting for them at the bakery, and there is no ocean of bliss into which they can simply recline. The effect upon students will be alarming, and very negative! I find myself scarcely believing that even one person would listen to Cohen, stating the spiritual path as he does in such difficult, impossible-sounding language. Samadhi is impossible. If you meet an illumined person, you will come away thinking, “I could never be like that!” When the illumined person tells you, as does Da Free John, that in his opinion you shall indeed never be like him, or as Cohen does, that he is merely at a different place on the spiritual continuum, struggling as hard as you, you will be daunted, discouraged, dismayed. These gentlemen do the world a disservice, for enlightenment does come as a reward, like a bolt out of the blue, a gift from God. One moment, you are lying on the ground, stricken with that always-fatal ailment, “egoitis.” The next moment, your Atman picks you up, who is a divine being, and you are fully cured, on your feet and ready for holy action! I was always dismayed looking at Easwaran during my sadhana; how could I ever speak like that, talk like that, think like that? I didn’t see how it was possible, but he always reassured us, over and over again, that he was just like us a long time ago, but now through the grace of God he was something else, yet again. Thus, I strove mightily on the path, and having attained, I find myself agreeing with Easwaran. Before my illumination, I could not have written as I do, or (if any will ever listen), speak as I might. Now, I can do these things. What is the difference? Here is a way I have been thinking about explaining it to people, that I will try out on you. Imagine a graph that shows your increasing divinity. During sadhana, this graph rises very slowly, although if you are sensitive enough to your inner realities, perceptibly. Then, during samadhi, suddenly there is an almost discontinuous region where the graph seems to go straight up, off the scale on the y-axis. In sadhana, we change our being, but in samadhi, we change our being. The transformation of samadhi is radical, whereas the transformation of sadhana is much less so, much more gradual and slow. What you will find, though, is that you are the same person; there is a continuity of personality through samadhi, although without the ego your divine Self is at last free to express and assert its power and intelligence. Here is another analogy. I have heard of people having quite large benign tumors, weighing a hundred pounds or more. The ego is like having a huge tumor like this. Everywhere you go, you carry it around, perhaps not even aware of its existence! You cannot run, because you weigh too much. You cannot get rid of it by dieting, for it is seems to be a permanent part of you. Then, you go to a doctor who takes an ultrasound image and discovers the tumor! This is like the awakening of spiritual consciousness. You go in for an operation, which is like sadhana. Cutting apart the flesh in order to expose the tumor is like dharana and dhyana, and the actual removal of the tumor is like samadhi. You do not have to do this; the doctors take care of it! Sewing up the opening after the operation is like the Self’s placement of a “ripe ego” to take the place of the “false ego” which was there before, so that you can still talk to people and move about in a body. Now, you are free to run, jump, and skip! Your life changes completely, for suddenly you are no longer an obese-appearing, overweight, sluggish individual, but a svelte, energetic, elegant person in the prime of life! I know this analogy is a little grisly, but the ego is grisly; you don’t realize how it interrupts the flow of bliss from within! Get rid of this ego! Go to the doctors, the spiritual teacher and the Lord, and say, “I am too heavily bound to this world, too materialistic! Help me to get free from this encumbrance!” Out of compassion these individuals will certainly help you, although it would appear that as in medical science, there are good doctors, and better doctors.
And it is in that discovery that we find the answer to the question, Who am I?
I have never told the world this before, but the Atman does indeed have an “I.” If you tell this to people before their civilization is at least a little sophisticated, they will interpret it wrongly, and it will increase selfishness instead of diminishing it. Now that the modern age is here, I am free to explain that the Atman’s “I” is the “I” of a god, not the “I” of the ego. It is profound, although I can tell you something of the nature of this profundity. Those who attain nirvikalpa samadhi often come back from the experience stating, “I have no ‘I.’ I am ‘I’ no longer; I am That!” They are only being honest. The Atman’s “I” is so unlike the ego that it takes a long time to see it; it really does feel as though all sense of “I” has disappeared. The “I” of the Atman is a secure “I am.” It does not look at itself, but looks outward, into Paramatman. Do you spend all day, every day, wondering whether your feet will touch the ground as you take your next step? Similarly, the Atman takes its existence for granted, and puts all its considerable effort into growth, instead of into self-consideration. Where there is some joy, the Atman wants more joy, and although new illumined teachers think that they have found the ultimate, after a few lives of seemingly “unlimited” bliss, they begin to perceive variations in this bliss, which is an important moment, like when a baby first “cuts its teeth.” Then, there is less talk about absolutes, and more talk about properly constituted effort, which is what all students need to hear. The nature of the Atman’s “I” explains all the noble traits that come to a person after enlightenment. Perceiving immortality as a fact of daily living, anger no longer arises, because to get angry will only interrupt your eternal life of joy with negativity. Greed no longer arises, because you already have everything, and want nothing from the world, which you perceive as merely a source of entanglement. Fear no longer arises, for you know certainly that when your body goes, you do not go, but will return to live another day. The Atman’s “I” is the real “I,” and it is divine. When you realize it, you begin to think like a god, and what is more you feel like a god, too. Divine powers also come, but I do not like to speak much about these since knowing too much about them, at least at this point in man’s sociological development, will cause greed in sadhus, and acrimony between various teachers. When the Atman is realized, after the operation of nirvikalpa samadhi which removes the tumor of the ego, then at last you will know the “joy of profound,” for your mind no longer has any tiny, petty, ugly motions. All its motions are grand, eloquent, and beautiful. You no longer feel like a miniscule creature grubbing about on your hands and knees, fighting with the other “ants” over a pile of sugar mixed with dirt and broken glass. Instead, you feel like a regal king, in full command of your mind, perceiving the spiritual reality that underlies the material realm, and rejoicing in the glory you find there, for now you are on the outside, looking in, like the owner of a fish aquarium, or a kid with an “ant farm.” You clean the algae and detritus from the fish tank, or feed and water the ants, but you are no longer a prisoner, instead finding yourself one of those who have been freed from the bondage that the material world holds over all those who still retain the unattractive, selfish, and even malevolent ego, a false idea of identity that is the cause of all this world’s woe, although it is the cause of the great drama that is continuously unfolding as well, in which those who are in captivity are released from their bonds, those who live in darkness discover the light, and those who live in ignorance attain at last to knowledge of eternity.
Through simply letting everything be as it is, we will experience SPACE - a vast, expansive emptiness where there is deep, deep peace.
Cohen puts the horse before the cart, here. You cannot “simply let everything be as it is,” until after nirvikalpa samadhi, when this is your continuous state. If you try this, as a spiritual discipline, your progress will stagnate and falter. This is a passive technique, which will not avail, since in order to become more spiritual we must garner more and more mental energy, and learn to control this energy. Cohen is looking at his state, and seeking to turn this into a spiritual discipline! What an immature individual! What a lousy teacher! The validity of his experience is readily apparent, but give me a break, man! Here you are, pretending that they can all experience this, when this is far from the truth. Now, on the other hand, you may even succeed in getting a few people to state that they have experienced this “SPACE – a vast, expansive emptiness where there is deep, deep peace,” but you will find that the ego has merely given them the verisimilitude of an experience. The ego loves these kinds of games. It will say, “You want to feel peace? Sure, you can feel peace!” Everyone feels this kind of peace, just before they fall asleep at night! Engendering a feeling of peace within yourself may indeed be helpful for you; don’t let me stop you from trying it! I only know that if I had received this advice during my own sadhana, I would immediately have tried to put it into practice. I would have sat there and tried, perhaps for fifteen or twenty minutes, to “simply let everything be as it is.” I would then have gotten up, finding myself no different than I was when I sat down! In the meditation technique introduced to the world by Eknath Easwaran, and which I wholeheartedly and unabashedly endorse, one goes through the words of an inspirational scriptural passage slowly, one at a time, in the mind. I took to this practice like a duck to water, although it had no basis in any of the Avatar’s teachings about which I knew. My first perception was that, unlike other meditation techniques, this technique was not boring, for scriptural passages are interesting and inspiring. While you meditate, there is a continuous, refreshing change, which is like kayaking up a gentle river and seeing new scenery around every bend. Then, as I got a little deeper, I found that my mind would “soak up” the passage upon which I meditated, so that I was in the “mood” that was essential to each one, underlying all the words. Meditating on the Songs of Sri Ramakrishna, I felt like a blissful devotee. Meditating on lines from “The Imitation of Christ,” I felt like I was living in a monastery (though I lived in a room in a house in town), and making great progress on the Way of the Cross. When I needed comfort, I could always meditate upon this short prayer by Teresa of Avila, which I still adore:
Let nothing upset you;
Let nothing frighten you.
Everything is changing;
God alone is changeless.
Patience attains the goal.
Who has God lacks nothing;
God alone fills every need.
Although my mind bridles somewhat at “patience attains the goal,” for I was a most impatient sadhu indeed, these are still very comforting words, and highly suitable for meditation. Now, I found that I was easily able to go through dharana and dhyana using Easwaran’s technique (for everyone recapitulates the whole of sadhana, no matter what type of character they may be), so that while meditating under his guidance I thought it should be a good technique, now I can announce with enthusiasm that I know it to be a good technique. Indeed, this is the premier technique in the world today, and I believe for a long, long time to come as well. It is superior, because of the flow of variety, and because of the mental effort required of the meditator. It is a very active technique, calling upon a person to develop the powers and skills of concentration every morning and every evening. Meditation is not easy or simple. It is the most profound thing a person can do in order to transform personality, and thus it takes a certain knack, a certain kind of skill. One who meditates well, who is proficient, finds that after they are through, they have a little more energy, and a little more joy than when they sat down. This is because concentrating on the passage, you draw resources away from the ego’s domination of your mind. Both mental space and power come into your hands, and you experience this as an ineffable feeling of joyousness, lightness, and merriness. When you meditate upon great inspirational passages, you become a little like the person who has penned those illustrious lines. You experience some of the inexpressible freedom of the author of the Katha Upanishad, the great compassion of Teresa of Avila, and even the divine perspective of Krishna, should you meditate on the Gita. I say you share, a little bit, in their reality, though of course you do not become like them completely overnight, but over a long, long period of continuous, daily effort, perhaps at the feet of an inspiring guru, perhaps in the companionship of other sadhus in a “satsang” group you have formed, as Easwaran’s students have formed across the country. Cohen, in this instance, is better read as an example, a description of the state which you can attain in samadhi. I would be lying to you if I agreed with him, and told you that you could experience these things after a few days’ effort, as he seems to suggest. It is a free world, however, and please feel free to try his techniques; you may be different from me, and whatever works, works!
This is a place where nothing ever happened, a place before the universe was born. When we experience that miraculous depth inside our own self, we recognize who we really are. In this state of deep and profound peace, we experience our True Self.
No, no, no, no, no! You cannot experience this, until nirvikalpa samadhi! If you think you have, but you still feel anger, fear, and greed, then your ego has put on a good show for you, in the hopes that you will stop on your relentless track to destroy it utterly. “Aha!” the ego says. “He (or she) has been misled again.” As your spiritual awareness increases, you will know the feel of a good discipline, one which gets under the ego’s skin and may even make him yelp in anguish! If you ask an advanced sadhu how his day is going, he will answer, “Well, my ego is screaming bloody murder, but I just ignore him! I perceive the joy of the Self, who is my ‘Big Brother,’ coming to my rescue any minute. He’s just about due… ah, there He is, right on time!” We do not see a “miraculous depth” until after enlightenment. We do not “recognize who we really are” until after enlightenment. We do not “experience our True Self” until enlightenment. Cohen has taken all the qualities and experiences of enlightenment, told you to experience these things right now, and calls this a teaching! Balderdash! This is no teaching, but a misleading! For one thing, you cannot bring enlightenment to yourself; it comes as an act of grace. If you have these experiences as a result of “simply letting everything be as it is,” if they do not seem to arise unbidden, your experience is not genuine. We can go up to samadhi’s door and knock until our knuckles bleed, but it is the Self who answers, when He is sure He can overcome the ego, not before this. Nirvikalpa samadhi is like the mother cat who picks up her little ones by the scruff of the neck. It is like a policeman who whisks the little girl in the street out of harm’s way at the last moment. It is like the loving parent, who instead of waiting for birthdays and holidays, buys his children presents on the spur of the moment, as his generous spirit moves him to do. “Here,” the Self says to us one day, to our complete surprise. “I seem to have something in this box for you; would you like to see what it is?” We must do all the work of sadhana, which is really required, in order that the ego may be sufficiently weakened. On that happy day, you will be scooped up by the glorious, radiant Self, and discover that you are much bigger, and much brighter, than you ever could have known! Now, in this quotation from Cohen there is one interesting thing upon which I wish to remark before moving on. He says, “a place before the universe was born.” This is indeed the Atman’s “I am,” having been communicated to Cohen. The Atman knows it is part of Brahman, and thus you will indeed feel that you arose “before the universe was born.” I’ll be damned to hell myself, however, before I’ll agree that this is an experience which you can have before enlightenment! I asked my Father about this once. I said, “Father, you are all the time sending people back into animal bodies. This doesn’t seem fair to me. I tell you what, since I am blessed to always see your face, why don’t you make me a little lizard, a gecko? What fun I’ll have, making my way up into the sunshine of your glorious presence once more!” Do you know what He said? I cannot repeat it, although His answer spoke of hellfire and brimstone, none of it heading in my direction!
In the practice of contemplation, we deliberately use the mind to find the answer to the question, How shall I live? When we ask the question, How shall I live?, we want to know how to be true to our True Self, how to be true to the peace, joy, bliss and perfect contentment that we found in the experience of deep meditation.
I’m putting these quotations in bigger chunks now, since I can hardly stand to read them! They are so wrong! My head feels like it is in a cement mixer! At least, I have Cohen to thank for bringing my mind back to earth, where it perhaps belongs! Cohen here goes into his idea of “contemplation,” which I interpreted in a positive light that sadhus could use if they would begin to reflect upon their past, and the impact of their spiritual practices upon their lives. Cohen’s idea, however, is simply to describe the mental process which he himself undergoes after a profound spiritual experience, one that will not be granted to any of his readers for a long, long time! You cannot be “true to the True Self” until you have seen the Self. Until you have seen the Self, you only have an inadequate and deficient idea about the Self. If you think you see the Self, this is likely the ego in one of its clever disguises. You will find, that all Cohen does here is describe what life is like for an illumined person. If, instead of saying “we” here, he would say, “the illumined or enlightened person,” everything would be square between us. The goal of spiritual practice is to get the experience which he tries to make into a method! How can you use the experience of the goal, before you have reached the goal? How can you make a method out of that which you do not understand and of which you have not even tasted? You do not know what “peace, joy, bliss and perfect contentment” are until enlightenment. You just have no idea! Suppose you had no idea of what a “torrent” of water was; the greatest movement of water you have ever seen is that which emerges from a shower head. All your life, you hear people talking about “torrents” of water, and you think, “Ah yes, ‘torrent,’ like my shower!” Then, someone notices your misconception, and takes you on a trip to see Niagara Falls. Now, that’s a torrent! The experiences of enlightenment are overwhelming, blinding, overpowering, immense, intense and indescribable. Da Free John is perhaps a better representative of the nature of the bliss which comes than Cohen, although he unfortunately seems to believe he is the Avatar (though not the Son of God, of which he has no conception). A light is off, and then the light is on. Everything is black, and then everything is white. Enlightenment is sudden, implacable, awesome, immediate and radical. If you can somehow form an imperfect image of your true Self, the ideas which Cohen expounds here may work for you, although I do not think they would have worked for me in my own sadhana. It is better to form a conception of the Avatar, the ultimate of everything, and repeat His Name within the mind with a feeling of friendship or devotion. The Avatar personifies the Self for man. Long to be transformed into this One, and you will make optimal progress, being swept off your feet by the Atman in enlightenment in the “wink of an eye,” for in the vast sweep of eternal time, the longest interval is always extremely short, in comparison to what is coming next.
If we are sincere, we want there to be no contradiction between the Self that we experience in meditation and the self that we are as an individual human being who acts and reacts in the world of time and space. In a liberated individual these two different experiences of self merge and become one.
You cannot experience the Self in meditation. You do not experience the Self until samadhi. Before this, you really have no clue about the glory that resides in the depths of your own heart, although you may begin to get glimmerings, indications, while in deep dhyana. I place my entire authority as a spiritual teacher behind these statements, and stand deeply rooted against Cohen, who implies here that everyone can experience the Self in meditation. Who will win this battle? I care not. Judging from my current life, I will simply come back, read various mystics, stumble upon the writings of Guru Kurt, and take his word for it, laughing at Cohen! Even in my days as a sadhu, I would have laughed at his ideas here! The very idea, that I could perceive the Self, as a new meditator, with no spiritual experience, having not the foggiest idea what was going on inside my mind, and with all my attention upon my external life! In my early meditations, I did not experience the Self, but a gigantic mess, over which I sought to gain control! I did rein in this mess, and my mind has become quiet, responsive. It purrs like a racecar engine in anticipation of all the fun I shall have in the years to come, writing and perhaps talking with people about the wonder of the Self and the glory of the Father. Thus, it appears to me that Cohen’s idea about what an egoic individual actually is, is a major misconception, and may be one of the central problems of his teaching work. The person who meditates, is the same person who gets up from meditation and lives an ordinary (or in the case of spiritual aspirants, extraordinary) life. Cohen thinks that everyone can see the Self! What a delusion! His whole set of ideas, in these two sentences, are not based on reality, and are full of falsehood. In order for there to be “no contradiction between the Self that we experience in meditation and the self that we are as an individual human being” we would need to be able to see the Self. Since those with egos cannot see the Self, this sentence applies to no one in existence, in this entire universe! Since there are not two different experiences of self in the normal meditator, the second sentence, “In a liberated individual these two different experiences of self merge and become one” is similarly devoid of meaningful content. How far from reality we tread, Andrew! There are indeed two separate selves, the ego and the Atman. These never, to anyone at all, feel like two separate experiences. You are either the ego, the separate self, or the Atman, the Supreme Self. No one feels that they are “two beings,” because you are either all of one, or all of the other, at least from the standpoint of the embodied consciousness. Thank-you, Cohen, for bringing me “back to earth” with these sentences from your dream world, where you alone exist and appear to seek to write yourself out of Brahman’s dialogue with man. I have never seen more unreality in a truly illumined being before, and feel that I have been highly entertained! Well, I give up. In other places, I have been able to see what your real perception, giving rise to strange quotations, has been, but here I just cannot. In the movie, “Strange Brew,” there is a startling and very funny scene where you see a roof in darkness, at night, and suddenly there is a black dog on the roof, rolling uphill. It is funny because it is so unexpected, so utterly incongruous with the whole plot of the movie. Later you find out that this dog can fly, and it rescues its owners from dire trouble. Cohen goes against all of nature in these sentences, and makes me laugh; can he fly as well?
Spiritual practice done in earnest can bring us to a place where the life that we live, the very human life that we live, is free from fundamental contradiction, a place where our own personality becomes a clear expression of that perfect peace that lies deep within us.
And here comes the Atman, to Cohen’s rescue. He is allowed to amble about, to wander freely, but the Atman, which is in touch with the real, always reins him in, in the end, so that we see the validity of his enlightenment and the power and goodness of his Atman as well. Cohen’s fundamental problem here, it seems to me, is that he has not established within his embodied consciousness that enlightenment is a happening, a purification event which occurs at a specific place and time at the end of the process of sadhana, and therefore he supposes his students capable of perceiving exactly what he perceives, when this is far from the case. He does not yet understand that he is in a different class from them. Ramakrishna used to speak of four classes of individuals on planet earth: the bound, the struggling, the liberated and the ever-free. In my terminology, this is the worldly, the aspirants, the enlightened, and the angels. Cohen finds himself in a different class from his students, but for some reason he is not aware of it. Now, it could be the case that this is his humility, forcing him to presume the least about himself, and it could be arrogance, in refusing to acknowledge the ancient revelations, which were accurate. In any case, once he supposes that all can see the Self, as he has done, he has gone out from reality, and in coming back in to reality we get strange sentences like the previous two, which I found so utterly lacking in meaning. He says, “Everyone can see the Self in meditation, like me, if they will only have my experience, perceiving the SPACE within, the miraculous void.” Besides being circular argument (assuming the goal has been attained, in order to attain the goal), he finds that he needs to explain the problems that egoic people have, as well as the solution to these problems, and so he posits that his students experience two selves, an inner Self and an outer self, and that in the illumined these two become one. This is a very interesting piece of specious reasoning, but the whole thing cycles around a wrong assumption. The students cannot see the Self, and so they cannot have his experience in meditation, and so they cannot bring this experience into their outer lives. Cohen has a mental model, a “theory of sadhana,” which is wildly inaccurate, based upon his internal experience as an illumined individual, and hence he gets in trouble, ending up with prose that is devoid of all meaning as he fixes the intellectual dilemmas he created by making wrong assumptions. In my “neck of the woods,” in Wisconsin, the “nation’s dairyland,” they have people who trim the hooves of cattle. It is a job all its own, requiring special tools and skills, so that farmers prefer to pay for this service rather than do it themselves. A man decided to go into the hoof-trimming business, having never seen a cow! He presumed that “hoof” meant something in the cow’s mouth (having heard of hoof-and-mouth disease), and so he bought some dental instruments. Going out on his first job, he proceeded to file on a cow’s teeth for some time, before the farmer stopped him, asking what in the world he was doing. The man suffered from an erroneous premise, that the “hoof” was something in the mouth, although he had heard tales in his youth of keratin structures that were evidently larger than the teeth he had been filing, so he felt a little uncomfortable, doubting himself. Nevertheless, out of his wrong premise he began to argue with the farmer, “The hoof is a large keratin structure, that emerges from the mouth of cattle. I have here a hoof-extractor, and a hoof-reducer, which I was using to good effect on your cow before you interrupted me.” Thus, in an effort to come into tune with reality as he had heard of it, and proceeding from a false premise, he came up with meaningless nonsense! This is Cohen’s precise situation in the earlier quotation, although our befuddled hoof-trimmer would at least have been open to the farmer’s pointing out the real nature of the hoof (in an effort to protect his cattle’s teeth, if for nothing else), and would have learned the proper way of trimming hooves from another, established, hoof-trimmer! Cohen, on the other hand, goes his own way, utterly blind to the other illuminati around him, unaware of the angels, spurning the Lord, self-absorbed and solipsistic, misleading as many as he can through his devious thinking and ill-conceived “plots” for their enlightenment, all of which seem to begin with them being enlightened already!
I would agree with Cohen in this last sentence, as a
description of enlightenment, except for his emphasis on the word human,
for those who are enlightened are beyond human; they are divine. Cohen, newest
member of this club, thinks he will impress people with his humility, and
perhaps he will! “I am just like you,” Cohen says. Easwaran was far more
profound; he knew that his advanced aspirants would recognize his attainment and
want it for themselves, and so he said, “I was just like you.” What
do I say? I say, “Listen to these illumined men; they’re pretty good,
don’t you think?” Whatever authority I possess comes from my Father alone. I
do not seek to turn myself into a “zero,” as Gandhi claims to have done. I
am my Father’s devoted child, a son of His, looking for some righteous action,
out to have myself a good time. What is the “fundamental contradiction?” The
fundamental contradiction is that although our real situation is as one
being among many, we cannot see the simple fact that it should be possible for
all to live in happiness, simultaneously, and that this would lead to the
greatest joy for all. We do not perceive our immortality, nor are we strongly
motivated to discover this, despite the fact that we are going to be leaving
this planet, going to where we do not know, within the relatively short period
of a hundred years. For all we know, we disappear, but this never bothers us!
Thus, we exist, but do not care about our real situation, the nature of our
existence. This is the fundamental question, and the ego prevents us from caring
about it. Reality is right in front of our noses, but we never see it, and in
fact turn our backs upon it! Look inside yourself a moment; do you really feel
comfortable with the fact of your onrushing death? Does the thought of all that
you are, all that you think and all that you do, suddenly disappearing from the
midst of life, for all time, bother you at all? If it does, then learn to
meditate, using good technique. Repeat the Name of God from time to time with
love and devotion, or at least friendship, in your heart. Do some selfless work
every day, or at least every week, contributing to projects and activities which
lead to the joy of many, although your joy may be included in this. Then, even
though you do not reach enlightenment, you will observe the spiritual processes
at work within your soul, giving you joy for goodness, and sorrow for evil,
giving you evidence for the Atman’s existence and your likely continuance from
this life into the next. The more enthusiasm and energy you put into your
spiritual practice, the more certainty you will gain. Sadhana is a cow that we
can milk, once we approach it in the right frame of mind. Spiritual disciplines
should fill us with joy, for so did our Creator make us, that finding
righteousness, we should find our own glory in the bargain. This is the message
of all the scriptures: become like Brahman, and you will experience some of
Brahman’s power and glory. Brahman is personified in the Son, the Avatar,
earth’s eternal Lord. Howsoever high you may go, there will never come a time
for you when you will see something in Brahman, that is not also present in the
Son, although the Son is personal, and Brahman must forever appear impersonal to
man. Look to the Son, and Brahman too shall appear. As Peter Gabriel sings in
his song, “In Your Eyes,”
in your eyes
the light the heat
in your eyes
I am complete
in your eyes
I see the doorway to a thousand churches
in your eyes
the resolution of all the fruitless searches
in your eyes
I see the light and the heat
in your eyes
oh, I want to be that complete
I want to touch the light
the heat I see in your eyes
Andrew Cohen (posted 7/26/03):
True love and the absolute freedom that it brings demands everything from us. As long as we want to have anything for ourselves, even freedom itself, we will not find true emancipation in this life. True love demands everything, and Liberation, which is its reward, can only be ours when we are willing to sacrifice even that.
If the experience of love and bliss is not merely a superficial event, then in that experience must be the revelation of the emptiness of a separate or personal self. That means, therefore, that ideally bliss becomes not the possession or mere object of fascination for the ego, but that ocean of being within which the ego loses its balance and all points of reference.
From In Defense of Guru Principle (1999)
Guru Kurt:
This is actually a very nice, deep quotation that illustrates Cohen’s real enlightened stature. I am made glad to see it, because I was beginning to wonder after the poor quality of the others I have been seeing. I am reassured, that my diagnosis of this individual is correct: he is an illuminati, amazed at his own existence. He is like Thiriel, from Blake’s “First Book of Urizen” (VIII-3): “Astonish'd at his own existence like a man from a cloud born.” Cohen cannot make himself believe that he has realized his divinity, that he is God-realized. Perhaps his heart is full of compassion for his students, so that he likes to pretend he is just like them, when his awareness far exceeds theirs, as a fog bank across San Francisco Bay exceeds the fog of a person’s morning shower. One of the things which I have noticed about him is that he is overly concerned about making his “inner vision of the Self” match his outward actions. This concern is really not necessary. His ego has been destroyed, so he should relax more. Whatever he does is transparent to the Self, so much so that the best attitude for him to adopt is that of an explorer, searching out the profound depths of a cave into which he seems somehow to have fallen, a cave full of shining diamonds of divine discourse, radiant rubies of holy truth, and sparkling sapphires of inner glory. Whichever way you turn, Cohen, the ego can assail you no more. You are under the control of a divine force, your own Atman. Didn’t you have experiences like this, immediately after illumination, where a voice told you your life was no longer yours, but his who moved you? This was indeed the voice of the Atman! I had a similar experience, but my “inner fellow” is a little more aggressive than yours, I’m afraid, for he propels me into untold trouble, and makes me say outrageous things which I can hardly countenance in my normal daily speech! “Everything in here is mine!” he said. “Fine,” I replied. “Just you mind that you don’t move the furniture too much; I kind of like it this way!” “Are you the puppet, the puppeteer, or something else yet again?” he asked. “I don’t know what,” I answered, “but who the hell are you?” The consciousness in my body is not different from the consciousness of the ruler of my body. All my thoughts, words and actions are under His direct, continuous control, yet the one who experiences this control is not someone other than Him. Everything that I am, is unconnected to the body. It descended for my birth, and will ascend again after my death. My body is composed of atoms gathered from the dust and air of this planet. My soul, which inhabits the body, does not come from here, but from a place far away. There is nothing in this material realm which is mine. As you are amazed at your enlightenment, I am amazed at this Creation, for it dazzles my eyes, and I feel almost unworthy to be in so glorious a place. Yet, I find myself here, and what is worse, I find myself compelled to try to communicate to man the glory that I know, when man is in no mind to listen! The Father willed that you, Cohen, be surrounded by eager students from soon after enlightenment, but that has not been His will for me. His will is that I both support myself, by working a fulltime job, and also seek to search out the depths of my spirit for what pearls I can find there under these “trying” circumstances. I “walk on eggshells” at work, for in America all claims to enlightenment are taken as signs of lunacy. I hide my writings, and never talk about the spirit, or my job might be forfeit. Yet, of all those I have contacted in the world (over a dozen, in high places), none sees fit to give any kind of response. My Father does seem to have an umbrella of protection over me, nevertheless, although as my “deeper fellow,” as I said, seems to be in continuous communication with Him, every day sets my teeth on edge with close calls and frightening encounters. My Father (He is so annoying), keeps pretending that soon I will be talking with people, which I can scarcely believe, since this would be the first time in my life when I might see intelligent life on this planet. I tell Him, “Father, they cannot even read or think without your help; how will they ever be able to find my website, and to peruse my materials?” His Power seems to be immense, though for the time being He refuses to use it openly; who am I to argue with Him? I always feel like I am immersed in a dance of His righteous Power, although, when I look within myself, I find that His Power is strangely absent. Why would this be so? Perhaps you can explain it to me…
My major comment upon this nice piece by Cohen would be to explain that where he indicates “emptiness,” I indicate “ecstatic awareness,” for this is my perception under these selfsame circumstances. I do indeed perceive there is a “dropping off point” as we go forward spiritually, where we must step away from or let go of what was behind, in order to approach or grasp what is ahead. Spirituality may indeed be described as a “let go,” but after your vision clears you no longer think of it in such terms, because what you let go is so ridiculously small by comparison with what comes to you immediately after. I say that I want freedom, but like Cohen I perceive that it is not egoic freedom which I want, but ecstatic freedom, freedom that expands into infinity. I do not experience this as a sacrifice, however, but as a continuous upward movement. Perhaps I have been at this game too long, and have forgotten what egoic conceptions are like, although I am pelted with them all day long, every day, in all my human contacts! When Cohen says “the emptiness of a separate or personal self,” he must be speaking of the ego’s disappearance. I would ask him, “Who is it that perceives the ‘emptiness of a separate or personal self?’” The answer is that the one who perceives is the “I” of the Atman, the profound “I am” which does not look at itself, but only all around it. The Atman’s “I am” is secure, and does not need to continually gaze at itself, for it knows it is immortal spirit. Thus, in illumination, sages experience the total absence of “I,” from the perspective of the intrinsically self-knowing, secure “I am.” They do not immediately perceive the “I am,” since this is completely foreign to them, as unlike the ego as a beautiful swan is from its excrement. The “I am” is glorious. It is radiant. It glows with its own inner light, burning a flame that can never be put out. Easwaran used to call this the inextinguishable divine spark of existence, but I like to think of it as being a little torch, or a little lamp, because it burns continuously. If, in nirvikalpa samadhi, a sage looks inward he will perceive the Atman’s “I am.” So far, most of earth’s illuminati have only looked outward, perceiving Paramatman, “That.” Along with this perception, the Atman hands them certain knowledge that they come from “That,” which they proclaim by saying, “I am That,” i.e., “I am everything,” but strictly speaking this is not correct. They arise from the same source as everything, but they are the Atman, which is individual and unique, all theirs, divine, arising from Paramatman like a living branch from the tree of life itself. The Atman is the highest (or deepest, depending on your analogy) part of the soul. From it spring the parts of the soul which undergo embodiment, the higher mind, lower mind, and senses. None of this is ever lost, for it is all indestructible spirit. When a sage says that he has “merged with the universe,” he is merely confused. Who is it that speaks to us, if he has so merged? His soul remains intact, and although he has truly perceived that his source is the same as that of everything else, this is merely a perception, not the real situation, though the Atman often communicates this to us in a vivid experience that can cause us to believe we have indeed “merged with everything.” Easwaran used to say that “the Self in all is the same,” but this was because he had been staring at Paramatman, which is indeed the same in all, as the river in which trout swim is the same for all trout. No one has truly been harmed by thinking “the Self is the same in all.” Although I had strong misgivings about it during my sadhana, I was comforted by looking at Easwaran, seeing his radiant, glorious personality, so unique and individual. I felt that achieving what he had achieved was worth, as Cohen states here, even the sacrifice of all my former concepts. Now, I am pleased to announce to the world that although you will likely have the experience of “unity” and “merging with universal Spirit” when you undergo samadhi, you will emerge intact. The soul, composed of Atman, higher mind, lower mind, and senses, is all your private property, though as you will discover, what you think of as “mine” and what the Atman calls “mine” are two different things. You are shallow, and the Atman is deep. You are superficial, and the Atman is profound. The Atman does not look at itself; it knows it is immortal, and looks outward, at Paramatman, its destination, and at the other spiritual beings surrounding it, interacting with which it knows is an important source of growth (provided they are receptive; the growth actually occurs as self-knowledge deepens, so that for the illumined person, students are by no means required). The Atman is aware of itself, but this awareness is not the type of non-productive awareness which the ego possesses, always dwelling on itself. The Atman is a Master Mechanic. It hears one odd noise in the engine of the mind, and immediately and permanently repairs it. The ego throws itself upon the engine of the mind like a crab or octopus, hugging the mind to itself, burning itself on the hot manifold, sticking its fingers into the cylinders, throwing in wrenches and pouring sugar in the gas tank! The Atman is the proper ruler of the mind; the ego is not up to the job, but needs to retire after a few trillion years of really gumming up the works, like a bad Buster Keaton comedy! It is not easy to tell the world about the Atman’s “I am,” for this is a sophisticated concept, but the modern age is ready for it. People should feel free to prosecute their sadhanas with fell force, knowing they will not lose anything of theirs which is real, but will only lose what is false, and they do not obtain “union with God,” but extinguish the ego through the divine power that already resides within them, becoming that God which the Atman truly is.
Like most of Cohen’s quotations so far, this one must be understood as an expression of the experience of nirvikalpa samadhi, and as such it is beautiful and highly accurate. There is a darkness which comes, before the glorious dawning of the Self. If, reading it, you are put into a spiritual mood, perhaps inspired to make an effort, it is a good thing. However, I do not think you should put your desire for freedom into the funeral pyre, because until the ego is removed in samadhi, it is who we think we are, and we must work with it. A person must make the ego into a “good ego” before the ego can be extinguished, and one aspect of a good ego is certainly a desire for freedom. As you experience this desire, however, following Cohen’s lead, you should realize that in nirvikalpa samadhi this desire will be burned out, and it will be replaced with a far nobler and truer aspiration and understanding. Make your ego good, but realize that what is coming far surpasses any concepts or expectations which you may have. The experience of nirvikalpa samadhi does indeed feel like a sacrifice, a horrible sacrifice of everything which you hold near and dear. You really have no clue what the Self is, or what the ego is, until the Self rescues you from the ego’s clutches. In the first moments of nirvikalpa samadhi, you witness the disappearance of the ego, which is a little like riding upwards on the nosecone of a rocket taking a one-way trip into space, knowing that you will never return, and knowing that provided you do not fall off from the great heights attained (which also seems possible), soon you will be in vacuum, unable to breathe: it strikes this kind of terror in your soul! Then there comes a point, as Cohen notes, when there is a “revelation of emptiness,” a moment when there is nothing. For a while, you are in utter darkness, alone and yet somehow intact. Then, the flow of bliss at last begins, as the Atman takes hold and sweeps you off your feet. Did you know you can breathe in vacuum? You can not only breathe, but you can thrive in the atmosphere beyond the ego. Cohen describes this as the ego “losing its balance and all points of reference,” which is true, however the ego is also completely lost, after losing its balance, and it is really the embodied consciousness that experiences all of this. The embodied consciousness is not the ego; the ego is a mere idea in the mind, although it is the root idea from which all other ideas spread, like weeds across the garden of your mind. Don’t certain weeds spread by sending out “runners?” Similarly, the ego is connected, beneath the surface levels of consciousness, to all of our selfish thoughts. It is also, unfortunately, connected to all our purportedly selfless thoughts as well, which is the meaning of the “good ego.” It is likely that what inspired Cohen to make these comments was his observation of his students’ ideas about freedom. He told them to engender a fierce desire for freedom, for liberation, which is good advice, given by Shankara as well. Then, his students came up to him, demonstrating a “desire for freedom,” and Cohen’s Atman said, “No, that is not what I meant at all. Tell them they will have to renounce these little ideas; freedom is something much greater than anything of which the ego can conceive.” Spiritual aspirants tend to think of “freedom” as becoming a ballerina, dancing across the stage of life in any direction that they choose. The real experience of spiritual freedom is far more profound than this. In it, you match your internal joy with everything you encounter in the external world – and the external world loses, every single time! People do not realize what slaves they are to the world, how attached they are to everyone and everything here. When they see a new person, the first thing they do is get attached, or else form an aversion, a form of negative attachment. An illumined person, meeting a new person, feels neither attachment nor aversion, but only interest. He is utterly free in the relationship, never clinging, never depending on the other in any way. Easwaran used to say that he felt he was “always ready to give,” but with me freedom expresses itself in a complete and deep love for all life, a love which rejoices whether those in the world approach me, or turn and run in the other direction. If I see a person turning their back on me, my first thought is, “Aha! My Father is sending me a message; I was indeed getting too ‘uppity,’ and needed correction. Thanks, thanks, and thanks, again!” If the entire world turns its back on me (as it does at the current moment, in my capacity as a spiritual teacher), I say, “Cool! I have the Father all to myself, with no interruption by egoic individuals!” He cuffs me on the side of the head, and says, “Too bad, buddy. Well, what’s what?” If you are free (and this is not likely true of the world’s current illuminati, but only may be said of those in sahaja samadhi or beyond), at any moment, you can “clear the mind” of all external contamination in a nirvikalpa samadhi-like event of a brief duration. You may have an unpleasant experience, perhaps witnessing a violent quarrel, and think, “I want to forget that.” Expressing your spiritual power over your mind, you can blot it out, just like that. You may feel like you are losing yourself in a crowd of egoic individuals. Calling upon your power, you can enter into a state of utter negation of the sense world (which I suppose is somewhat analogous to a whole night’s sleep for those still retaining egos), and emerge fresh, unattached, totally united within yourself, ready to present your firm and unwavering, unique perspective on life to them all. I tell you these things both to tantalize you, and to help you see that there is much more to “spiritual freedom” than meets the egoic eye. Whole books could be written about it, but before I will be writing any, someone on this God-forsaken rock has got to give me some food, without demanding that I work for it, slave-fashion, in a factory of the devil’s making!
Why does Cohen bring “true love” into his discussion here? This is a most strange appearance, for love is nothing if it has no object. Love is a feeling of great affection, veneration, and appreciation for another living being, or for the aggregate of all living beings, which I will presume is Cohen’s meaning here, since he does not admit the existence of the personal God, the Avatar, as I do. True love does indeed bring absolute freedom, which is why it is the first point of my path. In my opinion, love is the most powerful tool at man’s disposal for overcoming all egocentricity and quickly reaching a state of optimal spiritual progress (which in turn optimizes joyousness). You know, striving for the goal of samadhi is all very good, but there is a higher way still, and that is striving to excel in the modes of devotional service onto Brahman, for even the Avatar seeks to improve in this region (though His improvements will naturally be invisible to us). Acting in this manner, one optimizes spiritual progress very quickly, for one seeks to emulate the Avatar and His noble and inscrutable ways. Indeed, the Avatar Himself, being the highest embodied being in the universe, may be served as the Father, as Brahman. Ask yourself, “What would Jesus want for me to do in this instance?” and then do that thing. Or, ask yourself, “If Jesus were here, how could I please Him? What would make Him smile?” Or, continue to repeat His Name with a longing to be transformed into a little facsimile of Him, into a little son or daughter of Brahman yourself. All spiritual disciplines are included in “service onto Brahman,” for these are good for the soul and please the Lord. Exercise and healthy eating also count as “service onto Brahman,” for the Lord wishes us to have an optimum experience of life. The Lord is pleased with selfless service of the life all around you most of all, for you are learning to love your fellows, and coming to realize the truth of Brahman’s first law, that all are meant to coexist in happiness. The Lord wants us to become as He is, noble, good, kind, gentle, loving, merciful, and energetic as well. One seeking to serve Him finds that he serves only his own best interests, and finds himself invested in the life process in vibrant ways that awaken the soul and give a feeling of meaning and purpose, as well is increasing the experience of bliss and joy. The best way to serve the Lord, is to seek Self-realization, for He is so lonely! He wants friends to stand beside Him, to help Him rule over planet earth. After you become an angel, you will engage in profound pastimes, visiting the earth at times in disembodied form, and at times embodied. The Lord will perhaps meet with you in the astral realms, and plan intense actions on planet earth, to awaken the spiritual longings of its residents. Before enlightenment, before becoming an angel, you have got to first develop the good ego, which is like the Atman and is therefore easily conquered in samadhi. Although at the last moment of egoic existence, you will need to abandon all that you have known, until that time you should cultivate both a feeling of love and a desire for freedom. Instead of thinking about sacrificing these things, think about constantly working on them, improving them, sublimating them into the highest forms of which you are capable at the moment. Although the experience of samadhi is sudden, dramatic, before this your soul does experience growth of a more limited amount, so that you will find your ideas about love and freedom both evolving as you also grow. This is my best advice; Cohen may or may not agree with it, though I may never know his opinion!
Andrew Cohen (posted 7/27/03):
The power of absolute love is a raging fire of uncontainable majesty that consumes any and all who come too close to its flames. That fire burns wildly, aware only of itself. That is why the wholehearted and very conscious participation in the entire process of self-purification is always such an integral part of spiritual evolution and transformation. Indeed, in most cases, the extraordinary leap that profound surrender always is will not occur free from the corrupting influence of ego unless our conscious participation in our own purification is intense and deeply committed.
What is so miraculous, though, is the powerful recognition that that participation in the process of our own transformation is that raging fire of absolute love in action, moving in our own hearts and minds as the desire for Liberation itself.
From Embracing Heaven & Earth (2000)
Guru Kurt:
St. John of the Cross wrote in His (for this was verily the Avatar in disguise) poetry and prose about “The Living Flame of Love.1” Here is the poem:
O living flame of love
that tenderly wounds my soul
in its deepest center! Since
now you are not oppressive,
now consummate! if it be your will:
tear through the veil of this sweet encounter!
O sweet cautery,
O delightful wound!
O gentle hand! O delicate touch
that tastes of eternal life
and pays every debt!
in killing you changed death to life.
O lamps of fire!
in whose splendors
the deep caverns of feeling,
once obscure and blind,
now give forth, so rarely, so exquisitely,
both warmth and light to their Beloved.
How gently and lovingly
you wake in my heart,
where in secret you dwell alone;
and in your sweet breathing,
filled with good and glory,
how tenderly you swell my heart with love.
This poem, I believe, represents a description of nirvikalpa samadhi, as one might experience it approaching through the via negativa, the negative way, the Way of the Cross, or the Way of Knowledge, as it is known in the East. Those who advocate the “pure” Way of Knowledge do not typically advise the feeling of love, but John of the Cross combined Knowledge with friendship for and emulation of the Avatar, so that one bears burdens as one conceives that the Lord would do, choosing the real over the unreal, the true over the false, until the ego is reduced to ashes and one ascends to divine union. In the advanced stages of dhyana, one traveling by the Way of the Cross may experience great burning inside, as the Self emerges in glory after successive dark nights of the soul. This “burning” only comes to advanced aspirants, who are intent upon obtaining the goal, whose thoughts and deeds are intense. In the via negativa, one first enters the dark night of the senses, through choosing correct daily actions (or avoiding incorrect ones). Then, one enters the dark night of the mind through choosing correct thoughts (or avoiding incorrect ones). Finally, one enters the dark night of the spirit, through a process that is more difficult to describe, emerging from this night into savikalpa, or nirvikalpa samadhi. (Practically speaking, however, these nights are each a succession of many nights, each more intense than the last. The final night of the spirit, in which the ego is destroyed, is the most intense of all, of a different order of magnitude than all earlier ones.) In the first stanza of this poem, St. John describes the perceptions of the embodied consciousness just prior to the tearing of the last veil, which still separates aspirant from Self, devotee from God. There is still a little ego remaining, or I could perhaps say, this is how the Self has chosen to reveal itself, for if the final night is over, the ego has been essentially removed. In my commentary yesterday, I described nirvikalpa samadhi as an experience of fear, terror and darkness, followed by bliss. This poem describes the bliss which one experiences, and refers to the terror and uncertainty as “oppression.” The aspirant here has a vision of the power of the Self, as having been a flame capable of burning through selfishness, through the ego, cleaning out the “deepest center,” or self-conception. The Self lives in the cave of the heart, which is a way of saying a part of our soul deeper than anything of which we are currently aware, which is hidden even from what we now regard as “the heart,” residing behind our current self-identity, the ego. The power of the Self is no longer felt to be oppressive for this aspirant, for the ego has been mostly removed, and he beholds the glory of God within himself. When there is nothing more to burn, what is left is Spirit, eternal, blissful, self-effulgent. The aspirant beholds this Spirit, and shyly asks for final union, if it be possible. In the rest of the poem, you see that union is indeed possible for this one, and that God comes to life in him, never to leave again.
Naturally, the original commentary by St. John of the Cross is more thorough than I intend to do here, but I will go over it again briefly. The first two stanzas of the poem amount to a synopsis or summary of sadhana, for the aspirant perceives that all the pain encountered along the via negativa has been good, glorious, utterly worthwhile (for one learns to rejoice in going against the ego to such an extent that the dark night is entered, and if this is done forcefully enough one experiences burning until the faulty region of consciousness is purified). In the second stanza, at last, the aspirant understands that while before he perceived that he was likely doing a good thing, in subjugating his selfishness to his highest selfless ideals, now he knows this, certainly. Do you see why it is called the “via negativa?” St. John writes, “in killing you changed death to life,” for on the Way of the Cross one experiences “little deaths” as the ego is vanquished, time and time again, though it is my assertion no one can travel far along this path without experiencing the bliss of the Atman coming booming through after the times of woe and darkness. This “booming through,” as I say, may be preceded by a burning sensation, if the mental renunciation of the aspirant is intense. This burning sensation, in either the region of the brain or the heart, can be somewhat painful, although you recognize it as spiritual and learn to take joy in it, because it feels like doors are opening in your consciousness, and your burden is being lessened by supernatural forces arising from within yourself. Before samadhi, though, this is not really the Atman, directly, which is why the second stanza of the poem is so beautiful. Now, the aspirant perceives that the glorious force working within him has indeed been God, though many veils separated the two. In between the second and third stanzas, I believe, is where “union” occurs, or as I like to say, transformation of the aspirant into that God whom he adores and is his real Self. The third stanza is a paean of glory. It symbolizes the extinction of the ego, and the extension of the Self into those regions formerly occupied by the ego, the “deep caverns of feeling, once obscure and blind.” If you read the third and fourth stanzas carefully, you will perceive that the aspirant now talks surreptitiously about himself, as the “Beloved.” Union with God is a strange experience, most difficult to describe. What you thought was someone else, is really you, and this one whom you always thought, thought of you as someone else, has known all along that you and He were identical. This mixed-up feeling of radiant discovery is described most beautifully here. St. John says the inner Lord wakes gently and lovingly in the aspirant’s heart, which is a description of the bliss of samadhi, of experiencing this radiant One’s arrival at last. In the end, the aspirant feels the love that the Beloved feels, for the Atman’s nature is love, and this has now become his nature, too. The breathing of God within him, is his breathing, too! I go too quickly through this poem, not doing it justice, but I only brought it in because it relates to Cohen’s quotation of today. It, and all the poetry of St. John of the Cross, is suitable material for meditation. This poem should generate a great deal of heat within your mind should you meditate upon it, so that it is a good cure for a soul that feels cold and dark. It will bring warmth and light to the one who meditates on its salubrious and halcyon lines; I wish I had been so fortunate, in my own sadhana, for somehow Easwaran missed it and did not include it in any of his selections.
This quotation by Cohen begins well, but then lapses back into his solipsism. I really like the first sentence: “The power of absolute love is a raging fire of uncontainable majesty that consumes any and all who come too close to its flames.” When he speaks about “absolute love,” he is talking about the love which the Atman possesses, which is divine. At St. John points out, this flame only burns you until the ego is removed, and then it is seen as the glory of God. When he says, “That fire burns wildly, aware only of itself” I get really excited; what a splendid description of the Atman, indeed! He has hit the nail right on the head here; his arrow is sent powerfully to the center of the target. The Atman says, “I am not that little ego, you hold in your hands there. I am majestic! I am glorious! I am!” Your tiny self-concept withers away before the might of the Atman within! There is still some value, I think, in describing the process of sadhana as ego death. It is like this. The Atman is only able to stick an ugly, ignorant thing out into embodiment, like a gangrenous big toe. This ugly, ignorant thing must learn that it is ugly and ignorant, and approach the Atman, hat in hands. “Please, sir,” the good ego says. “I am so tired and weary. I went out on this long journey, and I no longer know my way home. Do you have the answers?” The Atman smiles in glee, seeing that His time has come at last, and shouts, “Time for an amputation!” He cuts off the gangrenous toe with the sword of samadhi, and then inserts his whole head and shoulders down into embodiment, the conquering Hero! Really, the process is more of a transformation than an amputation, but it is still a useful way to think about it, since it is so extreme. Cohen says, “That is why the wholehearted and very conscious participation in the entire process of self-purification is always such an integral part of spiritual evolution and transformation.” The conscious participation is of your self-aware consciousness, which is like the Atman, burning wildly, aware only of “itself,” or in the egoic individual, starting to understand that the ego must go. In order for the evil ego to be transformed into a good ego, it must be informed on which direction to go in some fashion. I believe Cohen is suggesting here that this self-aware consciousness becomes aware that to approach the Atman, what is identifiably egoic must be left behind. The Atman is not really just aware of itself, but this will indeed be your experience on approaching it during sadhana, which is why I accept this insight which Cohen has expressed to us here. You think you are the ego; the Atman ever responds, “Sorry, Jack. Try again.” We plead: “Can’t I be me, and you be you? Can’t we coexist?” The Atman laughs a laugh of derision. “Not likely. It’s my way or the highway; you choose!” Thus, you need to be conscious, during sadhana, understanding that the Atman is good, and the motions of the ego are evil, so that you can begin to share the Atman’s derision of the petty, the shallow, and the vacant. However, the discovery in nirvikalpa samadhi is that your best efforts are still an order of magnitude away from the Atman’s inalienable divine attitudes and ways. He will sing, as “Johnny” does in that tune by the Charlie Daniels Band, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia:”
When the devil finished Johnny
said
“Well you're, pretty good old son,
But sit down in that chair right there
And let me show you how it's done.”
Johnny wins; the devil lays a golden fiddle at his feet, and goes his way. Cohen next says, “Indeed, in most cases, the extraordinary leap that profound surrender always is will not occur free from the corrupting influence of ego unless our conscious participation in our own purification is intense and deeply committed.” Here, Cohen lapses into describing nirvikalpa samadhi, without calling it such, as is his frequent custom. When he says “extraordinary leap,” believe me, he means enlightenment, so that this sentence only applies to himself, and not to any who might be listening to him or reading his words. Now, there is a logical error in this sentence which makes it essentially meaningless, and so I am forced to throw up my hands. Let me put the sentence in simpler terms, so that you can see it as well: “In most cases the leap which is profound surrender will not occur while we are free from ego, unless we are deeply committed.” You must realize, that if he were speaking to students, the proper way to state this would be, “In most cases the leap which is profound surrender will not occur, while we are still encumbered by ego, unless we are deeply committed.” Do you see it? The people about whom he talks are already free from ego, and so his teaching is about realized teachers! Assuming he really meant this, and it is not a typographical error (why would his students celebrate his teaching work with typos?), then he is falling prey to the idea that although he is Self-realized, he still needs to make efforts similar to those that are made in sadhana, when his plane of effort has really shifted to a much higher level. I think his eyes are still not adjusted to the conditions of his attainment, and he does not understand the changed nature of his life. Well, does his advice work for aspirants, reworded in the way that I have done? Please, please, do not expect great leaps in your sadhana. Expect slow, steady, daily progress. If you experience what you perceive as a “leap,” it is likely an experience of dhyana, where you have succeeded in stilling, or perhaps “burning out” a thought, if you go by St. John’s Way. Get back in the ring, and keep on fighting; there are millions of experiences like this headed your way, although who is to say? You may attain samadhi in this very life! Aha! I see another way to read Cohen’s sentence here, perhaps the way in which he meant it, though I am lost in a tangle of his erroneous and improper concepts. His idea is that we can somehow make progress which is “free from the corrupting influence of ego,” if we are deeply committed. I suspect this emerges after he has seen some of his students interpreting their experiences egoically, perhaps presuming enlightenment after a deep dhyana experience, of which his Atman did not approve. See, Cohen and I have very different models of spiritual evolution. He seems to think that people can get free of their egos and perceive the Self, before nirvikalpa samadhi. Opposed to this, I say that one goes from having an evil ego, to having a good ego, so that until the ego is removed, nothing in us is free from the ego’s “corrupting influence.” Perhaps these two views can be resolved by restating Cohen’s assertions, including the word “evil” in front of the word “ego,” so that he wishes people’s spiritual experiences to be free from the worst types of egoic interpretations, but will admit that they may be subject to the more positive, egoic interpretations of the good ego. Still, I think it is wrong to raise people’s expectations to the level where they will be experiencing “extraordinary leaps” of “profound surrender.” I think what has likely happened is that Cohen, who was previously illumined, did indeed experience “extraordinary leaps” during his sadhana, and so he supposes that his students are capable of these as well. For my part, I never had an “extraordinary leap,” until savikalpa and nirvikalpa samadhi, and so I don’t encourage this type of thinking. However, I would certainly agree that “intense and deeply committed” is the correct approach towards spiritual disciplines, and towards spiritual living as well.
Cohen writes, “What is so miraculous, though, is the powerful recognition that that participation in the process of our own transformation is that raging fire of absolute love in action, moving in our own hearts and minds as the desire for Liberation itself.” Well, this is a splendid statement indeed, although I think you will find the remark is best made to advanced devotees, who may begin to get this perception. The self-aware consciousness which undergoes sadhana is like the Atman, and as it grows, as the ego becomes a good ego, your inward conviction also grows that you are divine, and do not die at death, but will continue on in your sadhana until the goal is obtained. It seems to me likely that Cohen here again relates the experience that he had during his sadhana, of recognizing identity between himself and the Atman, but since he was previously illumined, this was in fact the case. Thus, the perception which comes to advanced aspirants cannot be stated in terms nearly so strong as he uses here, using the words “miraculous,” “powerful,” and “raging.” After the first illumination, the Atman begins a game of cat and mouse with itself, putting on fake egos and taking them off again, in an attempt to achieve ultimate purification and to give the world an optimal teaching, which amounts to an increase in its self-knowledge. It is in fact the case that the Atman learns, although it is divine. However, it is also the case that the non-self-aware consciousness which remains in the body until sahaja samadhi causes it great grief, interrupting its best thoughts and causing it to stumble through its teaching work, though always maintaining its divine authority. In his current life, then, Cohen had a “fake ego,” and his sadhana was a “fake sadhana.” He was already illumined! I think I read on his website that he had some “inexplicable” experiences of the Atman in his youth; well, I have explained them! The “fake ego” is not the same as a “false ego,” because it is not really an obstacle to enlightenment, but a mask put in place purposefully by the Atman so that it can undergo sadhana, increase in self-knowledge, and give a bang-up teaching work. Generally, although not always, the closer this mask is to the actual experience of a normal person going through sadhana, the more profound will be the teaching work, for it will resonate deeply in those who hear it. They will think, “Yes, that is my experience. He was just like me once!” The teacher’s Atman will think, “Now my compassion has extended out to the lowest, though my wisdom still embraces the highest. I am becoming a sage indeed!” Easwaran had a most profound “fake ego,” one that caused him to go into family life, and also to become a proficient speaker and writer. Then, he underwent sadhana, and emerged to start teaching, and what do you think? He emphasized family life, reaching out to the “common man,” and was by far the most eloquent speaker out of all the illumined people to have arisen on planet earth to this date. Don’t take my word for it. Just get a video of Easwaran speaking, and compare it with anyone else, Da Free John, Cohen, Chinmoy, Osho. He was the best, and the most profound as well, taking his message “into the streets,” while Cohen is still in the ivory tower, speaking in a hotheaded fashion to advanced devotees, who would likely hear some resonance within this final sentence, but would probably regard it as overkill, overenthusiasm, and overexcitement. He began this quotation well, but I am not convinced that he understood all the connotations of what he said, and I do not think he sees his students very clearly, imagining they are just like him inside, when they are not, encumbered by egos and bound to the world, as they are. Approaching the Self, we give up the self, and gain the Lord, into whom we are transformed, as St. John beautifully wrote, in a sweet encounter, that changes death to life, fills the empty caverns of the heart with warmth and exquisite light, swelling our hearts not with raging love, but with tender love, gently, nicely, and most gloriously, too.Andrew Cohen (posted 7/28/03):
From the spiritual perspective, evolution is the movement
from a self-centered relationship to life to one that is based upon the direct
apprehension of the inherently undivided nature of life itself. It is that
knowledge alone, directly perceived and recognized, that will have the power to
completely transform our relationship to what it actually means to be a citizen
of our Earth. Our evolutionary potential is so extraordinary, and now everything
hangs in the balance. It's up to each and every one of us to do something about
the situation that we're all in – not merely for our own sake, but for the
salvation and evolution of life itself.
From What Is Enlightenment? magazine
Spring/Summer 2001
Guru Kurt:
Alas, I commented upon this quotation once already! I don’t like to repeat myself, so I suppose I should take the day off! Or, I can let my mind wander, and free-associate. I guess I’ve only got a few more days of Cohen, and then I stop – this time I mean it. After his “horrible eighteen days” celebration, I hope both he and his students are pleased. Had I written quotations like this, I would have had eighteen days’ mourning! Every day I would wail and throw ashes on my head, like Job, crying, “Father, Father! To where has my intellect flown? Why has my understanding departed?” He tells me that I should start looking out for Cohen & Crew, taking them under my wing. “I have a hard enough time interesting the world in spirituality,” He says, “without your attacking my gurus!” I reply, “Well, I attack what is wrong, and uphold what is right. I am not against truth, in any of its forms. I just don’t want to see God’s devotees being mislead.” Cohen says he has a “bird’s eye view” of mankind. My view, unfortunately, is a good deal higher than this. I have seen things that I shouldn’t have seen, and know things that I shouldn’t know. My Father is your life. Apart from Him, you don’t have a life. I look at you all, so “secure” in your houses, with your expensive “toys,” your stock portfolios, and your 401k’s. I see everyone smiling, so happy, so sure that you have all the answers. There is no one on this planet who is not prepared to tell me how things are, in no uncertain terms. There is no one on this planet who is prepared to listen to me tell him or her how things are. You are like robots my Father has programmed. I can speak to you, but you cannot hear me. I can write, but you cannot read. You go where you go, and I go where I go, and we never, ever meet. I see the Father, but no one cares. Do you know what really irks me? There is no one who wants to hear me say this, even in hypothetical terms. This it is which sends me into dismay and grief, and I know that I am alone on this planet, with no friends save One. He kicks me in the head, over and over, but I know that it is Him kicking, and so I rejoice! (They are beneficent kicks!) O, cruel heart of humanity! You are all like stones or statues, with which I cannot interact! You are all dead inside, until He comes to life in you. There is matter, and then there is animated matter, the human being. I see your science and technology, so outrageous in its extravagance, and I think, “You know, Kurt, there is no one who will listen to a sentence that you say. Whence, then, all these universities? Whence, all the scientific research? Whence the politics? Whence even, the economy?” All this arises through my Father’s Power, and from nowhere else. He is the Almighty, and you are all puppets on the fancy strings that He continually pulls. Numerous times during the day He must visit you, to see that you are going in the right direction, like wind-up toys continually needing rewinding. I go too far, but that is the nature of glory: one step too far, then to come back behind the pale. What do you think, is my Puppeteer the same as yours? I, for one, do not think so. My Puppeteer seems to be a smaller version of yours, and it appears that He and I are not distinguishable. He sees through my eyes, and hears through my ears. He speaks with my voice, and writes with my hands. He and I are one and the same. I live in the world of your dreams. I am the dream-Master, plowing the furrow of your thought into the mold that has been cast for you. Come away with me, and fly! Last Halloween, my Father had me buy the mask of an insane clown, with bright orange hair, white skin, green lips, and an expression of wicked glee and delight on its face. I put it on, and I must admit it did something for me! In one of the few songs by the Insane Clown Posse rap band that is fit for public viewing, “Fly Away,” the artist sings what I would like also to sing to mankind, should any care to listen: