By Rick Asherson

I was a deeply involved student of Andrew Cohen’s for ten years, living in his communities in the USA and England, traveling to many retreats in India and living the fully engaged life of a student committed to understanding and living Andrew Cohen’s teaching.

In 2002 I left the community and moved into a very different life, where the passionate pursuit of ever-deeper spiritual immersion and action is no longer the all-consuming focus and I do not follow any formal or regular spiritual practice.

It has been fascinating to see the great diversity in students’ post-community evaluations of their experience, community and Teacher. The sum of individual commentary on the web indicates an interesting bottom line – either Andrew/the Community is fundamentally good, although there is perhaps room for improvement or Andrew/the Community is fundamentally bad, although there might be some positive aspects.

For the record, I strongly subscribe to the former. Until recently there were only two perspectives available on the web either from Andrew Cohen himself and active members of his community and organization EnlightenNext or from ex-students who were fundamentally mistrustful of Andrew Cohen and the community. There was no place for ex-students like myself who are living a very different life but remain deeply appreciative of, and profoundly grateful for, their time with Andrew Cohen.

As voices from active members of Andrew’s community have been discounted as being “brainwashed” or extensions of Andrew himself, I really wanted to add my two cents worth in opposition to the view that Andrew is fundamentally flawed and all seekers should avoid him, his teachings and his community EnlightenNext. It may be that Andrew Cohen is not the right Teacher or Guru for many people but if you hear the call, I think you should seriously consider answering, going in with your eyes and heart open and finding out for yourself. Like many others, I answered the call of his Teaching and do not regret a single day I spent under Andrew’s guidance.

Life in the community was a very unusual situation – an experimental pressure cooker carefully designed to create the greatest depth of understanding and change in the shortest possible time. I would not argue that every situation for every individual, or even group of individuals, was perfectly managed. Some approaches worked better than others and the situation was constantly changing and evolving in the light of experience. Living the experiment could, at times, be painful and difficult to bear, but it generated great depth of insight, understanding and genuine change. It seemed to me that although some approaches Andrew tried worked better than others, the overall trajectory was very positive. In terms of the various dramatic incidents cataloged on the web, every situation I was directly aware of – my own or others I was closely involved with – made complete sense, but only in the context of this spiritual experiment.

However, the main point is not how easy/difficult/successful/unsuccessful any particular situation was, but that we students were an intentional community of deeply committed, like-minded, strong individuals, who deliberately and voluntarily subjected ourselves to the absolute rule of our Guru and any arrangement he orchestrated through and with us for as long as we wanted to, in order to go as far as we wanted to, and maybe considerably further than that!

It turns out that for genuine, cellular change to occur, the individual must, at times, allow themselves to be profoundly challenged and then not move, but allow that challenge to reach a crisis. Then, if all goes according to plan, an unexpected and liberating fruition can result. This is a mechanical and deeply impersonal process – when the mind is confronted with its own inconsistencies, ignorance and selfishness, it doesn’t just give up and let God in – it fights like hell to resist and stay the same! Bearing that resistance, and the humbling of the self that goes along with recognition of the truth, is the emotional burden of this process. It is an emotional, psychological and spiritual truth attested to in many spiritual traditions, including the monastic traditions of Christianity and Buddhism.

All of us dedicated students understood this process intimately, because it repeated itself in regular cycles, as long periods of joy, even ecstasy, gave way to difficult times of intense turmoil and insecurity. We all came to recognize the pattern, not as an enemy (unpleasant though it may be) but as the necessary rhythm of authentic change. This was the currency of life in the community and surely anyone willing to stay in such an intense situation for so long had very strong reasons of their own for doing so. And if ever the time comes when those reasons no longer have the strength to keep someone immersed in this vortex, then nothing can or will stop them leaving.

So here’s the thing – what makes one student leave with a heart full of gratitude and another with a heart full of doubt? Both have left, both have come to a point where it is “too much” for whatever reason, both have repeatedly experienced the same transforming fire. I cannot reconcile these facts by blaming the Guru for being fundamentally flawed. If that were truly the case why aren’t there many more ex-students blaming Andrew and why are there so many who remain deeply grateful and fundamentally positive about the whole experience? It also seems unconvincing to say that community members were somehow persuaded to stay in such an environment for ten or more years under false pretences or some sort of brainwashing, something we even laughed about at the time! This was a group of unusually strong, intelligent and determined people and ten years is surely too long to claim ignorance.

It has often been stated – both in the community and in many spiritual traditions – that the spiritual quest is not safe. Casualties of the process regularly occur in many spiritual endeavors and it is understandable if some individuals leave a spiritual community feeling burnt and mistreated. What is problematic to me is the absolute position expressed by some of my friends and fellow students that Andrew Cohen is absolutely not to be trusted as a spiritual teacher. It seems to me that it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all and that those who left in disillusionment should not forget why they stayed so long and devoted so much passionate involvement to a process they now regret.

Rick Asherson can be contacted at rasherson@compuserve.com