By Rod S
Throughout history human beings have sought council and guidance from their friends, colleagues and leaders. This has always been a natural and normal thing to do. In the spiritual quest also, seekers and finders have sought the guidance of Teachers and Gurus to help illuminate the often difficult and thorny path of self realization and transformation. However, we live in strange times when it seems you can have a “guru” for practically anything from tennis, swimming and health, to cooking, woodwork and sewing, yet when it comes to the spiritual path, the word “guru” has become for many a 4 letter word! In a nutshell the postmodern ego hates being told what to do! This ‘mean green meme’ ego thrives on ‘independence’ and doing what it wants, whenever it wants.For over 30 years I have been seeking and walking different spiritual paths. During this time I have had three Gurus and sat with many other spiritual teachers. I think it is worth exploring what the role of a true Guru is in these troubled times when new solutions and ways of coming together are so badly needed. The True Guru comes to help humanity jump to a new level of understanding and being. He is not here to maintain the Status Quo.
A vast number of spiritually-interested people today, in our post modern society, are “anti-guru”. Many feel ripped off by Masters who have been dishonest and have transgressed normal boundaries of decency and ethics. Others are wary of someone who they feel could control their lives or even brainwash them. There are well known stories in the media to support their apprehensions. Could there, however, be a Guru that is True? A human being, who although not ‘perfect’, is pure in motivation and is genuinely moved by divinely inspired passion to uplift the consciousness of humanity? My answer to that question is an emphatic YES!
Meeting the Enlightened Master
Meeting a truly enlightened Master is a monumental event. Such a Teacher breathes the fire of awakened consciousness and sends out shock waves in all directions, shaking up the spiritual status quo with ruthless vigour. Andrew Cohen is such a man and has been since the day he started teaching some 23 years ago. Since those early days he has been driven by an Awakening that has compelled him to only be concerned with Liberation itself in a way that never panders to the ego of the individual. Andrew’s uncompromising stance left me, at times, feeling like I was frying in the flames of hell and, at other times, in awe of his fathomless love of the Absolute.
Few understand the significance of the role of a true Master. It is not one of supplying the seeker with a few morsels that he can take back to the comfort of his life; but one where the power of the narcissistic ego is out to be destroyed by the Master forever. It’s this destructive role that Andrew adopted to engender real transformation in real time in his student body that a few disgruntled ex-students have classified as scandalous. To their narcissistic egos Andrew crossed a line in what was acceptable. However, to those that fully understand the true task and enormity of the Guru’s role these questionable actions will be seen as not only acceptable but totally necessary, and acts of true compassion. Compassion that cares for Freedom and not the ego!
Enlightenment Experiences Are Not Enough
In the early days of Andrew’s teaching in Totnes many who came to see him were transported into deep states of ecstasy and oneness. He believed that if the seeker just had a powerful experience then this could totally transform their lives – as it had done in his case. However, despite many being blown away by powerful experiences of Enlightenment, over time it became apparent that it was very, very few of us were actually changing as a result. A powerful experience could show you the way but very rarely did it dissolve the embedded structures of the ego.
One bright hot sunny morning I was gripped by a fathomless and explosive Enlightenment experience; where the very innermost depths of the Universe opened up and shattered all sense of a separate self. After this, I was totally perplexed because I noticed that I was still behaving in the same old habitual and limited ways…
When I discussed this with Andrew he told me emphatically, in a way that I will never forget, that it’s not the experience that you have but how you relate to it that was important! This was to become a big theme in his teaching after a few years, where basically what was deemed to be of greatest importance was the individual’s Integrity and not any experience that they may have had.
Reorientating myself to this new approach was a huge ordeal and one that I’ve always struggled with up until this day. In fact, I was one of the ones that Andrew said was always ‘hanging on by my finger nails!’ For all of my spiritual life since I was 17, I had been striving for an inner state of ‘exalted consciousness’. What I wanted for myself was to be in a state of bliss, feeling ecstatic, content and perpetually happy! It was a deeply ingrained habit and to act against this was like walking upstream against a mighty river in full flood. What was now on my plate, along with all the other students, was to become in flesh and blood a clear reflection of that which had been revealed in the inner enlightenment experience.
Personal Enlightenment Vs Impersonal Enlightenment
Like most seekers, I entered the spiritual path wanting something for myself. I didn’t care much about others or the world. And although later as the years went by and I endeavoured to have Integrity as a human being, my approach to the spiritual path was still very personal. As the teaching evolved Andrew found that it was what was happening between his students – the profound spiritual intimacy, dissolution of boundaries and the experience of deep trust –that was more important than the individual’s experience of Liberation itself. The heightened consciousness that was manifesting between students, Andrew named ‘Impersonal Enlightenment’ and it became the new direction of the Teachings.
Dining one summer’s evening with a group of Andrew’s students in the small back room of a restaurant in Totnes, I suddenly and spontaneously found the usual separation I felt with others miraculously melting away. The difficulties and conflicts I experienced with others faded into the backgroun, in an ocean of oneness! It was effortless, natural and seemed to be pointing to a new and profound way in which human beings could come together. Many who gathered around Andrew during these early days (and right up until today) experienced this profound and meaningful communion…
Ego had now to die, not just for the individual, but so that the collective could evolve. This is why Andrew was always so fierce with individuals if they were hanging onto their egos – because they were dragging everyone else down in the process.
The Ego is a Monster.
The ego is like a monster, Andrew told a group of us formal students one day. You have to put it in a cage, lock the door and throw away the key.
But the problem was that most of us we had been living inside the cage and servants to this monster most of our lives! It’s not until we try to escape the cage, that the monster really raises its ugly head and violently screams. Unless anyone has really tried to be totally Free, this will sound like an extreme view of the ego. However, it is because of the diabolical nature of the ego, which one can see depicted in Tibetan thanka paintings for example that a true teacher needs to adopt extreme measures to liberate the individual from its grip.
Andrew adopted forceful tactics when he needed to. At times he had to exert to measures of extreme pressure to force his students out of inertia and set their heart’s on fire. I had my own dose (and probably more than most) of lethargy and underwent intensive practice to try and break free. From performing thousands of push ups and prostrations, to flying across the Atlantic Ocean just to say sorry to him personally for one of my failings.
We live in the time of post modern materialism, relativism and narcissism in which the wants and desires of the individual are held sacred. It’s a climate that few truly recognise to be one in which we are feeding the monster, rather than starving it. With this in mind, it is little wonder that the true Guru’s ways are judged to be “too much”, heavy handed, aggressive or even crazy.
The Ego distorts Reality
A small group of us were doing intensive practice together. Andrew met with us to discuss our progress. He was always deadly serious to see that we weren’t wasting our time and wanted to move us along wherever he could. I had been experiencing a lot of fear that had left me feeling victimized, passive and quiet. Rather than offer me sympathy, Andrew smashed my ego with a hammer. ‘The reason why you’re so quiet is because you’re arrogant, aggressive and superior!’ he proclaimed disarmingly. Despite his blunt rebuttal I instinctively knew he was right. Andrew was a master of calling ‘a spade a spade’ and this is what I loved about him – he told me exactly where I was at and what I had to do…
Reading the accounts of Andrew’s detractors, many of whom I have known personally, I was shocked to read the extent of the negativity they were expressing towards Andrew. As I read on, the reason why became clear. There was no real reckoning, on their part, with their egos. I knew personally that they had, like most of us, huge egos! However, there is little or no attempt, in their accounts, to independently acknowledge the darkest parts of themselves and how this part might have biased their view and experience. Without this essential and fundamental investigation on their part, all of their perceptions and memories have been distorted, in some cases to a gross degree.
Ignoring the sacred
Tucked away in one of the smaller offices at Foxhollow I was on a phone call with a small group of formal men to our spiritual brothers in London. We were as a group having immense difficulty moving forwards. Despite myself having made a break through with something, I didn’t mention it – it simply wasn’t in my awareness. I now had a ‘problem’ and couldn’t even remember the liberation that had occurred!
It’s not too difficult to have a glimpse of an Enlightened view but it’s extremely difficult for that to became one’s ongoing centre of gravity. Under pressure the self divides and we get lost in the ego or ‘having a problem’. At such times we lose sight of everything that is good, wholesome and liberating and get mesmerized by the small negative details of life. Moles become Mountains. One small piece of the jigsaw of Life now seems, out of context, the negative whole story. In this condition the most negative detractors have wrongly pointed their fingers back at Andrew and, despite all the years of their Guru trying tirelessly to liberate them, now proclaim that it is he that is at fault. Context really is everything, as Andrew always used to say, and how could it not be? Anything taken out of context is totally untrustworthy.
And talking of “taken out of context” where is their full-hearted acknowledgement of everything totally positive that they experienced in the community around Andrew? These times were undoubtedly among the most real, profound and moving times of their lives. Yet tragically there is next to no recognition of this in their ‘balanced’ and retrospective views. What is even more nauseating and repugnant, is that with no clear view and perspective left, they arrogantly and self righteously proclaim to be ‘helping’ or warning others of the pitfalls of the spiritual path! If anyone of them had spent a quarter of the time they had spent on ‘analysing the negative traits of Andrew’ as they had facing their own negative impulses; then I have absolutely no doubt their accounts would be totally different!
Donations Under Duress or Necessary Renunciation?
We all live in materialistic times where money and its pursuit are often held to be sacred. When you mix this with the true spiritual life, which is about true renunciation and letting go of everything, you create a potentially explosive merger!
When ‘my number was up’ I looked for ways to break through. I asked myself ‘what was I hanging onto that was preventing me from moving forwards?’ I thought that perhaps my stingy relationship to money might be the problem and offered all of my $40,000 savings to Andrew. Although I knew that EnlightenNext could have done with the funds, it was something that Andrew obviously didn’t think was going to help in my own liberation. He turned the offer down. (I personally know of two other almost identical stories.)
Attachment to money like any other attachment will prevent one becoming a living expression of Enlightenment. Most of Andrew’s most vocal and angry detractors tell tales of, for them, unresolved money issues. William Yenner´s recent “American Guru” weighs in heavily on these issues for example . In the face of the liberating fire of Enlightenment, hanging onto money will place balls and chains around your feet. Money itself is never a problem but our attachment to it is. For a few, long term and close students, being able to let go of deeply rooted attachments had potentially limitless positive results for their own Liberation. Even one of Andrew’s most vocal and articulate critics came to the point where she says ‘I felt that what I personally came to when I finally “gave everything” was something that I wanted to honour and stand behind.’ For many offering up our last reserves of attachment to a separate existence, to a true Guru, can indeed bring us to a new found freedom, as was the case with one of Marpa’s students, when he asked to go back and fetch even the last lame sheep as an offering for his initiation.
In reading the accounts I do believe that a small number of donations were made when the individual was ‘up against their ego’, as was indeed the case with my offer. However, even under pressure (and ultimately there is only ‘pressure’ because the ego resists!) we are always responsible for our choices! This was, and is still, one of Andrew’s most important teachings. Once these choices have been made it’s important to stand behind them. Standing behind, and taking responsibility for, their choices is something that none of these disgruntled students have done and hence their interminable whimpering about it now, still years after the events.
The Guru’s role is to honour the potentially liberating choices, including those involving money, the student makes. What is he to do then, if a student later, after failing on their chosen path, demands his money back?
The Enlightened Guru is not Perfect
As a great world teacher once said: “Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
In all the time that I’ve known Andrew, I’ve never heard him say that he was perfect. The evolutionary perspective, that Andrew teaches, is one that outlines a journey of perpetually becoming a higher and higher expression of the Indivisible One. He includes himself in that journey!
“One of the fundamental pillars of the teaching of Evolutionary Enlightenment is the individual’s willingness to take absolute responsibility for his or her own self. You don’t have to be perfect, because nobody’s perfect. Even God is not perfect, in an evolutionary context. When I use the word God, I always speak about he, she, or it as having two faces: the Unmanifest and the Manifest. In the unmanifest realm—beyond time and form—God is inherent perfection, ever unchanging and always free from the process of becoming. But from the perspective of manifestation, in the world of time and form, God is struggling to create a perfect universe—and what a chaotic process it is! The entire creative unfolding is very messy and full of errors. But the good news always is that if you step back far enough and look at the process as a whole, you can see that there is development, and that is what is so deeply positive about it. But the manifest God isn’t perfect. Why? Because he or she is still evolving. So obviously we couldn’t possibly be perfect. That is the nature of the developmental process. But if you want to be a liberated human being in a developmental context, what matters is that you, in all your imperfection, are willing to take absolute responsibility now for your own self.”
Andrew no doubt made some errors of judgement in dealing with some of his students. The ‘challenges’ that he orchestrated were never ‘perfect’ either. How could they be anyway? What was totally important though was our relationship to the challenges.
After repeatedly tearing down his houses, did Milarepa blame Marpa for abuse of power and demand payment for fixing the sores on his back! Did the Zen monk ask for financial compensation for the finger his Master chopped off in a flurry of action that enlightened him! When a prospective student of Babaji’s jumped off the cliff face in response to his Guru’s refusal to initiate him, did he later grumble about being carelessly treated!
Under the guise of ‘exposing the truth’, Andrew’s detractors have pointed the finger back at the Guru and picked up on minor details and fragmented incidents of their times with him to create the picture they own want to see. Rather than face their own anger and resentment they have found it far easier and satisfying to focus on the ‘defects’ of the one human being who spent countless and tireless hours, days, months and years trying to liberate them!
Gifts for the Guru
In the same way that family and friends, from a place of love and gratitude, give each other presents; students have done the same to Andrew. Clothes were one item that students often chose. Critics of Andrew falsely claim there was a general ethos in the community ‘that it was necessary to buy gifts,’ or that individuals were forever dipping into their empty pockets to try and muster up enough money to buy their Guru another gift. In my experience this was simply not true.
Students always freely chose if and when they wanted to buy gifts, and this was not a frequent occurrence from any one individual. In my years of being a formal student I only once bought Andrew a gift and that was a small inexpensive one. This was my free choice from my heart and in my experience there was never any expectation placed on students to do so. For critics to imply that they were coerced into giving them is false and is another example of their own victimized psychology.
The Way Forward
Now more than ever Andrew’s teaching is flourishing. There is a solid core of independent students around Andrew. Many are now teachers in their own right and travel to different parts of the world spreading the “good news” of Evolutionary Enlightenment. The award winning magazine ‘EnlightenNext’ goes from strength to strength; weaving together many of the brightest minds of today’s great visionaries. Intersubjective enlightenment is occurring in the most unexpected places. There are now many students connected to Andrews’s teachings that have varying levels of commitment. From the core right out to some students who have a more sporadic connection. Many students who once “left” are now finding more freedom and meaning in their relationship to the teachings than ever before. A great number have decided to stay positively connected but not be so deeply involved. There is now an ever changing and evolving structure around the teachings that accommodates all.
In writing this article I’m struck by the ever increasing momentum and positive force of Andrew’s teaching. He is an unstoppable force of nature itself. My own genuine hope towards those ex-student detractors is that they eventually find the interest and humility to face a much truer and bigger picture. This wouldn’t have to mean that they could no longer have criticisms of Andrew, but it would mean that they would be posed in a manner in which the “true and right relationship of all things” was honored. Until that day arrives it’s just simply scientific that their views on what happened will always be sour, misaligned and deeply distorted.
Rod S can be contacted at rs@guru-talk.com
